/lit/ - Literature

Old Thread
>>11017960

>>11029101

Is Garrett P.I. a good read?

This is the most boring shit i have ever read please tell me it gets better. I enjoyed this series for the most part, even though it seems pretty overrated, but toll the hounds put me to sleep and this one is even worse.

>>11029223
I haven't read it but my friend says it is really good

>>11029223
It plays the whole noir homage thing surprisingly straight but they're fun books

Anyone read the Craft Sequence? And if so would you recommend publication order or chronological order?

Quick, someone buy these litrpgs and upload them for us https://storybundle.com/gamelit

>>11029398
Publication. The first is one of those where the plot and world reveal each other, and you'd lose the impact by being familiar with it. Also, those reveals might be boring and redundant by the time you encounter them.

>>11029500
>Did you love Ready Player One? Laugh out loud at the new Jumanji? This StoryBundle is for you!

>>11029513
Hey man, PR gotta PR

>>11029256
Toll the Hounds was very self indulgent of Erikson, I felt like. The ending of it was incredibly hype but my god the book did not need to be so long. DoD was also so slow that the first time I read it I ended up putting the series on hold for several years. I got through it only last year in fact, and finally finished the series.

I would say The Crippled God is more engaging than DoD, since DoD and TCG are unique in the series in that they are essentially parts 1 and 2 of the same book, rather than being a fully encapsulated book like the others in the series. That's part of the reason DoD is so mind numbingly slow and tedious at times, because it's basically the build up portion of the plot and TCG has most of the payoff.

Nothing really excuses Toll the Hounds though.

>>11029500
can we not.

>>11029256
>unironically reading epic fantasy
You get what you ask for.

I really like Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut. Are there any other sci-fi writers from that time period (1950s-1980s) who are similar? Will I enjoy Gravity's Rainbow?

I wish someone would have noticed my Dick tonight,

Free Dick (download): http://b-ok.xyz/s/?q=Flow+my+tears+the+policeman+said

>>11029593
Fuck.

>>11029593
I picked that up from the library today. Would you say it's his best novel?

>>11029593
>>11029599
hell no. it's pretty bad desu

>>11029599
It's the first Dick book I've read. It's better than most of the books recommended here desu.

>>11029616
>It's better than most of the books recommended here desu.
Pretty low bar desune~

So I finished The Blade Itself. Not sure what to make of the series so far. I really wish the series had a map, for starters, but if it had one noticeable flaw it would probably be a lack of urgency, or maybe a lack of a real antagonist. There's plenty of conflict in the story, plenty of looming disasters and heated personal issues, but characters mostly just struggle against their own flaws. The problems presented by the world do not offer any real challenge.

Jazel effortlessly becomes an amazing duelist just by actually putting in a bit of effort. Logen waltzes out of the mountains despite being wounded, alone, and surrounded by enemies. Glokta is crippled and constantly falls down the stairs yet somehow is never late to an appointment nor does he ever fail to make trips to remote secret bases. Ferro is surrounded by Imperial soldiers and hunted by Eaters but with the help of a mage she can just stroll across an entire continent without any problems, and when she is actually caught one time there's no problem cause the mage just instantly kills both of the Eaters.

So the result is even though I'm interested in the world building and reasonably invested in the characters (well mostly just Glokta), the story feels sort of directionless and up the whims of the characters. Or at least up to the whims of Bayaz.

>>11029639
trust me all of the protagonists get dragged through the mud later on, Jezel gets it the worst

>>11029101
if i liked the original dune series, should i read those wrote by frank's son?

>>11029639
Abercrombie's whole shtick is doing your second paragraph and then having bad things happen to the characters in book 3/act 3. It's boring as fuck to read.

>>11029684
hell no

>>11029688
thanks, just as i thought

>>11029592
Dick and Vonnegut are midget Pynchons. You will love the book.

>>11029684
Only if you're the kind of person who likes fanfiction.

>>11029684
As a Jew, they're the worst sequels since the "New Testament".

Not really directed at the poster above but they reminded me.

Anyone know of any Jewish inspired fantasy? All I can really think of is The Golem and the Jinni and a few golems in other stuff.

>>11030087
The Holocaust

Just finished Children of Time, it was fucking fantastic
I really liked how they digitized Kern into a fucking ant colony, that was pretty wack
Not sure I like how they essentially mindraped the humans into not being dicks but I guess there really wasn't another option in which the human race got to live

Anyway, next I'm thinking of reading The Forever War or I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Which one would you guys say I should read? Or a third option altogether?

>>11030290
>I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
This is quite short, I'd go for it first. It's also fucking great.

>>11030087
>Jewish inspired fantasy
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon

>>11029206
>Inheritance Cycle over Dark Lord of Derkholm.
>Inheritance Cycle over Once and Future King.
>Inheritance Cycle over anything.

>>11030532
eragon is good fuck off

>>11030543
Eragon is "dragon" spelled backwards.

How the fuck do people come up with good unique names for all this shit?

>>11030543
This general finds new ways to disappoint me every day.

>>11030579
They are more creative and put more effort into their setting than you.

Webnovels are novels too

>>11030543
People like you make me have zero trust for the people on here. I want to read good fantasy literature, not trashy bottom of the barrel micheal bay shit novels.

>>11030622
>People like you make me have zero trust for the people on here
That's good though. You should be skeptical of what random people on the internet tell you to read. If it took you this long to become skeptical then I wonder how you even function as a human being.

>>11030609
I'm talking about character names

I'm having trouble coming up with ones that are new but also sound good

>>11030641
Yeah like I said, they put more effort into their setting than you.

>>11030641
Just ape Tolkien, he knew what he was doing.

>>11030641
Just sink everything and give it a slightly different name.

>>11029639
The Blade Itself is literally an information dump.

>>11030543
No, it's not. Actually, delete this stupid ass opinion. Eragon have no redeeming factors at all.

>>11030641
Nulantha

>>11030543
>change D in "Dragon" to an E
>Eragon
>perfect

>>11030641
Combine objects with existing names or words

Shakespeare (he got lucky having a neat name), Longshaft, Guncrest, Lockmeyer, Rosenrot, Graychester

>>11030984
>change the D in "Dragon" to an A
>perfect

>>11030991
Amazing

>>11030290
>get close to the end
>pretty much hope that the spiders kill them all, because the spiders are so much better than the humans
>ending happens
>realize I'm just like the humans in the story trying to destroy everything, but the spiders have found a better way to solve it
pretty humbling to say the least.

>>11030780
>have your 4yo kid draw europe by hand
>all countries roughly the same size and shape
>obviously drawn in sequence, so they're overlapping like scales
>no landmarks that influence the borders, such as mountains or rivers, whatsoever
disgusting

>A Game of Thrones
>The Name of the Wind
>The Eye of the World
What are some other soyboy essentials?

>>11031435
You're favourite book.

>>11029639
Welcome! You too now have stumbled upon the author of the slowest developing plots ever!

>>11031510
that is robert jordan aka james oliver rigney

>>11031099
I think I find the Highlands in Scotland being split down the middle for no reason to be the most annoying thing.

Also Wales which is the only country intact has a random name.

>>11031518
>>11031510
youse cunts need to read Tad Williams lol

greatest space opera ever desu

>>11031573
That's not the Praxis

>>11031598
>reading series named after commie words

>>11030290
ye living ant brain emulation is dope as hell, makes the rest of the read worthwhile

How does /sffg/ react to NTR? In a story I'm writing the female protagonist agrees to bear another man's child for the greater good. It's not even really NTR, and is more of a business transaction that both parties are pretty much forced to do but I still feel so dirty writing it since I'm inherently a vanillafag. Should I just scrap it and rework it or should I just power through?

>>11030543
I was 11 once

>>11031748
wouldn't read tbqh

>>11031747

>>11031769
No one cares

>>11031776
not based

>>11029639
I'd say it's worth toughing out just so you have all the background for reading his stand-alones.

>>11031777
checked
based

>>11029206
wtf is Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

>>11031559
Robert Jordan has an 800 page book in his series that is skippable with zero consequences. Mr. Williams is a fucking hare by comparison

>>11031766
seconded

>>11031748
That sort of stuff isn't popular in general. And unless you have an established and sizable fanbase where you can risk losing readers, then doing something like that is a dumb move.

Happy birthday Adolph. Gone too soon.

>>11031864
Should have posted his book.

>>11031748
Just make them fall in love or remove it.

>>11031786
Literal fanfiction for edgy redditors

>>11031897
He was so cool. I wish I had an Adolph Hitler dad.

Quick, someone recommend a good long scifi on Audible
I don't want to spend money on something under 10 hours

>>11031748
You have to remember that most readers are trying to form a short-term emotional attachment to the characters, and if they're forced to watch them suffer in a way that isn't appealing, they're likely to drop it or dislike it after the fact. Unless the tone is rosy enough or it's very apparent there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, I would try to avoid those types of situations.

Why is 2018 so dead? There hasn't been 1 new sffg meme for this year.

>>11032042
You're a meme

>>11032042
there's like 4 posters in here who read new books so you have to wait until award season for new meme content to appear

>>11032042
all 4chan is dead in 2018 except /biz/ and a few niche memes, reddit is in full bloom

2016 consumed too much meme energy, we're in what 2009-2010 used to be so you'll have to wait a few more years of death before the meme cycle begins again

Answer quick, is Galaxy's Edge any good?

>>11030290
The Forever War is absolutely fantastic, it's one of the most criminally underrated science fiction books IMO. I've mentioned it to a few of my sci-fi loving friends and just got blank stares in return. It's crazy to me it hasn't yet been adapted to film, especially considering it's actually aged very well - shift the dates forward, and it very much seems like a reasonable take on our future.

Do the male characters stop being so pathetic later on?

>>11032115
No. Neither does the braid tugging stop.

>>11032067
This is all m00t's fault too.

>>11032067
Are you pretending that 2016 was a good year for this site? 2009 was kino, something that this year isn't.

What am I in for lads?

>>11032218
>all those normie celeb deaths triggering everybody
>all those kino drumpft memes
>All the good releases and fun times on 4chan that were to be disturbed by invasions of redditors

I want 2016 back

2009 wasn't bad aye but after 2008 there was a lull after which the website rekindled in ~2013

>>11032219
Something completely unique.

c h u c k t i n g l e i s g l o w b u g

15 pages in and Jason hates blacks and likes big tits
based

science fiction is superior to fantasy

>>11032529
This
And it's gotta be hard

>>11031946
must have missed hearing about it, i know JK wrote some time travel type sequel.

well this just keeps getting more and more meta

Give me some books about vikings / norse themed / reminiscent of norse shit, been watching god of war streams and reading loki

>>11032723
I couldn't make it far into Old Man's War, because Scalzi's tone just frustrates me with how casual it is, but this book was goofy enough that it worked

>>11032655
No. Not hyperbolically fanfiction for edgy redditors.
Literally fanfiction for edgy redditors.

>>11032219
AN ADVENTURE!... of boring...

>>11032808
Oh wow, literal harry potter fanfiction is barely below one of my recent favourites. That is embarrassing even for reddit.

>>11029639
gets far worse as you read on. I read the entire thing and felt like I've wasted some of my time.

I'm reading Throne of Glass and like it more than Malazan.

>>11030553
It's either that or a slight alteration on Aragorn, it's hilarious how shit and lazy it is either way

>>11031763
This. I read them when I was younger and I liked them at the time. I doubt they hold up past that.

>>11032156
This fucker is lying, ignore him

Mat turns into the best character starting with book 3(after two books of being the worst character), Rand starts getting better too but he has the longest character arc(with the occasional holy fuck that was pretty badass moment), Perrin unfortunately gets hooked up with a fairly annoying character but he eventually gets some good moments too

Lan is never not good.

And braid tugging will eventually stop, temporarily for physical reasons, permanently for Mandragoran'ed reasons

>>11032753
read Red Orm, it's so fucking good

this is the next book on my list, what am I in for lads?

>>11033170
I found Mat pretty likeable from the beginning desu

>>11029599

It's among his greats, the ending is all jumbled up. I think he wrote himself into a corner.

>>11033191
once he goes full dagger he starts to come off like a complete cunt, but then he turns into /ourguy/ so it all works out

Has anyone read this? I like fantasy with magic swords so was thinking of giving this a go

>>11031573
>>11032723
>by a man that wears a dress as a feminist statement.

>>11033382
I saw one of these things at university a couple of days ago. Truly unsettling. I don't even want to dislike them. I just do.

>>11033367
It was pretty shit, I managed to read the whole thing, but the writing is really low level, characters are shallow and mary sueish, villain is horribly mustache twirling stereotypical for teh eviluz style villain, entire series is basically the search for the never ending list of ass pull macguffins

that said there's a bit of creativity in the setting, specifically with the demons

>>11033394
It's biologically natural/normal to be disgusted by this

>>11033405
thx it's pretty short so I'll probably read it anyhow

>>11033421
It's a seven book series

>>11033382
>a man that wears a dress is a feminist statement.
What? I have always though if it as a fashion show meme and a kind of punk/rebel statement of "I don't conform" type deal.
Pic related is who I think of when I think man + dress

>>11033424
well I'll just give the first book a go and see

>>11033382
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2017/08/22/my-personal-feminism-2017/

>Miller was born in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Educated at the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas, he worked as an engineer. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps as a radioman and tail gunner, flying more than fifty bombing missions over Italy. He took part in the bombing of the Benedictine Abbey at Monte Cassino, which proved a traumatic experience for him. Joe Haldeman reported that Miller "had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for 30 years before it had a name", and that Miller displayed a photograph he had taken of Ron Kovic prominently in his living room.[1]
>After the war, Miller converted to Catholicism. He married Anna Louise Becker in 1945 and they had four children. He lived with science-fiction writer Judith Merril in 1953.
>After the success of A Canticle For Leibowitz, Miller never published another new novel or story in his lifetime
>In Miller's later years, he became a recluse, avoiding contact with nearly everyone, including family members; he never allowed his literary agent, Don Congdon, to meet him. According to science fiction writer Terry Bisson, Miller struggled with depression, but had managed to nearly complete a 600-page manuscript for the sequel to Canticle before taking his own life with a firearm in January 1996, shortly after his wife's death.[1][4] The sequel, Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman, was completed by Bisson at Miller's request and published in 1997.
goddamn

>>11033186
A very dark, dense SF space opera that focuses on the emotions and pathos of its characters. I'm on pic related at the moment. Thomas Covenant chronicles are prime reading, regardless of what this general thinks of Donaldson.

>>11029789
I've heard tons of people say Pynchon is very hard to get into. What do you think?

Wow, the Lady Trent series really went to shit in the last book

>Highly realistic fantasy setting whose only abnormal element was dragons
>plot revolves around studying their biology for science and dispelling primitive superstitions
>Even the mysterious precursor civilization was realistic with their only abnormal accomplishment being that they managed to tame and domesticate a now-extinct species
>Come book 4 That ancient civilization was made up of humanoid dragons who were created by soaking dragon eggs in human blood

>>11033690
depends on the book but even then it's not that obtuse, just a pretty standard postmodernist challenge

>>11030532
that's how I feel about brent week's spot on this list

>>11032808
Jesus Christ

Reminder: soys read epic fantasy and chads read heroic fantasy (except for Moorcock).

>>11033900
>(except for Moorcock).
What's wrong with him? I'm legitimately curious.

>>11033814
So if I didn't have any problem with the weirder parts of PKD and Vonnegut I shouldn't have any problem with Pynchon?

>>11033900
Reminder: Chads don't read

>>11034002
Yeah pretty much, he references loads of shit but you can read it fine without getting every single allusion

>>11033900
What's the difference?

>>11034019
Thanks, senpai. I'll pickup Gravity's Rainbow within the next couple of months.

>>11033992
The original fantasoy even though his stuff seems tame by today's standards of fantasoy. Whiny leftshit who believes fantasy should have a "message", but of course if it's the wrong kinda message he'd cry about you being an ebil nahtzee.

>>11034051
So is heroic fantasy just fantasy without gay feminist shit? Where do I start?

>>11034068
The Greeks.

>>11034028
Heroic fantasy stories tend to be "smaller" and more character focused with more action and a grimmer (but not nihilistic) tone.

>>11034068
>So is heroic fantasy just fantasy without gay feminist shit?
Except for Moorcock; yes. And you should start with the daddy of heroic fantasy Robert E. Howard. Specifically his Solomon Kane stories.

>>11033900
Post 5 examples of each.

>>11034084
How different are the Conan books to the movies, honestly if they're anything alike I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

>>11033721
i couldn't handle the whole "women should stay inside" shit so i dropped it after the first one

>>11034097
The original Conan the Barbarian movie is perfect onions repellent, but the characterization of Conan in the movie is almost nothing like his characterization in the original Howard stories.

>>11034097
Different anon here, I haven't ever touched Robert E. Howard's work but John Milius's Conan the Barbarian film is a fantasy masterpiece. Why do you hate it?

>>11034102
>onions repellent
What?

>>11034087
I'm not posting 5 examples of epic fantasy because a dozen examples gets posted every damn thread. But for heroic fantasy (sword & sorcery) here's some:

Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane and Conan.
Damn near everything by David Gemmell; specifically his Drenai series and Jerusalem Man Trilogy (this one's heroic fantasy AND post-apocalyptic western).
Karl Edward Wagner's Kane (short stories are his best Kane works and has more of a horror vibe)
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Lieber.
And for more recent fair I'd recommend Brutal by James Alderdice (don't let the title or the description on the cover dissuade you, it's neither grimdark nor epic fantasy, but 100% heroic fantasy)

>>11034116
>ONIONS repellent
Holy fuck I must have had a mini-stroke or something.

>>11034127
lol fucking 4chan censored s.o.y now

>>11034105
I don't, it's amazing, I just wouldn't want to read a story like that.

>>11034127
>>11034131
Wow. Bravo, mods. onions. ONIONS. onions. s.o.y.

>>11033721
yes it did, that was quite possibly the worst way it could have ended

>>11034139
Well, now that s o y is dead it's time to go back to the superior meme insult: cuck.

short reviews of fantasy I have read recently. None of them are high tier, but if someone is looking for some fun/easy/adventure stories I can recommend these. Probably would be like reading dr seuss for most of yall but whatever.

the arinthian line by sever bronny- 14-16 yo trio of kids get swept up in saving their land. Heavy emphasis on magic with very basic rule system. Pretty well written coming of age fantasy and very light read.

The cradle series by will wight- Underdog is given a chance to rise up and save his home by ranking up in the sacred arts. Pretty refreshing eastern based fantasy that focuses on martial arts and magic. The downside is that I think he does a poor job of explaining the details of the system and even after reading 4 books I still get lost. The overall plot is easy to grasp and interesting.

The crimson queen by alec hutson- Young boy has natural magic talent in a world where magic is squashed out. Magic system is explained very little, though this is the first book in the series. Book is mostly traveling from point a to b with a big fight but generally keeps your attention by providing character background. I saw multiple places raving about this book which I personally think is a bit unwarranted. It's a fine book but nothing special.

The white tower by michael wisehart- One of the better books in the bunch. Magic is considered bad by the general population. The system is pretty simple but it's only the first book in the series. Written in the style with many different povs, however the bulk of them are very interesting and they flow together rather than being disjointed. One of the characters got a spinoff that details his origins (street rats of aramoor series). Simpler by comparison but if you like his character I would recommend those too.

benjamin ashwood by AC cobble- Probably the best series out of the group. It's -slightly- more mature and actually delves into the politics of the world. Characters give off a bit off a mary sue vibe but the plot is fast moving with lots of twists and turns. The demons are a cool enemy. Magic system feels a little funky at first but you learn the history later on. Would highly recommend this series.

These are all ongoing series and were all just based on the amazon customers who this section. I know they're all garbage tier objectively but if anyone is looking for some really simple fantasy check these out. Also wondering if I can get some recs that are similar.

>>11034139
This is a psyop.... onions contains estrogen and onions boost testosterone. They want us to condemn building testosterone by word-swapping thus bamboozling people into avoiding onions and to carry on ingesting onions now that its dangers cannot be announced.

>>11034236
Look see, you can't even tell what's good and what's bad. It's onions all the way down!

fucking onions boys

onions

soy

onions

onions season

Onions?

book of the new sun

onions test

>>11034505
?

>>11029592
I'm a big fan of Dick, not so much Vonnegut (only liked a few of his works), and I from what I read I don't really like Pynchon that much. Definitely skip Inherent Vice, it's not very good, The Crying of Lot 49 is better. In regards to books like Dick's work, check out The Stars My Destination and Gun With Occasional Music.

>>11034586
Also I just recently read No Surrender by Hiroo Onooda, and while not a work of fiction it does cover similar themes to Dick's work, notably paranoia and an assumed reality. For background, Onooda was a Japanese soldier stranded on an island in the Phillipines, waging his own WW2 into the 70's. The book goes into his thought process at the time which gets incredibly convoluted and paranoid.

>>11031786
Eliezer Yudkowsky, ai scientist/blogger/originator of lesswrong.com style rationalism, got fed up with how characters in fiction were always dumb, always missed obvious things, always took wondrous things for granted and never tested the limits of their abilities, etc. He was so petty about it that he rewrote the entirety of the first Harry Potter book in an AU where HP was raised by scientists instead of assholes.

"I want a Trident," Ned told them.

"No," said Ger Gerold.

"Stop the trailer if we are here," said Os Oswell.

"As long as the King fell, Ser Jaime killed your king of gold, and I thought where he was."

"No," Ser Gerold said, "or Aerys can stay on the Iron Iron, our brother poor and burn hells seven."

"I went down to the Storm End and raised it in stress," said Jim Ned and the king of Tyrell and Redwyne betting all their kartel bows and promised them. I'm sure they have. "U

"Our knees can not bend," said Arthur Arthur Dayne.

"Ser Willem Darry fled to Dragonstone, and your grandmother Prince Viser. I thought it was a sailboat."

"Ser Willem is a good and true man," said Ser Oswell.

"He is not the Ruler of the Kingdom," said Ger Gerold. "The Kings Guard did not escape."

"Now or now," said Ser Arthur. He introduced his power.

"We have made a promise," explains Serge Gerold.

The attackers went with him, holding the swords in their hands. Seven have three.

"Now it starts," said Ser Arthur Dayne, tomorrow with the sword. She wanted Dawn and held her by both hands. Pairs count as milk milk and always have lamps.

"No," said Ned in a painful tone. "Now it's over."

>>11031435
Mistborn
A Shadow In Summer

>>11032753
Wolfsangel
All The Windwracked Stars
The Age of Odin

>>11034586
>I'm a big fan of Dick
Stopped reading there

>>11034752
;^)

>>11031435
any book found in this thread

>>11031099
>idiot criticizing a map for a series he hasn't read

>>11031559
Tad is definitely a slow burner, but I wouldn't say he's slower than RJ.

>>11031791
You are actually both wrong, the slowest plot developer is Steve Erikson. Takes 5 books to introduce the entire cast of characters and the main story doesn't even start until book 6. Book 8 is also pretty much skippable and it's 50% longer than Jordan's book 8.

Best scifi written in the last 3 years by people who are < 35 years old?

>>11034785
Steve Erikson seems like love him or hate him type of writer.

>>11034898
Ready Player One

>>11034198
What about the cradle series cultivation system did you find hard to understand?

>>11034949
I wanted to like him but after a while his writing got so repetitive and tedious to get through, and it switched character perspective every 2 fucking pages so I could never get invested in any of them enough to care whether they lived or died. Such a shame since the world, races, lore etc was pretty cool but the books are such a slog, especially books 8 and 9

>>11034949
I honestly got tired of the spic-filled bars the protag kept going to. It bored me so I dropped it.

>>11034949
I wouldn't say that. The main thing you need to read Erikson is patience. Lots of patience. Generally people who hate Erikson don't bother reading very far into Malazan Book of the Fallen, but those who do bother to read far into it actually have varied opinions that I wouldn't call wholly loving. Personally I admire the sheer ambition of Malazan, I love the characters, some of the funniest scenes I've ever read in fantasy have been in his books, but at the same time it's not something I would reread or dive back into on a whim. It's a huge time investment and so much of it is tedious filler. So yeah I like him, but there's some caveats there.

If you want to talk "love him or hate him" I think the archetypal example of that is Patrick Rothfuss.

Currently reading The Forever War
I really like everything so far except the shit about how everyone is gay now
Really smacks of 70s MUH GAY AGENDA MAKING EVERYONE FAGS shit
But since it was written then I guess it can get a pass

post books with strong female characters

Finished Sharps, was the idea for all the loose threads and plotting to resolve in the most underwhelming way possible? I know Parker likes his subversion and downer endings but this wasn't that, it was just weird

>>11035046
it's not gay agenda it's muh overpopulation panic. Homosexuality is just his idea of a dumb solution to it

>>11029101
I didn't like Prince of Thorns. Are the sequels better or should I head elsewhere for Dark or "grimdark" fantasy?

>>11035148
look elsewhere, Lawrence just can't write grimdark convincingly

>>11032042
>There hasn't been 1 new sffg meme for this year.
That's a popcorn statement if I ever read one.

>>11035148
Despite the memes in /sffg/ I wouldn't consider Lawrence to be grimdark. He's GRRM-esque gritty, but the ending to Broken Empire is actually really sentimental and sappy if anything. People just see how edgy Jorg is in book 1 and write off the series and him as a writer. The Red Queen's War isn't any edgier than typical gritty fantasy and is actually pretty funny with a protagonist who is a lot less edgy than Jorg.

>>11035224
i stopped early in book 2 but isn't the jorg edginess stopped at the end of book 1 because a wizard made him be edgy or something?

>>11035123
Yeah but the MC literally says that he thinks vasectomies are a way easier way of doing it

>>11035274
A wizard fucked with his memories and that was part of it. Also he was like 13 and went through some shit. He grew out of it over the course of the series.

>>11035224
>>11035382
is there rape in this series

I've been let down by the sffg charts twice in a row now.
First I tried Perdido Street Station which was revoltingly bad and now I finished Ringworld by Niven which wasn't as bad but still left a bad taste. The Ringworld was surprisingly boring for an ancient Artifact and I actually had to check if my .epub file wasn't missing any chapters in the end because it ended so suddenly I could quite believe it.

I'm not really sure I want to go to the guides again and be disappointed again. But then I also don't want to spam the general with brainless recc requests.
What do?

>>11035471
I wouldn't be worried about spamming considering the general is pretty dead

>>11034995
I dont know I vaguely remember some passage explaining the tiers but something about madra vs aura and cycling and the cores. I'm sure if I re-read some parts it was make sense but I just feel like he doesn't do that great of a job explaining the whole system. Probably I'm just retarded though based on my other book selections. Like madra is the magic and you pick and aura to channel that magic like earth, water, air, etc, and then you learn highly specific techniques to use your aura. And I think channeling restores your madra somehow

>>11035471
look up books before reading them, don't just blindly trust the chart

>>11035471
This general is quite literally shit. You're better off finding a book you enjoy and using the amazon selection to guide you to a new series. This whole general is just a bunch of pretentious fucks who read 70s fantasy books and think they're the hottest shit since burnt toast. Find something you enjoy and use other sites besides this shithole to branch out

>>11035498
why are you here?

>>11035490
Both had very good reviews on goodreads and co. Perdido S S has tons of awards and praising words by every more known sci-fi author. How could I have known it's nothing but dogshit.
Ringworld too had so much praise but I just couldn't find myself enjoying the unispired description of the bland Ringworld. Also the whole quest turning into a farce, because apparently the main goal of lady fortuna was finding a proper stallion for the girl, was pretty shit in my opinion.

The last series I could really get into was Dresden files so I'm starting to think I just might have shittaste in books since it is considered merely advanced YA.

>>11035498
no you

>>11035516
good reviews ≠ you will like it

when you know your own taste it's not difficult to predict what books you will like or dislike before you even read them

>>11035529
How?
PSS ticked all the right boxes for me in the beginning. I knew it would have magic, different species of all kinds, the author also was supposed to be good.
How can someone possibly know what a book will turn into?

>>11035498
> use other sites besides this shithole to branch out
But where?

>>11035471
The wiki in the pinned post hasn't let me down 2bh. Though I skipped the essential reading and am going to loop back to it soon as I finish the books I got recently.

>>11035545
brainlet

>>11034949
Don't know about that. The general consensus is that he's pretty good but with massive flaws that are enough for people to drop the series earlier on. The people that love him really fucking love him, though.

>>11035471
always ignore the charts

>>11034775
Is the series based on each kingdom projecting a similar sized force field from a gem in the center to determine its borders?
Or about telepathic alien rulers that mind control humans in a set radius, becoming their kings and waging wars in the process?
Or is it about a totalitarian government that in order to curb inequality divided the world into equal parts and forces them to fight battle royale tournaments starring a teenager from each country.

Really, enlighten me. What's the reason?

I remember reading these a while ago and saw "Emperor of the eight islands" in the store and got it. Anyone read any of these?

>>11034785
>takes five books to introduce the entire cast of characters
Anon, this is how most fantasy is. Main characters are constantly being introduced as the story the continues, in an attempt to keep things fresh

>>11036006
Which is why the genre is shit.

man i hate people ruining readable fantasy books with ridiculous cultural marxist propaganda

No its not fucking xenophobia and bigotry to run an uppity stranger out of town

And you have a protagonist who murders for XP then gets upset over "rape" or w/e trash..

Are there any fantasy or sci-fi novels that advocate for immortality? Maybe the antagonists are trying to oppose the development of some method of living forever, for example. Ideally, it'd be a work that doesn't go "ooga booga, we meant to die" by the end.

>>11036387
no but stealing that idea for my book

>>11036387
i vaguely remember some book about a guy finding out that something about octopi can make them live forever and he experiments with it.
i think it was written in the 90s. dont know much about that. i remember it being a thriller though.

>>11030543
no, Eragon did not fuck the Saphira
shit series
SHIT SERIES

I was having a good time with The Lost Fleet books, nice hard military SF with plenty of space battles and SPACE LOGISTICS, nice bit of intrigue too

But then the plot of the main books gets resolved and we go from (mostly) human military engagements to full on camp with fucking suicide bomber space Cows, Im not shitting you
I honestly dont know if I want to keep reading with this change in tone
if you like these just dont read past Victorious

>>11035148
>>11035148

>I didn't like Prince of Thorns. Are the sequels better?

Don't bother. I wouldn't continue with any other Lawrence books either. I also tried PoT and hated it. I recently read the first book of his new series since it was 99p on amazon. It was a slog to get through. Don't get the love for the guy but maybe he's just not for me.

>>11036387
I remember that the Altered carbon TV show had themes along those lines.
People could live basically indefinitely but some would have a voluntarily coding that would prevent them to be reborn or rather resleved into a new body.
But I only watched the show. Maybe the book expands on that more.

>>11035471

>>11030290
>Just finished Children of Time, it was fucking fantastic
Shit taste desu. It was okay up until the ending, not fantastic, but not bad. Then that feel good power of friendship happy ending happened. Come on, the humans would have absolutely fucked them. The technological progress of the spiders just made no sense at all. And then the friendship poison ? It all just smells like the author took the easy way out to make a happy ending. If the author thought it absolutely necessary to have a conflict (I didn't, I doubt the spiders numbered very large to cover the whole planet so that they couldn't find the space for some thousands humans), then go on with it! instead, some 4 spiders died or something, what a joke. And the message itself was pretty stupid and simplistic, >hurr durr all humans do is destroy

>>11035046
That has nothing to do with it. Haldeman is trying to portray the culture shock experienced by returning soldiers in a visceral way that readers of the time would get.
I think it works really well.

>>11036713
I liked Red Sister, thought it by far his best work.

>>11037038
If The Forever War was written today it would feature a lesbian protagonist that returned home to find an Islamic theocracy that assigned every woman to a harem on their 12th birthday.

Any thoughts on this?

>>11037142
I'm always disappointed when I read the title and there's no kitsune on the cover.

>>11037142
+made maths interesting
+unashamedly YA
+genuinely unlike anything else I've read

-characters were arse
-still YA
-pretty dull can't lie

Would have liked to have read this in 5-10 years when the author can hash out some of their inherent issues with their prose, because it certainly had some good bits.

>>11036387
The Culture series rather casually mentions that nobody really dies unless they feel like it, and when it happens by accident they've got mind backups to grow bodies around.

>>11037175
Thanks. Think I'll give it a go....

>>11036713
> Don't get the love for the guy but maybe he's just not for me.

It happens. Personally I really enjoy his books. I thought the first Broken Empire series was something quite refreshing when it first came out. The second trilogy I didn't like as much.

Red Sister was great though.

>>11037175
> unashamedly YA
What?? That is probably the last genre I put it in.

>>11037142
Read it. Even if you don't enjoy it you should still appreciate it's originality. One of the better sci-fi I've read in recent year IMO.

>>11033439
And it feels good too, i wish i could wear a dress as good as bowie does

>>11036713
red sister is good

it's one of about 4 character goes to magic school books that keeps the school as a background thing instead of making it take up the whole book.

>>11037282
Sounds good, will do.

>>11034125
White wolf is one of my favorite Gemmel books. The scene at the monastery with the lynch mob, hot damn

>>11037500
White Wolf was the first Drenai novel I read and was kino as fuck. There's a similar scene in the Jerusalem Man trilogy.

just read the first chapter of this

why didn't he just tell the dwarves to fuck off?

>>11037616
Because he was a took at heart and had an adventurous spirit

>>11035405
Yes. It's not like it's a focus but there's definitely some rape in it.

>>11035498
This, unironically. You can occasionally find somebody who actually is worth listening to but most people here are pseuds no different than the rest of /lit/.

>>11037647
watch your mouth, punk ass white boy

>>11034032
If you're concerned about not being able to get into GR then start with V or the Crying of Lot 49

>>11035727
It's set over 1000 years in the future after a nuclear apocalypse and some sort of weird breakthrough broke reality and made magic real. The apocalyptic events brought about by meddling with reality and nuclear war are why the continent looks so off.

The remnants of Europe were for a few generations united under a single Empire, the borders you see are the remnants of ancient provinces of that Empire. The rulers of the provinces are all in some way descended either from the last emperor or the line of stewards appointed to hold the throne in the place of the emperor, and all of them make up a Congress of Lords who regularly try (and fail) to choose a new Emperor from among their ranks.

While they're constant war, the borders never change, the whole thing is locked in a stasis of formality. Conquest isn't about making your own borders bigger, it's about installing as many loyal vassals in your neighboring provinces as possible, about intimidating people into obeying you, buying allegiance and votes in the council. Everybody wants the real prize of being the next Emperor.

>>11036006
Except that's not what I said. These aren't "new characters", the events in book 5 take place before the events in book 1 on a completely separate continent that ends up being the main setting of the plot. This isn't like Wheel of Time where Jordan pulls more Aes Sedai characters or Aeil out of his ass to keep the story going with side plots, this is Erkison literally holding up the main story until he can finish bringing in all the central players to the story.

>>11036387
The Fable of the Dragon Tyrant, by Nick Bostrom
Ra, by Sam Hughes

Name a better series.

Is Elric a ripoff of Turin Turambar?

>>11037744
I can't tell if I'm being trolled. That is honestly one of the worst YA series I've ever had the misfortune to read.

>Acclaimed new sci fi or fantasy novel
>It's YA

Every fucking time. Anything good come out since the turn of the century that isn't YA? Feel like i've gone through the older stuff that interests me.

>>11037763
it's obvious from the cover it's trash

>>11037776
I'm pretty sure a lot of books are just tagged YA even when they are not just to get a wider audience.

>>11037803
You're probably right but it's hard for me to know for sure. Sometimes you can tell by the cover like >>11037744

>>11037776
The bottom row of this chart, although it was made a few years ago.

>>11037818
By the way, I'm thinking about replacing Quantum Thief with Ancillary Justice both because I think QT is too similar to a few other entries and because AJ is a decent example of current mainstream SF. Thoughts?

how much more difficult is it to sell a adult oriented fantasy series to a publisher than if it was YA?

>>11037763
It's literally just a story of a mix between Apsalar/Sorry and Felisin but not in Malazan.

>>11037826
okay

>>11037826
I really did like Ancillary Justice but was I the only one that found the genderless pronouns fucking annoying as hell to read? Interesting idea but the novelty wore off very very fast.

>>11037834
only really big names use a publisher these days.
most just self-publish. theres a market for everything pretty much. audiobooks are different though places like podium will publish and market the audiobook for you. for books you can literally just selfpublish on amazon and itll probably sell. kindle unlimited apparently isnt nearly as crappy as people thought. you could also just have a website or a blog where you post news and maybe a twitter account and through regular updates generate enough of a readership completely for free and on your own to make it a sustainable way of living as a writer.

generally speaking young adult books sell better than adult oriented books unless you already have a dedicated readership.

for your first few books you might want a publisher actually now that i think about it. they can help you out on such matters and advise you on things like when to release your book and how to do so.

Black and white russian cover of "the emperor's blades" by brian staveley. Soon will be in color, but even like that it looks rad.

>>11037777
Does anyone even make good covers anymore?

>>11037894
Yes...

>>11037903

>>11037915

>>11037932

>>11037942

>>11037948

>>11037958

>>11037977

>>11037982

>>11037986

>>11037993

Has anyone read Under the Pendulum Sun? Looks interesting.

>>11037888
thats pretty sweet

Best scifi written in the last 3 years by people who are < 35 years old?

Is Jeff VanderMeer any good? I've been thinking about reading the Southern Reach trilogy since I really liked the film adaptation of Annihilation.

>>11038619
Short answer: no, he's not. Dull, dull. dull.

>>11038619
Very very good at evoking a sense of unease, creepiness and general paranoia but you may have problems with the pacing especially in the latter two books.

what kind of girls actually read science fiction? Apparently they are a huge part of the market but I have never known a girl who reads sci-fi

Anyone know a good fantasy set in a 1900s based setting?

>>11037888
what's with the russians getting all the fucking dope covers? this is bullshit.

>>11037903
What is name of the book with the white haired, female knight?

>>11038749
what source is this from? is it actual sci-fi, or hunger games/the host/etc?

>>11038749
this really depends. most women who are into books either read the 2deep4u scifi mindfuckery or the common mainstream fantasy books like game of thrones or harry potter.

>>11038749
I'm pretty sure the people who conduct those surveys count The Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, and other Young Adult garbage as sci-fi. It's the same thing as how surveys claim there are more female gamers than male gamers because tons of women play mobile games like Candy Crush.

>>11038867
Well Amazon classes Game of Thrones and Harry Potter as sci-fi.

>>11038867
not gonna lie i liked the premise of maze runner in the first book. then everything escalated into shit so fast youd think they switched authors.

>>11037932
>Piter Gamilton
>>11037982
>Robert Hainlain
>>11037993
>Brendon

What are the odds of getting a new Gentlemen Bastards entry this year bros?
It's what got me into fantasy and I hate having to wait so much for a new book.

>>11037818
so is this a meme chart or is it genuine?

>>11039018
The odds are the same as the were last year, the book is never coming out because the author is too busy dealing with "muh depression" to actually write anything.

>>11038619
There's a lot left open to interpretation, so it creates a nice dialogue. A little slow, more cosmic horror than I expected.

>every other copy of The Dying Earth I download is formatted like shit
I even tried IRC, this is aggravating

>>11039300
What format?

I assume you checked libgen. I have trouble with old sci-fi epub.

>>11039300
calibre fixes everything

>>11039313
I mean every paragraph is spaced, I could fix it with calibre but then It would get rid of ALL gaps

>>11039018
Don't wait for these things. Just let them surprise you when they do come. At least the previous books have been good enough to warrant anticipation.

>>11039324
Weird, is this .pdf?

>>11039300
just download the whole Jack Vance collection, it's much easier than hunting down everything he wrote

>>11037749
He's a ripoff of Conan. But instead of making him entertaining like Conan, Moorcock made him an emo faggot.

>>11038814
Grimnoir Chronicles

>>11039324
>I mean every paragraph is spaced
Isn't this common for ebooks? A shit ton of ebooks I've read have spaced paragraphs.

>>11032219
Slow motion Poe.

New thread
>>>/tv/97596493

>>11039707
Do a real one now

>>11039791
>>11039800

>>11039803
Fuck that.
We invading /tv/

>>11039813
Oh gee, Rick, I dunno about that

>>11039707
holy fuck did you fuck that up

>>11039803
You literally fucked it up again.

>>11029101

>>11029206
LoTR and Discworld are the only good ones and I've read most of it.

What do I read when everything either looks like shit?

>>11038852
the heart of what was lost - tad williams

>litrpg's where the main character levels a whole buncha shit and spreads their stats around in everything

mother fker

>>11040890
>litrpg

When men boast about their superior taste compared to women but read something far worse than the average WoWpedia lore-page.