/lit/ - Literature

>>17249454
>witcher
out, now

>>17249454
It's not, but you will probably love it.

>>17249454
welcome to /lit/, as you can see we have no shortage of pseuds who think that genre fiction is above them (it isn't); both are good choices, enjoy them, but don't start threads about things you haven't read, we have too much of that already

>>17249454
dune is OK, imho the worst part is that Herbert is constantly shifting perspective between characters and it makes many of the scenes messy and over long. We don’t need to know the thoughts of every character in the room every time something happens.

Other than that it’s OK, and the final confrontation is a solid payoff to the rising tension throughout the book

>>17249454
Start your reading adventure by reading the catalog, we have a Dune thread already >>17246326

I enjoy the first book quite a bit, but they go down hill from there.

>>17249454
>is the book aa good as everyone says?
probably not, since most fan of genre lit tend to be very hyperbolic when assessing the quality of what they read, but it is a decent read

>>17249454
It's Lawrence of Arabia with a lot less sodomy.

>>17249543
>>17249576
Does historical fiction count as genre fiction?

>>17249454
After choosing option 3, I wish I had just stuck with 1.

>>17249656
How much less? Can you ballpark it for me?

>>17249948
Only the badguys perform the sodomy in Dune.

>>17249454
Unironically one of the worst books i've come across. The mother of Mary Sues, bad writing and lousy plot.

>>17249576
Why are sci-fi fans like this? I like S. Craig Zahler books and Warhammer novels but I know they are just trash filler with little literary value. Tbh, Dune does have literary value, but Sci-Fi fans always extend it and Ender's Game and Foundations out as the greatest works ever, and when you criticize them they smugly say THATS YOUR OPINION.

>>17250006
You have clearly not read GRR Martin or Rothfuss

>>17249454
read actual literature for the love of god im begging you

I want to enjoy genre fiction, and have in the past, but I’m about 3/4ths through Dune and don’t know if I will finish. I’m genuinely puzzled by its popularity

>>17250021
I have read ASOIAF and this garbage is much worse. I am not a fan of fantasy but it is not difficult to find literary value where there is it and there is none here. This story of a teenager with every imaginable skill from page 1 set to become emperor by the end of the book made me want to puke. It's just fanfiction so teenagers can project into the main character. Reddit-S. King tier.

>>17249543
>don't start threads about things you haven't read, we have too much of that already
Shut the fuck up. If we limited ourselves to posting only about what we read then what is the fucking point of /lit/ in the first place you braindead fucking retard

I really enjoy how aggravated this books makes some people.

>>17250097
I think its a neat book. I liked it more when I was younger, but its very comfy! ;-p

>>17250033
Like? And don't post those boring books like Lawrence of Arabia. Maybe something like Narnia?

>>17250094
sure dipshit, just continue shitposting all day about books you haven't read

>>17250469
>don't post those boring books like Lawrence of Arabia.
trying too hard anon

why do retards here ask other retards for permission to read a book they want to read.

>>17249454
First book is good, but the rest aren't worth reading.
>>17249944
option one is truly the best option

>>17249454
I have relatively pedestrian taste desu and dune was mediocre. Read like 80% while traveling and never picked it up again. Not that great. Not terrible.

>>17250897
lonely
virtual friend experience

Biggest book-regret of my life, the essence of YA rubbish.

>I wanna read a book so I can complain when the movie is not 100% the same
fuck off nigger.

>>17249454
Dune is pretty ok. Kinda slow and political. Haven't read it since highschool, so I'm probably due for a reread.

Witcher short stories are good, not a ton of substance there, but good mindless fun. I never read the later novels or played the games, and I thought the show was sensationalist garbage, but that's how I feel about most film/television released for a long time. Long time.

>>17250097
/lit/ hates anything that gets normalized in modern culture

>>17250006
Paul is the villain.

>>17249454
I'm about 75% through it. I like how out of left field the setting is, at least compares to sci-fi of the time. The story itself is boring, imo.

Worth a read to scratch the itch, though

>>17251988
Why does it like Trump

>>17252343
Modern culture is engaging in deplatforming and humiliating Trump.

>>17252787
This. Even """""counter-culture""""" media like South Park takes potshots at Trump.

>>17252787

>>17253125
How is he wrong? It's fucking everywhere in corporate funded media.

>>17253138
How is it right?

>>17249454
No, not really. It's competently written, but ultimately hollow. One of those "everyone is evil or, at best, amoral" stories, totally devoid of goodness, truth and beauty. I think the best clue you can get is that Tolkien hated it.

>>17249454
>Dune
Most of all it's pretty weird and really non-standard for science fiction. It focuses mostly on exploring societal and cultural consequences of extreme situations and systems on an extremely long time scale. It also has lots of very abstract, poetic fragments concerning mostly characters' supernatural inner states, feelings and thoughts. The whole political intrigue side on the other hand, for which Dune often gets lots of acclaim, is really neither as good or as developed as people claim it to be, but it's okay. Overall it's a really good book and definitely worth a read, just judging by how people often describe it for some reason, be aware it might not be what you're expecting.

As for Witcher, it's an okay dark fantasy. Not really some high literature, but a good read nevertheless. Not sure how good the translation is though. Be sure to read them in release order. Also, while the writing of the early books is somewhat unpolished, author's skill gets visibly better as the saga goes by

>>17253144
Pol told him so

>>17253144
>>17253819
>twitter literally telling Trump and all of his supporters to fuck off
>"lol how is there a correlation???"

>>17249944
Children of Dune has my favourite chapter quotes. I tried to do option 4 after enjoying God Emperor but Heretics is a fucking slog, so slow and the story feels pointless.

>>17253144
He literally just said how: every news network, every late night TV comedian, twitter, reddit. I can't turn on the TV without hearing about how Trump is bad. Ergo, hating Trump is a mainstream opinion.

>>17249454
the best sci fi book ever written. got me to binge arabic history and started writing myself after finishing the series. Quality doesn't decline so read all the books, but the first is the best in the sense of most balanced, and tone and themes vary greatly, beside the underlying determinism which is present throughout the whole series. Before then I just read Lotr and some star wars books but this fantasy is just something different.

>>17254588
A few years back I forced myself to make it through them all, was not quite able to do it. I plowed through, one after another and after 3 weeks I had to drop it halfway through Chapterhouse, could not take it any longer.

I find the first two worth while, some interesting bits in Messiah, starts getting all cartoonish in Children and each book gets worse.

>I'm excited for the movie

dont be it will be full of orcs

>>17249454
I'm reading the series right now. I've made it to the end of heretics after about 16 days. I listened to the audiobooks while at work which seemed to help and then supplemented with reading while at home. I did read dune in middle school about 10 years ago though but didn't remember it a ton prior to rereading.
Dune 1-4 are all worthwhile imo if you enjoy science fiction at even a base interest level. Presently, I fall into the group that believes GEOD is better than dune. I would personally recommend reading the first four if you enjoyed dune. My ranking would be as follows:
GEOD>messiah/dune>>COD>>heretics
I haven't personally ever read or heard about anything that treats the future quite like Frank Herbert and found his commentary on it interesting. Equally, I found his commentary on other concepts refreshing to read from the viewpoint of someone who hasn't read any philosophy yet.
Readers of the series complain about people being Gary/Mary sues frequently but there are in universe reasons for why they are absurdly powerful. I also enjoy how the conflicts are typically presented; characters understand their inferior abilities and have to work around that using their cunning and partnerships. Also, the Gary/Mary sues typically run into a wall that their abilities can't get them through that keeps the plot refreshing while you listen to Frank preach his ideals.
GEOD was the highlight for me because of how interesting the struggles and woes of an impossibly complex character were presented almost entirely through dialogue heavy scenes.
Approach the series with an open mind and see what happens!

>>17249454
If you liked the Witcher show, the books would blow you away. The show pretty much changed the themes and takeaway of every short story that they covered, it was honestly embarrassing. for every change, cut, or addition the show did it was 100% of the time inferior to how the book covered it. I'm not sure why the show runner felt the need to change every scene except for a way to try to prove their abilities? The battle at the end was particularly bad for me. Another was the handling of the goat guy, his stuff was actually decent in the book unlike the show where I can't even remember if they gave him a speaking line even.
Anyway, I personally found the series to be around average for your typical fantasy, nothing extraordinary but enjoyable if you are already a fan which you are. A fairly quick and easy read to get through the series if that is what you're looking for.
I'm the same anon that is currently reading dune from the previous post and the witcher series was what I read directly before this. Depending on your reading level, I would rank The Witcher series as a much easier read if you are getting into reading for the first time.

>>17254675
>starts getting all cartoonish in Children and each book gets worse.
I think Frank began to lose the plot around there. God Emperor was very experimental, like the fleshing out of a thought experiment on what an incredibly powerful clairvoyant emperor might do, whereas the first two were comparatively grounded sci-fi political struggles with hints of spirituality. Heretics seemed to dive into ludicrous sci-fi without really much of a point, I remember the chairdogs stood out to me as a "wtf is Frank writing" moment, but the whole thing just seems like making up crazy shit because lol why not.

>>17255275
I would say it is that he became a more capable and traditional writer. In the first two he relies heavily on things like the excepts which open each chapter, dialog, and plain doing what ever he has to to get the idea across, it is what makes up his style in those. At the third he is getting more subtle with, he start to imply the ideas instead of state them in creative ways. By God Emperor his is fairly traditional in that the plot and the actions of the character carry the ideas, he states very little regarding theme directly. It leaves things kind of barren because he has yet to figure out what to do with all that extra space he created in the novel and he ends up filling it in with soap opera/drama tropes, combine that with giant worm god and things take a cartoonish turn.

Dune is a fun book.
The chapters are short and structured on cliff hangers with rotating povs so it keeps your attention.
The prose isn't that good but it's ideas are imaginative.
The characters aren't that deep but they all have interesting roles.
The plot is neat. It's scifi. You're not there for deep character development.
It looks like a long book, but it's so simple that it doesn't take very long to read.

>>17254772
Racist