Fantasy and Sci-Fi Thread: Genre Pleb Edition Bought pic related off of /lit/'s reccomendation, and am enjoying it immensely so far. What some other high quality fantasy/sci-fi books that you guys think stand out?

File: 314 KB, 700x1012, 0156.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Anonymous Tue Dec 30 23:23:07 2014 No.5930505 [Reply] [Original]

Fantasy and Sci-Fi Thread: Genre Pleb Edition

Bought pic related off of /lit/'s reccomendation, and am enjoying it immensely so far. What some other high quality fantasy/sci-fi books that you guys think stand out?

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 30 23:26:40 2014 No.5930513 >Not reading Delany's homoerotic african-american sci-fi

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 30 23:39:15 2014 No.5930547 >>5930505 Dune Roadside Picnic Blindsight Prince of Nothing series

>>	Anonymous Tue Dec 30 23:44:45 2014 No.5930581 >>5930505 Malazan

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 01:57:18 2014 No.5931007 >>5930581 yes

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 02:07:54 2014 No.5931044 Currently reading dune for the first time and loving it. Before this my favourite scifi was Enders game.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 02:31:31 2014 No.5931103 Jack Vance Clark Ashton Smith

Anonymous Wed Dec 31 02:36:03 2014 No.5931112
File: 45 KB, 600x338, book.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Just finished pic related and I'm pretty sure this isn't a good starting point to read his work. It wasn't pure shit in the entertaining reads department but I'm hoping his other works are better.

Anonymous Wed Dec 31 03:04:19 2014 No.5931177
File: 3.06 MB, 3608x1874, HMS_Hood.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>5930505
if you're including science fiction, the culture novels are where it's at. iain banks had pretty much the best ideas of anybody ever. the writing in his first book sucked, but i just finished "use of weapons" (number 3), and it was much better. you still have to at least read the first to have any clue what's going on, though.

Anonymous Wed Dec 31 03:25:12 2014 No.5931213
File: 350 KB, 1200x850, 1364097808048.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>5931177
>He tried not to remember what the great ship was called. Instead he saw the
>ship somehow installed near the middle of a city, and felt confused, and
>could not work out how it got there. The ship started to look like a castle,
>for some reason, and that did, and did not, make sense. He began to feel
>fright-ened. The ship's name was like some huge sea creature, bumping into
>the hull of his boat; like a battering-ram thudding into the walls of the castle
>keep. He tried to block it out, knowing it was just a name but not wanting to
>hear it because it always made him feel bad.
>He put his hands over his ears. That worked for a moment. But then the
>ship, set in stone, near the centre of the battered city, fired its great guns,
>gouting black and flashing yellow-white, and he knew what was coming, and
>tried to scream to cover the noise, but when it arrived it was the name of the
>ship that the guns had spoken, and it shattered the boat, demolished the
>castle, and resounded through the bones and spaces of his skull, like the
>laughter of an insane god, forever.

>The light went out then, and he sank gratefully away from the awful,
>accusing sound.
>Light.
>Staberinde
>said a calm voice from somewhere inside.
>Staberinde. It's
>only a word.
>The Staberinde. The ship. He turned away from the light, back into the
>darkness.

MFW I have the audio book on my MP3 player with each chapter as a separate track on shuffle.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 04:10:48 2014 No.5931311 I've never actually read Dune. Should I read the whole series or just the first book? I've only ever heard good things about the first.

Anonymous Wed Dec 31 06:25:51 2014 No.5931551 [DELETED]

im always a bit wary of modern fantasy for living off the success and influence of tolkien but pretending to shun it. are there any modern fantasy books without these pretentions? the whole assassin/mercernary/anti-hero aspect is boring and uninteresting to me.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 06:30:28 2014 No.5931558 im always a bit wary of modern fantasy for living off the success and influence of tolkien yet say they are trying to usurp it. are there any modern fantasy books without these pretensions? the whole assassin/mercernary/anti-hero aspect is trite to me.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 07:22:02 2014 No.5931617 >>5930505 Hey, did you see the planet castle thread on /tg/ too?

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 07:44:10 2014 No.5931660 >>5930513 lol everything i dislike in one package!

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 07:51:17 2014 No.5931671 >>5931311 the first Dune isn't even that good either. you can just skip it if you want

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 09:15:14 2014 No.5931850 Stations of the tide Dhalgren Light Based perdido street station

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 14:02:15 2014 No.5932668 >>5931213 >it always made him feel bad. Banks pls.

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 14:20:45 2014 No.5932737 Viriconium Cycle is pretty great.

Anonymous Wed Dec 31 18:59:02 2014 No.5933621
File: 40 KB, 248x300, Arcanum_cover_copy.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Arcanum, a video game, takes Tolkien/D&D archetypes and has them deal with real issues of an industrial revolution.

Are there any fantasy books that try to do that using the information age instead?

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 19:00:40 2014 No.5933627 >>5933621 So you just want a cyberpunk novel with elves? Why?

>>	Anonymous Wed Dec 31 19:10:21 2014 No.5933660 >>5930547 >Good >Good >Good >Complete crap

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:33:00 2015 No.5934718 Book of the New Sun, but I think that goes without saying

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:35:30 2015 No.5934725 >>5932737 This, it owns Also, a reminder that everyone should visit greatsfandf.com because like 95% of the sf&f books /lit/ jizzes over are included on their lists along with a bunch of other great stuff

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:41:44 2015 No.5934741 >>5933621 it's called "steampunk" you fucking dumbass

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:46:19 2015 No.5934753 >>5933621 You may be interested in Charles Stross' Library novels >>5934741 Steampunk does the Arcanum Industrial Revolution thing he's referencing, not the IT thing he's asking for, but good shout nevertheless

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:52:54 2015 No.5934775 Dhalgren Malazan Book of the Fallen The Black Company Book of the New Sun I'm finishing up Dhalgren right now, shit is incredible. Read it immediately.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:54:10 2015 No.5934780 >>5934775 tfw all Delany's later fiction turns into Sade tier ultraviolence gay erotica, his last book being a 900 page depiction of a small gay utopia

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:55:20 2015 No.5934782 >>5931103 Jack Vance is God.

Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:56:52 2015 No.5934789

>>5934780
Shit, I didn't know anything about him outside of Dhalgren, which I learned about from the comments section on the video for Sleep's Dopesmoker album. I was really excited to look for other things he had written based on Dhalgren but now you're starting to kill that excitement.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:57:15 2015 No.5934794 >>5931671 Kek. Ignore this, anon.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:58:48 2015 No.5934798 >>5933627 that would be AWESOME

Anonymous Thu Jan 1 01:59:33 2015 No.5934800

>>5934780
>haha this guy must be joking!
Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders
"The novel begins in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 6, 2007, where we meet Eric Jeffers some six days before his seventeenth birthday. Eric is living with his adoptive father, Mike. The story follows Eric as he goes to live with his mother, Barbara, in the fictive "Runcible County" on the Georgia coast. There, living in the town of "Diamond Harbor", Eric learns that a black, gay philanthropist has established a utopian community for black gay men in a neighborhood called the Dump. Eric takes a job with the local garbage man, Dynamite, and his nineteen-year-old helper, Morgan. The two boys become life partners, and the novel follows them—through job changes (from garbage men, to managing a pornographic theater, to handymen), changes of friends, and changes of address (from a cabin in the Dump, to an apartment over the movie theater, to another cabin out on Gilead, a nearby island)—into the twilight of their years"

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 02:04:27 2015 No.5934820 >>5934800 >Eric learns that a black, gay philanthropist has established a utopian community for black gay men in a neighborhood called the Dump is this real life

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 02:05:58 2015 No.5934832 >>5934800 >>5934820 I have noticed Delany has a real thing for black men.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 02:07:22 2015 No.5934836 >>5934832 He's an extremely gay black dude so it's not like it's surprising really

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 02:08:25 2015 No.5934840 >>5934836 He has a fantastic beard though.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 02:10:11 2015 No.5934850 I JUST READ THE PLOT SUMMARY FOR HOGG BY DELANY WHAT THE FUCK

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 02:20:14 2015 No.5934881 File: 402 KB, 1370x2048, WoR_EPHEMERA_IRONSTANC_fmt.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >tfw Sanderson accidentally a sequel

Anonymous Thu Jan 1 07:53:18 2015 No.5935499

People have brought up jack vance in this thread.
Id like to warn you against his "tales of the dying earth" novels.
fucking atrocious.
The setting is shallow, the stories are unrewarding, and cugel is simply an asshole who does whatever he wants without consequence.
Stay away.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 08:02:37 2015 No.5935515 >>5934850 It's alright

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 08:06:55 2015 No.5935519 >>5935499 But Lyonesse was so good, I really want to try them.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 08:45:46 2015 No.5935579 >>5930547 Currently reading Blindsight. This has legitimately crept under my skin and I'm definitely not into horror stuff. Quality writing right there!

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 16:07:12 2015 No.5936807 >>5933621 yeah, what you're looking at is Shadowrun. Only difference is that magic disappeared and came back in 2012. Dwarfs, Elves, Orcs and Trolls reappeared

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 17:53:02 2015 No.5937350 >>5935499 Would would you think is his best?

Anonymous Thu Jan 1 19:22:02 2015 No.5937760

>>5935499
Cugel is fucking great. More so in Cugel's Saga than the Eyes of the Overworld, but he really is the best character to appear in the Dying Earth books.

That being said, yeah the setting is pretty shallow. The first book, the Dying Earth, is actually pretty good because it's not nearly as picaresque as the subsequent volumes and the setting really works a whole lot better that way.

Anonymous Thu Jan 1 19:25:59 2015 No.5937781

>>5935499
Cugel is great and the books are great, you just have to understand that they're picaresque and he's a comic rogue, not a hero. If you're seriously objecting to them for not having a heroic morality I don't know what to tell you.

>>5937350
IMO the best Vance books are clear and away the Demon Princes books

Anonymous Thu Jan 1 21:02:57 2015 No.5938235

>>5937781
I can get into all the different character arcs, not just a sucker for the hero, but when a character's whole substance is based on being nothing short of a prick, I only get frustrated. Even classic rogues have some kind of merit right?
That vein said, I got the tales of the dying earth and the demon princes books at the same time, so I am optimistic and look forward to them.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 23:23:54 2015 No.5938736 Did you read Titus Groan yet OP?

Anonymous Thu Jan 1 23:27:29 2015 No.5938757

>>5938235
Well it's more about being entertained by his roguishness with Cugel, along with the absurdity of the world he moves through and Vance's skill and humor at describing it with a sense of irony.

I think you'll like Demon Princes more tho, it's much closer to the template of heroic fiction

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 23:33:38 2015 No.5938781 Dr. Adder by K.W. Jeter

>>	Anonymous Thu Jan 1 23:36:09 2015 No.5938790 >>5938736 Currently reading it. Peake's prose is fucking crazy good.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 2 05:31:59 2015 No.5939839 >>5938790 He's vastly superior to anything else recommended in this thread lol. Like half of the stuff in this thread is D&D-tier shit

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 2 07:09:46 2015 No.5940112 >>5936807 Shadowrun is more like fantasy problems dropped on a modern/sci-fi world than the other way around. It's also really bad most of the time.

Anonymous Fri Jan 2 07:16:21 2015 No.5940131

Chine Mieville's Perdido Street Station was pretty good. Haven't gotten around to reading any of his other titles though.

I enjoyed Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion (the other two entries are less good and can be safely ignored anyway) as well.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 2 07:43:22 2015 No.5940215 >>5934725 I'm barely halfway through the introduction page and I'm already not interested in anything this guy has to say about literature.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jan 2 07:46:47 2015 No.5940228 >>5936807 >Arcanum is steampunk >Shadowrun is cyberpunk with a fantasy twist Solved, close thread.

Anonymous Fri Jan 2 17:37:53 2015 No.5942415

Neil Gaimans Anansi Boys, American Gods
I am legend, is a great read, fuck the movie
Try out Neal Stephenson, like Anathem

Lots of great comics also, specialy SF
Current run of Prophet

Jeremiah, omnibus ongoing
Hombre
Enki Bilal
Jodorowsky

Basicly pull down the torrent for the Heavy metal mag from the 70s and follow the artists, great intro for SF and fantasy.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 3 16:49:20 2015 No.5944794 too pleb for me

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 3 17:02:02 2015 No.5944864 >>5944794 you sound like the pleb here, friend

Anonymous Sat Jan 3 19:53:10 2015 No.5945937

I've recently read the full Malazan series, and in the time since, nearly everything by Daniel Abraham (as Corey as well in the Expanse) incl Long Price and Dagger and Coin. Read Dune, Mistborn (pretty meh), and Name of the Wind since then.
Finishing the Lies of Locke Lamora (little bit pleb but still well enjoyable).

I'm getting Gormenghast out of the library, any further recommendations based on what I've given so far? I think my next 'serious' book will be Don Quixote because I haven't read it yet.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 3 20:16:01 2015 No.5946030 File: 497 KB, 1440x1152, mb_allomantic_webres.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>5945937 Mistborn is great. Check out Alloy of Law too, and the other stuff in the Cosmere.

Anonymous Sat Jan 3 20:18:38 2015 No.5946040

>>5946030

I really enjoyed the first book, it was well done. I think he lost it a little for the second two though. Wasn't really meant to be a trilogy, became too grandiose

is that more Sanderson stuff? I could. My friend keeps telling me to read Abercrombie but I'm unenthusiastic about it

>>	Anonymous Sat Jan 3 22:52:08 2015 No.5946653 >>5946040 Alloy of Law takes place around three-hundred years after the Mistborn trilogy, and is the first in a now-planned four book series. Mistborn itself is the first trilogy in a trilogy of trilogies. Not counting AoL.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jan 4 00:46:39 2015 No.5947034 Fritz Leiber is the master of all genre fiction.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jan 4 00:54:41 2015 No.5947058 I love you OP. Seriously with all the "muh prose" fags around you'd think Gormenghast would be more popular.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jan 4 01:09:51 2015 No.5947102 >>5933621 >no one has mentioned Discworld yet This board really has changed for the worse

>>	Anonymous Sun Jan 4 01:58:53 2015 No.5947248 >>5931311 I can't comment on the rest, but you should definitely read the first book. Paul (MC) is based.

Anonymous Sun Jan 4 02:38:34 2015 No.5947351
File: 790 KB, 971x1500, 1418916799903.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

I need books.

Books about dragons.

Not books with dragons in them.

But books where the dragons are actually important to the book.

Don't think Hobbit. Think Temeraire, but good.

I'm sorry in advance for liking dragons.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jan 4 02:56:31 2015 No.5947389 >>5947351 Yeah, Temeraire was fun. What didn't you like about it?

Anonymous Sun Jan 4 05:04:25 2015 No.5947643

>>5947389
>read book to hear about the napoleonic war with dragons
>get a globe-trotting anti-colonial diatribe

Sure, I read all of it and I enjoyed all of it, but I couldn't help but wish we were back in Europe for literally the entire time. It just reeks of wasted potential. A story about dragons in Africa is fun enough, but it's not nearly as good as what we could have had. The strongest parts of the series are in Europe.

There's a fanfiction I read that demonstrates this pretty explicitly. It's not as well written as the main series, obviously, but it manages to be more *interesting* than 70-80% in my opinion. I found it far easier to forgive the amateur skill and occasional cringey moments in this than the long, sluggish periods of nothing fucking happening in the main series.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/129908/chapters/184803

Also, Laurence is a fucking retard. Seriously the worst character. I liked him at the start but his development took him in the worst possible direction until he's become more dislikeable than the actual antagonist simply because he wants to live his life on a high horse of philosophy without actually examining it in any way, shape or form.

>>	Anonymous Sun Jan 4 05:19:30 2015 No.5947679 File: 277 KB, 1600x651, 39492_1316175695_large.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] His Dark Materials is fantastic, shame about the awful movie though

Advanced search
Text to find
Subject [?]Search by post subject. Leave empty for any.
Username [?]Search for user name. Leave empty for any user name.
Tripcode [?]Search for tripcode. Leave empty for any.
Email [?]Search by email. Leave empty for any.
Filename [?]Search by image filename. Leave empty for any.
From Date [?]Enter what date to start searching from. Format is YYYY-MM-DD
To Date [?]Enter what date to start searching until. Format is YYYY-MM-DD
Image hash
Search in	All Posts OPs Only
Deleted posts	Show all posts Show only deleted posts Only show non-deleted posts
Internal posts	Show all posts Show only internal posts Show only archived posts
Order	New posts first Old posts first
Capcode	All Posts Only by Users Only by Mods Only by Admins Only by Developers
Results	Posts Threads
Action	[ Simple ]

/lit/ - Literature