/lit/ - Literature

How is The Rage of Dragons?

>>13738358
Reddit loves it, so you probably should stay away from it

>>13738364
Please keep your tribal and identity politics out of here.

>>13738391
This was not about tribalism and had nothing to do with identity politics.
The kind of books that are discussed on reddit are generally books that are hated here. It is a simple observation, and it makes sense to write what I did.
There's a strong negative correlation between reddit enjoying something and /sffg/ doing so. Almost no overlap. Whereas reddit is 90% about recently published epic fantasy, I almost never see it here. And the author of that book posts a lot on reddit, making it clear which audience he is targeting.
In other words, please shut the fuck up.

>>13738410
Except you're entirely wrong and there's a lot of overlap. No need to feel jealous that the author doesn't want to talk to you here.

>>13738410
Malazan and (Obviously) LOTR both have a presence on both sites.

Also I'm pretty sure the Sanderson hate is a meme.

>>13738420
Go back to your natural habitat, fag, we don't need you here.
>>13738427
Malazan is like the one book that is popular in both places. Sanderson hate is not a meme, though there are a few people who like it.
Anyways, you must be blind if you think there's a substantial overlap. Check out the top 20 books on their list, and most haven't been mentioned here for weeks. Check out their homepage, and it is authors like Bierce, Lawrence, Sullivan, Bennett and so on, some of whom I have only seen mentioned here a few times.

I want to read some exotic fantasy not the same "medieval with some magic" setting

Opinions on Guy Gavriel Kay?

>>13738467
more like Gay Gayvriel Gay LMAO

>>13738448
How "exotic," nigga? You could check out Imaro for some African Sword & Sorcery.

thoughts on "there are doors"? worth trying out? Also - new job, tired, feeling dumb - how alert/smart do i have to be to appreciate it? gracias for your thoughts.

Do you know any books involving the concept of immortality?

>>13738484
Tons

>>13738484
Lord of Light

>>13738539
Moar plz

>>13738448
Vathek.

>>13738427
>Also I'm pretty sure the Sanderson hate is a meme.
even reddit hated the third book

>>13738484
BV Larson's Undying Mercenaries

>>13738484

>>13738484
Kagerou Daze(Japanese light novel series) is about God using a convoluted process in order to create an immortal person that never falls into despair. All this in the pursuit of some great revelation about itself. The series is a bit of a mess though.

>>13738484
Old Man's War isn't mentioned? Newfags...

Any good short fantasy fiction with little sci-fi/horror/magical realism?

So far, I'm already aware of Lord Dunsany, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Clark Ashton Smith (namely 'Zothique'), Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny ('Dilvish'), Lovecraft ('Dream Cycle'), Borges, Moorcock (certain Elric stories), C. L. Moore, Sprague de Camp ('Pusadian' and 'Novarian' series), Abraham Merritt, Le Guin, Avram Davidson ('Collected Fantasies'), Peter S. Beagle ('Come, Lady Death'), Tanith Lee, Theodore Sturgeon ('The Silken Swift') and Poul Anderson ('The Tale of Hauk').

Any other names I'm missing?

>>13738469
huh?

>>13738427
Sanderson hate may be exaggerated for effect, but I know that I at least genuinely think he's not a good author. As do the only 2 people I've discussed him with irl. I would absolutely read an RPG sourcebook written by him, however.

>>13738805
Karl Edward Wagner's Kane stories (particularly Night Winds)
Charles Saunders' Imaro stories
Brian McNaughton's The Throne of Bones
Ramsey Campbell's Far Away & Never
Adrian Cole's The Voidal
Schuyler Hernstrom's everything
A bunch of Sword & Sorcery short story collections in general

Use this for the next thread.

Monthly Reading for September: Not yet decided

Monthly Reading books: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15ZwgDZVXB-nLqjbgcqgntZDyTddd0eqP

Fantasy:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/0935e4cd59/105363.jpg
https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21328.jpg

Science Fiction:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/def184ad8f/124507.jpg
https://imgoat.com/uploads/b44928ae11/114401.jpg
https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21332.jpg
https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21330.jpg

NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21333.jpg

SF&F author listing with ratings and summaries:
http://greatsfandf.com/authors-full-list.php

Finding authors that are similar to what you read.
https://www.literature-map.com/

Previously:
>>13738357
>>13723334
>>13711297
>>13700643
>>13683839
>>13666622

>>13738467
He's good.

>>13739038
Kill yourself, faggot. How can you not realize no one likes your garbage-tier charts?
Use this for the next thread:
Monthly Reading for August: Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Monthly Reading books: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15ZwgDZVXB-nLqjbgcqgntZDyTddd0eqP

Fantasy:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/0935e4cd59/105363.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Masterworks

Science Fiction:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/def184ad8f/124507.jpg
https://imgoat.com/uploads/b44928ae11/114401.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks

Other Charts:
https://mega.nz/#F!ywtXwYjC!LXU3e7knFpZK_dnHeC9ixA

Heart of a Dog isn't sci-fi.

No-one who has actually read anything by Bulgakov would for one second think that is a helpful designation for the book, anymore than they would think "fantasy" would be the appropriate genre to designate The Master and Margarita.

So yeah, you peanut-brained pot-boiler reading retards and fuck off with that shit

>>13739216
>If it has literary value it's not speculative fiction
>A book about a dog being literally transformed into a human by the use of science is not scifi
>John Crowley is not fantasy
>Dick is not scifi
>Poe is not horror
Seriously, how can you be such a brainlet tripfag?

>>13738467
He is good, Tigana and Lions are both must read.

>>13739236
A sci-fi novel is anything that involves the use of science!!!

No-one is falling for this bullshit, and it really reflects badly on the interpretive capacity of the people who believe it. Read the novel in its proper historical context, numbnuts.

>>13739216
>>13739272

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNprYJNAzBs

DISCUSSION TIME!

>Did you like Empire Star?
>Did you like Babel-17?
>Which one, if any, did you prefer?
>Did reading them together enhance the experience?
>Do you feel that the worldbuilding was a good complement to the theme of how language control and influence us?
>Was it autism?
>Any other thoughts?

It's time to collect nominees for next months reading! We're going to try a theme month, and the theme is short story collections. Reply to this post with whatever fantasy, sci-fi or mixed short story collection you want to read next month.

And while I'm in this thread, let's make it crystal clear for all the other cases that might be brought up, like Frankenstein, fake sci-fi, in other words.

The only reason you would deign to call any of these works "sci-fi" or "fantasy" is either because these works are so INTELLECTUALLY VAPID that they can't be called anything more meaningful/incisive, e.g. works of realism/formalism/metafiction, etc. Hint: we do this all the time with other book denominations, e.g. YA. And again, that's because no-one takes YA seriously enough to call it anything more concrete. That's why everyone calls Catcher in the Rye a work of realism, or a bildungsroman (or a "coming of age" novel, you stupid assholes) and not YA fiction. No-one says these things about most of the dogshit pap on your lists because most of your books are simply childish in their treatment of ideas or social issues in comparison to real novels.

That's why no-one who is not a pimple-stained nerd refers to Frankenstein as a "sci fi", whereas anyone with a decent education refers to it as a work of gothic fiction. Because gothic fiction actually recognises that there are social issues that Shelley was engaging with in terms of romanticism, which INCLUDES aspects of technology. Whereas this bullshit about "sci fi" speaks to some absurd hand-waving about how people were afraid of scientists making dead people alive, which no-one ever, EVER actually took seriously in the period and is just a bullshit justification that comicon American academics make to be taken seriously among their peers at conferences.

So yeah, the long and short of it is either the books are too fucking shallow and superficial in their treatment of the subject material to be considered anything other than "sci fi" or "fantasy", dealing with inane non-issues about technology rather than the underlying ideological and social issues that use of technology only serves as a vessel to emphasize, OR the people reading these books are too shallow and superficial to read past the simple interpretation.

Either way you are fucking dumbasses and you read shit books by terrible authors.

>>13739339
>t. retarded faggot

t. my dick in your ass

>>13739339
Pseuds mad lol

more like you pseud consider killing yourself lol

>>13739339
>someone actually took the time out of their lives to write this shit
Wew, lad. Filtered by the way, don't bother responding.

>>13738469

I hope you slapped her ass, brah. HAHAHAHA, fucking bitches. Love that shannagian shit LMAO!!!

>>13739272
Please just leave the board.

>>13739339
Let me differ:
1) Genres are impossible to clearly define anyways
2) So, as per Wittgenstein, Scifi is what people think Scifi is
3) People identify Scifi by what Scifi's audience enjoys
4) Thus for this general, Scifi is what anons here enjoy
You are just coping with the fact that speculative fiction can have intellectual depth. The genres are terms used for marketing, but the cognitive dissonance in you is too strong for you to understand such a simple fact.

What is a good place to start with Kim Stanley Robinson? Any stand-alone pieces that aren't the Mars trilogy?

>>13739581
Ah yes, as we all know, when Wittgenstein was saying all that shit about meaning as use and family resemblance definitions, what he actually meant that we define reasonably clear-cut distinctions within a specialized vocabulary by reference to the misconceptions of the least informed, lowest common denominators.

Thanks for clearing that up for us numbnuts

>>13739324
I liked Empire Star better. The non-linear story telling and slow buildup towards understanding remained me a little about Wolfe. Babel-17 had an interested idea but contained to much worldbuilding and early sci-fi mumbo jumbo for my taste.

>>13739339
Imagine being so insecure about having enjoyed a scifi book that you feel the need to jump through hoops to convince yourself and others that it was actually something totally different. Calm down man they're marketing terms lmao.
"SFF is bad and childish because any books that fit the genre but aren't bad and childish are ackshuamaly something else!" t. first-year english lit student at a third-rate institution

Any good hardsci about the Gas giant's moons? Everyone only writes about Mars and Pluto

>>13739665
That ice stonehenge one

I just finished Stephenson's Snow Crash and Asimov's The Naked Sun.

Snow Crash was really good but I think its ending fell a little flat. It seemed as if they were building it up to a extreme badass ending but it just kinda ended out of nowhere. Still loved the book though. Great introduction to Stephenson, will defintely read more of his.

The Naked Sun was another good Asmovian detective thrill. You can see him start to link the Foundation series, as towards the end of the book he starts to mention sociology more and more often. The killer was wholly unexpected, but not surprising (as with Caves of Steel). I picked up Robots of Dawn as well, but am a little burnt out on Asimov right now so im gonna give it a few.

>>13739780
Correct and perceptive.
Freud approves.

What books have a Dark Crystal feel to them?

>>13739324
>Did you like Empire Star?
I disliked it. It felt too long for its ideas, and the actual story and characters were pretty flat. Some of it felt like the author trying too hard to demonstrate his cleverness than to tell the story properly, like the aside where the narrator explains a conversation was prompted by a transmission, which you could totally work out because they wouldn't have had the conversation otherwise.
>Did you like Babel-17?
I hated it. I found the way it was written painful, hated the main character, disliked the worldbuilding, and didn't care for the plot.
>Do you feel that the worldbuilding was a good complement to the theme of how language control and influence us?
No, I found too much of it too ridiculous. For one thing I was baffled that they could get lost in Earth orbit when their civilisation apparently spanned galaxies. How the fuck does that work?
Learning Babel 17 lets you dodge bullets and shit? Aliens lack a word for "home" and need a massive technical explanation to comprehend it? Aliens can precisely describe a novel technology in have a dozen simple words? That goes well beyond "wacky sci-fi" and well into "bullshit" for me.
>Any other thoughts?
I was made acutely aware of the tendency to find faults in things you dislike.

>>13739892
Antarctica?

>>13740089

Apparently Stephenson's well known for disappointing endings and slipshod pacing. I've only read Snow Crash so I don't now for sure.

>>13740089
Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is a good read...up until page 500 when you just get bored to fuck, all sorts of info dump that you think would be relied upon in the future but just isn't, its oh so aggravating. The premise is excellent but the execution, like you said, falls flat

>>13739339
>actually calling yourself "Raskolnikov"

Is 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' cyberpunk? Does any (other) cyberpunk lit match it?

>>13739324
Should've linked this to the OP.
To be clear, do you mean "collection" or "anthology".
A collection is by a single author and an anthology is by several authors.

>>13740728
Yes, it is.
Subjective.

>>13740815
Either is fine.

>>13739324
I nominate Thieves World

>>13740728
I actually don't think that DADOES is cyberpunk, and if it is it's not a particularly good example of the genre.

All of these are either better than DADOES at being quality novels, "cyberpunk", or both:
>The Demolished Man
>Neuromancer
>Altered Carbon
>Synners
>Islands in the Net

>>13738467
I read "The Lions ...", and found it weak. A lot of people like this book, is quite popular, but I find it dull and kind of lame. The story was promising at the beginning, but through the second half it couldn't capitalized on it.

>>13736489

Paolo Bacigalupi and David Marusek are excellent writers and have very good stories/books dealing with near future events and both began last century. Stay away from the young adult from Paolo, those are hollywood bad. The Wind Up Girl, by Bacigalupi, is awesome. By Marusek, "We were overwhelmed with joy" and "The wedding album" are a must for any sci-fi fan. Also, "Counting Heads" was very enjoyable, and I planning to read it continuation soon.

>>13738484
I just suggested David Marusek's stories and books. You should check it put. There is immortality through science in those books.

>>13740884
>Blade Runner isn't cyberpunk
Well ok then

>>13739339
shut the fuck up, faggot

>>13739324
Looking back through all the previous monthly choices, they are all on the shorter side, relatively speaking so a massive anthology would be out of place. Also I'll avoid single author collections.

Sci-Fi: Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology
Fantasy: Rogues

So many to choose from. I don't mind which.
Others to choose from for others who don't want to look much:
Brave New Worlds
Immortals
Reach for Infinity
Supermen (not about superheroes)

I liked several stories in each of the above
Still many others.

>>13740972
>DADOES and the 1982 film "Blade Runner" have the same artistic vision.

>>13741068

>>13740884
It's proto-cyberpunk.

>>13739324
I nominate McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales(edited by Michael Chabon)

>>13738357
Which sci fi series of stand alone novel is most likely to be true in a Last Starfighter sort of way?

>>13739324
Theres always a lack of John Crowley centred discussion in these threads so I nominate Novelties and Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction.

>>13741284
Nice try, but that isn't relevant to this thread.

>reading revelation space
not done yet but i get the distinct feeling i allowed myself to get memed into starting ANOTHER series that's never going to get finished

>>13739780
>Calm down man they're marketing terms lmao.
Genre distinctions serve a real purpose in the literary and academic communities. They're "marketing terms" only with respect to spoonfeeding slobbering idiots like the people in this thread.

And to the other two fags who responded, suck on this case of nut.

>>13741433

I'd like a comfy series to read during autumn into december as the days get colder

something without gratuitous sex

>>13741428
It's just a trilogy, it has a definite end
The rest are just short story collections or prequels that don't even have to do with the main plot

>>13741478
>It's just a trilogy
reading the fourth book atm
unless you want to say the second book isn't part of the trilogy in which case i'd say pretty based of you

>>13741488
Which second book also cursed digits

>>13741464
night's dawn. beware that bumpy start though. it's tedious as hell but worth it. if i were you i'd start within the next couple of weeks so you're through the beginning by the time autumn comes around
>>13741493
based digits you mean.
chasm city. the worst thing i can say about that book is that you can't skip it because it ties into the main series after all

>>13741533
I didn't read Chasm City and I understood the story just fine

>>13741645
not as well as me

non-native english speaker anon here

is Erikson fucking crazy? I literally have to look up several words in a single chapter. No other english book made me do this.

>>13738448
Son of the Black Sword takes place in Not India.

>>13741728
I remmeber the first book being a bit janky but the vocab seemed pretty normal

Miles Cameron? Big fan.

Can someone recommend strange, atypical fantasy? Pic related

>>13738786

>>13742040
What's your deal, pal?

>tfw I chicken out every time I try to add to my novel

I'm a wreck.

>>13738953
There's no doubt sanderson's a shallow writer, but I don't think that makes him a bad one. He's great at churning out content, which is probably the most difficult part of writing, and people vacuum his content up like popcorn so he clearly has appeal. He's pulp fiction, not arthouse, but then again there's very little arthouse fantasy and what does exist was usually pulp fiction when it was written

>>13738484
Xianxia

>>13738622
The third book was nice. What do you mean it was hated?

>>13738953
Sanderson is based
he will step in and finish the fat fuck's last two books when the fat fuck croaks

first for kvothe

>>13742580
Sanderson will finish this series as well.

>web novels
>girl transmigrated to another world and now can play mobile games irl

Jesus christ

>>13742580
Man fuck Rothfuss, why don't these losers actually write
I remember he wrote the whole thing and then scrapped it wtf

>>13742542
Write short stories instead.

I've seen so many prospective writers, especially of the 4chan variety, fail miserably because they start a book and lose motivation halfway through. They always start to doubt their work, thinking it's not worth continuing, and it's almost impossible to finish it after that point. If you can't even write a short story, then as harsh as it sounds, you should just give up.

>>13742610
Write a web novel

>>13742617
Write pastebin fapfics and post them on /trash/

>>13742607
He didn’t scrap it. His editor did. Because it was especially shit.

>>13742671
Really? Fucking lol it's over

>>13742610
I've written a novel before. Why can't I do it again?

>>13742607
if it's what I think it is, the political stuff is just an excuse. Writing is not fucking easy. It's never fucking easy. Writing either takes a huge amount of discipline or a huge amount of motivation, and the latter is completely unsustainable. Rothfuss wrote two novels in his life, and he wrote them while running on fumes. Once the fumes ran out he became his own enemy because he didn't have the ability to continue.

Maybe I'm projecting, but it feels right. There's a reason many great authors only write a single book

>>13742685
So basically pressure creates diamonds and once they make it, out goes the pressure?

>>13742713
Pressure creates pain and blood and hemmeroids

>>13742685
Oh, no anon. Writing is extremely easy. Every valley girl and edgy teenager is writing their own novels these days, be it sappy romance trash, or edgy self-insert isekais. So they can put "Author!" in their Twitter bio. It's not hard to put words into a text document; everyone's doing it.

Writing well on the other hand, is not. Your problem, I assume, is that the weight of your internal critic is too heavy to bear unless you're running on magical motivation juice and it's stifling you from doing anything, good or bad.

Not everything needs to be your magnum opus. Honestly, the best thing you could ever do for yourself is learn to not give a shit. Get drunk, write trashy grimdark adventure stories, get fucking high, I don't care, just stop caring so much and just let it happen. I'm pretty much always working on two things at once, with one being my "Serious work" when I'm feeling inspired, and the other being my release. If you can't even manage the motivation to write trash, you might just be depressed, or suffering from some form of ADHD. If it's the latter, try turning off your internet for a few days and stop draining your dopamine receptors 24/7. If it's the former, good luck.

Probably a long shot, but is there any books about an adventurer/mercenary retiring to settle down to start a family? Ideally it would be a trilogy that would begin with him starting out his career and ending with him having a family. Totally not my biggest fantasy.

>>13741728
Fantasy authors like to use a lot of archaic/rare words, Erikson does this but he isn't even close to the biggest offender.

>>13742821
Honestly, it's true. I'm pretty sure I've included the word "Atramentous" in every piece I've written.

>>13742542
Unless you hit the literary lottery, your writing wouldn't be able to pay the bills. There's also nothing stopping you from working in obscurity and only being appreciated long after you're unable to enjoy their praise. If you're going to write you have to do it for yourself.

I don't know what I expected.

Recommend me some fantasy books that don't contain any humans. I'll take scifi too but I mainly want fantasy.

>>13742911
This is untrue if you have the determination to shit out generic thrillers once a month, or get commissioned by autistic furfags to write erotic fiction featuring their fursonas. It worked for me, but those were some dark times.

>>13743029
>It worked for me, but those were some dark times.
was the money good?

>>13743068
I swear their pockets are fucking bottomless. Seeing how much artists can make doing comms of furry porn it makes me think I should have gone into art instead.

I ended up making something around 1.2k a month, but I was writing like a fucking machine because it was that or get thrown out onto the streets. It wasn't quite enough to retire on, but was enough to keep me afloat. If you do it enough to get name recognition, you'll be able to charge more, but I quit the moment I wasn't desperate and made sure no one could ever connect the dots.

is the Riftwar Saga something i can listen to while grinding mobs in classic?

>>13743106
wtf do these guys blow their wageslave savings on smut
what sort of crap did you write, if it thousands of words a day?

>>13743029
>This is untrue if you have the determination to shit out generic thrillers once a month.
It's not that easy though, Anon. You have to advertise and market your work, which won't guarantee you'll build a big enough audience. You'll need a large audience as most self published books are under three dollars. At most writing can help subsidize your income.
>Get commissioned by autistic furfags to write erotic fiction featuring their fursonas.
You'd still need to make a name for yourself and have a portfolio of past work, but it is lucrative.

>>13743130
Where do I start off with fur smut? How do I begin?

>>13742911
Not all ambitious writing is motivated by money. I don't need a lot to get by, but external validation on the other hand is a whole other matter

>>13742757
at this point it's not even internal criticism anymore. I just feel anxious looking at my unfinished novel and avoid it because doing so makes the anxiety go away.

>>13743122
About what you'd expect. More or less just random situations where their fursona fucks or gets fucked. Sometimes they'd show me images of some furry creature getting railed in the shower and ask for some sort of story to go alongside it and I'd have to use my imagination to create some scenario that ended in two furries fucking in the shower. Most of them were like that, but rarely they would make longer requests asking for something more like a short story, extremely specific scenarios such as crash-landing on an alien planet and getting adopted into a tribe of dick-girl furries. Non-pornographic requests were EXTREMELY rare. I think I got like two, but they ended up being the most lucrative due to their lengths. One was about a soldier in a regiment to exterminate some furry race of demon cat things who can't live with the murder anymore and runs away with one of the things. Other one was like, some weird cyberpunk thing where all they really gave me to go on was "Cyberpunk furries" so I basically just rewrote the Neuromancer with some flair.

>>13743169
I'm not >>13743106, senpai.

>>13743172
>I don't need a lot to get by, but external validation on the other hand is a whole other matter
Well there's your problem. You need to care less about what other's think, and care more about what you think. Your thoughts and feelings are the only thing you can control. Stop berating yourself to a crowd of no one. As long as you enjoy your writing that should be good enough.

>>13743205
lmfao, good job man.

>>13742789
Bumping my own post. Please no bulli.

>>13739339

Just finished Wise Man's Fear.
Pretty good books
Just started Hyperion - liking it quite a bit.

>>13741433
Can't say I'm impressed by your academic credentials if you haven't figured out that an individual work can fit more than one genre.

>>13742572
Nah, Daniel Abraham will if anyone does.

Are there any genuinely good examples of urban fantasy?
I know generally speaking the whole genre is pretty much considered hot garbage but there has to be at least one hidden gem in there somewhere.

>>13740089
Just Picked up Foundation and Earth but haven't started it yet, is there anything I should read first before starting it?

Is self shilling okay ITT? We're launching the beta of our cyberpunk story Return 0;

>A world saturated in electronics, showered in sparks, smothered in loose wires with bad soldering. The distant "nyan" of a cat girl dies underneath the steady thrum of J-pop bangers. Welcome to The Basement, an underground semen shed where Japan and America sent its collective degenerates post-occupation of the United States. Dean Harrowitz, diabetic and unhappy with life, embarks into its heart of darkness with the black bushido, Marcel Encell, to recover no less than 327 copies of the world's most degenerate doujinshi, or get yiffed trying.

We'd love to hear some feedback on our first thread!

https://sites.google.com/view/autononymous/works/return-0/thread-1?authuser=2

>>13743841

/sffg/, how do you write a theme that's completely internally consistent? I tried to write something about a character was crippled in the same accident that gave him superpowers and it was supposed to be about him realizing that he doesn't need to be a hero, but it ended up turning into a message about overcoming helplessness by accepting help and now it's this weird mish-mash of vaguely similar but unrelated ideas

>>13743791
Try Something More Than Night by Ian Tregillis. It's a little obscure, but it's one of the smoothest mixes of fantasy and scifi I've ever seen in my life. Must be the dude's specialty, considering he's a physicist

I just read about two young elf sluts jumping the border to bet back to fairy land.

>Wandering Inn audiobook
>Listening Length: 43 hours and 10 minutes
Whew

Tight pussy 2 October 22nd
https://www.amazon.com/The-Burning-White/dp/B07WP6J2H1/ref=pd_sbs_129_34?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07WP6J2H1&pd_rd_r=b68734f0-bfef-429b-95fa-a54257b01fe5&pd_rd_w=Pioz1&pd_rd_wg=yatEU&pf_rd_p=43281256-7633-49c8-b909-7ffd7d8cb21e&pf_rd_r=JRXC999JZ177SXHJWEBJ&psc=1&refRID=JRXC999JZ177SXHJWEBJ

>>13744308
I know I'm gonna end up reading this even though after finishing the first three I decided they weren't that good.

>>13743791
It depends on what you mean by "Urban Fantasy".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy
Neil Gaiman as "one of the most important places where Urban Fantasy began
Glen Cook began writing his Garrett P.I. books, which sets a hardboiled detective into a fantasy world.
Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series have been described by Barnes and Noble as "the gold standard"

A lot of Japanese light novels are technically urban fantasy.

>>13742932
I can't tell if it's AI-generated trash, ESL-generated trash, or something steeped for an eternity in the most bitter of irony.

Anyone here read Wheel of Time? Is it worth it?

>>13744368
This must be your first thread.

>>13744368
Yes. No.

Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons by Patrick Rothfuss

...what

>>13742566
It was way too long, nothing happened for the majority of it, already occurred character development was scrapped and repeated just so the author had something to write for some characters (Kal). there are probably other things I've already forgotten

Any word on the next Scott Lynch book? He's been delaying it since three years the fucking tranny, I'm still hoping for a sequel that feels like book 1 did

>>13744368
Garbage book
>>13744527
Garbage author
>>13744281
Garbage webnovel
>>13743414
Super garbage neckbeard

Fuck you all, can we go back to talking about real authors. School has already started so you'd think the general wouldn't be as cancerous, but it appears that the reverse is true.

>>13742757
Indeed, I too am writitng my own shitty isekai trash. Hopefully that'll teach me to write better.

>>13742019
They both lean more into scifi but try The Dragon Masters and The Many-Coloured Land

Post some Stone & Savagery kino.

>>13740898
Paolo Bacigalupi has no clue of physics. If this is where sf is heading, then we're going to lose the entire genre, and a whole generation will grow up with misconceptions about how to do science and engineering.

>>13744235
Was it any good?

>>13745127
>Paolo Bacigalupi has no clue of physics. If this is where sf is heading, then we're going to lose the entire genre, and a whole generation will grow up with misconceptions about how to do science and engineering
Yes. Because when we had ftl drives, artificial gravity, human augmentation and the power sources strong enough to power them, those writers showed their math in the corner and submitted a peer reviewed paper.
Kys you piece of shit. It's fucks like you who ruin scifi, and is helping to continue ruining it. Noose yourself.

>>13745299
There's established physics we know, and there's physics we don't know. Then there's physics writers use so they can have nice plot devices like FTL. We can all dream.

If a writer misrepresents how energy works on this earth to "go green" and save CO2, then he should just shut up and go away. He's not helping. At best he's writing fantasy, but then he should make it clear that his story takes place in a parallel universe with different physics. (Which is also being done and makes for fascinating reads.)

>>13744623
>why can’t people only like what I like

>>13745500
Whenever you are stupid, you start going on about subjectivity.
Those books are terrible, appeal to the lowest common denominator, have no literary value, or original ideas whatsoever, and are in no way better than LitRPG HAREM self-inserts that get 10 posters triggered whenever someone mentions them.
Fuck you, brainlet. "Taste", in this case, is an indicator of your maturity as a reader, and not some inherent quality of you as a person. Discouraging people from reading normie books, and encouraging them to challenge themselves is a good thing.
Also:
Why the fuck would I come here instead of just checking recommendation lists, if all I wanted were namedrops? People come to online discussions forums to have dicussions about objective qualities of the books they read, and come to some sort of a consensus about them, instead just saying "I like this novel" and "OK, but I don't like that book". Objectivity is paramount in such discussions, and anyone who implies that a book is good because it fits their "taste" should be lyncher.
Thanks for reading my blog

>>13743969
why would you want to write or read a book that's only about one thing
that sounds like shit

>>13745801
>this pretentiousness
/lit/ is up there, piss off

>>13745878
tfw you have no counter-argument, so you become St. Peter

>>13738391
>Please keep your tribal and identity politics out of here.

>>13745926
Ironic, coming from one gate-keeping an entire genre. You've got me curious. Post some works you consider to be the pinnacle of SF/F literature, otherwise I'm going to assume you're fishing for (You)s

>>13745801
What are some good books then?
Be the change you want to see in this world and talk about the things you consider good.

>>13742580

Holy shit, every time someone reminds me this series exists I remember how not excited I am for Door of Stone. I'll probably have to read it to keep up with the circlejerk but fuck. I'd almost rather watch as many hours of interracial cuck porn than read about the boy genius with a hard-on for the world's least likeable woman.

>>13745801
>People come to online discussions forums to have dicussions about objective qualities of the books they read, and come to some sort of a consensus about them, instead just saying "I like this novel" and "OK, but I don't like that book".
Hilarious coming from someone who just wrote "garbage [whatever]" with zero elaboration. Your post was pure "OK, but I don't like that book" just said less politely because this is 4chan. I actually agree with your take on the books for the most part, except for Hyperion which is genuinely good, and I suppose the first Lynch book was decent for what it was. But lmao@ going "I want muh objective in-depth discussion" after that post. As far as challenging oneself goes, seems like you're in the wrong thread, because even the best SFF isn't especially challenging for a reasonably literate and intelligent person. Also this is one of the only threads on /lit/ where people don't pretend that they're too good for reading for entertainment, which is actually pretty pleasant. The pointless jockeying to prove how smart and tasteful they are to anonymous internet strangers is simultaneously the funniest and saddest part of this board.

>>13745391
Fagface. You do know that a lot of technology we have today was because kids read what a author wrote, and went on to making it a reality? It wasn't authors looking at what scientists made, then butchering it to a novel. I'm talking about early scifi. If you think scifi wasn't authors writing what they wanted to see happen, and some kid/kids making it his life mission to see it as reality, then you really need to kys. Hardscifi fucks like you is what is killing the scifi genre. I don't even want to read scifi anymore, and when I was small I was fascinated with anything dealing with technology. I would be looking at discovery channel or nat geo and read popular science magazine when others were playing. Your chuckle fuck ass want scifi to be quantifiable science and equations talking about true mathematical theories, instead of dreaming of future what ifs.
You know back in the day when computers took up entire rooms in buildings that fucks like you naysayed that we could have computers that fit in our palms. They naysayed laser beam weapons, they naysayed jetpacks, they naysayed ai(it isn't there as yet, but it's being worked on). You Johnny come lately cunts are trying to mold a genre that was built on speculation and the advancement of the human race into a fucking mathematically and scientifically correct book.
Please dox yourself so someone can take you out.

I just finished this and it's left me needing some hard scifi. The book just has too many weird ass pulls accommodated by moving away from the nebulous technology of the previous books into the realm of magic fuckery.

So, anyone got a recommendation for a good hard scifi read? Ideally cool shit in space, but I'm not picky.

>>13740168
this

>>13746166
Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward

>>13746095
>picture for ants.smol

>>13746166
>continuing the series after the trilogy
It's your fault

>>13746220

It wasn't a bad book, Iron Gold before it was better. I think, fearing he would not meet the expectations of a new series, the author tried to expand in too many directions too quickly and lost much of the tight focus the original series had. It also doesn't help that to achieve this he introduced 4 new perspectives to share screen time with the hero. I cannot blame him for trying and it's not a book I regret reading by any means. There are authors out there who deserve far greater criticism for the sheer lack of effort they've put into another series for the sake of money alone.

>>13746044
>>13746072
>Post some works you consider to be the pinnacle of SF/F literature
Let me post some authors instead, because they are generally very consistent in their writing, and I have read almost everything by them anyways:
Wolfe, Ballard, Disch, Peake, Crowley, Dunsany, Delany, Mieville, Le Guin, Bulgakov, Dick, some of Moorcock, Lafferty, Priest. Some of them are controversial, and my enjoyment varies as well, but no one can deny that there's purpose to their writing. Not didacticism, per se, but something that goes, or at least attempts to go, beyond mindless entertainment.
For me, the pinnacle is probably Peake and Wolfe.
>>13746099
I never claimed that every post has to be an essay. I merely would like to see people go "Should I read [insert a random YA-level high fantasy]", somone responding "yeah, its ok", someone else responding "no, its bad, because cucks" and the topic ending right there.
>except for Hyperion
Hyperion was OK, if overrated. I was insulting Patrick "let me tell you about gays" Rothfuss.
>the best SFF isn't especially challenging
Dhalgren, Gormenghast, and Peace are just a few counterexamples to that. All 3 had been discussed here not that long ago.
>reading for entertainment
desu I am fine with that. The problem is that only some books of "pure entertainment" seem to be allowed here. As soon as you mention Daniel Black, there are 5 Peter's telling you about the chinkshit general. But mention Wheel of Whatever, and Scott Mediocre and everyone deludes themselves into thinking they are somehow better. They are all garbage and it is critical that everyone understands that. The only thing worth mentioning about them are the ways in which they "sratch the itch", fullfill wishes, or are generally comfy in some way. Any sort of 2-sentence long attempt at "Yeah, it's good, I liked [some random thing which isn't actually the real reason they enjoyed the book]" is pointless. WOT has been discussed dozens of time here, and the anon wasn't bringing anything new to the general by asking if it is good.
I am probably being a bit unclear in my writing so let me put it simply: I called them garbage, because their posts achieved nothing of value. The reason why I think they posted that is because they are not being genuine with themselves about what they read being pure entertainment and nothing else.

>>13746272
>I merely would like to see people go
Oops. I meant I *don't* like seeing that.
Also inb4 no Tolkien: fuck Tolkien

>>13745801
Literary value is a meme
I read for enjoyment

>>13746300
>Literary value is a meme
Imagine being so insecure about reading fantasy that you have to declare 2000 years of art and petabytes of academic works on that art to be a meme.

>>13746313
4000 since Ghilgamesh is about that old. The very first story we know of is fantasy.

>>13746313

Imagine being so unapologetically chad about reading fantasy that you have to declare 2000 years of art and petabytes of academic works on that art to be a meme.

>>13746325
As someone who loved Gilgamesh, and prefers it over Odyssey, I really think that Gilgamesh was meant to be an entertaining story rather than being written for literary value. But yeah, I chose "2000" on the spot and it is inaccurate.

>>13746347
>2000 years because MUH BIBLE

>>13746023
There you go again with the identity politics and tribalism.

>>13746272
>Why can't other anons simply acknowledge how superior I am and how inferior they are?

>>13746395
Well, if you are not going to say anything constructive to contest my claims, and just post witty Freudian remarks, I suppose I can just go on feeling superior.

>>13746406
>implying that isn't what you'd do regardless.

>Anyone who disagrees with what I say is gate-keeping my feelings

Why don't you stop gatekeeping dicks with your ass and learn a new word to use, you fucking faggot

>>13746465
Nice to see that you decided to put your tripcode back on.

He's not as smart as me, you can easily tell from his posts

>>13746465
Fuck you, you are a disgrace to the human race, and Dostoyevsky would be ashamed of you.

>>13746482
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodion_Raskolnikov

A poor student with a conflicted idea of himself, Raskolnikov decides to kill a corrupt thread. It is later revealed that he also commits the shitposts as justification for his pride, as he wants to prove that he is "exceptional" in the way Deep&Edgy was. He commits the shitposts, but is so nervous during the shitposting that he makes a few mistakes while anon, and is afraid that he will be caught. His grand failure is that he lacks the conviction of his beliefs to accomplish greatness, and thus declines into madness. After he confesses to the destitute, pious prostitute « Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ », he is exiled from /lit/ to literary journals experiences a mental and spiritual rebirth.

Anti-garbage poster here.
Due to y'all being fucking Sanderson-loving faggots I have decided to start using a trapcode.
From now on I will be actively making this general a less bad place by sharing my wisdom regarding why chinkshit is actually better than Rothfuss, and why you are all worthless. Also I will be endlessly shilling authors I have listed above in hopes of showing you the light.
>>13746482
Cringe

>>13746465
filtered

>>13746560
Congrats on using multiple tripcodes in the same thread.

This is not what I meant by disrupting the status quo.

>>13746572

>>13746571
Damn, I know you can't read his response, but he roasted you sublimely. Everyone is laughing at you RN-- hard as FUCK!

>>13746596
4chan is post-truth.
Maybe the image is edited.
Maybe it isn't.
We'll never know and it doesn't matter regardless.

>>13746596
So there's 2 tards and not just one, gotcha.

>>13746597
No doubt they feel honored that you removed your tripcode to post this for them.

Just got finished with my second read of BotNS. Is it weird that I trust Severain more the second time through? Also, any theories as to what the mandrake in his office at the end was? I completely forgot about that. Was it something like a baby Erebus/Abaia?

>>13746593
Well you should have thought about the consequences of keeping those garbage-charts in the sticky before everyone here turned into such brainlets that a revolution became essential.
>>13746614
Unlike him I will disappear as soon as someone proves me wrong, and this statement is actually not a troll. But that is probably not gonna happen, cuz those who oppose me are insecure brainlets who think their sarcastic jokes are somehow contributing anything to the general.

>>13746630
No, just weird Wolfe shit. I remember Sev trying to form a kinship/bond with it, but the thing tells him to fuck off and then to break the glass it was in, killing it. I think it's just reinforcing the idea he is lonely and alone and will be so for the rest of his life.

>>13746637
Apparently this is how a messiah spends their time because there's nothing more worthwhile they could be doing.

>>13746220
I like that Iron Gold took a big shit on the trilogy's typical happy post-revolution ending in favor of something that rings a bit more true.

>>13738484
bakker's perspective on that is really good

Whoah I guess I hit a nerve making fun of his limited vocabulary

but ok man keep arguing about whether one set of sub-rate non-entities are better than another set at producing the intellectual equivalent YA fiction with jet packs, you can also be the gatekeeper holding the autismos in the one thread

>>13746651
This general is my child, I care about it like God cared about his son Jesus "Big J" Christ.
Yes, it was me who created this general all those years ago.
>>13746666
Based

>>13746648
That's basically what happened. It tried to convince Sev that it wasn't a living thing on its own and that it's life was just an extension of his power. But his power is over time, so that would mean that if that were the case it either was or would be alive at some point. And the only psychic things in the book are Erebus/Abaia, which is why I made that connection. It says that breaking the glass would kill it, but I'm not sure about that.

>>13746672
I can't tell you if deny using responses like everyone else out of a sense of power from "withholding yous" or if you are entirely new and incompetent and don't know how to do so.

>>13746692 cont.
Also, one of the other things mentioned as being in the office with it was the "emerald bench," which I think is supposed to be the "emerald tablet," the thing that has all of the secrets of alchemy written on it. Having just read Peace, I know that Wolfe is really into the lore of alchemy, so I think there's some connection there. Not sure what, though. But I do think it's some bioengineered or alien creature.

Is pic related any good.Thoughts?

>>13746637
One sperg throwing a tantrum does not a revolution make

>>13746722
looks like a Kingkiller ripoff

>>13746703
This board is so fucking garbage that saying that hes entirely new is a fucking compliment
>>13746672
3/10 trolling, no subtlety at all, I miss Quentin

Tales From the Flat Earth is better than LotR just on prose alone.

>>13746473
They're very obviously different people. I suspect Raskolnikov would sooner cut off his own ballsack than put Bulgakov on a list of "Best SFF writers" like the other guy did. One is too insecure to admit any novels he thinks are good are SFF, the other just seems to feel that it's annoying when people who read Rothfuss, Lynch etc. for entertainment pretend it's less shit than litrpg/"chinkshit" stuff.
I'd be inclined to disagree with both, because a book can be both good and SFF, and given what litrpg/chinkshit I've been exposed to I'd say that there's a meaningful quality gap between it and popcorn-entertainment tier SFF. I wouldn't call either Mission Impossible Fallout or Transformers Age of Extinction the height of cinema, but I would sure as shit be less embarrassed to admit to enjoying MI:F.
I am open to the possibility that I've only read below-average chinkshit but I've tried to give things recced here a fair shot.

>>13746729
I have a lot of free time and a VPN, fight me garbageman
Notice how everyone started talking about Wolfe already, must be my influence.

>>13746740
I released a decade and a half before it though

>>13746740
It was 13 years old by the time the first Kingkiller book came out.
>>13746722
Honestly I wasn't a huge fan. The only Wurts I've really liked was the Empire trilogy and one of her standalones that I can't remember the name of.

>>13746746
>I miss Quentin
>missing an edgy 14yr old

Never read a novel that is too old or too young for you to want to fuck if it were a person. This is the secret recipe to enjoying fiction.

>>13746754
Yes, there's a substantial quality gap generally speaking, but if you read purely for entertainment why not go all the way through and just read whatever makes you entertained, with no regard to stuff like "quality"? For high-quality LitRPG I'd recommend "Worth The Candle" web serial. Some chinkshit is good enough that after a while you realize that the only reason it seems of lower-quality than Western S&S and similar is that the cultural gap and the cliches being different makes the nonsense and garbage easier to spot. Cradle, ISSTH, Release That Witch would be my recommendations.
Also, Raskolnikov is quite clearly a total troll.

>tfw when you are watching two tripcodes having hatesex with each other

>>13746829
Is this cyberpunk?

This is now an

>"""""""Animal Fiction""""""

thread.

What's your favourite AF novel guys? I personally quite like Watership Down or Redwall, really well written, but probably the best

>"""animal fiction""""

novel I've ever read was Animal Farm, awesome world-building. How the different animals were, like, different parts of society or some shit, and they could talk to each other like humans? Genius. Powerful ideas! Orwell was a really excellent AF writer.

>>13746764
We started talking about Wolfe because I finished reading a Wolfe book today
Feel free to talk about what you think the relationship between alchemy and the religious themes in his work is though because I still haven't totally made the connection, other than the obvious ones

>>13746868
You've already imploded.
That was quick.

>>13743824
It ruins the series. Stop at Foundation's Edge at the end of the climax chapter, and make up your own autistic headcannon.

>>13746812
I'd say I don't go 'all the way' because at a certain point of popcorn-tier, lowering the quality any further makes it less entertaining (the film example in my previous post serves as an example of dumb enough for fun vs. too dumb to be fun). Obviously reading for entertainment is still reading for entertainment, but it's a pretty natural reaction to at least be surprised when someone enjoys something you personally find too bad to wring any entertainment out of. Even if what they're doing is different from what you do only in degree, not nature. I don't think it's realistic to expect "my fun guilty pleasure > your shameful shitty guilty pleasure" to go away any time soon.
The cultural gap has been one of the redeeming features of chinkshit for me actually, as it can create protagonists with a pretty alien mindset and values. My main issues have come down to writing+translation quality and the inescapable sense that I'm reading a video game which would be more fun to play as an actual video game. Will check out your recs however.

>>13738467
Can't speak for any of his other stuff but The Summer Tree was so cliche and poorly written I dnf, which is something I very rarely ever do

>>13740168
The Green Sky Trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

>>13741728
Stephen Donaldson is bad for doing this, and also some Culture books as well get overly verbose.
>>13742019
I would second the Pliocene Epic and also recommend Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

>>13746877
I'm just dumbing it down to a level you mongoloids can appreciate. The idea that Bulgakov belongs on a sci-fi list because someone "does a science" is simply ridiculous and embarrassing, for everyone involved.

The intellectually disabled people who read sci fi are just going to be bored reading Bulgakin because they're not intelligent enough to engage with the ideas and political issues he's addressing, and that is what the novel is principally about. It seems retarded to have to say it loud to other human beings on a literature board, but did you know the whole part about turning a dog into a man was really a just vehicle for more important ideas? If the animals in Animal Farm talked because they were "did a science" would it suddenly be speculative fiction? Of course not, and it's just a waste of time to label it like that.

So you are just doing a disservice to to all sorts of readers, both able-bodied and subhuman, with this slanderous disambiguation. In the best case scenario, giving you all benefit of the doubt. Otherwise you are sneakily trying to appropriate social capital in the same way that cunts and fags do by strong-arming literature as LGBTQ or Women's lit.

>>13746999
Based on this post, it seems that you only believe that certain ideas and political issues ought to be allowed to be addressed as well.

>>13739324
>Did you like Empire Star?
>Did you like Babel-17?
>Which one, if any, did you prefer?
I liked them both. I did prefer Empire Star, as >>13739735 say the non linear narration and buildup was nice, I might want to reread it in the future. Babel-17 was not as good. The sequence in the middle, after Butcher was introduced, was the best part of the novel. I feel like the story suffered from worldbuilding by namedropping.
>Did reading them together enhance the experience?
Not really. Empire Star had no effect on Babel-17 outside of some additional world building. I guess Jewel was not actually breaking the 4th wall, since it was addressing fictional readers, and not us?
>Do you feel that the worldbuilding was a good complement to the theme of how language control and influence us?
Not really. It could have been but it was to extensive and didn't really work with the theme, it was just there beside it. I wish more time had been spent on the traitor subplot, exploring how Rydra sabotaged her own mission and hid it from herself.
>Was it autism?
Of course.
>Any other thoughts?
I should learn another language.

I nominate The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories by Wolfe.

>>13746272
>Delany
You just outed yourself faggot. We know now that you're the fag that was pushing delany the past few months.

>>13746999
>The intellectually disabled people who read sci fi
Question their taste by all means, but intellectually disabled? I guarantee that if you visit a STEM department at any top university you'll find a substantially greater number of science fiction readers than literary fiction readers. Pretty much the only high-intelligence specialization where I wouldn't expect that to hold true is philosophy. Unsophisticated perhaps, but not intellectually inferior. Average would-be literati are just midwit strivers.

>>13746385

Pic related, its (you) and your tribe.
Also, Eragon is such a perfect masterpiece Christopher Paolini never needs to write a book a gain and hes definately not a lazy piece of shit.

>>13746722

Its written by janny

>>13747093
Congrats on telling me what my tribe is and furthering the cause of identity politics and tribalism.

>>13745299
So? The books deals with genetics, not with energy transfer. If you have a complaint about people using stupid animals as the best way to produce energy, then think that there is a global conspiracy to keep people away from true technology. Now enjoy the fucking book.

BTW, I get pay to do science, so I can complain a lot about writers not knowing about science, but guess what? I just enjoy the ifs in the book, which is the point of a sci-fi

>>13747093
haha le soi faec you owned that libtard xD

>>13747084
>I guarantee that if you visit a STEM department at any top university you'll find a substantially greater number of science fiction readers than literary fiction readers.

Indians don't read and for them sci-fi is having a working toilet, so again I find myself having to re-iterate the point that the mere fact that a novel has a "science" thing in it is not adequate grounds to call something sci-fi.

And this gay little "midwit" label thing you have going in the other threads is pathetic and uninspired by the way, only a shitwit would post something so dumb.

>>13747205
>my strawmen are better than your strawmen

>>13747038
>The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories by Wolfe
Kindly nominate another book. We've already read two books by Wolfe this year and it will be disqualified.

>>13747354
Imbecile! In that case I nominate Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang.

>a tripfag ruining a thread
imagine my shock

Name a bigger drop in quality in a series

>>13747122
I think you replied to the wrong post, faggot.

>>13747483
Just report them if they are breaking rules.

>>13747570
I did, shame on me

>>13738358
>Game of Thrones meets Black Panther in this debut epic fantasy about

>>13747553
Dune prequels

>>13739038
>http://greatsfandf.com/authors-full-list.php
This site is painful. The guy loves Tolkien without a single shred of understanding ("we are better off to think of The Hobbit as LOTR writ small") and, concurrently with loving Tolkien, dismisses authors like PKD on the basis of clumsy prose. On that note, there are practically no New Wave authors on the list, which is just misrepresentative.

Also, in his Tolkien essay he recommends The Hero With a Thousand Faces. That alone makes me wary of sending newbies there under the pretense they're reading someone who knows his shit. Reading

>>13747932
Campbell is interesting but discreted. Good way to write a story though.

Anyone read No Moon to Pray To? It sounded interesting from the prologue that's up in youtube but it seems to be pretty obscure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3hn9FdNtZ4

>>13747553
The sequel to Blood Song.

>>13738357
What's a good action fantasy series that isn't too demanding to read? I just finished the dresden files and kinda want something similar.

Are there any books that have The Great Filter as a theme or topic?

>>13748297
Codex Alera by the same author is the definitive marketable, unchallenging action high fantasy

>>13748333
I don't know what the great filter is. When I googled that a bunch of book recommendations showed up. Start there.

>>13748297
Cradle if you want xianxia
Felix Castor series if you want more YA.

>>13748715
A theory as to if we are to advance as a civilization/species a "filter" that allows us to move to that next step or stops us from advancing occurs

>>13748715
Look at what is going on in the modern west, that is the great filter in action

>>13748755
Meant Urban Fantasy not YA, my mistake.

>>13743791
The Adventures of Lazarus Gray by Barry Reese and Reese's stuff in general. It's not EXACTLY Urban Fantasy (it's really modern Pulp), but fantasy stuff does happen in urban environments so I'd say it counts.

>>13748777
That isn't correct.
The "Great Filter" is a theoretical concept that attempts to partially explain the lack of observed life in the universe. It's unclear if we've passed through it 100s of millions of years ago or if it's yet to occur.

>>13748333
You didn't specify GOOD ones, so Phyl-Undhu by Nick Land. It touches on the Great FIlter and a few other common accelerationist motifs (specifically Roko's Basilisk and the idea which I think doesn't have a catchy name that capitalism is an alien invasion from the future), using Egan-esque VR as a framing device. It also has a few embarassingly bad attempts to mimic Borges' style and all the nuance is crushed when one of the protagonists mentions the Great Filter by name.

For what it's worth, you should probably read this rather than that: https://zerohplovecraft.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/the-gig-economy-2/

They're pretty much both ripping the same Borges short story and borrowing accelerationist imagery as a source of horror, but in that one it's done far less clumsily. And before you read THAT, read the original by Borges (which obviously doesn't have anything to do with the Great Filter but is a far superior execution of everything else): http://art.yale.edu/file_columns/0000/0066/borges.pdf

>>13748810
>>>/pol/

>>13749246
Those are simply conspiracies not "accelerationist motifs".

>>13749246
I looked at the zerohplovecraft
It is equally terrible as both fiction and nonfiction.
Truly there are many who wander lost in the dark.

>>13749270
I have trouble believing that, since Nick Land more or less wrote the book on accelerationism and the guy whose blog I linked is an over-educated neoreactionary who has MOST LIKELY read Land even if the ending to that story didn't make it blindingly obvious.

Whenever I see someone unusually articulate in the internet rambling about killer AI from the future replacing humanity, and this being not only likely but an inevitable and ultimately good outcome that we should all be working towards, I tend to assume "accelerationist" rather than "batshit". There may be significant overlap between the two.

>>13749318
Roko's Basilisk is a Rationalist conspiracy.

>>13749333
The LessWrong-y rationalist movement has more overlap with the Dark Enlightenment types than you might think. That's why people make fun of them by calling them technocrats.

I brought up Roko's basilisk because there's a guy in Phyl-Undhu who's freaking out about being punished "for things he has thought" by a being from the future, and since the rest of the story illustrates a grim sci-fi setting with the central theme of human extinction, I'm guessing that's a reference to Roko's basilisk

>>13749379
It's all idiocy regardless that I tend to avoid most of the time.

Anyone suggest any good gritty fantasy/grimdark books? I've recently read the black company series and that was amazing, also just finished the ravens mark series which was good too

>>13749404
In that we agree, but to be fair an anon asked about literature about the Great Filter and that was the most applicable answer I knew.

Blindopraxia and to an extent Three Body Problem also fit but those are already memed to death in this thread

What is some fantasy with beautiful friendships? Pic related is the nicest character I have ever read.

>>13749479
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

>>13749479
I think that YA on average tends to have better friendships than adult fiction, and better romances because they're born from real friendship instead of belligerent sexual tension. harry potter is the obvious example, though it's a shame harry didn't end up with hermione given that harry and ginny had barely any interactions with each other.

I also really liked how Tavi's relationships were in codex alera. Max and Ehren were bros for life. shame about what's her face

>>13749435
You could try R. Scott Bakker's 'Prince of Nothing'.

>>13749760
>R. Scott Bakker's 'Prince of Nothing'.

I couldnt find a .mobi of it anywhere

>>13749805
There are a bunch on libgen

this general seems very mean and filled with drama compared to the last time I was here (before gene wolfe passed away)

What have you all been reading? Any cool mindfucky sci-fi books?

>>13738357
I wish Mark Lawrence and his books were more popular here, I think they are excellent. The guy leaves hidden a lot of small and interesting tidbits that you are bound to miss even in rereads so discussion would help to bring out those mysteries to light.

For example, whats the Engine of Wrong?

>>13748293

To be honest that entire series wasn't great. I remember finishing it and wondering what the series was about. I was so bored that by the end of it I couldn't tell.

>>13749805
You are extremely bad at finding stuff then. Just use IRC like it says in the sticky. #ebooks on irchighway is a great choice. If you really can't find it, I'll upload it for you if you respond to this post.

>>13748333
i guess you can say revelation space

>>13749885
The parallel of both Jorg and Jal when they meet in the tavern drunk are just amazing.

/sffg/, if I have a whole big scene early on where the MC struggles to create a fireball to hammer in his uselessness, is it going to seem like a cop-out if he doesn't successfully cast fireball in the final battle? I don't want him to have that kind of power.

>>13750219
No. But make him falling the spell do something

>Read some amazing books
>Shit, why I cant do this myself? Books are fucking fun
>Have a ton of ideas but never quite manage to translate from my brain to paper
>Produce mediocre job
Whats a way to become better? I feel I am way more fluid and have a bigger lexicom in my thoughts than when I put it into paper.

>>13750219

What's the point of him failing the fireball in the ultimate battle? Is it to prove the bad guy right? To show he is consumed by self doubt? When you repeat a scene like this it needs to be emblematic of a greater struggle. So what is the greater struggle?

>>13750241
Originally, I wanted him to figure out a trick to create a fireball by doing something that's closer to his area of expertise (turning a bunch of snow to saltpeter and then setting it on fire), but that takes way too much explanation, is even more OP, leaves several plot holes and also violates the laws of physics in a way I'm not okay with. (magic making saltpeter is fine, but magic making saltpeter flammable on its own is bullshit)

at this point, my only other idea is that he completely burns up the remainder of his pre-climax power boost to no sell the villain's last resort wall of ice, but even then I have to make it clear it's not something he'd normally be able to do.

>>13750284
when I say "he doesn't successfully cast fireball in the final battle" I don't mean he would fail, I mean he just wouldn't try to use it.

>>13750332

Well if he has a variety of magical powers, I don't see why choosing not to use one of his powers would be a cop-out. Provided he has good reason. If I'm understanding correctly, you don't intend on giving him such power anyway. So what's the problem?

been reading BotNS and I kek'd when Severian lies to Thecla about how he planned to save her the night before, right before he gives her the knife to kill herself
like, if she's gonna be dead anyway why even lie about it bro lmao

>>13750332
>Originally, I wanted him to figure out a trick to create a fireball by doing something that's closer to his area of expertise (turning a bunch of snow to saltpeter and then setting it on fire), but that takes way too much explanation,
Are you writing Shirou by any fucking reason?

>>13750417

>le kill my younger self because I've become disillusioned man

Thanks for reminding me this garbage exists

I am trying to write a book but always after 20 pages or so I just scrap it because I find my work boring.

What makes a good book? How do you write a good book? How do you write something interesting? How do you even fucking define interesting

When a book has you hooked is it due to the characters? Is it because you wanna know what happens next? Why do you keep reading? Why I am so good at analyzing and criticizing stuff but I cant create for the life of me? God someone help me

>>13750437
>garbage
Secondaries go and stay go

>>13750452

>/a/ on lit

I love it when you fags expose yourselves like this

>>13750375
his issue is that he's pretty awful at using magic, and the small amount of magic he can do isn't combat-oriented. Arguably the whole plot revolves around him trying to prove himself, but the scene where he fails to conjure a fireball is meant to demonstrate that however much he wants to be a war mage it's not what he's cut out for. Of course, I can't simply have him fall into a support role instead of beating the main villain. That would be an even bigger cop-out

>>13750417
I've never even watched that series. Full disclosure, I was picturing that episode 19 of Kimetsu No Yaiba when I was thinking about this

>>13750457

Sounds like you need to create an interesting way for him to beat the villain. If he can't outfight him, he's going to have to outsmart him.

Explain this book to me.

>>13750457
Shirou is a mage but he sucks at it, people are born with a fixed amount of mana and he has none at all, and with the little mana he has he can only use one type of spell due to his fucked up experiences.

The thing is that he is fucking broken due to extremely special and specific circumstances allows him to do beyond broken stuff with his one spell with endless info dumping and clauses and loopholes.

What I am saying its not dump one route because it needs too much explanation and so, some readers find that endearing.

>>13750456
>Nooooo, dont talk about anime in my anime website

>>13750483
>Nooooo, dont talk about anime in my anime website
4chan having been founded to discus anime doesn't mean that every board is fair game for anime posting.

>>13750496
I wasnt anime posting you dumb fuck, anon there described a character that was very similar to an anime character and that might help him get some ideas

>>13750483

>Nooooo, dont talk about anime in my anime website
>you can literally report posts for being off-topic

Shouldn't you be watching shounenshit episode 349 instead of demonstrating your lack of critical thinking here?

>>13750384
Daily reminder that Severian lies all the time.

>>13750503
I was replying to your conceit, dangus.

>>13750443
Have you read good books? What made them good to you? Me personally, I love Wolfe for his optimism; I think his books are great because they convince you that there is something to the human spirit even if you don't believe in the same things he does. Other people might say Hyperion is great because it manages to tie a challenging storytelling technique together with an interesting and imaginative world. Some think Le Guin is great because they captured the spirit of maturity and put it in a new light. Personally, I can't stand Le Guin's books. You can't please everyone, no matter who thinks you're great. You have to pick what you want to try to do, and if you aim high enough and do it well, you might even manage to become great in your own mind.

>>13750504
>shounenshit episode 349
That some big talk coming from the fantasy and sci-fi general, since most of the board does not consider said genres to be literature

>>13750465
I sort of have that already, the problem is it doesn't work for the final blow.

In the setting, one of the ways to become more powerful is to bond to a strong familiar, but the MC is insulted when this is initially suggested to him, because he can't prove himself if someone is helping him. Little does he realize the main villain gained his power by forcibly bonding to thousands of weaker familiars so it's a sign of growth when in the final battle he steals one of the villain's familiars out from under his nose at a critical moment causing it to backstab him

>>13750532

Maybe his support magic lets him broadcast his plight to all of the familiars. Extenuating circumstances make his plea convincing enough and the villain ends being eaten by his own hounds. You're in control of the world. You're allowed to rewrite and make additions to the fundamental laws of the universe if you want to make a point. Then you just have to refine it and file it down so it doesn't look contrived.

>>13750574
>make the mc so pathetic the villain's mind slaves help him.

I think i'll just go with the fireball

>>13750592

Who said he had to be pathetic doing it? He's offering freedom and revenge. If you're adamant it about him having no fighting magic, and that he has to defeat the villain one-on-one, then you're going to have to be clever about it.

>>13749805
You’ll want to look for The Darkness that Comes Before. Prince of nothing is the name of the first trilogy.

>>13749885
Fuck you, I bet you're the mother fucker that convinced me to read it. Fuck you you son of a bitch.

>>13750670
Where did Jorg touched you anon? Why didnt you like it?

>>13750603
I'm just shitposting now anon. it actually is possible he could make the main villain's familiars eat him, and with a tiny amount of magic he's already good at to boot. Just won't look as cool as blasting through his last resort and explosively decapitating him with a broken blade. okay, maybe I'm letting kimetsu no yaiba influence me too much

>>13750678
not him but prince of thorns is the fastest i've ever dropped a book in my life. it honestly reads like some teenage edgelord fanfic and not in an enjoyable way either.
if you're out here trolling people into reading it props to you though

>>13750704
>it honestly reads like some teenage edgelord fanfic and not in an enjoyable way either.
Frankly it seems you missed the point of the entire book but whatever really.

>>13750709
>whatever really
agreed, the less time spent talking about those books the better. let's stop

Are there any good fantasy adventures that feature a bit of romance and none of the drama usually associated with epic or dark fantasy?
I just recently read Codex Alera and i enjoyed it a great deal and i want more of the same. The dynamic between Tavi and Kitai was great and their relationship advanced organically throughout the story without detracting from it and while they did fight here and there it was little things that quickly got resolved. I guess what im looking for are "feel good" stories if i had to find a word for it, stories about going on an adventure and finding love along the way.
Whenever i search for something that contains romance all i find usually is smut aimed at women and thats really not what im looking for.

>>13750721
But they are good.

Fast, someone apply and delete these threads forever.

>>13739324
>l the other cases
Enjoyed second half of the novel. Really liked the way he used language to differentiate people and their plexicity levels, along with the introduction of fancy simplex people.
I only read the one book, which I guess sucked for me.

>>13739324
How about HG Wells Collection?

>>13750741
I think I get what you mean, I honestly couldn't care less for most of the romantic drama bullshit inserted into most fiction;


If you enjoy a kind of positive, natural and organic relationship, I recommend reading the Expanse Novels. Holden x Nagata is such an organically developed and positive, dramafree relationship you wouldn't believe it to be possible.

Then again maybe thats because its two men writing coop and using the characters for their self insert.

Then there's Alex Kamal x Bobby Draper, also great; and of course Avasarala and her Husband.

Somehow I think, Women Authors suck at this. Their relationships always devolve into pettiness, miniscule problems are overblown and previously established character arcs are reset at a whim or broken totally.

Maybe only Men can write true Romance? <3

>>13751362
phoneposting, sorry for the fucked up linebreaks.

>>13751362
i wish i hadn't seen the tv show. somehow i missed the fact that it's based on a book series until after i'd seen a couple of episodes so i kept going. i don't think i could get enjoyment out of that romance if i read the books because of the ugly ass actress they cast as nagata in the series
>>13750741
it's not fantasy but lost fleet is exactly the kind of feel good story you want + it has a romance.

>>13751362
Read the Expanse and i liked it. Im looking more for fantasy though rather than sci-fi. Also i agree to a certain point with your assessment. It seems women authors have a tendency to just complicate seemingly simple things just for the sake of complicating them.

>>13751400
Yeah not really looking for sci-fi however since so few recommendations came up so far ill get the series anyways. Thank you. Havent actually ever read anything from Jack Campbell so im diving in blind.
Ill probably repost >>13750741
in the new thread for more replies anyways.

>>13751417
best of luck. for what it's worth i agree completely with your take and found myself enjoying codex alera a lot because of it. i did try hard to think of a fantasy series that fits your bill but i couldn't come up with anything.

lost fleet is no great literature, but it's a really enjoyable page turner and the space battles are really fun.

Thoughts on Book of the Long Sun?

New Thread
>>13751497
>>13751497
>>13751497

>>13741728
I'm a non-native english speaker too, and didn't have any trouble understanding Erikson's weird words, except maybe like 5 words per book