/lit/ - Literature

Post what you are reading or your currently yearly reading progress.
>this on-topic post will receive 0 replies

General Discussion & Group Reads
https://discord.com/invite/KWPCM7m

current readalong: ship of fools
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24827.Ship_of_Fools

short review: think of it as an enjoyable creepy horror movie that doesn't really make sense if you think about it, but is still fun. if you want something smart, go read blindsight.

>>16616179
Halfway thru a reread of picrel. I read it a long time ago and really liked it. I've aged, it's aged. The tech is old but she consulted with actual computer geeks unlike Gibson so it's more authentic. There's references to actual Boomer music like Bo Diddley and Lou Reed. One made up slang adjective is repeated too many times. But I remember the ending is really good so I'll keep going.

I don't recall the author nor the title, but the premise is this:

Earth is invaded by furry monke ayys that has conquered other races. But human are smarter than monke. Human has:
>automatic weapons that fires bullets like a garden hose, not 25 at a time
>bayonets
>barbed wire

There's some kind of truce where humans spread into the empire, bringing along
>gommunism
>hippie culture
>public transportation

The story ends with the ayys discovering a planet where there's beings that are less devloped than humans but even more intelligence. Given what the humans did with the empire, the story ends open.

>>16616179
No pic, but I'm restarting Amber from the beginning since I sort of forgot I was reading it a while ago.

Has anyone read Kim Stanley’s mars series? Red mars, green mars, blue mars, etc? Are they hard sci fi and are they worth it

>>16616514

What's your opinion on the Time Patrol series?

>>16616179
Halfway through Children of Time. Sci-fi spider society.

i think he was great in seveneves

If you want some Dark fantasy (not especially grim, just dark) try picking up Fire and Sword, by Dylan Doose.

>>16617189
I'd rather read a female than this.

>>16616158
Reading Book of the New Sun for the first time and having a hard time not getting filtered by Sword of the Lictor. I loved the playful stylistic stuff of Claw of the Conciliator, but so far Sword has been reading like Tolkien and I'm missing the previous styles.

>>16616179
Re-read Children of Time, it was better the second time. Got through 120 pages of Children of ruin and it hasn't kicked off at all.

>>16616158
Does anyone have a site where i can pirate Halo: shadows of reach audiobook, that just came out?

Fuck
E
William
Brown

For not saying shit to his reader and being a horrible author with no PR skills and horrendous marketing capacity.

>tfw reading on Kratom makes me feel like back when I was a child
I wish I could get that comfy/focused normally while reading again. Do you guys do anything special to get comfy before reading? Have a special spot or music?

>>16617221
Children of Time also has an extremely slow burning first 200 pages.

>>16617229
The audiobook is $20, don’t be a poor fag about it, you probably eat more junk food per month than the book costs

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PfAWReBmxEs

Child in time, the theme song for children of time

I don’t really care for ‘spider aliens’ it sounds gay but so did blindsight having a vampire and it turned out to be alright

So maybe I’ll drop the 25-30 and buy it

>>16617400
No way fag.

>>16617424
They're not really alien spiders. Basically, mankind is terraforming distant planets and introducing a nanovirus into the atmosphere designed to speed up evolution of primates. Mankind and Earth implode due to conflicting ideologies, and thousands of years later the last remaining humans arrive in the solar system of one such planet on an ark ship guided by now ancient star charts of a long dead empire. The virus has mutated and affected all sorts of different life, most notably arachnids. The planet is basically infested with highly intelligent and rapidly evolving jumping spiders. Also ants.

>>16614936
Ship of Fools - Part 3

A Veronica look-alike apparently is good enough. Seemed out of place to me.

> take the ship with us
What a brilliantly terrible idea.

Seems the Church were the real historians.
Why was Earth the only one not deleted?
Veronica may be alluding to the "Dark Night of the Soul"
The Christ scene was weird. This was overall more religious than I expected it to be.
Less horror as well. Mostly suspense & atmosphere.

>"I sense an anticlimax approaching," said Par
You're not the only one. It's always a mystery to me whether statements like these are self-referential foreshadowing.

> S.C.
Sarah Connor.

So that was Francis's purpose.
What a sight to see.
I was baffled when they didn't immediately make the Antioch connection.
The "old woman" is the only time we see the aliens, assuming the others are even the same.
The gravity attack seemed like a bad way to kill someone, but whatever. Was it needed to kill Veronica? I don't know, but it happened all the same.
What a plan to solve their problems.

> incomprehensibly stupid
Here's a silly theory. Maybe they thought it was too much effort to seek out prey and their plan all along was to be taken along as they were going to do but it didn't quite work out. I don't know what the plan was with the "old woman". Whatever it was, it didn't work out at all. Maybe their warp drive was broken and needed to hitch a ride.

> i wasn't convinced the aliens were malicious until they prevented undocking
desu, the main reason I suggested this was for exactly this reason though it didn't go as planned. I hoped you'd put forth a defense of the aliens until the end and I could tell you that the same thing was going to happen to you again. Considering the nature of the book I assumed that the aliens were evil from the 1st page, though that's my default assumption for most books.

> conflicted 4 stars
yeah, idk, I'll think it over. Probably 3.5 rounded up, mostly because it didn't payoff well enough.

>>16616179
30,851 pages = 273 pages per book on average. So, mostly shorter books overall. Anything not prose has been excluded.
What a year it's been and will continue to be. I don't think next year will be anywhere as much. It's also possible it could be more, but that's much less likely.

>>16616158
Good job removing the Discord from the OP you tranny faggot. Thanks for doing what I told you to do. Sadly you will still never pass as a woman

>>16616183
Oh wait just kidding looks like this is still being allowed. OK I'll post the superior one: https://discord.com/invite/FXDaKEy

>>16617181
I like the part where he sacrifices himself so Hillary Clinton can live.

>>16616179
Great high fantasy.

>>16618209
That cover is fucked on multiple levels not evening addressing the deviantart tier drawing
Also the title sucks
Also dusty ridgeman sounds like a gay cowpoke name

>>16618231
>Also dusty ridgeman sounds like a gay cowpoke name
Uhhhh, based?

Kaladin is the most based fantasy character of this century

Is Book of the Long Sun worth reading? I've read Book of the New Sun and Urth of the New Sun. I greatly enjoyed them, but I'm a bit unsure of whether I'll like the change of protagonist. I like Severian, his backstory choices he made and how he approaches the events he faces. Tell me whether BotLS is good and if its protagonist is worth anything.

>>16618467
I wish he were less moody. When he's in chad mode he's great, but when he's seething and brooding he's insufferable.

>>16618477
>but I'm a bit unsure of whether I'll like the change of protagonist
Hmm I wonder if there's a way to find that out...

>>16618477
I read Long Sun after my second BotNS read so it felt weird reading a third person omniscient point of view. Still, it's a great book on its own and Silk has a lot of Severian, from his speech to his beliefs, except it's much straight-forward story. Also there's none of that obscure vocabulary.
Long Sun and Short Sun are great books.

>>16616179

>>16617354
>rent free
>laughing all the way to the bank

>>16618209
This isn't how to do marketing correctly Dusty.

>>16618467
>Loser dweeb written by a man who has never held the hand of a woman
Nah

>>16616179
I can't take anyone who reads chink shit seriously.

>>16618868
No idea what you are talking about Alice.

>>16618895
Sanderson is married and has 3 kids. Nice projection though.

>>16616179
I don't know why people go through the effort to manage this crap. It's so much clicking and data entry for so little reward. I get wanting to have a list of books you've read, but exact dates for when you read them and all that other stuff? It's basically minutia for people more concerned with metadata than data.

>>16616179
Huh? It's one click to add a book. Are you a 60 year old boomer who doesn't understand computers?

Was Juss unironically retarded?

>tries to take Carcë with a tiny raiding party, all of whom die horrible deaths
>goes on an expedition with nearly 2,000 soldiers, gets all but 300 killed before they even get off their boats (these remaining soldiers also die almost immediately
>leaves his country completely defenseless, allowing an unchallenged enemy nation to destroy most of his castles, plus rape and murder untold thousands of his subjects
keep in mind he accomplished absolutely nothing in his journey aside from learning that he had to go back the entire way

The only reason his country wasn't entirely annihilated was because the Witchland generals were too busy trying to backstab each other to do a competent job of waging a war.
The only explanation I can think of to explain his abysmal decisions was that Ouroboros lowered his IQ by about 70 points and it just never gets mentioned.


god this book is a fucking slog

>>16619094
Huh? It's one click to add a book. Are you a 60 year old boomer who doesn't understand computers?

>>16619094
I don't really use the date functions. I do add books to shelves but my shelves have grown and I didn't bother to recategorize prior books. You really don't need to put a lot of effort into Goodreads if you don't want to.

Is the Terra Ignota series any good?

>>16619110
It's more that I've been reading fantasy for about 25 years now so the way I want to use it is very different from how it was intended. Most of the books on my list were read years ago, so it's not about tracking current progress, it's about creating a record of the past. The site isn't really designed for this. There's no way to add batches of books at the same time, and every time you add a book as being already read it opens a modal you have to close before you can enter another book. There's also a big emphasis on live feeds for status updates, telling everybody when you start or finish something, like it matters.

>>16619145
I'm bored and have not a lot else to do. I started goodreads like 5 years ago then gave up because of how tedious the data entry was. I came back to it and now I'm getting fed up all over again. I like the idea of having a list and a profile based on it, stemming from a database of books, but the site feels more like it was engineered for social media purposes than anything I want to use it for.

>they didn't import from shelfari
>they weren't part of the /lit/ shelfari group

bros, literally every single line of every single page is gold. what is the point of even reading any other fantasy. it's just so effortlessly perfect.

>>16616158
I know it was one of you

>>16619956
is this pulp?

>>16620029
It's the New Pulp Era. The blessing, the curse.

about to read this. what am i in for?

>>16620088
Very simple, almost childlike storytellng and language, yet engaging, comfy. They say the golden age of science fiction is twelve.

>>16620088
Not sure, but I hope there's a small friendly mind flayer with a laser gun and a retarded squidling

>>16620113
uh...that isnt science fiction. what do you mean? are you equating science fiction to fantasy?

>>16620149

/sffg/, I miss our golden age a year and a half ago when a trio of autistic aspiring authors ran hog-wild and everyone was coping with the fact that Gene Wolfe invented Pringles

>>16620350
who members birdboy? i member
>gene wolfe invented pringles
i bring it up anytime i see someone i know eating pringles. no one gives a fuck one way or the other, but i still let them know

>>16620398
I looked recently to see if any of his books were published, but it seems his presence vanished from the internet around the same time he left. his reddit account has since been deleted. I hope he's okay

planeboi in contrast I don't think ever really intended to write anything. he just had a weird fetish that happened to be an entertaining premise

>>16620442
There's still flavors anon moaning about how he's lost the will to write.

>>16620497
not the will, just the pleasure of it. On the plus side I'm like 138k words in now and back up to 1k a night

hi guys, is ghost in the shell good? i've seen so many people saying its disappointing :[

>>16620536
It depends on what version of Ghost in the Shell you're talking about, because they're different from each other. When people hype up GitS they're usually talking about the 1995 film. Maybe the TV series, Stand Alone Complex, maybe the sequel films to 1995 film. But rarely the manga. This is because the adaptation process sanitized the manga for general audiences, removing most of the nudity (though not all of it) and virtually all of the gratuitous sex scenes.

>>16620638
i want to the read manga! im honestly a noob at sci-fi stuff but i really want to start reading a sci-fi book and thought ghost in the shell would be appropriate but i dont know anymore

>>16620665
Feel free to read it then, it's only 2 full volumes in length. GitS is a franchise that outgrew its source material, though. The original manga is still fairly respected, despite the censorship controversy when it was localized. There's an uncensored English version of the first volume, published by Dark Horse, but it's no longer in print and very expensive to get (think it was going for about $50 for a used copy on Amazon), so you likely won't find it by accident. There's no uncensored English version of the 2nd volume however, Shirow got so pissed at the censorship foofaraw he just cut all the sex and nudity out of copy intended for publication in the west, but left everything in the Japanese version. So you'll have to pirate an uncensored scanlation if you want those scenes, but honestly it's not worth doing unless you're a super horndog or an absolute purist about no censorship in media.

>>16620715
thank you so much anon, have a goodnight! :]

>>16620665
here's a qrd on the manga vs the movie

>>16618467
He's just like me..

>>16619185
It's the best literature to come out in decades

>>16618801
What do you think of Consider Pheblas, anon? I'm *considering* reading it myself

Looking to pick up some books for my brother who's into the Lord of the Rings films. I figured Children of Hurin & the Fall of Gondolin would be a good shoot. Anything else?

>>16622813
Elric stuff, especially the first book

>>16616179
Currently reading this for the first time and it's been great so far.

>>16619357
Where do I start with jrrt? Lotr- silmarion - ?

>>16622963
Lord of the Rings undoubtedly.
Silmarillion will be way more digestible even though it could be considered somewhat of a prequel.

>>16622963
Really Hobbit should be read first I guess but I'm guessing that you've seen the lord of the rings films already and the Hobbit really isn't the same breed of literary work as Lotr.

Just starting The Diamond Age. RIP Bud. Also reading The Sunne in Splendour but that's historical fiction.
>>16618467
That's not how you spell Anasûrimbor Kellhus....
>>16616564
So hard, so worth it. As an engineer who likes history and culture too, it's perfect.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/jfbz4e/the_rfantasy_top_novels_of_the_decade_20102019/

>>16623164
As expected from a plebbit poll. And they have The Witcher there though it was written in 1990.

>>16622957
Very good, enjoy. Have you gotten to the chapter that tears your heart out?

>>16616179
Just finished Dune, starting Dune: Messiah.

Any Bakker-fags read Dune? Its kinda nuts how much it inspired Bakker.

>>16623308
The Consul's chapter is basically the end though.
More Dune-fags who read Bakker I bet. It's pretty obvious yeah.

>>16622590
Too soon to say, so far it's nice but very "High Fantasy" if you catch my drift.
You also get some grimderp bootleg 40k vibes from it.

>>16619207
I think it's geared towards people who are just now beginning to read books. If you look it at it that way all the features make sense, as they provide you with an incentive to keep on reading if only to see those numbers grow.

>>16619094
>>16619207
Data entry is tedious in general. If you have a smartphone and the physical edition, you can just use the goodreads app to scan the book cover.

>>16619191
>There's no way to add batches of books at the same time,
There is, but you have to have the proper data for it. You can also add all books from a series or author easily.

>>16619077
imagine simping for sanderson lmao

>>16620149
sci fi and fantasy two sides of the same autism coin

>>16619107
you’re a faggot

>>16616158
Ship of Fools - Richard Paul Russo (2001)
A fun cinematic science fiction novel filled with an atmosphere of mystery and suspense punctuated by scenes of mostly passive horror. I found it to be a compelling read that wasn't easy to stop once started. I advise not thinking overly much about how or why anything happens and just appreciate that it is. It was significantly more religious than I expected it to be and since I didn't understand how that was meant to be thematically related to rest of the novel I found it to be a detraction. Those more religiously inclined may find more value in its mere inclusion.
The novel is separated into three parts: investigation, exploration, retrieval, with each one being longer than the previous. It was my experience that the first two parts were considerably stronger than the third, especially the ending.
This is the most popular book from this author, which although it seems to be relatively obscure won the Philip K. Dick award, which seems appropriate, and was nominated for the Locus Award for Best SF novel. I'm open to the idea of reading other books by him, but it likely won't ever happen voluntarily.
Rating: 3.5/5

>>16616179
Howard's Conan the Barbarian collection.
Finished Queen of the Black Coast or whatever so I'm half done.
Honestly good stuff and you could tell that he and Lovecraft definitely had some chatter between each other with some stories.
I'm honestly feeling a 7/10 overall so far.
It'll be interesting to see how Zothique fares; because right now it's Howard > Lovecraft, no idea where CAS is going to land - but I have Chapterhouse to read, so we'll see.

>>16620913
Everyone beats on Pete Burns but he was honestly the most Based Bisexual man to live at one point. The rest of the image is accurate, for the better of artistic integrity I guess?

Anyone read this? Do you know anything that's like it?

>lord kosoter
KINO KINO KINO KINO

>>16623308
>>16623322

Is Bakker good?

>>16624091
hE'S FUCKIGN KINOOOO LAD

>>16620113
The book he posted is fantasy and 12 year olds don’t have a grasp on string theory, game theory, orbital mechanics and interstellar comms

You have a point if you stick to fantasy or soft sci fi

>>16624091
Yeah, pretty good. Maybe excessive GRI for some but I didn't mind. The philosophical aspects are pretty basic but described esoterically enough to make it entertaining. Worldbuilding is basic, copycat Crusades and all. Descriptions of combat and magic are pretty badass though. And Bakker somewhat defies/deconstructs some tropes of the genre, which is always good to see.

>>16624114
>>16624408
All right, you 2 fucks convinced me. I was convinced once before, and I still hate that cunt though, so I'm pretty wary.

>>16624408
What if I don't know anything about this Crusade thing?

>>16624432
Then go back to /tv/ or /v/ or whatever shithole you crawled out of. /his/, probably.

>>16624432
It’s just the first crusade’s framework applied to a fantasy universe. It’s still enjoyable even if you know about the actual historical event.

>>16624417
if you want to make sure read his free short story crash space, just google it free pdf, it's scifi but a pretty good indicator, his prose ise great

>>16616179
Reading "In Green's Jungles" by Gene Wolfe. I started Book of the New Sun earlier this year and have been in love. I think about it constantly.

>>16624417
>>16624462
The Sranc Pits is a better pic for a short story preview of The Second Apocalypse. Crash Space is better for Neuropath (decent novel too)
>>16624432
As >>16624450 said it'll be fine

>>16624555
never heard of that one, where can you find it?

>>16624091
He's divisive. A good way to put it is, the only serious criticisms that keep coming up in various reviews and talks about him outside of /lit/ boil down to "huu huuu he's a misogynist huu huu," which means that they can't actually find anything wrong with the books to talk about and have to default back to kike lies.

That said, there is plenty to critique, but overall I enjoyed the books and I encourage you to read them. Even if the third series never comes out, series 2 ends with such a door-slam fuck you that it could stand on its own.

>>16624581
>kike lies

Everything you said is 100% discarded, you're a fag.

>>16624572
Just Google it. His site is second apocalypse.com or something, it's on there. Easy to find
>>16624581
It was a great ending. Thinking back, definitely should've expected something fishy. I actually thought Kellhus would become the No-God
>>16624591
t. Schlomo Shekelstein

>>16624581
Dunno even fans say that the books are very inconsistent, the second trilogy being worse, no conclusion etc. I'm used to series getting better with each book, not worse.

>>16624679
I don't think they got worse, but it is different from the first series. Series 2 has isterabinth, which is the actual scariest shit I've ever read in a fantasy novel, and the entire Great Ordeal is just a rollercoaster of craziness that never ceases to escalate.

>>16624679
The biggest flaw the second trilogy has is the final book being split in two by the publishing company and throwing the pacing off. Otherwise I’d say it ends well enough except for us never getting the next duology because overlook publishing is run by a bunch of spineless fags

>>16624721
To me it was scenes of Seswatha and that prince rising through Golgotterath, or the scenes from Achamian's dreams when he's in the conga line.
The Ordeal was fine but the skin eater chapters really did become the slog of slogs.

>>16625110
Skin eaters wasn’t great in the second book, after how good it was in Judging eye. That said, it ends fantastically, you just have to make it there. White luck warrior has some pacing issues, and is probably the weakest of the second trilogy.

>>16625381
All true, White Luck Warrior is definitely the weakest. Skin eaters is a slog after that underground palace, their pacing's kind of fucked too.
I don't dislike how the main plot ended, but I hate the several cliffhangers/non sequiturs: the Dunyain kid, Moenghus leading the Scylvendi, Mimara's child

Children of Ruin any good? I tried to read some of Tchaikovsky's insect people fantasy series but honestly some of the main characters were a bit grating. Maybe in a month I'll try to read another but for gods sake, that fucking smug dragonfly faggot...

>>16617209
Keep at it, friend. It'll improve, and then you can finish CotA and read UotNS to wrap it all up. It was a really enjoyable ending to the series.

Any hard science fiction books that depict brutal martian or lunar surface combined arms combat? I read Haldeman's Forever War and really liked it, but I checked out pic related and the opening homage to Neuromancer combined with the Ayn Rand allusion in the book's description on Amazon made me drop it pretty quick.

Any books like this?
>spooky things happen
>x files like investigation
>preferably no conclusive conclusion on what the spooks were

>>16626091
No investigations, but fulfills first and third: Teatro Grottesco

Rec me a book as good as Roadside Picnic. I'm leaving that open ended deliberately.

>>16626120
Kefahuchi Tract trilogy. Particularly the first.

>>16616309
Sounds like The Road Not Taken by Harry Turtledove. I can't say anything about the second part, but the first definitely lines up.

>>16626120
Too Like the Lightning

>>16626120
Gateway

>>16626120
>>16626291
Seconding Light. I haven't read the sequels.

can't wait for this to leak. also, what a shit cover.

>>16626690
>everything still has to be named "[Something] Of [Something]"

>>16622957
This book is the only time I felt sympathy for a Jew.

>>16626120
Chateau Cascade

>>16623164
>405 votes out of 1.1 million sub members
good job plebbit

>>16622957
It is fantastic. Just don't read the sequels.

>>16626879
Fall of hyperion is kino

>>16626897
It's gross pornography.

>>16626791
Yeah, that is actually a surprisingly small sample size.

>>16624091
First trilogy good, second one not terrible but an utter slog to get through, in the end you'll feel like you wasted your time.

When does it get good. In bored to tears reading this at page 130. It just feels like pointless wandering and verbose descriptions of utterly uninteresting/mundane actions and conversations.

>>16627199
You are tone deaf. Just walk away. You'll never like it.

>>16626091
Lovecraft is basically that.

>>16626791
No one reads there either, which is why the most entry level series is number 1

>>16627199
It's highly overrated

/sffg/, I need some new fantasy to read. i'm bored out of my mind and everything looks like shit

No-God series when?

Thoughts on this? Pretty ballsy move to literally put Jesus in your fantasy world.

>>16627199
Wrong thread.

>>16627199
I think this should be a copy pasta chart.
Add Robert Jordan, Barndon Snadesron and that dude that does the monthly $5 paywall for "novels" on his website.

>>16627790
Never because Overlook is full of cowards.

>>16616936
Children of Time made me stop killing house spiders.

>>16627958
>Jesus
Who's supposed to be Jesus? Or was there some Christian mythos to it? Read it a long time ago.
Only read the first one though, which was okay. I remember some bits about large companies of armored knights fleeing or defending some city (not the merc company), which was good, as well as the bits about chivalric romance, from a modern perspective (I thought it captured the tone well).
However, the main things about the series, hunting monsters and dragons, was pretty shitty from what I remember, devolved into some tower defense game, and it wasn't that well written. The main villain also has a PoV which is pretty hacky.
All that grimderp was a little too much for my taste.

Just interested for the sake of knowing.

How much do you spend on books a month/whatever interval is relevant?
Are they e-books/physical?
Do you pirate e-books?

>>16628748
Since starting my latest job I spend about $40 a month on audible, and pirate all the books I listen to because narrators are too slow and I always want to finish them when I get home.

>>16628748
Last time I spent any money on a fantasy or SF book was to buy Dance of the Dragons back when it released.
Since then it's been pirated stuff.

>>16628748
I haven't bought a book in years

>>16628748
All digital, all pirated.

>>16628770
Aren’t public libraries and inter library loans great?

>>16628748
I buy maybe 4 or 5 digital books on Amazon a month. I used to pirate books when I only read once in a while, but a 1 click purchase is just too convenient to bother trying to save some pocket change.

>>16627199
I dropped it around 100 pages too. I can't believe people pretend to like this.

>>16628748
I've been pirating forever but just recently got tired of reading on my Kindle. It's an older one with only 2 fonts. So I've been buying cheap paperbacks on Ebay and at used bookstores for the original covers. (Not necessarily 1st pb, usually not.) I just want the original artwork and different fonts to read.

>>16628748
i have a KU subscription and i read whatever i usually find interesting on amazon. though im thinking of cancelling it since i really just use it on things that i cant pirate. mobilism and irc are are a godsend when it comes to books. especially old stuff or things that arent digitally distributed.

>>16626065
The first Starfishers book by Glen Cook involves mercenaries fighting a war on the Shadowline, a area of twilight on a non-rotating planet where sun and dark meet. However it's mostly a space opera about a mercenary family and the sequels switch to spy thrillers about a supporting character, overall it's got high points but not my favorite stuff by him.

Greg Bear's War Dogs is about humans getting sent to fight on Mars by mysterious alien benefactors with the combat being pretty chancy, I didn't finish it, didn't like the writing style.

Weltenbrand: Worlds Aflame maybe. Author tries to do "Red Storm Rising in Space" and it works for the most part.

>>16626091
His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem is exactly what you want. He did other stories that would fit the bill too.

>>16626690
The original title 'Narrenturm' is much better, why would anyone do that?

Anyone read ringworld? I might check that out next. Reminds me of halo and I've always thought those worlds were really cool

>>16629331
Halo is heavily inspired by it. It's.. Alright? It's not really remarkable, it has some cool ideas but it's also rather dated. Worth reading but it's not going to blow your mind.

Recommend me books that have strong JRPG vibes

>>16629338
No.

>>16629251
everything has to be
[Something] Of [Something]
so that people think it's like game of thrones.

>>16629331
It had a big enough impact that people still talk about it, but it's hard to recommend on its own merits. Outside of the ringworld superstructure itself there's very little that's stand out. I find Niven rather tedious to read as well.

>>16629063
What about Greg Bear's writing style didn't you like?

I have only read Forge of God. I liked the easy to follow prose. Slightly pulpy but I was OK with it.

I'm on chapter 40. This is plebby comfy, a Tolkien retread with such obvious telegraphing of upcoming plot "twists". It's also fucking hilarious as even more obvious fan fiction of the author's own romantic obsessions. All the women are bossy and they're all healers--they're mean but make you feel gooooood... Robert Jordan is a total submissive. Which book does the spanking start in?

>>16629466
It becomes progressively less LotR as it goes on. The spanking doesn't come until later and it's (mostly) girl on girl.
It also gets comfier as it goes along, I hope you have fun anon.
Just keep in mind the Aes Sedai live in an Ivory tower on a Vagina Island.

>>16629476
>and it's (mostly) girl on girl.
My dick. We need more yuri fantasy.

>>16629476
>dat pic
wtftopkek.mobi

>>16627724
The Blue World by Jack Vance
>>16629466
>>16629476
This has to be the laziest worldbuilding I've ever seen outside of Jacqueline Carey and Harry Turtledove

>>16629338
Probably litrpg and/or japanese light novels.

>>16629063
>His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem is exactly what you want
HMV is more a story about the Lone Gunmen than it is about Mulder/Scully.

>>16619956
>Build-A-Catgirl
Does that mean I can build her to be a buff cyborg that fights in the neon lit gladiator areas?

>>16616936
Finished it today. Great from start to finish with an incredible final act. Not at all what I was expecting. The author loves using obscure and archaic vocabulary, though.

>>16622590
Consider Pheblas is probably the weakest book in the Culture series, and it's not the best introduction to the Culture because the protagonist isn't part of the Culture and hates everything that they stand for. Even Banks said that it was a bit of a downer story compared to the others in the series. It's still worth a read, but in my opinion, start with the Player of Games, since it gives you a better understanding of the setting, and the plot is more straightforward.

>>16616158
Revelation Space (Revelation Space #1) - Alastair Reynolds (2000)
At the encouragement of others, I gave this book another try. If it weren't for that, I probably would have dropped it again. Not because it's unreadable, uninteresting, or otherwise unenjoyable, but because it's occupies a middle ground between that. Though I would have preferred much more to have happened, it was marginally acceptable, despite many of the events seeming superfluous considering how and why they arrive at their final destination. The entire book seemed like an introduction to the series, which if if this were a standalone or for anyone who intends to only read this book, it'd be two stars instead without a doubt. My primary reason for reading this is for the two other books in the trilogy, which are supposed to be significantly more worthwhile. I have severe doubts when anyone says that about any series. If this goes well, perhaps I'll read the standalones and related works, but that's currently in doubt. For whatever reason, Reynolds is an author I've tried to like, perhaps too much so. If nothing else I may be able to resolve my ambivalence towards his work.
As for characters, there are three perspective that converge roughly halfway through. A man trying to discover secrets through xenoarchaeology, a coerced female assassin, and a woman who is part of a crew trying to save their captain. All three of them are more or less serviceable, though nothing work remarking on.
The plot could be uncharitably described as mostly filler that serves little in the way of any sort of development, but I somehow didn't particularly mind that. There are infodumps now and again which serve more to explain an idea to a reader than to inform the characters, but sure, why not. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that the core of the book is a discussion of the Fermi Paradox.
Each book of the trilogy is longer than the one before it and with the first being ~600 pages, that's of considerable length. Is it worth reading ~1,500 more pages to finish the trilogy? I don't know, but it seems I'm going to eventually find out. What I do know is if they are anything like the first book, they ought to have a few hundred less pages than they do as well. When I eventually finish the trilogy this review will be updated with spoilered thoughts on the trilogy overall and a final determination of whether it was worthwhile.
Rating: 3/5

Reminder you are the worst "readers" on the planet for consooming your childish genreshit, bordering on YA.

>>16630421
Imagine defining yourself around something you do to occupy spare time.

imagine responding to diamond dozen newfags

What is Dark Fantasy? is it just a normal Fantasy world but with extra violence and evil? any good Dark Fantasy books?

>>16630457
It's ill-defined but basically that yeah. Stuff like warhammer and black company would be dark fantasy
"Grimdark" is also used a lot but I feel that's always either deliberately edgy or stuff where the writer punishes the protagonists.

>>16630436
>spare time
Some of us actually have jobs or full time study in literature.

>>16630482
I guess bad endings is a thing in dark fantasy, Black Company sounds interesting thanks for mentioning it.

>>16630421
You sound miserable.

>>16626690
As somebody who's read this in Polish, I refuse to read this in english. The translation looks like other shit.

>>16630622
other = otter

>>16630653
It's utter, dumb kurwa.

>>16630483
that's not a job, it's makework for the rich

>>16630622
don't say that! I'll read it anyway. did you enjoy it? better than the witcher?

>>16626043
Moths like to suck ants.

What new books did you guys recently acquire?

>>16631735
Black Sun, First Sister, Boneshard daughter are the three I dl'ed from most recent new releases
First Sister isn't winning me over, it's trying to do 2 sides of a war when I don't care about either and I don't think the author is up to writing a mute protag, Bone Shard has promise and the setting actually stands out, Black Sun I'm leaving until last because I actually trust the author to be good.
Other recents are Master of Poisons (downloaded and not touched), A Deadly Education (read and liked) and a A Dance with Fate (sequel to a book I liked)

I should probably have done the sequels first, I always put off follow ups to books I like until last because I'm pretty sure I'll like them if I don't like anything else I'm reading and then never get around to them.

>>16630739
The Hussite Trilogy as a whole is a lot better than the Witcher, IMO. The Witcher Saga often feels as if Sapkowski is learning how to write a novel as he goes along (which is why Blood of Elves is a barely coherent collection of episodes, while the later volumes have an actual plot). In contrast, the Trilogy feels a lot more polished, with better, more creative prose, more memorable scenes, and more interesting (IMO) characters. Reynevan starts as an annoying simp, but that's the point; its a bildungsroman, and he gets better after getting his face rubbed in the dirt a few times.

Also, the Exorcism chapter in Narrenturm is one of the funniest things I've read in a while.

>>16631870
>A Deadly Education
Is that the devil school novel?
Why are you reading publishing house novels? They have all become shit in recent years, by virtue of letting their publishers dictate what they should and shouldn't write.

>>16631924
It's Novik, concept is magic school but full of monsters, there's no teachers or anything and you graduate by surviving.
And as for the second question self-pub has a much higher miss rate for me than pub, like I tried multiple Rob Hayes books fairly recently and they just stunk.

Can you guys give me some recommendations for wach of these?

Someone here recommended Vainqueur the Dragon and the Legend of the Arch Magus. I picked them up fast and found them very enjoyable.

Vainqueur the Dragon was lighthearted and fun and had some interesting dragon/human dynamics with leveling.How much destruction can they unleash?

Legend of the Arch Magus is your typical city builder book where a Arch Magus of epic proportion dies and is resurrected in a world where magic is almost forgotten. How fast will he rise to power?

Someone here recommended Vainqueur the Dragon and the Legend of the Arch Magus.
I picked them up fast and found them very enjoyable.

Vainqueur the Dragon was lighthearted and fun and had some interesting dragon/human dynamics with leveling.
How much destruction can they unleash?

Legend of the Arch Magus is your typical city builder book where a Arch Magus of epic proportion dies and is resurrected in a world where magic is almost forgotten.
How fast will he rise to power?

>>16632328
Where is polyamorous xenophiliac isekaism? It's the only Chad option.

>>16626043
Yes, it's good, but Children of Time is a prerequisite as the present storyline takes place after the events of the first book and the past relies on general world building. If you didn't like it, don't bother. If you haven't read it, start with that one.

>>16632328
Perdido Street Station should fit one of them

>>16632328
>could you spoonfeed me 16~ books I'll never read
Nope.

>>16632521
>>16632328
yeah i can't be bothered honestly. if you want to start with one, i'll make a rec.

>>16623640
>There is, but you have to have the proper data for it. You can also add all books from a series or author easily.
I couldn't find any way to do this just by searching for books.

What am i in for?

>>16619357
A very good book. I would recommend it.

>>16630457
Dark fantasy is a pseudo-genre. You can write "dark" versions of any other sub-genre of fantasy. Basically you just have to make most of the characters miserable by having bad things happen to them constantly, and avoid giving the reader any hope for the future of those characters or the setting. Dark fantasy doesn't necessarily have to be violent, but it often is, as violence is a good way to have bad things happen to characters. Any gains made by the characters have to be won through painful sacrifice and any happiness attained is usually temporary.

>>16632521
Can you recommend me some though

>>16632656
Dark fantasy is read Bakker and you are done, what tolkien did to standard fantasy bakker repeated here. Dont bother with anything else

>>16632630
I liked it, and it really got me into KSR for a while.

>>16632668
t. guy who has only read bakker and nothing else

>>16632668
I can't think of a single major author, dark fantasy or otherwise, that cited Bakker as a major influence on anything they wrote. Dark Fantasy owes more to Sword & Sorcery authors like Wagner and Moorcock, who began the "grim world" and "edgy antihero" tradition in the 70s and 80s long before Bakker ever wrote anything. Then you have Cook, who popularizes military fantasy, which is closely tied to dark fantasy with its gritty style, and of course GRRM in the 90s, whose banal subversion of traditional medieval fantasy tropes is rapidly becoming the new standard for the genre, to everybody's chagrin.

>>16632763
The work is too new but it has ruined most DF.

>>16632789
List 5 it has 'ruined'. Pro tip, you can't because you don't read.

>>16632789
Again, name some authors who have cited Bakker as an influence. I can't think of any. There's endless copycats of GRRM, and you have people like Erikson citing Cook as an influencer for Malazan, what notable works of modern Dark Fantasy have Bakker to thank for their existence?

>>16632789
>>16632668
Who the fuck thinks Bakker is an influence on anything? He's an esoteric author that writes fantasy as an excuse to publish more of his philosophy tracts. I doubt there's anybody that could write like he does, and no that's not a compliment.

>>16632798
Ruined Abercrombie, i was already iffy on Elric but now moorcock is mostly schlock, the only "DF" novels that i could call still readable is Wolfes Latro of the mist series. Dont consider Asoiaf DF, heck its barely fantasy.

Ruined black company

Gormengast is different enough i guess

Baru cormorant too id say

But yeah mostly the Typical DF works got ruine.

>>16630457
600 page Dark Souls OC lore ebook.

>>16632890
Only one, maybe two if I'm generous even qualify as dark fantasy. So seemingly it has ruined a genre you haven't even read, very interesting.

>>16632890
>bro I read Bakker and now everything else is shit even stuff that has no relation to anything he wrote
Also lol at acting like Bakker is the reason to dislike Abercrombie and not because Abercrombie is a half-assed author too lazy to world build or organize a compelling plot. Tune in next volume for the "exciting" adventures of Durgrin the Grim, a noble barbarian in the lands of... uh, Germiny, yeah, let's go with that.

>>16632935
Wait First Law is set in Germany? Picked up.

Anyone else like retellings / dark twists on fairytales? I don't know why but there's something really eerily about having some childhood perception of yours taken and made into something cruel.
Some examples are "Child Thief" by Brom (dark Peter Pan retelling) or "Alice" by Henry (adult Alice escapes mental asylum to get back to Wonderland).

>>16632940
No it's set in "The Union", and a lot of it takes place in the nearby island kingdom of Angland. Bet you can't guess what this is based on! To make it extra tricky there's no maps, and you only have, at best, a vague idea of how far apart things are and their general orientation, and since he skips over most of the journey between these far flung locations you can't even use time as a sense of scale. You'd think in a series that involves lots of travel and geopolitical strife you'd try to ground the reader in the world, but nah, that's too much work. Also can't be bothered to decide what society looks like or how it functions, not like it matters, I only care about battles! Not enough to actually learn how a military works, though, I'm sure if I use enough military-sounding terms it will sort itself out.

>>16626065
Luna: New Moon and sequels have some. There's some "firearms are forbidden so we use knives and other stuff" in it but there's more futuristic warring too. However the books aren't mil-sf.

>>16630414
Consider reading Diamond Dogs by the author. It'll only take a couple of hours.

>>16626055
Thanks Anon. I got to some good shit with Little Severian. Those mountains and forests were killing me, but I'm glad I didn't pussy out.

>>16632668
>>16630457
>he hasnt read clark ashton smith
read the zothique cycle you fucks

>>16633015
>To make it extra tricky there's no maps,

>>16632972
They've gotten pretty trendy and some iterations are less good but I really liked The Color Master short story that was on Selected Shorts podcast.

>>16633365
No maps were published in any of the books in the First Law trilogy. This map also looks fan-made.

>>16633440
That's good though. Books shouldn't have maps.

>>16632668
Bakker is second rate and his first trilogy is way better than his second which is edited like shit.

t. read Bakker before you even left highschool

>>16633440
Fine, have the actual map then.

>>16633365
most recent version:
https://atlasoficeandfireblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/14/a-revised-map-of-the-first-law/

Also has maps for Malazan, WoT, and many others.

>>16633365
>MIDDLELAND
>"I need a name for my turkish ottoman empire... Gurkish, nobody will ever guess"

>>16633466
If your series features large scale geopolitical conflicts and people traveling between multiple continents, including maps is a very obvious thing to do. If you're also very bad at describing geographical orientation (as Abercrombie is) a map is not optional if you don't want to frustrate people.

>>16633466
t. pleb

authors who don't put in the effort to fully realize a world aren't worth anybody's time

>>16633715
>muh worldbuilding

>>16633721
Name a great fantasy author who doesn't engage in world building, pleb. It's the backbone of fantasy as a genre. If you hate it you have no business even reading fantasy.

>>16633549
This is a decoration that looks like a map, it's not a map. A map is a tool used by the reader to orient themselves in the story, to that effect the map has to be relevant to the story. This is very typical of Abercrombie though. Aping conventions without understanding them.

>>16627958
yes i love this series
is it finished yet?
ive reread up to the 3rd book 2 times
dont wanna start the last few till its done and ill do a reread for the last time

>>16633794
>muh worldbuilding

>>16633803
Back to outer /lit/ with you.

>>16630483
>full time study in literature.
might as well kill yourself, you are no better then yt "influencers".

>>16632429
>and the Legend of the Arch Magus.
You're welcomed.

Can someone tell me the name of a Polish book were Jesus does not die on the cross, but survives, starts holy wars and creates an empire?

>>16633801
Locations don't matter, character interactions do. Maps just limit creativity.

>>16633806
You cannot deny me forever.

Can you mapfags an hero? You are the worst aspects of the fantasy fan genre. You bitch a book is bad because it doesn't have a map. I didn't know it's a cartography booklet we were reading.

>>16627958
Good series, but I recommend the Author's historical work more. The series "killer of men" is superb and examines what it means to be a man and live your life well. Seriously, I loved reading these so much.

>>16630553
Black Company is unironically the best love story I've read.

Why are women such shit writers?
Naomi Novak comes to mind. Awful dumb cunt.

This was kino, through and through. I just wish it wasn't so full of misprints, or what look like misprints.

*sigh* anyone at all read the Jhereg stuff?

Imagine not reading all day every day, lol.
If you don't finish an entire novel per day you aren't reading at all.

>>16618467
I think you meant Dalinar.

>>16620398
I always scan new releases for bird people. Even though I know it will be years before he ever completes anything.

>>16634255
I read 1600 pp every day, anon.

I'm currently reading pic related. I enjoy it, the science is interesting and has had enough thought put into it that I can accept the premise. But the characters all just scream Pratchett, and make me want to reread Discworld. And then that makes me think of the terrible new TV show that is going to rape the memory of Ahnk-Morpork and I just feel despair for the world. But I would recommend the Long Earth.

>>16632901
>Wow you don't agree with my arbitrary standards? You're wrong

>>16634099
Women are generally worthless

>>16634430
This

>>16634389
Read more Baxter. I haven't read Xeelee, but his stuff w/ Clarke was good -- particularly The Light of Other Days. And his solo work Evolution was spectacular if you are a fan of Olaf Stapledon. I recall some other stuff being ass, though, so stay frosty.

>>16634489
Dude, I will definitely do Evolution next then. Thanks for the rec.

I just finished Neuromancer and I'm 50 pages into Count Zero. The dude sure loves brown skin.

Is 4chan having personalized ads again?
I have two ads telling me to have sex from the sex haver gang.

Fuck whichever one of you redditors said this was "fine" the other week. It's not fine, it's cringe.

>>16634837
>reading Scooby doo fanfiction and expecting something good

>>16634827
Why are you even seeing ads?

>>16633935
>Maps just limit creativity.
No, it limits your ability to create endless bullshit spin-offs with shallow, paper-thin settings.

>>16634897
>muh worldbuilding

>>16634859
Because ad away is being a bitch.

>>16634897
>imagine actually putting a map in a fucking novel and thinking it will add anything of value to the experience

>>16618536
It's great, and it sets you up for Book of the Short Sun which is incredible as well.

>>16634827
Just have sex coward

>>16634099
The same women who wrote Masters of Rome, The King Must Die, Oryx and Crake, and anything by Ursula K. Le Guin?
I think the women are shit writers meme is a symptom of dumb cunts like you only paying attention to dumb cunt feminist writers, because they make you mad. And of course their shit is awful. So you ignore all the A+ works by women.

>>16635097
>Muh Ursula

Get a life SIMP

>>16635101
That all you got? And I thought /b/ was shit

>>16634284
>I always scan new releases for bird people
I get exhausted just looking at new releases lists.

>>16616158
Read pic rel a little while back, absolutely loved it, although pacing could have used some work. Brilliant story and world though

WHy are so many curries in private trackers these days?

>>16635101
What if I take one, like yours for instance.

>>16635097
>>16635228
>>16635136
Unfathomably cringe posts

>>16628741
>Who's supposed to be Jesus?
Jesus.

>>16634099
I've only read one Novik book, but it was good. It was also published in 2006. My opinion is that, in the same way blacks are only allowed to write Black books if they want to get published, women, since circa 2010, have been pigeonholed into activist literature and it's destroyed quality. Anything before then is as likely to be good as a man's, though.

>>16635416
But that's wrong.

>>16635097
I don't mean to be that guy anon, but you are on the board where 90% of the people literally couldn't give a fuck what's in another persons pants if you're on a sfw board.
It's the one or two amerifats that throw tantrums about the Ero Fantasy they """""""wrote""""""" (see passionately worldbuild and confuse for actually writing anything) not being considered mandatory lit, that you're arguing with.
They're autistic and should be left filtered.

While I am not a fan of most modern authors myself, but from what I've read of Muir and Kuang, I enjoyed it.
Tangent but on the point of modern authors; Sanderson should be nowhere as revered as he is.

>>16635223
Because there are only a billion of them in their country alone and many, many millions elsewhere. It's only statistics.

>>16635496
>filtered
Such as yourself.

>>16634837
September 1st wasn't the other week and it was said to be a scobby-doo knockoff.

>>16635496
Is Sanderson actually revered? I thought he was just basically Michael Bay

>>16633174
I don't want to spoil it, but it was definitely a high point in the book for me. That was a great chain of events to follow, from a story pov.

>>16635573
I thought it was more like Dragonball Z. Never gave it a try, the map alone is enough to repel me.

>>16635573
Considering his influences are predominantly anime and video games, see >>16635641

Totally cool with him giving lectures on writing fantasy in general; but him teaching how to 'write' fantasy novels seems akin to Steven Segal to teach about daily Navy protocol.

>>16635573
he has good world building and plot structure. he's not nearly as bad as michael bay. he can write stories just fine. he just doesnt have the best prose and some of his characters are annoying

>>16630414
My own thoughts are fairly similar. There's nothing I can point to as being particularly bad but I just wanted it to end

You lads excited for Stormlight Archive 4? or too cool to read a popular series?

>>16635789
I'm not excited for it, but I'll get it when it comes out probably.

>>16635789
>too cool to read a popular series?

No, it's just shit.

>>16635739
>good plot structure
>way of kings is literally 80% exposition and shit like character flashbacks

Why don't Sandersonfags just accept that they like schlock? I still love all of Brent Weeks' books, but I'm not going to try and convince anyone that they're high art.

>>16635933
But anon, it's super duper popular; therefore it must be good, right?

>>16635925
not really. the exposition serves the story well and the characters are always doing something to move it forward

>>16635933
literally no one said his work is high art. do you have brain damage?

>>16636076
Ironically, the only ones who call Sando high art are the haters.

Watching the anime of Tales from Earthsea. Are the books better?

I watched this old talk between Fat Procrastinating Man and Robin Hobb. I have decided to read Realm of the Elderlings now. What am I in for?

>>16633440

>>16635925
Is it as bad as the Dune prequels though
>>16636168
Oh god yes. I liked the anime up until near the end, ironically Wizard of Earthsea also gets less interesting near the end. The book is superior to the anime though

>>16636168
The first 3 are.

>>16636314
Yes, but fantasy standards are so much lower than SF and the fact that it doesn't have to carry the weight of the first 4 Dune books make it look semicompetent by comparison

>>16636168
They literally apologised for how bad the anime was lol

>>16636392
>>16636168
>get a guy who works at a museum to direct your movie because his dad is a director
>act surprised when he doesn't know how to direct a movie
Sigh.

>>16636440
He sucks but it's not even just his fault, the writing of the adaptation was done by his dad and that's the root of most of the problems

>>16636445
Noooooo you can't just blame grumpy anime man it's all his son's fault

>>16636348
Hah I was confused at first because I consider Dune to be more fantasy than science fiction. I see what you mean

Anyone read One Second After, about an EMP attack on the US? I thought it was pretty good aside from the occasional military cock sucking. Could have been much broader in scope but it's refreshing to have an author write about shit he knows about (both setting and content) rather than half-assedly writing more.

>>16635789
With how stormlight 3 went, I'm done with Sanderson. I can't do another Shallan chapter.

>>16635789
>>16636587
I have to this day read no Sanderson books, what have I missed?

Posting this at threads end so I don't cause a bunch of pol posting by looking at a book from a left wing perspective


Queen of the Conquered is fucking weird.
Like sure it's grim/violent fantasy about the evils of colonialism/slavery but also the main character is a slaveowner who murders a child in chapter one.

Gonna have to stick with it just to see if the author has a point or if I've just found the most bizarre liberal take on slavery ever.
Like the main character is "working within the system" but the system is literal fucking slavery.

>>16636603
>literal fucking slavery
Did you choose green or pink hair this week, sweatie?

>>16636603
Did you really like it better back in the jungle?

Is Hyperion worth reading?

>>16636631
Well yes, but actually no. Simmons combined fun sci-fi stuff and enjoyable characters with constant "LOOK AT ME I'M AN ENGLISH MAJOR LOOK I REALLY LIKE KEATS AREN'T I SMART" wanking.
Read Hyperion and Hyperion Falls, ignore the Endymion books.

>>16636647
Eh the Keats stuff wasn't so bad for me. I really enjoyed how he combined different literary styles. Epistolary, action, comedy/gothic, mystery, tragedy, nostalgic love story. Very worth reading.

What are some more easy to digest fantasy series I could get into? Just finished new sun and dune messiah and really want something more leight-weight, but no sanderson/jordan type of YA stuff though. I see Farseer recommended a lot, is it decent?

>>16636701
Farseer isn't really light weight, it's not a hard read but Hobb's favourite character development tool is suffering

>>16636701
Read Black Company

>>16636701
I second Black Company, though I didn't read more than the first book
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is alright
Not a lot that's good that's easy to digest, honestly

>>16636727
I read MST and I really liked it, i meant something exaclty like it desu

>>16636708
Well I mean, I do not care if the story deals with difficult themes, I just wanna read something where I can understand what is going on and won't need to stop every other page for a minute and think about the text

>>16636701
Goblin Emperor is extremely light weight.

>>16636768
>I read MST
Whelp, perfect then. Does it have to be a series or doorstopper then. There are many great shorter books that are constant page turners

>>16636862
I mean I do not mind a commitment if I do not have to read a terrible book cause "it gets better" (looking at you, malazan)

>>16635416
I think it's more that publishers are looking for ways to pander to the woke literati. Good female authors work on their own ideas, but less talented authors write things that lander to the publishing houses. So you get failed female academics who tart up a gender degree study with the last fairy tale daddy read to them before leaving mommy for a younger woman. The publishers go home, this checks a box and publish it.

You're both talking about books you haven't even read, this is pathetic lol

>>16635573
I think he only gets revered because he writes quickly and will probably finish his enormous series. Unlike Martin, Rothfuss, or Jordan. Readers at a certain point just appreciate follow through.

>>16636875
Yeah the biggest cope for shitty novels is "it gets better"
Maybe the Elenium and the Tamuli by Eddings. His Belgariad is basically YA even with adult themes, but Elenium and Tamuli are better from what I remember
Chronicles of Prydain is an excellent series that reminds me of MST
The Once and Future King...though that one's hard to categorize
The whole Ender's Game series, though they're not fantasy

>>16636254
Character punishment, a good start, super annoying batches, and a clown who quickly took over her imagination and came to dominate the books.

>>16636594
Anime, but poorly written, even for anime.

>>16636701
Discworld

>>16636701
Earthsea worked great as a sort of palate cleanser for me, between some of the heavier stuff. Not that Earthsea is shallow or anything, but it's definitely a lot more straightforward and easier to digest due to its smaller and more intimate scope.

>>16636875
But Malazan was good from the start?

>>16637099
Everything about the first book except some parts with Paran and Rallick sucked dick

>>16637101
I disagree with you strongly and hope you get laid so you can stop obsessing over penises.

A new thread
>>16637103

>>16617221
I think it has solid build-up and switches to present day at just the right moment, generating even more intrigue about the events of the past. Observing 500 meter long water bears carving up lifeless moons for resources in the outer edges of the system and hurling them towards an inner planet counts as "kicking off" in my book.

>>16637099
The first Malazan book is literally famous for putting off readers

>>16637112
But figuratively speaking that doesn't mean it "gets better".

>>16637099
Malazan wasn't good at the beginning, middle or end. It's a schizophrenic clusterfuck that bounces between millions of different characters, most of whom are utterly uninteresting, sets up a million different plots, then does nothing with any of them, and generally gets derailed by the authors constant attempts to have cool action movie setpieces every second page.

>>16637131
That's odd, I could've sworn it was a good series.

>>16637137
I would have agreed with you if I hadn't tried to read it a second time. It's definitely entertaining the first time through, but if you actually go through it again and look at it objectively, it's a mess.

>>16632328
Fuck this is good

Last Post

>>16637581
this tbqh

>>16637608
Thanks senpai

>>16637618
NP.

>>16637623
You're a real bro. Thanks

>>16637630
I know. Anyway, how is your sex life?

>>16637634
I will stop being an incel and a coward. The sex haver gang told me so.

>>16637639
You can do it.

>>16637644
Thanks Famlam. I will.

PENIS

>>16637729
Nice thread we had here