/lit/ - Literature

>>10453255
>Just finished BotNS. Do I read the follow-up, or do I just reread BotNS?

If you feel like you generally "got it" then just read the follow up while the iron is still hot. Urth of the New Sun is the weakest novel in the entire Solar Cycle though so there's really not much reason to rush into it.

>What did you pick up for Christmas?
Hyperion, Diaspora (Egan), Seven Surrenders + Will to Battle, The Songs of Distant Earth. With the other books I'm reading that should at least last me to March.

>What were your favorite books last year? What should no one else ever read?

>Three Body Problem Trilogy
Great, although I thought the latter two entries weren't quite as interesting as the original TBP.

>Permutation City
Incredible, I don't understand why Egan isn't better known. I had no real idea what to expect except "transhumanism and emulated consciousness lel" but it quickly went beyond that. Apparently his work is pretty uneven but I've already gotten Diaspora by him.

>The Book of the Long Sun
Not sublime on the level of BotNS but a hard rec, in fact I think it may be a better introduction to Wolfe to a complete pleb than New Sun. I didn't quite like the shift in tone after the first half once it's confirmed they're on a spaceship that's reached its destination and they need to get off but I'll definitely be reading Short Sun.

>The Green Knight's Squire
I shill Wright a lot but this was a great YA Catholic paladin adventure intelligently informed by a great deal of familiarity with classic myths on the part of the author.

>Clark Ashton Smith vol 1
Probably my fault for starting with his earliest works, but overall it was pretty meh. I'll eventually get around to reading more of him though.

>The Illuminatus!
Felt like a drunken ripoff of Gravity's Rainbow

>The Invisibles
Yeah, /co/, but I wanted to get in on some of that esoteric conspiracy action and was intrigued by a few scans. I was unimpressed but I'm glad I read the afterword in which Morrison pouted about Sandman, which was superior in every single way, just to taste the tears.

>The Peripheral
An intriguing concept used to frame a generic thriller. I'm not a WHURRLDBUILDIN' fag but the setting was far and away better than Gibson's tin-eared plotting.

>The October Country
Not awful but certainly not Bradbury's best.

>>10453329
gib ayylmao romance

>>10453329
Hey cuck face. The last thread goes at the top, not the bottom of the previous pile. Also we are fucking with an e/lit/ist, you alternate "sffg" between different compositions of upper and lower case.

>>10453329
>What did you pick up for Christmas?
I got Oathbringer. I wanted it, I've never been a fan of Sanderson but his books were entertaining enough.
I tried to read it yesterday, and I just can't anymore.
The utterly stiff, stilted dialogue. The lack of descriptions. No facial expressions. There are no dynamic conversations, it's just characters saying complete sentences at each other. Every single thing is spelled out, there's nothing left for the reader to imagine or fill in.

Warform, mateform, workform. ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? You're supposed to write fantasy this is the best shit you can come up with? Seriously?

Fuck that noise.

>>10453329
>What did you pick up for Christmas?
Latro in the Mist, Ladies of Grace Adieu, Too Like the Lightning, H.G Wells Classic Collection I, Urth of the New Sun, The Mists of Avalon and a couple of non SFFG books.

>>10453479
Speaking of Urth. I'm going to reread BotNS sometime later next year, should I read Urth before or after for maximum enjoyment and enlightenment?

>What were your favorite books last year? What should no one else ever read?
BotNS, Three Body Problem series and Jonathan Strange (including Ladies of Grace Adieu).

>What should no one else ever read?
No one should ever read Resistance is Futile, some strange celebration of quirky math nerds with undertones of Fifty Shades fanfiction and water monsters. Reading All the Birds in the Sky will not hurt anyone but it was criminally average.

>read womyn sci-fi, anon, whats the worst that could happen

>the very first book is about trannies and toxic masculinity
Never fucking again

>>10453908
how is it in comparison to the first two books?
I liked those but sometimes I didn't have the patience to read everything and did shit like skip every 3rd paragraph for a few pages cause it was making me fall asleep

>>10453925
>the very first book is about trannies and toxic masculinity
It's an obviously feminist work but if that is what you got from it you should probably reread the book my dude.

>>10453921
>I'm going to reread BotNS sometime later next year, should I read Urth before or after for maximum enjoyment and enlightenment?

If you're going to reread BotNS anyway then read Urth afterwards.

Threadly reminder that this is still the best sci-fi and other sci-fi should try harder.

>using John C. Wright
why would you do that?

>>10453935
I didn't even make it past the first chapter. Life's too short to read bad books.

>>10453925
>people disagreeing with me triggers my autism
>>10453962
you really should only read the first two books
which are really one book split in two

>>10453925
Leigh Brackett is the only female writer worth reading apparently.

>>10453965
He's probably the best scifi writer around today that isn't 75+ years old.

>>10453965
Are you triggered?

>>10454058
>who is susanna clarke

>>10454062
Wright is fedora-tier American garbage for internet toughguys. That guy is an embarrassment, his main picture on Google is literally him tipping his Fedora

Read some Ted Chiang

>>10454058
lolwut? Shes good and certainly underrated but there are plenty of good sf&f writers that are female

>>10454062
he's not
he's a rightwing nut and whines about conspiracies being responsible for his poor sales and lack of awards

>>10454142
>>10454149
>t. tumblr

>>10454142
Maybe he wants to read something else during the years Fu Manchu spends perfecting his latest short story.

>>10454152
No wonder you think Wright is a good author if you think your post is an argument, why do you even post

>>10454161
As opposed to you crying about him being a conservative? lol Fuck off, you hypocritical faggot.

>>10454167
Where is anybody crying about conservatives?
I swear, you Americans with your TV-induced persecution complexes.

Look at his writing, here's an excerpt:

http://www.scifiwright.com/2012/06/cover-art-for-the-hermetic-millennia-and-excerpt/

Here's another one:

http://www.scifiwright.com/2016/10/an-excerpt-from-swan-knights-son/

Both are extremely boring, I don't even know why Wright posted these if they are the best he has to offer.

>The Senior of the Landing Party of the Hermetic expedition, the Nobilissimus Ximen del Azarchel, called Ximen the Black, sat alone in state atop the only throne ever to exist upon the gray and lifeless globe that formed the sole remnant and remainder of his reign.

This is Warhammer 40k fan fiction tier.

>>10454142
>Wright is fedora-tier American garbage for internet toughguys.
Maybe, but he's an amazing writer.

>Read some Ted Chiang
>Ted mothersoiling Chiang
You just voided your reading license, get the fuck out and don't come back.

Just picked up Assassins apprentice and the first four earthsea books. Time to see if those /sffg/ recommendations are worth anything.

Also got a copy of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, and holy shit, two thirds of the book is just annotations and shit. The actual text only makes up a small portion of it. What kind of nonsense is that?

>>10454173
>Both are extremely boring
No, your mom was boring when I anally violated her last night.

>>10454173
See: >>10454179

>>10454152
What is this supposed to mean?
>>10454167
he's not a conservative
he's a radical rightwinger
demanding things conform to his religious views
thats not conservative

>>10454206
t. radical left-winger
Please fuck off.

>>10454167
>>10454179
have you seen any of his purple prose that would make Poe cringe?

>>10454214
so does this mean that the Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS, Saudi Arabia, Orthodox Jewish Settlers are all merely... conservative?

One would like to think of a nice old book shop but let's be honest it will just be his own piss

>>10454224
Hate my life, posted in the wrong thread

>>10454181
>What kind of nonsense is that?
You're reading a 2000 years old text, it's not surprising that it might need heavy editing and many comments to make sense or even be complete.

>>10454206
>he's a radical rightwinger
>demanding things conform to his religious views
And that is bad exactly how?

>>10454215
>have you seen any of his purple prose that would make Poe cringe?
It's intentional stylization, you mongoloid brainlet.

>struggle through the Shadow part
>afterword by the author
>"in the making of this document I used a bunch of made-up words to describe futuristic things you mere mortals can't understand, hope it didn't bother you too much ;^)"
FUCK YOU CUNT

>>10454235
A decent translation and a handful of pages of annotations would do just that. I don't want to read a hundred pages of editor's notes. The amount of additional text in this version seems a bit superfluous to me.

he thinks this makes him smart I suppose

>>10454236
>It's intentional stylization, you mongoloid brainlet.
he writes like this in everyday life

>>10454236
>And that is bad exactly how?
anon I know you're trolling, but please stop to consider what happens when you don't share the religious views of someone like Wright who demands to impose his on society

>>10454255
Well, you don't have to read all the additional text. Maybe read the original text and then comments related to passages you found interesting or confusing?

>>10454263
Oh man, that guy is an embarrassment

>>10454268
>he writes like this in everyday life
Which is exactly why he's a great writer. (And by "everyday life" you mean "blogposts". Of course he doesn't write like that when doing day-to-day chores.)

>>10454278
>anon I know you're trolling
I'm not. Fuck you and your Oerton Window, soyboy.

> but please stop to consider what happens when you don't share the religious views of someone like Wright who demands to impose his on society
Soyboys like you are made to leave or get the rope.

Again, that is a bad thing exactly how?

>>10453935
It's ok. Shallan's arc is still the worst part but everything else is at least alright.

>>10454179
What don't you like about Chiang? I happen to like both him and Wright; they're completely different.

>>10454306
so it's the exact same thing as the first two, got it

>>10454215
Holy fuck why do leftshits hate prose now? You faggots should stick to GRRM then.

>>10454278
As opposed to you commie faggot leftshits who want to impose your horrid politics on society? Also you have no idea what you're talking about with Wright. He said himself he hates when writers preach in their books. Of course you'd know that if you had actually read any of his works instead of just had a hissy fit over him being Catholic.

>>10454308
>What don't you like about Chiang?
Chiang's a two-dimensional idiot, unlike Wright. (Wright is sorely lacking in everything related to history and theology, but I can give him a pass on that due to his literary talent.)

>>10454312
Pretty much. But if you want to be asbolutely sure, yes, you can skip pages whenever it's a Shallan chapter and you will miss nothing of real importance.

>>10454142
>>10454308

>>10454319
Wright is a fucktier shit prose stylist. If you want good prose, read Burroughs or Wolfe.

>>10454279
That's probably what I'll do. just struck me ass odd at first glance. Unexpected at least.

>>10454325
*
or Vance

>>10454320
History I can see but I'd really like to know what SF writer who doesn't look like a walrus has it over Wright on theology.

>>10454325
>>10454330
Wolfe and Wright are both very good prose stylists. Vance is not a prose stylist at all, just a very competent writer. (There's a difference.) Burroughs is shit-tier bilge.

>>10454336
Wright is cringeworthy as far as theology goes. (Makes basic mistakes and mixes the unmixable together.) Doesn't matter much, however, since he's going after an immediate emotional effect and not authenticity.

Mummy bought me this

This is shit, isn't it?

>>10454350
>Vance is not a prose stylist at all, just a very competent writer. (There's a difference.)

Explain. I think Vance's prose style blows Wright out of the water and he averages better than Wolfe.

>>10454358
The vidya was cool when I was 13 years old.

>>10453329
>What were your favorite books last year?
Best of 2017
1. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
2. Ubik
3. The Time Wanderers. Beetle in the Anthill. Doomed City.
3.5 Foundation series
4. Terra Ignota series
5. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
6. The Martian Chronicles
Others that were great: Slaughterhouse V, A Man in a High Castle, Martian Time-slip (well basically all of PKD's stuff is great), Hard to be a God, Lord of Light, Cat's Cradle to name a few
Best of 2016
Nightfall, Roadside Picnic, Solaris, Traitor Baru Comorant, Tigana, Coldfire Trilogy, Hyperion Cantos, Blindopraxia

Books that were somewhat overrated: The Lathe of Heaven, The Master and the Margarita, Kafka on the Shore
Best debut book this year: An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors -- too bad the author went full actual retard at the end.

Most memorable quote of the year award: "Memento, Domine Gomnium famulorum tuorum," the abbot whispered in response, adding: "And may he finally win the Poet's eyeball at mumbly-peg.

>>10453479
I think I got it. It seems like a book that's mostly about the cyclical nature of storytelling and myth. I'm not sure about everything - like I got that there are cloning technologies somewhere in the commonwealth and some degree of time travel, but I'm not sure which Sev, the child, or Thecla (or Jonas, or Vodalus, or He Who Laughs...) owes their origins to. But I feel like I got it in the sense that I can get a Lynch film without knowing exactly what the dirty man behind the diner is. It felt pretty complete, which is why I'm hesitant to bother with a sequel.

>>10454373
Urth of the New Sun was written specifically to demystify certain aspects of BotNS, of which the time travel is probably the major one. Like I said, it's the weakest entry in the Solar Cycle. If you are pretty satisfied with BotNS, I'd actually recommend you skip it and work your way through Long Sun/Short Sun. I'd warn you that they're quite different tonally from New Sun though, with Long Sun being markedly inferior to BotNS in general but required reading for Short Sun.

>>10454240
They're not made-up. He literally never made up any word. Someone checked. The words he used are rooted in real languages and are in general supposed to be evocative rather than literal. It really doesn't matter if you don't fully understand them, anyways. It contributes to the dreamlike feel of the whole thing.

>>10454278
>consider what happens when you don't share the religious views of someone like Wright
Not very much.

>>10454336
Tolkien and Miller of course. Lewis too, if you don't consider protestantism a severe mental retardation.

>>10454372
I'm surprised you put Martian Chronicles below I Have No Mouth.

If you want some recs: Permutation City. Tonally it's nothing like Dick, but it uses a certain SF concept to bait you into accepting the premises of a strange and rather disturbing philosophical argument that you shouldn't spoil by looking up.

For Terra Ignota: The Golden Age and The Quantum Thief. I think the former is better but either will probably give you something similar to Palmer at a higher tech level.

>>10454389
I'm a pretty slow reader so I never really intended to read Short/Long Sun, at least not right away. Maybe later when I've read BotNS a few times. Might read Urth soon though - depends on whether I can find anything else to catch my interest. I started maybe five books this year and only finished BotNS and Lord of Light. (Though I did listen to the audiobooks of the first couple ASOIAF novels since I was driving a lot.) So much other shit is trash and just makes me want to write something better, those were really the only ones I tried that made me fell like I was encountering something new and made me want to read.

>>10454422
I suspect few actually take the next step along the cycle of Briah, and BotNS is a perfectly complete story in itself so you're really not missing anything. That being said, take your time. I didn't pick up Long Sun for well over a year after finishing BotNS. The other Solar Cycle books are certainly not trash so if you're looking for something reliably good you might want to consider it.

>>10454395
>he used a word that was used once in some latin document by some nameless monk 500 years ago so its totally real
Yeah suck my dick

>>10454428
The Short Sun is arguably better than the New Sun, but the problem is having to read the Long Sun, which is not even in his top 10 works.

>>10454429
I know a bit of latin from mass and having taken it in high school for 2 years, it's always on point in how evocative the choices are. Being a philistine is no excuse.

>>10454429
"alzabo" was the only word that set off my bullshit detector. Maybe "cacogen" as well but its etymology is immediately obvious. Most of the names of animals are scientific names of extinct species, and this was explicitly stated in one of the appendices. The rest are archaic but as someone amateurishly familiar with pre-modern military history they were almost always easily recognizable.

Also as >>10454448 pointed out Wolfe's word choices are not only not made up but display significant erudition in their precision of meaning. Git gud.

>>10454173
>council of evil Spanish moon Nazis deciding what stupid direction they each want to bend mankind in
>boring
That scene was top /sffg/ kino.

why is sanderson a hack?
cause instead of making nice words like wheel of time(ta'varen etc) he just makes inserthereform
hes a fag

>>10454469
Because he's CWC in reverse drag,

>>10454450
I think that's probably got something to do with the fact that the existence of the alzabo as a real thing in that world is questionable at best, based on my reading of BotNS (only BotNS, to be fair.) It's something that Sev conveniently uses to explain all the things that make him the weird amalgamation he becomes - including him coming into parentage of the boy who may or may not have been him. That might also have been a result of the cloning stuff that gets hinted at, but Sev does not seem like he wants to divulge any information about that, for some reason.

>>10454469
>implying Stormlight would have been better if Sanderson had called Warform Samma N'Sei

>>10454469
worrying absence of apostrophe abuse in the stormlight series

Hey guys can you recommend me some books with the following

>a party of different characters going on a journey D&D style. An adventure though many different settings and scenarios.
>any romance present in the book isnt degenerate/no lefty SJW bullshit forced in
>larger wars playing out as the story unfolds
>powerful gods/entities influencing the Human world
>religious themes, preferably pagan mythologies instead of generic Christian stuff

pic related, something that would evoke a similar feeling.

Is the anti hero or villain protagonist being overdone lately? I've been writing drafts here and there, but the whole grimdark fantasy genre is starting to feel worn out to me.

>>10454557
>grimdark
you can have an antihero in a non-grimdark setting, go back to the drawing board

What's some good sci-fi with simple prose? I've been listening to audiobooks of stuff like Star Wars novels when I go running because anything too complex makes me zone out.

>>10454543
Since we were talking about it, BotNS fits most of these points really well, though the "adventuring party" isn't a stable one throughout the series and the story definitely follows Sev.

>>10454591
Do you have anything that is mostly about adventuring parties with little degeneracy? I dont want to read BotNS just yet

>>10454543
>generic Christian stuff
i'm disappointed in you anon

>>10454598
I'm not really the person to go to about a lack of degeneracy. It kinda sounds like you wouldn't mind a YA book so maybe try Drizzt or something? I haven't read them but it's the closest thing I can think of that I've heard about.

>>10454543
I have not read it myself and never intend to but it sounds like you should read Malazan.

>>10454557
Grimdark and edgy for the sake of it felt worn out the minute it was invented.

Anyone read Anathem, Red Sister, Red Rising, Too Like Lightning, or Three Body Problem? Can anyone tell me about these books if so

>>10454633
Too Like the Lightning and Three Body Problem are both great, I have not read any of the others.

>>10454543
black company?

Complementary thread
>>>1952503

>War of the Worlds, page one
>The planet Mars, I scarcely need to remind the reader, revolves about the sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles...
I feel like Wells had a somewhat exaggerated opinion on the average readers knowledge in astronomy related facts.

>>10454633
Anathem bored me an hour into reading it and I put it down. Later I read the first two thirds of Seveneves and by the time I put it down I was glad I had not bothered with more of Anathem.

>>10454664
Most books of the time had shit like that inserted. It was both a stylistic choice and condescension meant to spur you into learning shit.

>>10454664
That's the pre-Google humanity for you. Believe it or not, they actually remembered stuff like that.

>>10454598
When you unironically use degeneracy as a term you're better off not reading anything you dimwitted dolt.

>>10454149
Which has zero to do with the quality of his books.

>>10454667
Huh. The one example of math fiction and... Well I take it you don't like math.

>>10454696
>Stop calling me a degenerate!! Dont judge me!!

>>10454707
>math fiction
Elaborate, please.

>>10454543
All of that seems to perfectly describe Lodoss minus the religion stuff. It was literally born from one of the author's D&D sessions, has romance with no drama between the protagonist and one of his elf companions, has a big war, and has entities manipulating events. While it is a novel, it's also has an anime adaption. I don't know if that's your kind of thing but if you do end up wanting to watch it, disregard the 24 episode TV series and watch the 13 episode OVA series.

>>10454633
I thoroughly enjoyed Anathem, best enjoyed if you enjoy math/logic I think, even if he's more playing around the ideas than being rigorous - but even so he doesn't transgress on the subjects he's playing with.

Also has some fresh ideas and has the Stephenson flair for execution... Actually it's my highest rated of Stephensons books. But I perhaps have a math heavy background.

If you've read and enjoyed Godel Escher Bach this book should suit.

>>10454524
The cloning isn't even hinted and there's no support for the theory unless we go full Borski.

>>10454429
t. brainlet bean paste consumer

>>10454664
The first pages are a goldmine of quotations desu,
>martians did nothing wrong look at how humanity treated the dodo

>>10454720
Basic comprehension eludes you.

>>10454575
Alan Dean Foster has written over one hundred books and is quite simple to read/listen to.

>>10454790
I love that so fucking much.

>>10454575
The Expanse is fantastically simple and good.

>>10454575
Isaac Asimov is probably as simple as you could get prosewise. At least from what I've read of him.

>>10454721
Well, the themes of logic, inductive reasoning where people spend centuries on a problem, a certain clockwork consideration in the structuring of the protagonists' section of the broader society, samplers of formal dialogue styles from the internal world of Anathem... The "mathic" elements of the book give maybe 60% of the narrative drive, though it's obviously not a formal extolling of real math. The other 40% is more truly SF, but it's a genre outlier on the math/logic end of things I think.

>>10454707
I'm a computer scientist and I do plenty of calculus stuff when I work with neural networks or audio analysis. In terms of math and dedication to hard problems I am probably already on a level that Anathem doesn't match, at least not well enough for me to sit through his three-page descriptions of fucking floors.

>>10454543
Sounds like you're looking for a chinese web novel, they have all these things and more.
Romance can't less SJW like since it starts with either kidnapping/rape/both.
The Desolate Era might work.

Is the Black Company worth picking up? I've heard some mixed things about it.

Anyone read the Tales from the Flat Earth series? Is it any good?

>>10454875
Ya, it's math fiction not math.

Can't say as I remember any 3 page description of a floor tho. Was that the tiling problem?

>>10454897
It was an exaggeration. The point is that it was, like Seveneves, too caught up in worldbuilding minutae to tell an interesting story about good characters.

>>10454875
>I'm a computer scientist and I do plenty of calculus stuff when I work with neural networks or audio analysis.
Yeah, and Anathem is about actual pure math, not that kind of engineering-tier applied crap.

>>10454932
>worldbuilding minutiae

You know we're on /lit/, right? Minutiae isn't such a bad thing.
Personally I thoroughly enjoy Stephenson novels, they have a richness, texture, you don't get from many SF authors. Different strokes I guess.

Oddly though I'd say his action is pretty fast paced. Maybe I'm more remembering when things start happening over the setup there.

Which book should I read next? I need something captivating. Something that drags me into the world and doesn't let me go. Something immersive, where I can forget about the real world for a while.
Current choices:

Alastair Reynolds - Pushing Ice
Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
Ian McDonald - New Moon
Ada Palmer - Too Like the Lightning
Zelazny - Lord of Light
Gene Wolfe - Shadow & Claw
R. Scott Bakker - The Darkness that Comes Before
China Mieville - Embassytown
Walter M. Miller - Cancticle for Leibowitz

Most importantly it can't have any 'dry spells' or really slow passages, otherwise my mind starts to wander and I'm going to fucking waste time with useless shit again.

All of these books are on my to read list, but I need something that really grips me right now. I've somehow forgotten how to sit still and just fucking read.

>>10453329
>Count to infinity
I got half way through count to a trillion and stopped. Does this shit ever get good like the golden age? This far it was basically just him doing space Frank and going all super saiyan

>>10455122
>crank
Eat a dick autocorrect

>>10453329
Webnovels are novels too

>>10455080
Familiar with Tolkien, Reynolds, Zelazny.

1000% not Tolkien given your strictures. Great work though it is, slow passages? Yeah. It has them.
Zelazny there is one of the more intriguing books around, if you can get into it with its pacing it should sweep you along.
But Reynolds is the one that's most reliably going to be a page turner without knowing much about your preferred style.

Hm. Give Lord of Light a go I'd say.

>>10454889
Its pretty good, give it a try if you like old school darker fantasy.

Of what I've read this year the most disapointing has to be Rogue Moon. But that might just be because the blurb writer on the back was some trickster god who made it all seem much more interesting. Since it was actally just two insecure men verbally mesuring their dicks to eachother for the entirety of the book.

>>10455168
Pushing Ice has a very slow start and that anon is probably 16 with his attention span.

>>10455080
Thanks a lot, I'll start with Lord of Light and if that doesn't work I'll continue with Reynolds. I've heard lots of good things about the latter, be it Pushing Ice, House of Suns, Revelation Space or Chasm City.

>>10455232
meant to quote >>10455168

>>10454890
I remember liking Night's Master but haven't read further into the series than that. Somewhat reminiscent of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth books but more rooted in mythology and Grimm's fairy tales.

>>10454938
What about studying cost reduction formulas is "applied crap?" Stephenson isn't exactly a professor himself. Mile wide, inch deep. His cryptography stuff in Seveneves was pure cringe.

>>10453329
> What were your favorite books last year?
1. Permutation City
2. Luna: New Moon
3. The Traitor Baru Cormorant
4. The Blade Itself
5. Snow Crash

>>10455364
Um, everything?
Fact you don't know enough to get the drift when the pure/applied division is mentioned makes me doubt the value of your opinion on anything math, sorry.

Cost reduction formulae are _nothing but_ applied. You're not exploring anything fundamental, as you would be in number theory, set theory, topology - anything like that. Which is what's known as "pure" math.

>>10455532
>the parts of math that are pure are the ones I say are pure
Nah.
>Broadly speaking, pure mathematics is mathematics that studies entirely abstract concepts.
The study of cost reduction is trying to create a more generalized technique of finding the lowest point in some given solution space. What about the abstract concept of a solution space isn't fundamental?

Also, Stephenson has a B.A. in geography and a minor in physics, so it's not like he's bringing some new higher education that I haven't seen to the table with his books, at least in terms of "pure" math.

And besides, none of this changes the fact that he is a terrible author. The high school level physics in Seveneves were accurate enough, I guess, but I didn't give a fuck because his characters were awful and his prose brought absolutely nothing interesting to the table. Maybe if he had started with just the last third of that book and revealed the first part over time, and didn't spend so much time writing about fucking Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Elon Musk, and Hillary Clinton stand-ins, it wouldn't have been so apparent, but after that shit there's no way I'm going back to Anathem.

>>10455080
>>10455232
Lord of Light is a good choice, Shadow of the Torturer (of Shadow & Claw) is also good. Lord of Light is a little "slow" in terms of plot movement at times, but only rarely and you'll find meaning in the detours if you aren't a brainlet. It's short anyways, so it's worth a try. Someone's already convinced you to open it, so I won't bother.

Shadow of the Torturer is pretty fucking wild, though. The plot doesn't exactly go as the bird flies, but it moves nonetheless. The only "slow" part of that series I can remember is the first tenth or so of Sword of the Lictor (book 3,) where he spends too long describing a city and wandering around it (which does have a sort of symbolic use in terms of a relationship between two characters, but eh.) Other than that, it feels basically like a long dream where everything is so ethereal and yet meaningful that you forget to realize how much fucked up shit is happening. At one point, in this incredible book that is essentially about the art and history of storytelling, he is fighting what is basically the Incredible Hulk as Maestro, who is wielding a giant "magic" club. It's like a Marvel movie shot in the style of Mulholland Drive. Like I said in a post earlier, BotNS and Lord of Light were the only two things that kept my interest this year, so I gotta give it a rec.

>>10455602
>>the parts of math that are pure are the ones I say are pure
>Nah.

You're digging yourself in deeper dumbass, you have no idea what you're talking about and it shows.

>The study of cost reduction is trying to create a more generalized technique of finding the lowest point in some given solution space. What about the abstract concept of a solution space isn't fundamental?

Oh so that "bunch of calculus" was PDEs and you're refining techniques to make broader classes of PDEs solvable? Not that I believe it but it wouldn't matter anyway - PDEs are applied math.

The rest of your comment matters for little if you insist on being an idiot here.

>>10455654
>you're refining techniques to make broader classes of PDEs solvable
No. I'm not going to link to any of what I've written here, but not at all. As far as stuff that pertains to the thread goes, Neal Stephenson is a terrible hack author and I will anti-rec the couple books of his I've tried as they come.

>>10455602
Optimization theory is certainly pure math. If optimization constrained (see what I did there?) to neural networks isn't applied math I don't know what.
>>10455654
>Not that I believe it but it wouldn't matter anyway - PDEs are applied math.
Wow, take it easy there pal. If you think the entire field of PDE is applied math you probably haven't studied it enough. It's a rich and deep field, most of it far away from any practical applications.

>>10455661
Great, a proven idiot doesn't like an author.

That's either a recommendation or merely ambiguous. Skin, nose, not mine.

>>10455675
Yah true enough, wasn't much of a fan of pdes. Except I think I did have enough of it. Knotty field.

>>10455675
I said neural networks in an earlier post before the whole "pure math" thing was brought up. I'm actually more interested in the general stuff that's being researched as a result of interest in the field. (I don't think NNs will lead to AGI, but I think that automating optimization problems is what will, and creating a learning algorithm that can construct and study its own solution spaces - the structure of them being entirely abstract from my point of view - is something I think about a lot. In my eyes, that's pure, maybe in a more modern sense since computers are involved, but still pure.)

And if the other guy is praising Anathem or Stephenson in general for his knowledge, I'm going to agree that he hasn't studied enough.

>>10455724
You don't need knowledge per se to construct an alternate logic, almost as a puzzle, and allow it to evolve.

If your only other exposure to Stephenson was Seveneves I can see why you're not impressed. It's one of his weakest novels.

As for your agreement, huh, nice selective reading there m8.

>>10455127
>Wright-haters are phoneposters
It makes sense.

>>10455229
It also has a slow middle and a slow end.

>>10454469
They are probably called something like that in dawnchant, dunno it's something basic and has a function at it's core, not religious or symbolic, so it makes sense for the forms to have function-centric names.

Just finished WoT
is dark tower a fun series?

I'm struggling to find a few specific book downloads, is there a suggested go-to website for finding obscure fantasy/scifi books?

I want to get into Warhammer fantasy. What's a good place to start? I was thinking about starting with Blood for the Blood God. Are any of the books even worth reading if you're not interested in the games?

>>10455122
It's not as well put together as Golden Age but I've read the first five books so far and the later entries are quite a bit more interesting than Count to a Trillion. The series as a whole sacrifices a good bit of coherence in favor of ridiculous scale though.

>>10454598
Based on your post I have literally the exact same preferences as you and I started reading BoTNS a while ago. After some 200 pages I can safely say I've never read a book that has tickled my autism in all the right places like this. You'll love it, just read it you nigger

Stop reading escapist "literature" and face life head on, you soyboy bugmen.

I finished Manifold: Space and started Echopraxia today.

>>10455923
From what I've gathered in these threads, the books by Dan Abnett are solid and most everything else sucks.

>>10454420
Thanks for the recs anon

>>10455898

>>10454543
Age of Myth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QYwGIdYm2w
Holy fuck.

>spent hour reading thread
>its pol throwing a hissy fit, and wright and wolfe fags trying to recruit people

>>10457163
You make it sound like Wright and Wolfe have a compound somewhere
I want to believe

>>10456927
fucken spoilers in the first few seconds. that's pretty lame.

also Ye was a woman....

>>10457353
What spoilers?

Okay seriously Oathbringer would've been 10x better if it were nothing but Dalinar falling for traps like an idiot and somehow scraping his way out of them, each time learning nothing and then falling into the next trap like clockwork. This chapter is fucking hilarious.

Hmmmm, wonder if I should finish the rest of Lovecraft so's I can say I read it this year.

>>10456107
>I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which “Escape” is now so often used: a tone for which the uses of the word outside literary criticism give no warrant at all. In what the misusers are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. In real life it is difficult to blame it, unless it fails; in criticism it would seem to be the worse the better it succeeds. Evidently we are faced by a misuse of words, and also by a confusion of thought. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter. Just so a Party-spokesman might have labelled departure from the misery of the Führer's or any other Reich and even criticism of it as treachery.

>>10453925
She shits on the feminine side more than anything

>>10453925

b-but not *all* of them are like that, have you read The Female Man by Joanna Russ?

WHY THE FUCK IS SANDERSON SO POPULAR
HIS WRITING IS FUCKING TRASH
HIS STORYTELLING IS TRASH
HIS CHARACTERS : TRASH
HIS DIALOGUE : TRASH
WHY
THE
FUCK
IS
THIS
FRAUD
SELLING
BOOKS

>>10454221

Let me know when Wright suicide-bombs the Nebula Awards and I'll get back to you

>>10458120
hes the micheal bay of fantasy writers.
its all grandure with no substance.

>>10458120
Have you ever considered that you have no taste and no concept of fun? That maybe you alone are not special?

>>10454543

the lord of the rings

>>10458120

this post is me 90% of the time I pick up a new book, just swap out "SANDERSON" with the author's name

>>10455923

Gotrek and Felix, all the ones by William King. Malus Darkblade by Gav Thorpe is OK, though it works better if you have no clue who Elric is before you start. C. L. Werner's Mathias Thulmann and Brenner books are pretty shit, but fun shit. Most of the rest is trash. There are a few good one-off novels that barely have anything to do with the setting, like The Wine of Dreams by Brian Craig. Generally the older books were far better than the newer ones, mid-2000s the already meh writing took a steep nosedive.

As this guy says, >>10456176
Abnett is also good but afaik he almost only wrote for 40k which is the sci fi setting, and not warhammer fantasy. I have a pirate-themed novel he wrote loosely set in the Warhammer fantasy world which he did not seem to put much effort into, and which I have never felt the need to read since.

>>10456107
>stop finding joy in life and be miserable like me

>>10458120
Amen.
Sanderson fags need to be bullied from this thread

>>10454543
Guardians of the Flame, 100%.

Why is it when ever there is something popular and new there are always a bunch of fags that shit all over it?

It is as if they are trying to fit in on this anonymous memes and frogposting board where no one knows who you are or even if you are one poster or the next.

>>10458325
t. spineless cookie cutter author

>>10458333
There he is, there he is. That one guy that got called out for his bullshit and got mad about it.

>>10458349
Check um faggot

>>10458354
Oh shit I hadn't even notice XDDD

>>10458349
That was my first post in the thread famalam. I'm tired of all you nu-authors writing stale old rehashed bullshit.

So I'm reading Altered Carbon, as someone here recommended it (specifically the third book because some reasons) to me. I'm liking it. Was surprised that as a character I would like a hotel AI. I mean, who installs a 20mm auto cannon as a security system into the lobby?

Also, this looks interesting and with a budget, so I thought I'd read the book before the eventually watching it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kBhnkHF1zY

What's the Berserk of scifi?

>>10458495
This thread is desu

Is Pynchon considered SF?

>>10458614
No but so DFW is

>>10454543
I just finished the first Malazan book (Gardens of the Moon) and it kind of fits the bill. Has many characters on various missions, large wars, and gods are definitely influencing most events. Not a whole lot of religion though, besides maybe a few High Priests who worship the gods in the Malazan world. There is a bit of romance, but it felt forced imo. Overall I really liked it and will probably try to finish the series.

>>10458325
>no new thing can be bad
>especially not if its popular
Most retarded thing I've read today. There've been very few people shitting on the Three Body Problem series, to give you a SFFG example. Popular things always get some shit, but if many people shit on it it's probably because it's BAD.

>>10458268
>Sanderson fags need to be bullied from this thread
>from this thread
But we were the ones who started this general originally. Make your own general and shill it to self sufficiency. Stop being the typical polly, stop trying to subvert things others made to your own use. Make your own for once.

>>10458493
Why are all these books becoming tv series?

>>10458512
Very funny, anon. I'm serious though.

>>10453329
Your pic qualifies you as someone with good tastes in SF.

>>10454149
The fact that Jemisin is now to be considered in par with fucking Asimov If we go by Nebula Prizes only is just a coincidence obviously.

>>10454263
TOP FUCKING KEK
That surpasses totalbiscuits post on SA

Does anyone know any link for A memory of light.pdf?
Can't find on b-ok.

>>10458761
Abercrombie - First Law trilogy. Shame westernshit has a dearth of actually good villains like a certain whitehaired faggotron.
Bayaz is a shadow of what a villain should actually be and parts of the entire trilogy seemed completely unnecessary and/or gratuitously shit but characters like Glokta and the ending made the series worthwhile in some ways. It still isn't a great series.

>>10458795
Jemisin is actually capable of writing a better book than Asimov. Capable is not the same thing as actually writing better than Asimov. In any case, I like them both, but Asimov's writing is so beige that it makes Jemisin's prose look purple and yet Asimov is capable of delivering his ideas with far greater results than Jemisin. One only needs to consider the ending of the Obelisk Gate to see that the ideas are definitely there but poorly executed in the subsequent book.

Asimov's writing is also far more concentrated than modern books which attempt to tell ideas that are suitable for one book over three books -- less bloat and more plot. And he also eschews the trappings of style that allow mediocre writers like JCW, Mieville and Scalzi to disguise their inadequacies.

Of the modern female sff writers, Ada Palmer is most definitely better than Jemisin, versed in philosophy and the dialogue, characterisation and prose flows as smooth as butter. For the modern male sff writers, probably Peter Watts or Egan would be my pick, but I do feel that Egan is taking ideas from the more classical authors. I still have not found THE definitive modern writer.

=

Anyway, inching closer to the conclusion of Cloud Atlas. It's pretty experimental, which sometimes works and often fucks up
1. The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
Goodish. Might have mentioned this but this seems to take direct inspo from Conrad's heart of darkness (he does use the horror, the horror line later on in the book )
2. Letters from Zedelghem
I've already forgotten what it was about. Pretentious and mediocre. Especially if you have something of a musical background and know that the author is just inserting phrases for wikipedia in an effort to sound knowledgeable
3. Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
Insofar -- goodish.
4. The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
Rick and Morty was much better than this. Absolutely shit tier unless you think that the main character having his buttocks smacked is absolutely hilarious. The author does not understand humour and should not attempt it. Reading this was a ghastly ordeal.
5. An Orison of Sonmi~451
Excellent bread and butter scifi with unusual narrative. Ending reminded me slightly of PKD's Minority Report short story ending fucking Somni deserved better.
6. Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After
Unreadable suicide tier garbage with good ideas. Sample paragraph pic related. "Harukami" my ass.
>>10458889
Memorise my chart >>10456374 mobilism = epub, MAM = pdf following it

>>10458120
t.tastelet

>>10458732
CG technology is finally good and cheap enough for more sci-fi-ish effects on a TV budget. And there's all the new streaming services looking for exclusive new shows.

What do you guys think of the Kingkiller Chronicle?
Also, im almost finishing Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, and I'm actually liking it.
What would you recommend next?

>>10459002
>sANDERSON
kill yourelf

>>10459002
>What do you guys think of the Kingkiller Chronicle?
>Also, im almost finishing Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, and I'm actually liking it.
Never mind what we think, I'm sure you will like it.

>>10453329

Are these lists in the OP memes or credible?

I don't read fantasy/sf

>>10459089
Stay a while an find out :D

>>10458897
>Letters from Zedelghem
(gay) sex with violins

>>10459089
They are decent but it's safest to ask before you buy anything.

>>10459002
Suicide

>>10459089
They're relatively credible and certainly not memes. Weakest one is the "selected SF favorites", it just has some odd choices but it's idiosyncratic, not bad. If you're new and interested you might want to ask some more specific questions.

Ganymede continues to surprise me with his faggotry

Does Moorcock refuse to allow publishers to publish a sane collection of his works or something?

>>10454263
>touching gg on any way shape or form

If there's a way to contract autism, gg is surely the one.

>>10459493
I just finished it.
If you also have, let me know, otherwise I'll wait for you to post the cover again and we can have a good old chit chat

>>10456927
It was atmospheric, but didn't really go anywhere.

Also while we're discussing Cixin, has anyone else read The Wandering Earth? It's a fucking masterful collection, and while some stories are a bit daft (in one the dinosaurs return to earth and eat everybody lol), some of the others are bloody gorgeous.

I personally loved Mountain, Sun of China and The Longest Fall. If you read Three body and can stomach Cixin's weird hard-scifi/Chinese-y/weirdness then I really think you should try this collection.

Reading Martian Time-Slip at the moment after the resident Dick-heads recommended it. Pretty good so far. FURTHER BULLETINS AS EVENTS WARRANT.

Hey, /sffg/.
I made a thread a while ago, but it didn't get many hits, but I'm jonesing for some campy... stuff. Like The Sentinel tv show, or Stargate. Something that has a stupid premise, but is fun to read.

I don't know how to explain late 80s, early 90s action nostalgia as a book, but... that's what I'm looking for. I'm kinda desperate. I'm not looking for anything impressive, just fun.

help?

I've already read the first three stargate books, will probably read the rest, at some point.

Also, does anyone know where I can rip the hellblazer books?

i just read scifi for the first time: James Hogan's 'Inherit The Stars' and i started here because it had a supposedly good review by Isaac Asimov on the cover (and i really like his 'The Last Question') and this cost only 1 dollar at the thrift store.

i'm not sure if Hogan qualifies as hard or soft sci-fi but i did like this sort of "peacetime" book where the narrative is driven by discovery instead of conflict. however, i absolutely hated how much of the book's events are just scientist blow-hards delivering the lore through monologues.

i would welcome any suggestions along this vector but although i feel like i have a clear picture of the sort of book that i want to read, i'm not well-versed in sci-fi and so i can't really tease out how to communicate that here

I picked up:
Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company
Star Wars: The Sith Lords
Mass Effect: Initiation
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx

My favorite book of last year was StarCraft: Evolution. It was good, if you liked SC2 it's worth a read.

>>10459740
maybe i should add that i almost bought this one instead that day. i feel like i have an attraction towards books about learning stuff about ancient civilizations told either through a small band of people working their way through some silent ruins or in a decentralized way about no main characters in particular across thousands of years much like the Asimov story mentioned in my prior post

Are there any new fantasy series coming out soon?

>>10459716
Daniel Black books.
>transfer to alternate world
>use modern knowledge to fuck shit up
>includes skippable sex scenes of harem
>has a catgirl
>more to come

>>10458325
>thing is popular
>gets talked about more
>gets criticised more, and has flaws exposed
Trust a Sandersonfag not to understand something as simple as this

>>10459851
Why can't you just admit that you are a shitposting faggot who can't stand anything new and popular?

I don't even own any Sanderson books and have never read any, I just know you are a shitposting faggot.

>>10459866
It's almost as if contrarians find 4chan attractive.

>>10459716
The Stainless Steel Rat.
With crime all but eradicated in the galaxy, a gentlemen thief is forcibly recruited to help catch diabolical master criminals.

>>10459952
on the co ntrary...

>>10458120
I'm pretty pleb and only in the last few months started listening to fantasy audiobooks but so they have a soap-opera core to them, meaning that if you like characters and what they are up to you will stick to it. Sanderson's characters are pretty interesting, even shalan, and he also combines major world events with character growth which makes big moments really satisfactory. I don't know how popular he is but there is nothing heavy about it so it's inviting and there is a cosmere meme which i guess can lure people in. Personally I don't like that he skimms over some character-to-character moments, like come on here a loving embrace or some reaction would have been cool but nope, gotta move on to the next whateverthefuck.

>>10459975
I DO like my gentleman thieves...

>>10459740
>Inherit the Stars
The manga was better.
Anyway a lot of people like Clarke, he does a ton of stuff in that vein, I find him painfully dry. Stephen Baxter does discovery SF too, they actually collaborated a few times but I didn't like the result.

For a crazy rec that you won't get anywhere else try pic related. If you thought Inherit the Stars took itself too seriously you'll love Wheelers.

>>10459716

I thought David Gemmell's Legend read like a campy 1980s anime OVA back when I read it a couple years ago, very JJBA in style.

>>10459768
>books about learning stuff about ancient civilizations told either through a small band of people working their way through some silent ruins or in a decentralized way about no main characters in particular across thousands of years

Have you read lovecraft? At the Mountains of Madness and a couple others fit this to a T

>>10458622
There'll be plenty of religious themes later on. I'm on MoI and the entire main threat in the book is a fanatical religious empire

do you think enough time has passed since twilight that I can do the whole "vegetarian vampire" thing without it being a preteen girl cringe-fest?

>>10460893
im pretty sure theres several vampires in fiction that are described of dont actually needing to drink blood. also you know. theres caunt duckula if you want vegetarian vampires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ZVWMPuZ2c

>>10460916
I was thinking more like the character archetype, as in a friendly vampire who doesn't drink human blood but still needs to drink blood of some kind

The idea I wanted to work with was supposed to get rid of a lot of the unbearable sexy vampire stuff by making him look like a 40-year-old math teacher with chronic health problems from trying to replace blood with quack medical treatments.

Actually, come to think of it, expanding on those quack medical treatments might be a good character quirk to work with. Dude tries to make health tonics but they keep coming out as soft drinks

I picked up the all the books in the Traitor Son Cycle. I've known about the series for about a year and had read part of the first book but held off on getting them all until the last book was released and finally I've gone through it and I have to say it's probably one of my new favorite fantasy settings. The level of detail and authenticity of the armor and the way chivalric knights fight is incredible (the writer is a larper). The magic system is a pretty interesting and the mystery that underlines the series was quite intriguing. He left a lot of questions and possibilities and I hope he writes more within the setting. This is probably my favorite new series I read this year.

>>10459167
Naisu

>>10460941
the series really goes off the rails, I read the first and second book but couldn't finish the 3rd, never touched the rest

>>10460916
IN THE HEART OF TRANSLIVANIAHHHHHHHH
IN THE VAMPIRE HALL OF FAME YEAHHHHHH

>>10460949
It does kinda, but it gets very interesting past book 3. Books 4/5 are quite interesting. It feels like we went off the rails but certain things come out as we go along and it starts to make sense. I'd definitely recommend finishing the series. What point did you stop in the third book? Some points kinda bored me through that one but, it got better.

Just finished Andrew Weir's Artemis it was awful

>>10461067
In the same "lol, look how quirky and random my humor is ecks dee" manner as The Martian, or in some new vein of awfulness?

Why are people who prefer to read the same three plots over and over again so conceited?

>>10460937
You don't read urban fantasy nor female authors, so you don't know what is being written. What you described has been done multiple times before.

>>10461196
I read both and I've never seen those. Vampires are consistently sexed up, unless they're rotting corpses

>>10454263
Based as fuck. Wright working the commieshit faggots into a shoot.

>>10461067
rip andy weir, killed by his own success

I wish I knew how to plagiarize characters properly. My new one is basically just a ripoff of Remus Lupin only he's a struggling inventor trying to make a living by combining cutlery.

he's really proud of his knork, got a real good feeling about that one. The spife admittedly wasn't his best work

>>10461196
fuck yeah stormlight archive. Hope the series gets more love from /lit/

>>10461414
Odd that we don't see more Sanderson love here, he's super-prolific.

>tfw nothing I want to read after Echopraxia
HELP
I actually wouldn't mind finding a nice fantasy story/series to read as an interlude between all this sci-fi but I feel like I've read most the good stuff and am not interested in a lot of the rest

>>10461480
read classic fantasy
Worm Oroborous
King of Elfland's Daughter
The Day Boy and the Night Girl
The Night Land

>>10459493
Nobody named "Ganymede" should be surprise you by being a colossal faggot.

>>10461426
Funny gal, ah?

>>10461157
Terrible dialogue, boring plot that is entirely pointless and goes nowhere, and mentions how slutty protagonist is every single page in an attempt to keep readers interested

>>10459657
okay
>>10461624
I saw it coming from the first two books but I was distracted with the gender garbage

>>10459716
Jack Vance all the way. One of his series is straight up called "Planet of Adventure"

Is this any good?

>>10454306
just finished the book. it was a really comfy read over the christmas week.
but shallan turned into a really unlikable character.
scenes with her as a clumsy girl switch to her being a ultra tough girl.
combined with her arrogance ("As a artist/scientist"), the increasingly annoying gender role of the world, her decisions (which doesnt make any sense and could kill hundreds of people, but she goes away with it because the authors wills it) and her teenage angst had me on the edge of skipping her chapters.
she is saved mostly through the interesting stuff that she is involved in. but whenever i read "shallan couldnt do it. but veil could" i skipped the sections.
it is the third fucking book and i dont care about her fucking edgy dark past and her blushing in front of her beloved, the coming of age stuff should have been dealt with in the first book and her character should have been developed. But now we have three fucking imaginary characters and she turned herself into a fanfic character.

It's going to be a dumb question, but how "Chinese" is "The three body problem" exactly?

>>10462744
you're right, that is a dumb question.

>>10461480
Beyond the Rift

>>10462744
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. You'll notice it if you're looking for it but it certainly does not hurt the book. If you have a basic grasp of China's 20th century history it actually makes the books even better (in my opinion).

>>10462744
Quite a bit, but you shouldn't let that put you off of it. It's good, you'll notice it doesn't get trashed much on here.

>>10459836
Pls respond.

>>10459847
>>10459975
>>10460623
>>10462607
hey, thanks guys! I'll check all of these out!

>>10462649
No it's not. But you will read it anyways to "snow me", so whatever.

>>10462838
Wild wastes
Daniel Black
Super sales on Super heroes

>>10462945
i sure as shit hope when daniel black 4 comes out the audiobook releases nearly at the same time. the narrator is fantastic.

Why does it look like there are a bunch of Chinese people shilling 3 body problem and other Chinese novels.

>>10462649
It is.

>>10462786
>>10462794
Thanks.
I just wanted to know if I get it to file it under sci-if or Chinese literature.

>>10463037
Why not both?

>>10463058
I have to put is somewhere on the shelf

>>10463072
I'd go with sci-fi.

>>10460893
terry pratchett did it. There are a few in disco world. Feet of clay, Thud, Monstrous Regiment and few more.

>>10462761
That novella collection by Reynolds? Read it already. Good stuff that I had not seen before in there.

>>10463209
Well now I need to check that out. I meant the short story collection by Watts.

>>10463294
Oh I know what you're talking about now. I'll look into it. I think I looked at it ages ago and wasn't interested but I can always try again.
Also, Reynolds' book is "Beyond the Aquila Rift", my bad.

>>10463025
I think they're great, and I'm not Chinese (am Canadian).

>>10463315
>I'm not Chinese
>(am Canadian)
?

>>10463330
What's the problem?

>>10463336
Canadians are Chinese.

>>10463340
Hahaha.

>>10463340
yeah they are chingling aremicans

>>10462649
I enjoyed it

I just finished the second novella of wolfe's the fifth head of Cerberus. That was harder work than the first - lots of omitted details, and demands the reader to fill in the gaps, and much is inconclusive. The first novella was superb however - like crossing h.g. wells' Dr Moreau and a Philip k. Dick novel via Russian realists.

Is this general only infested with scifi-fags?
I keep asking for magical engineering fantasy, and no one can give me books. Do people even read in this general?

>>10462738
>shallan couldnt do it. but veil could

Jesus Christ, how does anyone even read sandermeme

>>10463854

There are some spergs who care about "magical systems" (reading fantasy for 25 years and no clue what that means, nor desire to find out), assuming that might be along the lines of "magical engineering". Thread is extremely slow due to Christmas, I presume.

>>10462738
Okay but radiant a cutie.

>>10463854
>magical engineering fantasy
explain. Like, fantasy that explains in excruciating detail magical devices within the story?

>>10463854
I read ~100 SFF books a year, roughly even SF and F, and don't think I've ever come across a book like that described in your requests. I guess you'll need to find them yourself. Make a chart when you've read a few.

i want to get started in sandersonn
where should i begin

>>10463899
>>10463963
Daniel Black Series.
He is transported into an alternate past. He used knowledge from the present and magic to make devices.
He made a fridge by having a box extract heat from within with a fire spell.
He made a hummv with a mounted turret
He made a machine gun
He made a blip
He made a evelator
Etc

>>10463964
open book
read copyright page
node dades
meditate
when u mind clear then start the read

>>10463990
wait
are sanderson books THIS deep?
wow
amazing
i wonder if a have the cognitive capacity to understand the intricacies of his books

>>10463984
Yeah, that's less than 5 years old. Is this "magical engineering" thing a recent trend or something?

>>10464001
anyone can be read sanderson
inhale
exhale
forget ur worries
u ready

>>10464025
which book should i begin

>>10463854
Go look on Goodreads like everyone else does faggot.

>>10464044
some say warbreaker
it free even sanderson website
or u can straight to mistborn
and remember to enjoy urself

>>10463864
It makes sense in-character, it's just annoying to read through.

>>10456927
What the fuck is this even? Is it from the movie?

>>10462744
Im not a native English speaker, it didnt bother me. Some names, historical events, but other than that its fine.

As an aztec god who resembles a vampire bat, does Camazotz count as lovecraftian?

>>10464418
Looks like a shady pedophile selling canes.

>>10464431
I want that tho

>>10464431
I didn't even notice the erection

>>10464431
candycanes?

>>10464014
Compleat Enchanter does something similar and it's halfway to dinosaur. Anon needs to broaden his scope..

>>10464668
Yeah lets go with that, more authentic.

>>10454181
>Just picked up Assassins apprentice
Never had a series that started out as promising then went to shit with a incredibly lame ending. Plus it gave me a lifelong hate of the word "coterie".

New Thread
>>10464886
>>10464886
>>10464886