/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

[Anonymous No.23782220]

>Recommended reading charts. (Look here before asking for vague recs)
https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/4rAmSZxb
>Archive
>>>/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg
>Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg

Previous Thread: >>23769142

[Anonymous No.23782254]

>>23782220
I did something today that some anons here might find interesting. I asked ChatGPT to generate a nonexistent passage in the genre of Sword & Sorcery using the prose associated with Robert E. Howard, and then I spent some time editing it so that it was more personalized. I'm not so certain my edit sounds better (although that's what I was aiming to do), and even if one were to think that was the case, the opposite could still be argued. They're more different than they are better or worse imo. Personally, I feel too grossed out using this method to ever create an entire novel out of it, but I could see someone else not having a problem with it; in which case, if enough people engaged with this type of creation process, then I think the idea of treating fantasy literature as a form of art could unironically be significantly reduced (if not outright over desu). Thoughts?

Also, before I forget, for anyone who's curious there was around 50 edits made in total (although several of those can be attributed to jumping from one name to another until I was happy with the result). When I asked chatGPT to recommend a fitting name other than Conan it suggested Kael (which sounds like a gayer version of Kull), and later on Malakar which I then turned into Maldrek. It was not until I'd finished editing that I found out Maldrek is a character from WoW which pissed me off, but I no longer gave enough of a shit to go back and come up with a new and original name. It is what it is.

[Anonymous No.23782402]

Need scifi or fantasy recs
Under 300 pages pls

[Anonymous No.23782431]

>>23782254
For shits and giggles, before closing out the page I asked GPT which of the two passages it thought was better, and requested that it calculate how much of a difference there is between the two using percentages. pic related for results

[Anonymous No.23782461]

Books for this feel?

[Anonymous No.23782698]

sci fi is a bad term. it should be futuristic fantasy or space opera, something like that. the use of 'science' as a synonym for future or progress is a bad take

[Anonymous No.23782741]

What does /sffg/ think of the The Wandering Inn? Is it worth reading? Or is it just Reddit tier rip off Harry Potter

[Anonymous No.23782762]

>>23782461
Larry Correia books

[Anonymous No.23782763]

>>23782741
one of the longest "books" ever

[Anonymous No.23782764]

>>23782698
Making assertions without the requisite background knowledge results in far worse takes.

[Anonymous No.23782765]

>>23782254
Will get people using it in hopes of a quick buck. People will still be creating fiction even when ai moves beyond the Chinese room.

[Anonymous No.23782772]

>>23782698
>He thinks scifi is about the future
HAHAHAHhHahhHahaha

[Anonymous No.23782778]

On sale until Tuesday

[Anonymous No.23782779]

>>23782254
>>23782431
w human

[Anonymous No.23782781]

>>23782741
the descriptions of it sound so unappealing to me that I'll never read it and find out

I think Daniel Greene just did a video on the series
go watch that if you can stomach it, maybe it'll help you make up your mind

[Anonymous No.23782783]

>>23782778
I see that cover every now and then on places like Tooky's, but I've never seen or heard anyone ever say what the fuck it is

[Anonymous No.23782789]

>>23782783
You missed the threads here that talked about it then.

[Anonymous No.23782790]

>>23782764
i guess most people say it's 'sci' because it's grounded in a world of (strict) material cause and effect, but that just reflects materialist authors such as asimov, not gene wolfe for example

how would you define the book of the new sun in a label? i like to think about that and w40k. i think space opera is the best for w40k but i have no idea what would be fitting for botns

[Anonymous No.23782820]

>>23782790
Labels are only helpful as indicators of books that are similar in some way so that it informs about whether to read it. For marketing it's about sales. More than one label may be applicable. BOTNS could be called Dying Earth or a literary puzzle for example.

[Anonymous No.23782826]

>no one cares about joe anymore
why do we forsaken our own so fast? whats a girlboss or two between bros

[Anonymous No.23782842]

>>23782783
It's kind of post-post apocalyptic fiction with a colonial America pastiche. Short novella about two guys sent on a Lewis and Clark type expedition into the abandoned wilderness.

[Anonymous No.23782857]

FUCK he IS good.

[Anonymous No.23782859]

>>23782789
I guess I did miss them
I'm more just lamenting how a lot of online people will put out a product or a piece of fiction and then just rely on all of their friends to say, "this guy is on our team, we must support his new thing" and rely on their fans to already like them, instead of ever marketing their stuff to new people
not even marketing in a "shill, shill, give me money" way, just marketing in a "here's what the fuck this even is" way
I see this mistake from so many people

>>23782842
hmm, okay, could be interesting
thanks

[Anonymous No.23782926]

>>23782859
Not everyone should be F. Gardner. You may also want to consider if even they did a lot that you may not personally see it.

[Anonymous No.23782946]

Can anyone recommend me a book or series similar to Mother of Learning? A not-Lit RPG, but similar in vein to what you'd find more eastern, yet solidly with western vibes.
I'm going on a long camping trip and could use some reading.
Or if there's been any good horror kino lately...Fantasy horror, of course.

[Anonymous No.23782959]

>>23782946
Lord of the Mysteries. Sadly the sequel is too western.

[Anonymous No.23783031]

>>23782461
Great post anons, very original but just started three body problem and i'm wondering when does it gets good? are the witcher books any good? Only played Witcher 3 and the netflix's series. Just started Eye of the World when does WoT gets good?? Any books like dark souls/berserk/Bloodborne??? Any books like FF/Dragon Quest/Tales of..??!! Any books with N'Wahs?Kvothe is a cuck, will slob Martin ever finish winds of winter??? Abercrombie is Reddit-tier?? Are the dune sequels worth it or should i stop with god emperor of dunc? Should i read the Hyperion sequel???? Did severian fucked his grandma? Is severian a clone? Any books with chinks? Any books like fallout/metro? Any books where the mc gets cucked? Any books where the mc Doesn't get cucked?? Stormlight book 5 when? Will kaladin fuck the fairy?? is the Eisenhorn trilogy a good place to start with W40k??? Or should i watch 4hours YouTube vid about le EPIC lore??? Any books with young petite women? Any books with old thick women? Any books with MANLY men like David Gemmell? Soulcatcher or Lady who is the better waifu? When does malazan gets good?? I didn't finish highschool so i can´t understand Malazan?!?! Any books with chinks??!! When does ASOIAF gets good?!?!? When does Farseer gets good?? When does lightbringer gets good?? When does codex alera gets good???? When does Lord of The Isles gets good?? Dunsany is king or bakker?? Any books with incest?

[Anonymous No.23783043]

>>23782220
I'm sorry /sffg/ but i think i love women fantasy authors

[Anonymous No.23783054]

>>23782959
I'll go look it up I guess thanks

[Anonymous No.23783133]

I'm a little over 75% through now. The book has reverted to no magic. Court politics this time.
So 1/4 = world building and history
2/4 = fantasy magic and gods
3/4 = politics
I really hope they bring the magic back. The story is kind of dry. There was a part in the story where I thought they were setting up more magic, but then it was later revealed to have an entirely practical explanation. And then they did it again. Missed opportunities.

[Anonymous No.23783169]

>>23782254
What happens next?

[Anonymous No.23783184]

>>23783031
I need one that has the following:
1. FeMC
2. Incest
3. Light world building
4. Stand-alone
5. Easy prose
6. none of this middle earth shit

Go ahead find me the book. Fuck it, I'll just play Final Fantasy

[Anonymous No.23783207]

>>23782857
Is he worth reading? I been avoiding him because he's a commie

[Anonymous No.23783219]

>>23782781
I watched that video before I came here

[Anonymous No.23783225]

>>23783184
Oshi No Ko

[Anonymous No.23783238]

>>23783225
I'm pretty sure that's a sumo wrestler.

[Anonymous No.23783243]

>>23783225
That has a Male MC that fucking does nothing.

[Anonymous No.23783244]

>>23783238
>mfw

[Anonymous No.23783262]

>>23783169
I don't know, and I don't really feel like writing it. If you want you can try taking it back to GPT, and ask it to build on the events using the same literary style. You may or may not get something interesting out of it.

[Anonymous No.23783278]

I'm planing to buy Kane by Karl Edward Wagner as it is getting re-released in my country, and I got a question regarding it, first book (it's marked as first too) that got re-released is equivalent of "Gods in Darkness", can I safely read this without reading "Midnight Sun"?

[Anonymous No.23783304]

>>23782741
I'm fully caught up and I love it even though I loathe some stretches
It is definitely not for everyone

[Anonymous No.23783490]

>>23783184
WataOshi

[Anonymous No.23783523]

Looking for a fantasy series with an mc who advances through power rankings and does not surcumb to thots, political intrigue or friendship tagalong syndrome. Also for the love of god let there not be a talking anthropomorphized companion.

[Anonymous No.23783542]

Any authors like William Gibson not necessarily strictly cyberpunk but similar in writing style? The kind of terse, rapid, and cool delivery.

[Anonymous No.23783585]

looking for post-apocalyptic books like a canticle for leibowitz

[Anonymous No.23783596]

>>23783542
John Shirley
Alfred Bester

[Anonymous No.23783663]

>>23783304
How long would it take to catchup if someone started rn

[Anonymous No.23783681]

>>23783278
You can read the Kane stories in any order. There is a loose timeline of Kane's life but it doesn't matter, and each story is self-contained.

[Anonymous No.23783897]

haven't visited one of these threads in over 2 years, you guys still love Brandon Sanderson?

[Anonymous No.23783902]

>>23783207
Yeah he is. He is a bit too creative for his own good, cramming millions of ideas into a book but I enjoy the world building tremendously. If I had to recommend one Itd be The Scar or Embassytown. The Scar is the second of the Bas-Lag trilogy but you dont need the first to understand it. Also that he is a commie is most prevalent in the third one, which still is good.
For me, its Scar > perdido street station > iron council but theyre all pretty good

[Anonymous No.23783910]

>>23783902
What about his other books? Give us your power ranking.

[Anonymous No.23783954]

>>23783910
Kinda depends. Bas-Lag trilogy is a bit different than all his others because its a very deep fantasy world ya know? /lit/ likes to shit on him because le hecking commie but his commie side really only comes out in Bas-Lag and even there its not about "uuooohh lets share everything and be trannies" but more "fuck the ones in power". So if you like deep world building go for Bas-Lag first and then read his other stuff, which is lighter. If you want more comfy magical realism style stuff do it the other way around. A mixed ranking of how I liked the things Ive read:
>The Scar
>Kraken
>the City and the City
>Embassytown
>Perdido Street Station
>Iron Council
Currently reading King Rat, its pretty nice so far. And I didnt dislike Iron Council at all, its very comfy to read but I liked the other ones better. Id say go for Kraken or the City and the City if you want something relatively streamlined

[Anonymous No.23784034]

>>23783207
Yes. Some of his works might fall flat unless you're into the idea, like Embassytown which takes linguistics as its core premise, but he is probably one of the best modern fantasy authors. Shame he then proceeded to burn all bridges he built to write Commie shit.

[Anonymous No.23784045]

I'm about halfway through The Thousandfold Thought and I'm getting kinda tired of Achamian and Esmenet tbhonest. He should have introduced some new characters.

[Anonymous No.23784057]

>>23782741
Seemed too whimsical and pretty immature, intended for "modern fantasy audiences", which I'm not part of.
But the really deal-breaker was Levels and Skill, that's an instant NO from me.

[Anonymous No.23784230]

>>23782741
In the same amount of time you could read:
>All Shakespeares plays and sonnets
>Paradise lost
>Everything written by Hemmingway
>Everything written by James Joyce
>Moby dick
>All ≈ 50 Horus Heresy books
>ASoIAF
>Lord of the Rings
>Everything Tolkien wrote
>All the Conan stories
>Everything Lovecraft wrote
All that might actually come out as LESS words than wandering inn. Its about the equivalent of 150 (one hundred and fifty) novels at the most recent counting. Obviously there is nothing 'wrong' with reading it, but as far as it being 'worth doing', I would say no 100%.

[Anonymous No.23784292]

>>23784230
Not necessarily. The Wandering Inn is much much easier to read.

[Anonymous No.23784316]

>>23784292
>only easy things are worth doing
brainlet

[Anonymous No.23784344]

>>23784316
Nah, I'm just saying the comparison is off.

[Anonymous No.23784349]

>>23784230
you can just throw in pretty much any classic SFF author like Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, PKD, Vonnegut, Stapledon, Damon Knight, Fritz Leiber, Clark Ashton Smith, etc.

While I think there's good modern stuff, I wait for it to be recommended via word of mouth. The "reviewers" of the modern era can't be trusted. In the meantime, I've amassed plenty of the good old stuff.

[Anonymous No.23784607]

[Anonymous No.23784722]

>>23784292
>>23784316
It's kind of fair when you throw in Joyce.
You are NOT reading 200k words of Finnegans Wake in the same amount of time it takes to read 200k words of some webnovel.

[Anonymous No.23784736]

>>23783663
I took it kinda easy and it took me like eight months with some breaks in between reading other stuff
I remember some anon in these threads reading the whole thing in a bit over a month though so I guess it depends on how much you no-life it
picrel some booktuber recently made a vid about the first volume and tried to illustrate how long the whole thing is

[Anonymous No.23784786]

>>23782254
I've already seen some claims that some novelist are using LLMs to generate "most" of a novel.

I think much like with visual art the proliferation of text generators buts the onus back on humans to be more inventive. If only for purely economic reasons. The painter's response to the photograph was pointilism, cubism, impressionism et cetera. What will be writer's pointilism be?

[Anonymous No.23784857]

>>23784230
>the length of 150 novels
Who the hell writes this much? How is it possible to produce that much quantity and have it be anything more than the most my immortal-tier slop in existence?

[Anonymous No.23784958]

>>23784857
Amateur writers are either one-hit wonders and disappear, or they're prolific to a point you'd think they suffer from hypergraphia. You also have to remember those stories are originally structured for big publications, but are instead released in individual chapter formats.

[Anonymous No.23784969]

>>23784958
>volume 9
>9596 pages

[Anonymous No.23785036]

umm............... wtf?

[Anonymous No.23785055]

>>23785036
ayo

[Anonymous No.23785094]

>>23785036
He made him gay. Bakker is implying that people can be traumatized into being gay. Any clinical psychiatrist worth their salt knows this. Yet society wants to look the other way and deny reality. Based Bakker. Truth shines

[Anonymous No.23785105]

>>23785036
Moenghus's hot what? What?

[Anonymous No.23785112]

>>23785036
I swear every other time someone posts an excerpt from Bakker it's some of the gayest shit you'll ever read

[Anonymous No.23785149]

>>23782946
Practical Guide to Sorcery

[Anonymous No.23785214]

>>23784607
What's supposed to be good about this? Nobody can ever give me a straight answer.

[Anonymous No.23785237]

>>23785149
+1

[Anonymous No.23785302]

>>23784786
I don't know what the response is going to be, and I'm not even sure it needs to be "better," per se. You could argue that one of the things people look forward to most in art is seeing how closely and what methods the artist uses to approach a kind of "perfection" within the constraints of the genre and medium—or even in exploratory arts that try and defy those restrictions. Although it's not a direct comparison, I think that partly explains why no one really gives a shit if a computer can beat a human in chess. There's no genuine struggle or innovation involved (or at least not any that can be perceived, anyway).

[Anonymous No.23785324]

So what exactly is the thousandfold thought anyways?

[Anonymous No.23785350]

>>23782220
I am starting to enjoy a bit too much the romance parts of the current series I am reading. Is it wrong to like what women like? i am a 30 khv idk if that matters

[Anonymous No.23785409]

>>23785214
Story, plot, main character, fantasy elements, progression.

[Anonymous No.23785428]

>>23785350
No, it just means that you should settle down :>

[Anonymous No.23785430]

>>23784786
The same as for visual artists. The one thing AI's suck at.
Making logical sense.

[Anonymous No.23785451]

>>23785350
See this >>23785428
There should be plenty of older women around ready to settle with a responsible guy like yourself ;)

[Anonymous No.23785477]

>>23785409
what plot?

[Anonymous No.23785513]

>>23785477
See pic related

[Anonymous No.23785549]

>>23785513
again, what plot?

[Anonymous No.23785795]

>>23785549
What do you mean?

[Anonymous No.23785922]

>>23785324
Gay rape, clearly.

[Anonymous No.23786082]

>>23783133
OK, I polished off the book last night. There was a tiny bit return to magic near the end, but it was just too little too late.

This might be the first author that I can't say is outright "bad", but I just don't care for the topics that he cares about. We are at odds in taste.
He wants to write about normalfag stuff like sports, and drinking with the bros, and the profoundness of god, and politics, and women, and food, and wine, and women, and women, AND WOMAN.

Hell, the book's cliffhanger is just a mysterious woman showing up in the last few sentences. Like, bro, women coming in and out of a person's life is not interesting enough on its own.

The most interesting aspect was at like 95% through the book, the main character meets someone else with the same magic he's been exposed to earlier in the book. So they have something to talk about. And it's a reason to expand the use of magic.
But what does the author do? He makes their entire conversation about how the woman is attracted to the character, and how the character gets all flustered thinking about her, and how his loins are stirring. And then at the very end of the scene, the character brings up the magic and the scene cuts there. So we don't get to see what they talk about.

Earlier in the book, one of the characters was rumored to never sleep. That was an opportunity for magic. But later we find out it really is just a rumor and nothing more.
There's a time where a chariot racer has some kind of special insight that allowed him to predict a move during the race that seemed almost supernatural. This echoes some of the magic the main character was using earlier in the book, suggesting that the chariot racer too had magic. But nope, it's later revealed that he's just good at tracking the faces of the crowd, and made a prediction based on the direction they were facing.
There's a part where a woman seems to have knowledge that nobody was privy to. So she must have gotten that knowledge by some magical means, right? No, she just made some sharp deductions based on reports she got from spies weeks ago.

Like, this book does everything in its power to avoid anything to do with fantasy. Would not recommend unless you're a frequenter of sports bars.

[Anonymous No.23786139]

>>23785112
>dead-dove.gif

[Anonymous No.23786153]

>>23786082
It's a shitty coomer fiction, what did you expect

[Anonymous No.23786175]

>>23786082
Post this on Goodreads. It's important to make these things known.

[Anonymous No.23786181]

>>23786153
Nope. It's not even explicit enough to be coom. All the interactions with women merely suggest and tease. The author isn't describing their bodies in detail. There aren't any details of sexual acts. The only word I can think to describe is is "amorous". Or "sensual". There's no possible way a reader to get a boner from this book. Despite all the focus on women and how pretty they are when they look over their shoulder, and give little smirks.

[Anonymous No.23786197]

>>23786175
I dunno... I don't want reviews like these linked to my account. I'd have to make a new anonymous account to drop reviews. And I don't feel like doing all that.

[Anonymous No.23786201]

>>23786082
Finally a book for me.

[Anonymous No.23786226]

>>23786181
That's coomer. Coomer does not mean it has to straight up porn.

[Anonymous No.23786231]

If you want to beta read, crab, shit, praise, call me a shill, never to write again, or even tell me to off myself and my book. Here's your opportunity!

https://litter.catbox.moe/0ay10a.pdf

[Anonymous No.23786247]

>>23786226
Not exactly. Coomer means that the primary reason the media exists, is to be sexually arousing. Sexually arousing things don't necessarily have to be explicit porn. It can be less explicit things. So in that sense, you're correct. But you're wrong because the primary purpose of him writing scenes with women is not to sexually arouse. He's just too tame.

How can I put this in a way that your average 4chan user will understand? It's like the feminist approved, female empowerment, anti-male gaze version of female appreciation. Every woman is smart, and in control, and befuddle men with their feminine wiles.

[Anonymous No.23786260]

>>23786082
>a mysterious woman showing up
You weren't paying enough attention anon. Who this is is not meant to be a mystery at all.
>Earlier in the book, one of the characters was rumored to never sleep. That was an opportunity for magic. But later we find out it really is just a rumor and nothing more.
This is just shorthand for the guy being a total workaholic and a night-owl. I don't know why you would expect this to mean something magical, even if you weren't aware that the person the character is based on was called "The Emperor who never sleeps".

[Anonymous No.23786261]

I have a request for all you non-American guys. I know your got that fantasy series that are considered cult classic in your home countries but are completely unknown outside them and I want to hear about them.

For example I want to mention Pan Lodowego Ogrodu (the Lord of the Ice Garden) by Jarosław Grzędowicz which I've actually finished reading couple months ago. It's a classic ever since it first came out in 2005 and it had two re-releases but outside of Poland it was only translated to Czech and Russian. Although oddly enough the board game based on the book series got English and German translation.

The series is set in the future and follows Vuko Drakkainen, a spec-op send to an alien planet named Midgaard inhabited by a human-like aliens stuck in medieval period to check out what's going on in the hidden research base that has been quiet for a couple years and evacuate all the staff. Down in the base he finds no one there except for one dead scientist halfway polymorphed into stone, another one turned into a tree, two skulls set under a statue of a monstrous pregnant woman and a frog-like demon that attacks him. After dealing with the monster he sets off into the Scandinavia-like land disguised as a one of the locals to find or at least see what happen with the remaining four scientist. He also has the help of Cyfral, an artificial spore planted into his brain which gives him superhuman senses and reflexes and which after the first book gets nerfed and turned into a naked pixie which only Vuko can see because of magic and plot reason. After the end of the first book he meets Pier van Dyken, one of the missing scientists and finds out the four humans got a hold on to the "magic" and decide to create their own utopias on Midgaard.

Meanwhile on a different continent you also follow a second protagonist, Filar, son of the emperor of not-China. He's busy taking education including sex education from a cougar teacher as the heir to the throne when the empire is shaken by the unexpected long drought and an return of a long time banned cult of Underground Mother prompted by an elusive prophet. As the situation goes direr the old matriarchal communistic religion grows stronger and soon the rebellion swoops in and Filar as the only survivor of the palace massacre has to run away. Traveling the country under the new theocratic regime and far away lands in search for a way to free his people and for his destiny that eventually will lead him to Vuko And yeah, the prophet is one of the Earthly scientist.

[Anonymous No.23786285]

>>23786261
I liked the series a lot and I think a lot of it has to do with Grzędowicz's writing. It's very engaging even in times where no a lot of things are going on and beside the series being heavy on descriptions and protagonists inner thoughts. It's not a perfect series of course. I say looking away at the series as a whole the pacing is somewhat wonky and it's one of those series when the first tome is the best. Lot of it has to do with the feeling of alienation in a strange land that goes away in the later tomes as you naturally get to know more about the world.

[Anonymous No.23786325]

>>23786260
>You weren't paying enough attention anon. Who this is is not meant to be a mystery at all.
ok, I'll admit I wasn't paying close attention at the end, because by that point, I was just ready for the book to be over. I did suspect that he was eluding to a previously known character when I read it. But because I didn't care to re-read or really think on it too much, I just wrote it off as a new character. So who was it? I'm curious now.

>This is just shorthand for the guy being a total workaholic and a night-owl
It's referenced several time and seemingly with some significance. If everyone is talking about a peculiar trait of the emperor, then why wouldn't it have a magical link?
He was described as having a wide range of knowledge, even for a a sharp man. How could one attain that amount of knowledge? Well foregoing sleep to study could be a reason.
The birds don't sleep. It seems that soul transference eliminates the need for sleep.
Also, the whole royal court is entrenched in layers of plots and intrigues. The Emperor is like 4 steps ahead of everyone, and his wife is probably a step ahead of him. I think it's reasonable to expect some super secret reason for the rumors. But in the end, it was a very mundane reason. Not even like a cool conspiracy reason. Just he keeps torches lit, and stays up a little late. Bo-ring.

I get the workaholic thing. But in other books, that meaning would be a misdirection for something more interesting revealed to the reader later.

[Anonymous No.23786330]

>>23786247
The author is obsessed with females. Many such cases. Just because his work may not look like porn doesn't mean that the underlying basis of the story, premise, characters isn't coomer.

[Anonymous No.23786336]

>>23786226
>>23786247

from a coomer perspective: it's more enjoyable for me to read about a female mc that gets in embarrassing/uncomfortable situations (loses her clothes/has to disguise herself in skimpy clothing/wears coomer armor), than one who outright has sex with a male character. an example of this is jame in the kencyrath series. she frequently gets in situations where she loses her clothes and has to escape from an enemy castle completely naked. she also has a special magical armor set that leaves her back and backside completely bare. the kencyrath series is written by a woman and is not intended to be coom (no sex scenes), but i still find it highly coomable. any other series like this?

[Anonymous No.23786368]

>>23786330
You're misusing the term. It would be more fitting to call the theme "simping". It's just not coom. Coom's primary purpose is to sexually arouse. Like, there no real descriptions of the female characters beyond hair and eye color, and if they're skinny or not. That's all you get. He's not describing the shape of their waist. Or the size of their bosom. Or anything like that. They're described as "clever", and the protagonist has a thing for clever girls. They're described as "stunning, dangerous, playful". Super tame stuff.

>>23786336
Guy Graviel's work is not like that.

[Anonymous No.23786373]

>>23786368
>Guy Graviel's work is not like that.
good to know. i won't waste my time with it

[Anonymous No.23786393]

>>23786336
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uap5C0I4P0A
Queens blade.

[Anonymous No.23786410]

>>23786231
You could at least pitch it, also epub/mobi would be useful...

[Anonymous No.23786498]

>>23786368
These guys don't understand. They think if you so much as describe a woman's smile, it's degenerate smut.

[Anonymous No.23786518]

>>23786498
They're probably Sneako fans. He called Pokimane's content "softcore porn".

[Anonymous No.23786554]

>>23786368
>>23786498
>These guys don't understand
>if you so much as describe a woman's smile, it's degenerate smut.
It is you who doesn't understand. Merely mentioning a female in the story makes a coom story.

[Anonymous No.23786573]

[Anonymous No.23786653]

>>23786573
>J M A Foster
>I come from a small, industrial town in the UK and studied classical languages at Liverpool University. I now live in the countryside near Yorkshire with my wife, and some highly demanding animals!
Looked online and could not even find the first name of the author. There 0 information about him. I suspect a fake name profile and just a picture of some random dude. Likely some fat roastie living her cats pretending to be a male aurhor.

[Anonymous No.23786779]

>>23786653
The cover looks AI generated, so the text and the author photo are probably too.

[Anonymous No.23786799]

>>23786554
Go back to Saudi Arabia

[Anonymous No.23786919]

>>23783207
Read Kraken

[Anonymous No.23786943]

>>23786573
Is the title supposed to be, as the formatting suggests, "Lindenphal: Grick's Awakening," wherein Lindenphal is the name of the setting; or the name of the adventure itself, like the name of an old Germanic saga?
Or is the title telling us that this story is about the awakening of a character whose full name is "Lindenphal Grick?"
Whether it's "Lindenphal Grick" or just "Grick," how might such a character "awaken?" Is Grick the name of the AI that the author clearly used to generate his cover art, implying that it will or already has achieved sentience? And if so, could that AI have written this book by itself about itself?
Who, then, are "the friends" mentioned in its saga? What is so special about them that they are referred to so singularly, as *the* friends, set apart from any other group of friends in the world?
What sort of a world is this? What is it based on? "Linden," of course, comes from the name of the tree from the genus Tilia, evoking a familiar, rustic, perhaps even naturalistic European fantasy setting. But then what the fuck is a "-phal?" Is there some meaning to the fact that it sounds like "fall?" Will this be a tragic story (if, indeed, there is even any text inside)? Or perhaps, because of the "Awakening" mentioned in the title, will it be about the characters' triumphant reemergence from a fallen world?
And why didn't whoever made this--whether it's the AI or it's a person so devoid of talent that he could be mistaken for an AI--not know to put a space after each initial in the name of the ostensible author?

Truly, the things that we could come up with about this book are far more interesting than whatever is in the book.

[Anonymous No.23786980]

I know this isn't /wg/ but I wrote a fantasy novel and I've gotten some good feedback

[Anonymous No.23787050]

>>23783243
What /sffg/ protagonists are as worthless as kekqua, a "MC" who needs his ex girlfriend to do everything?

[Anonymous No.23787054]

>>23786980
good job, fren
high five

[Anonymous No.23787168]

Was Asimov really the third smartest person alive as he claimed?

[Anonymous No.23787190]

Anyone read it? Im looking for something similar to GRRM.

Nothing has the low fantasy and plot twists that GOT does.

[Anonymous No.23787342]

>>23784958
>excludes the culture series

[Anonymous No.23787352]

any of you guys use ebooks? I travel all the time for work so carrying a kindle would be MUCH more convenient than a novel, but I fucking hate how expensive it is and also how much of a pain in the ass pirating and converting files is. It should be so easy since they're basically text files, but the different ebook formats just make it hell. It's unironically easier to pirate dozens of movies than it is to ensure a single pirated ebook will work as intended on a kindle

[Anonymous No.23787363]

About a third of the way through this and it really hasn't had anything to grab me like the previous books had. Even in Red Country there was Cosca barging in a few times to steal a few scenes. This one's had only brief cameos of characters from the prior books doing not much more than confirming how much less interesting the POV characters are this time around.
Any worth sticking it out, or is this trilogy just a bit shitter than the stuff that came before?

[Anonymous No.23787370]

>>23787352
Here comes the aeroplane

>1. Go to libgen.is or anna's archive
>2. Download the .epub of whatever you want
>3. Get a Kobo
>4. Plug your Kobo into your PC, drag and drop your files
>5. Eject your Kobo

Occasionally you won't find an .epub, and occasionally the formatting will be a bit fucked, but for me it has been sufficient ~95% of the time

[Anonymous No.23787391]

Are there any sci fi books that get really autistic about trade routes from different planets and such.

[Anonymous No.23787395]

>>23787352
Expensive? I bought my Kindle for $30 on eBay. Even full price for the basic one isn't that much relative to the piracy. Pirating only takes seconds in most cases. Converting isn't a problem at all with Calibre since it does it automatically.

[Anonymous No.23787406]

>>23787370
thanks, anon. I didn't realize there were good alternatives to the walled gardens of kindle

[Anonymous No.23787407]

>>23787363
idk, I couldn't even get into the first book

[Anonymous No.23787411]

>>23787363
Yes.

[Anonymous No.23787438]

>>23787391
Poul Anderson had a series of stories about an interstellar trader/merchant of some sort. I think his name was Van Rijn? Heard the tales were basically just "The Hanseatic League in space, with a Falstaff-inspired merchant MC"

Anderson's a fairly good old-school writer, so it's worth taking a shot. Baen also recollected a lot of his space operas in the 00s too so you may find those.

[Anonymous No.23787560]

>>23782220
I am done with the Vorkosigan series. Only 4 books (and 1 novella) left and I dread having to read them. "A Civil Campaign" was a fucking joke. Literally nothing happens plot wise, you could summarize it in a prologue. I hate Mark and his plot line. I wish he would have died in a earlier book.
"Memory" was the high point of the series for me. If it ended here, I would have been happy.

Anyways, I am thinking of reading a star wars novel for the first time. People always say to start with Darth Bane or Thrawn. Any recs?

[Anonymous No.23787617]

I've been reading China Mountain Zhang and I'm about half way through and it kind of sucks. Is it worth finishing?

[Anonymous No.23787647]

>>23787617
>look at wikipedia page
>female author
>gay protagonist
>chinese-mexican mutt
the fuck

[Anonymous No.23787669]

>>23782220
About to start this. What will I think about it?

[Anonymous No.23787686]

>>23787617
It doesn't change.

[Anonymous No.23787691]

>>23786336
>any other series like this?
Sharon Green, mostly her older series like Spaceways Agent, Terrillian, Far Side of Forever, Jalav: Amazon Warrior. most of her works are scifi/planetary romance tho

[Anonymous No.23787704]

>>23787560
>Any recs?
For the love of god, read the EU, not the D*sney Wars books.

[Anonymous No.23787706]

>>23787704
Disney calls their books the EU

[Anonymous No.23787719]

>>23787706
>Disney calls their books the EU
ghastly if true

[Anonymous No.23787731]

>>23787647
it's cyberpunk, anon. the world is supposed to shock you
>>23787669
see >>23783031

[Anonymous No.23787734]

>>23787647
whoever greenlit that is getting promoted all the way to the top of their publishing company

[Anonymous No.23787735]

>>23787706
SAD!

[Anonymous No.23787745]

>>23787706
>literally every time that Disney opens their fucking mouths about their newest Star Wars shit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSJcONc90V8

[Anonymous No.23787751]

>>23787706
>>23787719
Old Star Wars is called Legends.

[Anonymous No.23787763]

>>23787691
thanks, have not heard of these series or sharon green until now. a cursory review of goodreads has me intrigued

[Anonymous No.23787764]

>>23787438
Thanks for the rec anon

[Anonymous No.23787766]

>>23787751
only to Disney
no old fan calls it that

[Anonymous No.23787970]

>>23786261
Not a classic in any sense, it's pretty new and not big at all (first book came out in 2018 and last book released last year) but a really good Swedish fantasy trilogy that I picked up. It seems like most Swedish fantasy I see is pozzed as hell or very YA (and fantasy is a very very small genre in general here), but apart from one of the MCs being the female-warrior trope it had none of those things. Just a really well written epic fantasy that I recommend anyone who understands Swedish to read.

It's about a world that's falling apart, with the landmasses getting smaller and smaller and having split into floating islands due to land continuously breaking off and falling into the void. It follows a couple characters that get pulled into the larger story about why this has started to happen and how to stop it. It features magic, elves, gods, demons and other worlds. Some of the twists and mysteries were a bit heavily foreshadowed and hinted at but others had really cool resolutions that didn't go in the way I thought they would. All in all a great read that truly felt epic, with a satisfying ending to the trilogy.

[Anonymous No.23787972]

>>23786980
Good job fren. Romantasy is super popular too so it sounds like youre in a good market.

[Anonymous No.23787985]

>>23787669
I loved it. Don't expect any great characterization, just see them as vehicles for the plot and you'll get along fine. It gets quite heavy on explanations of sci-fi concepts so if you enjoy that (which I do) you'll probably like it. The other two are both better than the first imo. The second has a slow first third of the book but then goes crazy, while the third goes real hard on the sci-fi concepts which I found really fascinating reading about.

[Anonymous No.23788009]

Am I allowed to say that I'm enjoying it

[Anonymous No.23788027]

>>23787985
>Don't expect any great characterization, just see them as vehicles for the plot and you'll get along fine. It gets quite heavy on explanations of sci-fi concepts so if you enjoy that (which I do) you'll probably like it.
hallmarks of classic sf works

[Anonymous No.23788054]

>>23787985
>It gets quite heavy on explanations of sci-fi concepts
I see it mentioned a couple of times on Project Rho but only in relation to ayys and fermi paradox.
Where does it fall on the Mohs scale? Is it safe to read?

[Anonymous No.23788056]

>>23788054
>project rho
>mohs scale
>safe to read
what the fuck are you blabbering about

[Anonymous No.23788090]

just finished Jack Vance's Dying Earth. comfy classic. i got a question with dying earth stuff: should you be able to recognize most technological and scifi elements or is it more magic mystic stuff? i struggled with that a bit on New Sun, Vance's stuff was easier.

[Anonymous No.23788109]

>>23787970
I always find fantasy worlds consisting of floating islands to be cool, although I don't think I have read any book set in one of such worlds. I wonder how people in the series move between split landmasses or if they even are able to travel between them. Being stranded on an island that's slowly crumbling away into void is a rather gloomy fade.
What's your favorite character and moment of the trilogy btw?

[Anonymous No.23788121]

>>23788090
>should you be able to recognize most technological and scifi elements or is it more magic mystic stuff?
it's definitely more magical nonsense rather than "hey, that's a car he's describing".

[Anonymous No.23788169]

>>23784736
Is it actually good though? I'm picturing pic related in book form

[Anonymous No.23788192]

>>23788009
Your picture related is indeed decent and i permit your verbal confirmation of enjoyment. Not all Hamiltons stuff is the best but even at his worst, most gender dysphoric, his quality is over and above a majority of the regularly shilled authors in these threads.

[Anonymous No.23788206]

>>23784857
>the Wandering Inn
It is basically schmaltzy emotional filler for the clinically retarded. Nearly yet not quite as bad as Lord of The Mysteries tbqh and that is even permitting terrible english translation.

[Anonymous No.23788241]

>>23788009
Pandoras star and judas unchained are the only two books of his worth reading (maybe with possible addition of his previous scifi series about dead coming back to life), the rest is 100% pozzed. Even Pandoras star is pozzed but back in early 2000s he was still managing to hold it in somewhat.

[Anonymous No.23788529]

Is russian fantasy any good? I have a couple of books from nick perumov that I haven't touched yet and I need someone anonymous to tell me my opinions on it before I start

[Anonymous No.23788606]

>>23788529
Generally no. I don't know what it is, but every time I read anything by a Russian Author it just comes across as incredibly dull and dreary.

[Anonymous No.23788667]

what are some fictional stories where hate is a functional core of the book?

[Anonymous No.23788670]

>>23788109
Favorite character I'd say is "Spelemannen" (The Playing Man), who's kind of a trickster/bard type character with a mysterious past he can't remember, along with Daewar who starts out as a blind boy who becomes kind of a magic rogue. Been a while since I read it now so don't remember all the details but my favorite moment was probably in the second book when BIG SPOILERS He regains his lost memories as the god Edyr, only to right away get killed (it was a trap). Was a great moment since I'd realized for a while that was what he really was, and I was waiting for him to regain the memories and his powers to be able to help save the day, only to instantly die and making everything even worse for our other characters, who now have to step up on their own. another spoiler for book 3 He does get resurrected pretty early on in book 3, but away from the other MCs and without any of his god-powers.

>>23788529
I remember reading about half of this one as a kid after I had read Harry Potter and Eragon and I think it was too dense for me back then compared to those more kid-friendly books. I can't really remember anything about it. I should probably give it a shot again now.

[Anonymous No.23788684]

>>23788529
>Tolkiens Mordor

[Anonymous No.23788686]

>>23784857
No quality control. Prolific writers might only publish a couple dozen works, but they've been writing all the while and the stuff people actually see is whats been filtered through publishing editors. Its only a fraction of their creative output (how much depends on the person in question). Meanwhile self-pub stuff can just be uploaded; fire and forget style.

[Anonymous No.23788708]

>>23788667
Hate by Arthur C. Clarke

[Anonymous No.23788735]

>>23788708
I usually have a hard time reading sci Fi, but I'll try it.

[Anonymous No.23788783]

>>23782220
Where should I with Arthur C. Clarke?

I hate Asimov btw, idk if that matters.

[Anonymous No.23788801]

>>23788684
>"Perumov makes Tolkien's Mordor seem approximately as dangerous as a hot-dog stand in Stockholm on a Friday evening..."

[Anonymous No.23788864]

>>23788801
>The comparison would hold if it was Malmö instead of Stockholm.

[Anonymous No.23788894]

>>23782220
Which one should I start first? im leaning torwards Le Guin.

[Anonymous No.23788904]

>>23788529
What books do you have? I have read him in Russian. This one about swords is good. "Gudarnas undergång" is also memorable. Other books are worse.

[Anonymous No.23788925]

I want the tropeist trope-laden novels/series you can recommend. I dont want any subversion, any morally grey characters etc i just want an adventure, with the usual pitfalls, suggestions please

[Anonymous No.23788929]

>>23788904
I have books 1,2,3 and 5, got them for free from a neighbor. 1 and 2 seems to be about swords and 3 and 5 about some necromancer

[Anonymous No.23788930]

>>23788864
I actually live in Malmö, can confirm

[Anonymous No.23788932]

>>23788925
I recently enjoyed the blacktongue thief, a 4/5 fun standard fantasy adventure

[Anonymous No.23788937]

>>23788929
You can try 1-3. It worsens with every subsequent title thereafter.

[Anonymous No.23788982]

>>23788009
no. it's boring as fuck, has maybe 2 good chapters and the rest of the book is filled with useless banal character exposition that nobody cares about. the prose is average at best, it's long as fuck, there are a shitload of characters all of them boring and cardboard, and most of them are basically the same character. and all of them are incredibly hot and rich and successful and they have loads of sex with other hot people and it's extremely important that that fact is alluded to in every other scene

it's a good example of why scifi literature is often seen as a joke. there's a half decent plot with some interesting concepts, but the author thinks he is a good writer and envelops it endless pages of horseshit coated with his fetishes. i bet he made top list in sales

[Anonymous No.23789010]

>cool lore and interesting setting
>pages upon pages of badly written romance and softcore porn
Why do so many books do this? Do people actually like this?

[Anonymous No.23789012]

>>23785036
he later gets a dickgirl friend. and cucked.

am i miss remembering or does he not turn up in the aspect emperor series

[Anonymous No.23789020]

>>23787363
The first book is pretty weak. The 2nd one starts strong and ends strong, while the 3rd one is his usual subversion shtick. If you dont mind girlbosses, which he dialed up to 11, stick with it, its enjoyable enough, though no where near as good as his first trilogy.

[Anonymous No.23789022]

Seems like this is getting a release in my language. Is it worth a read?

[Anonymous No.23789023]

>>23787669

[Anonymous No.23789041]

>>23788925
was discussed last thread or so, but Malice by John Gwynne
but it's like reading paint dry. not sure why you want to read that but there you go

[Anonymous No.23789045]

>>23789022
It's ATLA meets John Wick, does that sound appealing?

[Anonymous No.23789048]

just finished reading all of Christopher Buehlman's books so far. these three are very good. between two fires i've seen people here mention but not the rest of his work.

[Anonymous No.23789049]

>>23789045
I guess, i dont mind a light read

[Anonymous No.23789052]

>>23782220
This one blew me away 10/10 reccomend.

[Anonymous No.23789061]

>>23789052
>female writer

[Anonymous No.23789073]

>>23789041
I just want some easy reading. no thoughts, no worries, just escapism

[Anonymous No.23789074]

>>23787669
First book is a slog. First half of the second is a slog. Then there's a time jump and the rest of the series because very entertaining. Tranny naysayers and SJWs will steer you away from the series. Don't listen to them.

[Anonymous No.23789084]

>>23787669
Just watch the netflix show. We all know no one really reads here

[Anonymous No.23789113]

>>23789073
Cradle is a western author's attempt at a chinese cultivation series. or The Belgariad/The Malloreon is comfy fantasy

[Anonymous No.23789165]

>>23787970
Looks interesting. Do you know if there’s a Norwegian translation yet?

[Anonymous No.23789222]

I'm gettting kind of burnt out on worldbuilding shit each and every series. Fuck maybe I'm a low fantasy normie

[Anonymous No.23789290]

>>23788925
The Pastel City. i didn't like it much but maybe it's what you are looking for

[Anonymous No.23789611]

just finished The Wizard of Earthsea. very beautiful, and one of the best things I've read in a while. if you want some quick fantasy that's a classic give it a shot. Lots of islands and sailing ; coming-of-age; general wizardry; and very warm

[Anonymous No.23789730]

>>23789222
I would hope you'd get burnt out on it, if someone can continuously shovel down endless variations of "The North Kingdom is called NORDLEHEIM (the people are called NORDS) where it's COLD and SNOWY, the SOUTH is WARM" I would doubt if they were even human.

[Anonymous No.23789741]

>visit bookstore
>pick up wheel of time
>read the first page, good stuff
>mfw it's 800 pages and there are over 10 books in the series

[Anonymous No.23789750]

>>23789222
Read the Cambridge history series. The best worldbuilding of them all

>The Cambridge History [1950-2019, PDF, ENG]

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:300298BC8D6AFB6184C0F2C4F6D1F96F99A82AA9&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fbt4.t-ru.org%2Fann%3Fmagnet&dn=The%20Cambridge%20History%20%2F%20%D0%9A%D1%8D%D0%BC%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B6%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F%20%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F.%20%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%8F%20%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F%20%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F%20%5B1950-2019%2C%20PDF%2C%20ENG%5D

[Anonymous No.23789758]

>>23789741
>over 10 books in the series
Anon...

[Anonymous No.23789795]

>>23789222
>>23789750
that's funny you mention reading History. I was thinking the other day how much I love worldbuilding and lore in fiction novels and thought: why the fuck am I not reading actual history? And so - where would I start? I was thinking of buying pic related to give me a huge 10,000 ft view, and then focus on areas I like

[Anonymous No.23789807]

>>23788894
>The Dispossessed
Excellent novel.
>Ubik
Haven't read.
>The Three-Body Problem
It's alright, but about halfway through it turns into giga autist descriptions of the alien civilization's life cycle. I liked the mystery aspect of the first half better. Also at the end when they reveal the photon weapons there was no description of how they actually move and how they're powered, only how they have computer circuits inside, which seemed kind of ridiculous to me how you could forget to add that.

[Anonymous No.23789825]

>>23788894
>>23789807
seconding le Guin. Ubik is pretty good too and one of PKDs best. le Guin is just a much better writer though

[Anonymous No.23789834]

>>23789010
If you consider women to be people.

[Anonymous No.23789838]

>>23789795
I don't know, mate. I listen to pirated audiobooks (Will Durant's The Story of Civilization, for example) and read pirated e-books, so I'm not restricted by physical copies and prices.

[Anonymous No.23789859]

>>23789795
>huge 10,000 ft view
you could just read Wikipedia articles on "History of [country]" desu

[Anonymous No.23789872]

>>23789611

I'm about to start book three I've enjoyed following Ged's journey seeing how he grows as a wizard. It's been a lot of fun and so comfy.

>>23789741

I found book one very slow but the othes are fast paced enough to where you can read them in a couple days depending how invested you are in them.

[Anonymous No.23790073]

>>23789741
>want to read wot in my own language
>original is out of print
>they're reprinting the whole thing with some pretty sweet hardcovers
>but its taking them years
fucking hell, i just wanted to read the books, not experience going through slog while waiting for next book, im really tempted to just get epubs and finish them

[Anonymous No.23790111]

Are there any fantasy books that are just about the adventure with a focus on tactics/equipment/skills and none of this litrpg nonsense or dull politics and royal family shit.

So far I've read:

Grey mouser
Conan
Dragonlance

And these were all decent enough, but I need more.

I'll even take smutty webnovels at this point, and yes I've already read the Kono one posted here like a week ago (and it was excellent.) But I need a full length novel, something finished, I crave adventure!

[Anonymous No.23790235]

>>23790111
witcher is mostly plotless with geralt going around bonking things

[Anonymous No.23790311]

>>23790235
I tried that one and did not like the prose, nor do I enjoy very much subversion which is the witcher's entire shtick

[Anonymous No.23790407]

>>23790111
Golden Age of Berserk

[Anonymous No.23790462]

>>23786261
>>23786285
where can I read these in english?

[Anonymous No.23790469]

>>23790111
David Gemmell and KJ Parker
Start with Legend

[Anonymous No.23790509]

>>23790462
oh wait.. I can't
fuck

[Anonymous No.23790647]

Do you nibbas have any hard-ish sci-fi recs about first contact where the ayys are actually alien, incomprehensible, who live in an entirely different paradigm than us and such? I'm getting tired of the "aliens are either big bad monsters or functionally more or less human but with a new paint job/extra limbs" way of doing things

[Anonymous No.23790671]

>>23790647
>aliens
>hard scifi

[Anonymous No.23790687]

>>23790671
Yes.
Sorry for wanting something else than a 500 page slog about how much the author knows about general relativity

[Anonymous No.23790701]

>>23790407
Golden Age has dull politics and NPC antagonists

[Anonymous No.23790740]

>>23790647
Rendezvous at Rama

>>23790111
Kono one? Fantasy has fallen so far we have to recommend web novels? Link?

[Anonymous No.23790768]

>Angels, gods, and demons? Despite ten thousand years+ of attestation that's just superstitious nonsense chud
>Aliens who have traveled a billion years just to get here to some insignificant speck in the ray of a sunbeam despite zero hard evidence of their existence? That's just science fact

[Anonymous No.23790826]

>>23790111

Could try something by Michael Moorcock. Elric has royal family shit but also a focus on tactics/skills/etc. Ultimately it's all focused on poor Doomed Elric.

Kull, Solomon Kane, and others by Howard

Jirel of Joiry by CL Moore

Leigh Brackett's sword and planet fiction in general.

Poul Anderson's Three Hearts, Three Lions and Broken Sword are also good.

Also, Jack Vance's Dying Earth and other stuff.

[Anonymous No.23790880]

>>23790826
I'm reading Dying Earth right now actually, hopping between the different short stories and novels. I think it's entertaining, but far from what I'm looking for. Fucking love his prose though.

>>23790740
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1084494/kono-drow-exile/

Quite smutty at first, and the writing gets better as you go along, but literally exactly what I want. There are multiple paragraphs dedicated to why the MC takes a scimitar instead of a longsword, or how heavy her armor is and what weapons are effective against it. It rules. I want more like that.

>>23790469
I'll put it on my Kobo for tonight.

>>23790407
Seen the anime/movies already. I disagree.

[Anonymous No.23790895]

I remember reading short scifi (horror?) story where there is a group(with robots?) that tries to breach into some sort of puzzle labyrinth that has increasingly difficult questions or puzzles.
Eventually party members end up modifying their own bodies to add thinking capacity, or an ability to crawl through smaller and smaller doorways. I think in the plot the MC eventually ends up giving up and leaving, but still keeps getting messages from remaining party members that keep going forward and becoming more and more twisted while doing so.

Does anyone know the story I'm describing? Its been decades since I read it, but for some reason it is still occasionally haunting me and I would like to read it again.

[Anonymous No.23790913]

>>23789084
Don't watch the show. It's generic Netflix garbage.

[Anonymous No.23790946]

>>23790768
I don't look like that and I don't say that

[Anonymous No.23790948]

>>23790235
The worst recommendation possible.
>>23790407
Weebaboo garbage.
>>23790469
Based
>>23790826
All are shit except Vance, Moorcock, and Anderson

[Anonymous No.23790971]

>>23790826
>>23790948
Every Elric fight scene is "ELRIC WIELDED HIS BLACK SWORD AND SWUNG IT REALLY GOOD AND THE OTHER GUY DIED INSTANTLY AND HAD HIS SOUL SUCKED OUT AND ELRIC FELT BAD ABOUT IT"
Repetitive tripe.

[Anonymous No.23791025]

>>23790971
Stormbringer does a lot of the carrying when it comes to Elric's fights. If you don't like the concept of a cursed soul sucking sword to begin with, they'll do nothing for you.

[Anonymous No.23791038]

>>23790111
Bastard!!
>>23790407
Black Swordsman, Conviction, and Millenium Falcon are better examples of what anon asked

[Anonymous No.23791044]

>>23783207
I was also initially a bit hesitant but unironically he is a brilliant and extremely imaginative writer, I've only read Embassytown and The City & The City but both were fantastic, especially Embassytown which I thought was incredible.
Def gonna take >>23783902's advice and try out The Scar instead of Perdido Street Station, I own PSS but I tried reading it when I was in high school and got filtered by the density, I think I would enjoy it a lot more now.

[Anonymous No.23791063]

>finish King of Throns
>kat fucking died
i am not okay bros i dont think i can go to the next book without something to clean my palatte and put this hurt behind
recommendations for happy fantasy novel?

[Anonymous No.23791076]

>>23789741
Man i literally learned english with wot
i could barely speak ANYTHING by the end i could communicate perfectly.

[Anonymous No.23791084]

I work 12 hour shifts and have been listening to a lot of audiobooks the past 2 years. I don't really have friends to talk about books with and only now just remembered there was a whole board for it.

I tried some of the Wheel of Time but I just couldn't get into it. Read kind of like a manga at times, mostly because of the fixation on friction between sexes. I rolled my eyes when there was actually a snowed-in cabin scenario.

At first I thought Brandon Sanderson was good but his recent books haven't held my interest much. Every character having a quirky mascot/sidekick got a little old by the 5th time around.

I really liked Mark Lawrence. Prince of Fools trilogy is one of the few times I actually laughed out loud while listening. It's fun seeing underdog MCs who get lucky and know it, instead of just outright winning encounters despite being lauded as weaker all the time.

>>23790111
The Black Company
>none of this litrpg nonsense or dull politics and royal family shit
This is a big part of what's burning me out on fantasy. I wouldn't mind the generic setting but it's always just antagonistic aristocracy and uneducated peasants getting manipulated.

[Anonymous No.23791127]

Make Xianxia Good For Once

[Anonymous No.23791153]

>>23790971
Don't read him. Simple as.

[Anonymous No.23791179]

What I got from this is
it's a standard kind of Dying Earth setting for the first book, then in the second book the collision of the insectoid and human world-assertions damages the fabric of reality, such that in each of the versions of Viriconium that follow we're seeing iterations of the timeline as it breaks down, losing a little bit of magic and wonder each time as some vital essence is lost. Until you finally get to A Young Man's Journey To Viriconium, by which stage reality has degraded so far and lost so much energy and vibrancy that it is just our mundane world.
Am I wrong? I fucking hope so because I find this very depressing.

[Anonymous No.23791183]

>>23791127
Xianxia has crazy potential but everyone that writes this godforsaken genre is such an uber retard.

[Anonymous No.23791187]

>>23791084
>At first I thought Brandon Sanderson was good but his recent books haven't held my interest much

stormlight archive has gotten progressively worse and worse in every aspect with each new book.

[Anonymous No.23791188]

>>23783596
thanks. will look in to these.

[Anonymous No.23791190]

>>23788783
2001 is a good place to start. I liked it a lot in high school and it's a classic.

[Anonymous No.23791202]

>>23791084
>At first I thought Brandon Sanderson was good but his recent books haven't held my interest much.
Yeah, that's what happens when characters do nothing but repeat the same character arc over and over again.

[Anonymous No.23791234]

>>23790880
well, could try Book of the New Sun but idk if that's what you're looking for.

>>23790948

Howard's fine. Moore and Brackett are fine. Unless you have something else to say in particular about why you think they're shit.

>>23790971
>>23791025
Stormbringer does carry, but if you don't like the original cursed swordsman/antihero turned doomed king as a concept, then it won't do much. I'd imagine some other anon may recommend something else by Moorcock.

Could try Talbot Mundy's Grimjim or perhaps one of Harold Lambs' historical fiction adventures.

There's also Howard Andrew Jones' sword and sorcery stuff. The Desert tales and his Hanuvar tales. They're excellent. It's a shame he's got brain cancer now.

>>23791084
does Black Company get better after the first trilogy?

Anyways I think politics and royal family shit is boring unless it's handled well. Personally, I think writers should focus on making us give a fuck before they try to pull out politics and whatnot.

LITRPG sounds like some weeb shit. If you want power fantasy then go watch isekai anime or some shit.

Anyways Audiobook Anon, have you gotten into sci-fi as well or is it just fantasy? If you like humorous stuff, there's plenty of that in SF. Douglas Adams and his Hitchhiker's Guide is well-regarded. Robert Sheckley was also another classic SF writer that tended to put humor in his stories. Fredric Brown's also of the same type.

After that, you also have the likes of Asimov and his sense of humor that can pop up.

As for humorous fantasy, have you tried Terry Pratchett?

Anyways, I'm off to see if I can't get a deal on Saberhagen's Empire of the East or Wellman's "John The Balladeer"

[Anonymous No.23791251]

>>23788783
It does matter, but you'd have to specify more on the nitty gritty.

Childhood's End
The City and the Stars
Rendezvous with Rama

these are all fine novels to start with. Otherwise look for a collection with one of these short stories

The Star
9 Billion Names of God

if you're a physical book seeker, look for the 3 omnibus editions of his works from the early 60s. They're usually pretty affordable because They don't immediately pop out to people looking to resell.

Across the Sea of Stars
From the Oceans to the Stars

I have these two. There's also one with prelude to mars or sth in it. I think there's a 4th one that the Knights of Comarre or something. The two that I have each have 2 novels and one short story collection in them.
>>23788894

the le Guin book in there is considered to be her finest.

the PKD one is also pretty good.

Liu's stuff seems to be polarizing. But hey, it's a breath of fresh air.

[Anonymous No.23791253]

>>23789872
>>23789611
amazon keeps telling me that I own earthsea but I can't find the book in my apartment to save my life, and I'm far too lazy to categorize every book like a library.

[Anonymous No.23791289]

>>23788894
Throw Three Body Problem directly into the trash where it belongs, then read The Dispossessed, then read Left Hand of Darkness, and then read The Word For World Is Forest, and then set aside some time to walk in the woods and think about how she could write such a blatantly emotion-driven self-righteous polemic in between writing two such complex, insightful, even-handed and wise treatments of their respective subject matters. Then read Ubik.

[Anonymous No.23791477]

>>23790647
Blindsight

[Anonymous No.23791482]

>>23791179
What you should have got is that the only thing Harrison should write is a suicide note

[Anonymous No.23791593]

What are the best stories you've read published in the last 5 years? I feel fantasy has a classics problem where only enthusiasts are actually reading stuff published recently.

[Anonymous No.23791886]

>>23790111
You managed to read Dragonlance? You're a stronger man than I.

[Anonymous No.23791890]

>>23791234
>does Black Company get better after the first trilogy?
Don't forget Silver Spike which caps the trilogy, but it just becomes different after that point. TBC is less of an underdog and a major player joins them. I still liked it.

[Anonymous No.23791893]

>>23791593
Why would anyond read only recent drivel. By virtue of the lindy effect. The works from 50 years ago that are still talked about are the cream of the crop, while the works that came out 5 years ago have yet to go through such filtering.

[Anonymous No.23791898]

>>23791593
>I feel fantasy has a classics problem where only enthusiasts are actually reading stuff published recently.
I actually think it's the other way around. Genre fans aren't reading new publications and you only have NEW readers engaging with those. People with barely any frame of reference for anything genre based.

[Anonymous No.23791922]

>>23791898
you mean you don't like the next big classic, gweilo?

[Anonymous No.23791931]

>>23791893
Hard SF has the problem (if you see it as one) where even the well-researched works from decades ago tend to feel outdated in light of more recent discoveries in science and technology.
In fantasy, no, I wouldn't see a real reason to prefer modern writing.

[Anonymous No.23791960]

>>23791931
>implying anyone today can tell the difference
as long as it sounds plausible it's fine

[Anonymous No.23792006]

Can anyone actually recommend good chinese stuff?

[Anonymous No.23792011]

>>23792006
people were shilling that one xianxia that had a chicken

[Anonymous No.23792017]

>>23792011
That's an actually good one. Own 2 of the books but havent read the web version farther than the attempt to introduce the industrial revolution.

[Anonymous No.23792027]

>>23791931
For Hard SF that is fair, but even then the story trumps the science in SF. SF was always more about fiction and exploring hypotheticals, than rigorous scientific speculation.
With fantasy, I don't doubt that there are good works being written today, buy I will read them 10 years from now, after the wheat has been seperated from the chaff.

[Anonymous No.23792034]

i fucking hate modern sff
now if you'll excuse i'll go read cyberpunk from the 1980s
that is all

[Anonymous No.23792051]

>>23790462
>>23790509
Well now I feel bad for bringing it up in the first place. But it's overall shame that so many interesting non-English fantasy books will most likely never leave boundaries of their countries.

[Anonymous No.23792058]

>>23792006
some that I've enjoyed
>Kingdom's Bloodline
>Tales of Herding Gods
>Way of Choices
>Nightfall

[Anonymous No.23792069]

>start Cradle
>the MC is "Unsouled", meaning he can't cultivate like the rest (how original)
>everyone hates him for it
>anyone could slap him to death without repercussions but for some reason they don't
this shit is retarded

[Anonymous No.23792074]

>>23792027
No, that is weakness.
Scientific accuracy above everything.

[Anonymous No.23792075]

>>23791593
Unironically DCC. Though like you said, im mostly going through old stuff, the only other new thing i read was the age of madness trilogy, which overall i didnt really like.

[Anonymous No.23792080]

>>23792074
Kek, only a lit major with science-envy would say this. No one with a STEM degree thinks the primary value of sci-fi is scientific accuracy.
Even the better writers often have a poor grasp on it and the ones with a good grasp on the science are usually not good writers. Though of course I am happy to be proven wrong.

[Anonymous No.23792151]

>>23792080
>No one with a STEM degree thinks the primary value of sci-fi is scientific accuracy.
Yeah, I can tell.
I was going through a list of works recommended by Carl Sagan in some article of his, based on the mistaken notion that just because he's a scientist with a degree he might be some kind of an authority on the subject. In the middle of The Door Into Summer by Heinlein, I realized Sagan had kind of a shit taste. He also thought Dune is good.

[Anonymous No.23792159]

>>23791179
I've always wanted to read Harrison. did you like the book?

[Anonymous No.23792164]

Why are women so obsessed with fanfiction where Harry redeems or joins Voldemort and starts sucking his dick?

[Anonymous No.23792168]

>>23792069
why would they do that though

[Anonymous No.23792169]

>>23792164
>fanfiction where Harry redeems or joins Voldemort and starts sucking his dick?
every person who writes fanfiction is a cock sucking faggot regardless of gender

[Anonymous No.23792170]

>>23792164
These women project their "I can fix him" attitude on Harry. By doing so they try to justify themselves staying in a toxic relationship.
Why they do so with a homosexual relationship rather than a hetero one? Who knows. Probably because in a hetero relationship they would feel threatened by the fictional woman.

[Anonymous No.23792191]

>>23792164
the only fanfiction I've attempted to read has been the divine comedy.

[Anonymous No.23792206]

What do you guys think about the Hyperion cantos? Should I read everything, nothing or just the first 2 books?

[Anonymous No.23792216]

>>23792206
1) they are great 2) if you are pressed for time just read the first two 2b) if you are NOT pressed for time read everything

[Anonymous No.23792217]

>>23791898
fuckin "cozy fantasy." why do the worst, most disgustingly woke idiots write "totes cozy uwu" shit?
>impulse buy Psalm For The Wild Built
>thinking its going to be an interesting dive into philosophy of life and sentience through robots living in the wilderness on a distant planet, perhaps something akin to vintage Asimov with a taoist twist?
>everyone talks and acts like modern Californians in a Starbucks
>more nonbinary characters than gendered ones, there's not even any attempts to utilize the sci-fi/fantasy setting to explain why
>very easy to forget this is supposed to be some sort of distant fantasy realm due to the modernized prose and characterization
>trying way to hard to be cute and relatable
>look at the back flap
>book was written by a lesbian (possibly transbian) from California
>that explains so much

[Anonymous No.23792228]

>>23792216
Nah I have plenty of time. It is just some redditors yapping about Endymion and rise of endymion and I just want to know if I should buy all the books as I get a discount

[Anonymous No.23792230]

>>23792217
It's what happens when you want to write about essentially NOTHING.

[Anonymous No.23792238]

>>23792217
Anon, wokies want nothing more than to reduce perceived harm as much as possible even if it flies in the face of logic or fun.

[Anonymous No.23792265]

>>23782778
Sale ends today, thank you to everyone that checked it out! Especially the anon who gave a new review - very much appreciated

[Anonymous No.23792398]

>>23792069
He can cultivate just fine, his clan are a bunch of backwards savages who have no idea what they're talking about and get called as much several times.

[Anonymous No.23792493]

Confess your sins
>I read all of Eddings when I was 14 and thought he was a great writer

[Anonymous No.23792502]

>>23792493
Your sin is being a faggot who doesn't understand Eddings is intended to be great specifically for younger people.

[Anonymous No.23792584]

>>23789611
Earthsea is one of my favorite series, especially the first 3. My favorite is probably The Tombs of Atuan, it's a super unique premise and LeGuin's writing is just perfect. She went a lil' wacky in Tehanu, not even because of the feminist bent but I felt like her writing fell off super hard and there was no real strong storyline. But she reedems herself in the next two books and The Other Wind is a perfect send-off.

[Anonymous No.23792866]

>>23791234
>does Black Company get better after the first trilogy?
Define better
I liked the original ones because it was magic wars but from the point of view of a guy who was basically a bystander. It was neat seeing something more grounded on the common side of things instead of having cutaways to give you insight constantly.
As other anon says it just becomes different. Still a lot of marching but there are more viewpoints in some of the books and more relatable antagonists.

>have you gotten into sci-fi as well or is it just fantasy?
I started off with both Thrawn trilogies and just kept going from there. The Star Wars audiobooks have pretty good production quality and the guy they get to voice them all gets super into it so it was a fun listen. Except when he gets too into the alien voices for like 3 straight chapters and it starts grating.
Most of the EU is just fanwank though. A passable plot except suddenly Han and Chewy show up halfway into the story and take things over from there.

Red Rising was a guilty pleasure of mine. Basically just Hunger Games but I really like how it carried on from there. A lot of memorable characters and scenes when I'm seeing a lot of antagonists just be throwaways.

I got through the Foundation and wanted to like it but I wasn't a fan of the execution. Some of it was pretty good but when it came to the actual scifi elements it wasn't holding me.

>>23792206
First two books are amazing. A little bit of everything going on with a great setting.
Endymion might not be for everyone. Much more adventure-y except the adventure is just backtracking but it does answer all the questions still left on the table from the first two

[Anonymous No.23792868]

>>23792866
>Endymion
What about the fall of Endymion?

[Anonymous No.23793002]

>>23787168
Foundation is literally "Everyone is an Idiot Except For Me: The Book"

[Anonymous No.23793068]

>>23793002
It reads like a children's story

[Anonymous No.23793083]

>>23793068
Yep. Really disappointed it turned out like that. If I give Dune a chance, will I feel similarly?

[Anonymous No.23793116]

>>23789795
Reddit's AskHistorians is a good place for recs. They're given by actual historians as well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/general/

[Anonymous No.23793122]

>>23793083
Dune has dry prose but it focus a lot more on characters and more nuance topics like ecology and religion (Asimov's take on religion in Foundation could be developed by a redditor teenager).

[Anonymous No.23793137]

this is a weird book
starts out in a typical way, like a more grounded fairy tale: a willful princess is unhappy with her lot in life, but her adventurous spirit is caged in by her politically ambitious and uncaring father. she is later rescued by a princeling with little interest in the throne.
but about a 3rd in, during what feels like the big climatic event, it slams on the brakes and we wander away from the protagonists to see other perspectives that aren't super interesting without any indication of how much time is passing or if they're past events or what.
some chapters are just straight up world building, retelling past events that are then retold a 3rd time by subtext in future chapters
the last chapter feels like it literally came from the Dying Earth cutting room floor, it was a tale (past? present? no clue) of two wizards tricking each other into visiting an alternative dimension where sentient talking mountains poop out gemstones. it is completely different in tone than everything else
what am I missing? is there a trick to any of this or did Vance just lose his marbles when tasked with writing a novel that wasn't a picaresque?

[Anonymous No.23793140]

>>23782254
Funnily enough, this is a skill issue on your part.

[Anonymous No.23793159]

>>23793137
Bro, it's Vance. Everything he writes feels like you're reading a dream. Just enjoy the vivid prose and funny wizards.

[Anonymous No.23793160]

>>23792217
why the fuck would you read a book written by a woman in current age

[Anonymous No.23793172]

This is like if someone read those overblown negative reviews of Empire of Silence and thought "Wow that sounds like a good idea, somebody should actually write something that retarded."

[Anonymous No.23793188]

>>23792151
Kill yourself.

[Anonymous No.23793242]

I'm currently reading throught the lord of the rings for the first time and I get distracted by feeling sad over how good they are and how much more enjoyable the books would be if I didn't know exactly what was going to happen all the time

[Anonymous No.23793258]

>>23793116

[Anonymous No.23793283]

>>23793258
?

[Anonymous No.23793286]

Who should I read if I like sanderson’s worldbuilding and mysteries, but hate his samevoice dialogue and Netflix-esque pacing?

>>23793242
There’s plenty of stuff that didn’t make it into the movies. I don’t think spoilers detract too much, honestly.

[Anonymous No.23793345]

Does anyone think that people actually care about the “Moral” of a story or just the story itself?

I’ve been having a back and forth with some people about Dune(just an example) and if Paul was cowardly or if Leto was evil and the whole of the deterministic nature of it all and it devolved from there.

Like if a king use’s necromancy for a good reason, is it still seen as bad?

I’ve gotten the whole “Sanctity of Life and Death” and how people will view it and it feels like a moralfag thing.

Am I dumb or do people actually put so much of their morals into a story?

[Anonymous No.23793347]

Well shit, he got bored of post-apoc slop and is going back to soulful alt-history and sci-fi? Finally we get to see how this trilogy ends.

[Anonymous No.23793378]

Scientist from earth invents a device which will allow FTL travel. He becomes incredibly rich, grows bored, and decides to travel the galaxy wit hit. He discovers different intelligent alien species, each in a different stage of development, and which each teach him a lesson about people, the world, and life.

Is this idea mid or bussin'?

[Anonymous No.23793404]

>>23782220
I must tell you all the truth: I do not care for philosophy or the so-called royal family of britain

[Anonymous No.23793411]

where do you find new scifi and fantasy slop to listen to. Do you have websites in mind when you search or go to god forbid r*ddit ?

[Anonymous No.23793415]

>>23793411
>listen to
Cure your tinnitus/adhd dipshit
Don't feed it

[Anonymous No.23793423]

>>23793415

[Anonymous No.23793546]

>>23782741
one of the last true epic fantasy stories in this "subverted expectations" landscape

[Anonymous No.23793550]

>>23791593
Children of Time
DCC
Pale Lights

[Anonymous No.23793563]

>started reading the Witcher books
Pretty enjoyable so far
>>23793415
nta but audiobooks are comfy. I don't treat them as a replacement for reading, just an addition. When I'm on a walk, in crowded public transport, etc. I can't have my books with me, but I still might want to enjoy one

[Anonymous No.23793607]

>>23793122
If you're looking for something other than the adolescent "I'm better than everyone else" fantasy, though, Dune isn't it

[Anonymous No.23793618]

>>23793411
I look at what books are being released and have been released. I then decide based on the author, or of I don't know them, what it seems to be about. I then read and write my thoughts on the book.

[Anonymous No.23793622]

>>23793378
>FTL
>aliens
Into the trash it goes.

[Anonymous No.23793711]

>>23793140
Part of the point is that, in the future, there may come a time when people won't be able to write something better than what AI can generate altogether—similar to how the best chess players in the world can no longer win against computers. Whether you prefer the human version or the AI-generated one is mostly irrelevant in the long run. If you prefer the human rendition, it might still only be a matter of time before AI surpasses it. Conversely, if you prefer AI-generated version and believe it’s due to a skill gap, even if there is another writer who could produce a version you'd like better, his ass is still on the chopping block.

[Anonymous No.23793749]

>>23793711
nta
The biggest problem will be copyright. I imagine someone will dominate SEO, rec algorithms, and everything else for discovery. The actual content can then be sold by them and they can take whatever their competitors have, copy it, and sell.it for less. No one else will stand any chance in commercial terms.

[Anonymous No.23793779]

>>23793749
>The actual content can then be sold by them and they can take whatever their competitors have, copy it, and sell.it for less.
The chinaman cometh

[Anonymous No.23793802]

>>23792217
>fuckin "cozy fantasy." why do the worst, most disgustingly woke idiots write "totes cozy uwu" shit?
because our society is so rich and safe and its people are weak and soft and dumb
they have had no real experience in life, let alone experience with (or understanding of, or appreciation for) hardship
they have no ability to extrapolate or empathize to be able to understand (and then write about) things beyond their experience

you are reading books written by indoor cats and wondering why they never bring home a chipmunk or a cardinal to lay at your doorstep
when the dry food falls out of their bowl and makes a sound on the floor, they jump
they're indoor cats
this is just what they are

[Anonymous No.23793898]

>virgin femc meets a random guy who treats her like shit and fucks him 3 days later
Whoa...so this is the power of woman writing?

[Anonymous No.23793927]

>>23793898
but does she treat other people like shit, too, without even noticing it?
is she absurdly virtuous in random moments, ignoring and willing to endure what should be the cost of that selfless behavior, and somehow escaping those costs at the same time?

[Anonymous No.23793965]

>>23793347
I was not expecting this. I thought he had dropped this series. Now if only he could get the rights to the Draka series back and wrap it up too.

[Anonymous No.23793967]

>>23793927
She's certainly an asshole, a few people get hurt because her actions. So far she hasn't really done anything, outside of searching for her purpose.

[Anonymous No.23793988]

Article headline: Katherine Rundell is her generation’s J.R.R. Tolkien

lol, deserves to be at the end of a thread.

[Anonymous No.23793995]

>>23791593
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik was in the last 5 years, and it was a lot more enjoyable than other recent stuff I've read. It's a totally original self-contained trilogy published from 2020 - 2022. I'd recommend it to anybody that likes magic school settings. So maybe 2 other people in /sffg/ at most.

I also found Gideon the Ninth (published 2019) very entertaining, but its sequels less so. The series is still a WIP so I'm reserving judgement on the other two novels until I see where the plot and character arcs end up. I think Muir was a tad too ambitious with the second book (Harrow the Ninth) going with second-person narration, and making the subject matter so bleak. I know it's necromancers in space, but having your main character constantly weak, ill, and mortally wounded makes for a draining read.

Other than that there's nothing I'd rank as "best". There's stuff I consider "readable" but there's a lot of asterisks appended to that with caveats about "if you like that sort of thing".

[Anonymous No.23794001]

>>23793995
>doesn't mention anything written by men
Your opinion isn't invalid, but it is very incomplete.

[Anonymous No.23794016]

>>23794001
I have read lots of stuff written by men in the last 5 years (and I've posted my thoughts on the books as I finished them in these threads) but sadly I wouldn't consider any of it re-read worthy. I read Django Wexler's most recent trilogy and found it fell short of expectations in several regards, and I also read Anthony Ryan's books published in the last few years as well, and while he was probably the male author I enjoyed most, Covenant of Steel left a bad taste in my mouth with its hastily concluded plot and inexplicable heel-turns from several characters, plus Ryan's usual problem of grasping at cosmic significance for an otherwise very human story.

Plus I read some Sanderson stuff, some Mark Lawrence, Raymond E. Feist, and a plethora of older titles from male authors. For instance, I only just now got around to reading Way of Shadows and the rest of the Night Angle trilogy this year.

If you think any of the recent male authored stuff I mentioned deserves top billing I'd love to hear why. Else recommend me some good books from the last 5 years written by men, keeping in mind that I find litrpg / wuxia stuff as palatable as eating sand.

[Anonymous No.23794017]

Pohl's Gateway has been a comfy read so far. I'm looking forward to finishing it. Any thoughts on it or on his other works? Space Merchants, Jem, and Man Plus are on my eventual reading list as I got them for a steal.

[Anonymous No.23794020]

>>23794001
basao
>>23794016
>Django Wexler
when's this dude gonna troon out? absolute lesbian-obsessed coomhead

[Anonymous No.23794024]

>>23794020
>>when's this dude gonna troon out? absolute lesbian-obsessed coomhead
It honestly wouldn't surprise me if he did, and it doesn't surprise me that /sffg/ had an even stronger knee-jerk reaction to his lesbian obsession than I did. I am pretty accepting of stuff like that, but it was too much even for me. Made the books almost unreadable at times.

[Anonymous No.23794029]

>>23794024
every book he writes focuses around lesbians

[Anonymous No.23794034]

>>23794029
I wouldn't say "focuses", but they eat up more pages than is warranted. There's also the simple fact that virtually every female protagonist he has written has been a lesbian. Pretty much zero variety there.

[Anonymous No.23794141]

>>23794016
I don't think they deserve top billing and I've recommended much from the past 5 years and posted my thoughts as I finished them in these threads.

[Anonymous No.23794147]

>>23793965
He also just released book 1 of a new time travel series in the same vein as Island in the Sea of Time. Except this time it’s about the Roman Empire. I’ll be picking it up at the library as soon as I finish Farseer slop book 2. Will report back with my opinions in a few weeks.

[Anonymous No.23794154]

I really hate starting series only for the authors to die.

[Anonymous No.23794157]

>>23793711
Sorry I should have been more clear. I am not referring to the writing, I am referring to your ability to prompt the AI.

[Anonymous No.23794185]

>>23793967
>So far she hasn't really done anything, outside of searching for her purpose.
maybe she should take a year off travelling to find herself

[Anonymous No.23794203]

From seeing this cover, what do you think the book will be about?

[Anonymous No.23794210]

>>23794203
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/takeshi-loves-sex

[Anonymous No.23794213]

>>23793995
I loved Gideon the Ninth, it felt so unique and really came alive so much so that I think I’ll never forget it. I felt the same way as you about the sequel, and also haven’t gotten around to the third yet, except that I also loved the sequel despite, because the first made me enjoy the characters enough, and this carried on through the second, that I just wanted more content about them, even if the darkness persistently kept on throughout. (I enjoyed the characters enough that I think I’ve not gotten to the next because it subconsciously, based on the cover and title name, looks like it’s a departure from following the old main character.)

[Anonymous No.23794217]

>>23794213
nta
Yes and no about the third book. It's similar to second with another twist.

[Anonymous No.23794233]

>>23793137
Treat everything Vancian as a fix-fic, that is a bunch of short stories worked into a full on novel. The man spewed creative writing to the point where his greatest problem was coming up with ways to sell them the most amount of times for the greatest profit.

[Anonymous No.23794248]

>>23794217
Really? Thanks for the heads up. If it’s similar or carries on at all, (or mentions Harrow,) I’ll read it soon.
I think I was too afraid to be disappointed to really check whether I’d ever get any more content about these characters, even though it only would’ve taken a moment. That’s very encouraging.
Thanks anon!

[Anonymous No.23794253]

>>23794248
Have you read the other locked tomb stuff aside from the novels?

[Anonymous No.23794277]

>>23794253
Whoa. I didn’t know there was anything else. I read the first the moment it came out, and the second the moment it came out. In between, I looked at all the art and book illustrations everywhere because I like seeing how people visualize the characters, but other than that, I’m a blank on the series, other than knowing the third book came out. You’ve kind of opened my eyes, here, anon.

[Anonymous No.23794334]

>it's kino
Why didn't anyone tell me arabs could write good fantasy

[Anonymous No.23794414]

>>23792006
Cavern of the Blood Zombies

their grave robbing subgenre is pretty cool, not really something that has a western parallels outside of indiana jones inspired stuff

[Anonymous No.23794419]

>>23790469
>no politics
>kj parker
what? I think literally everything he's published under that name is at least in part about politics.

[Anonymous No.23794633]

>>23782220
>good reads
go fuck yourself
>>23782254
>Chat GPT
learn brevity you unoriginal, rambling, midwit.
>>23782402
Pierce Anthony is about your speed.

[Anonymous No.23794702]

>>23789012
>a dickgirl friend
It's been a few years since I read the Prince of Nothing books, but I don't remember that at all

[Anonymous No.23794708]

>>23794334
because I am very racist

[Anonymous No.23794770]

New thread
>>23794763

[Anonymous No.23794981]

>>23791076
How the hell does this work? Is it just brute force, or do you look up the words individually? I read a shittonne of fucking comic books in a second language as a kid, and picked up fuckall of the language.