/lit/ - Literature

what's your guys' favorite isekai this season

>>18252407
what is an isekai

>>18252412
It's things like Quake III Arena, Final Fantasy X, etc.

>>18252722
oh, so /v/ stuff?

>>18252728
in essence, isekai is the thing where someone is transported into another world
it's hype in popular literature right now. but harry potter is older and is an isekai too.

Wait, you haven't read Reverend Insanity yet? What are you even doing on /lit/? Go read it and come back once you've mastered the philosophical meaning inherent in Fang Yuan's ideology.

>>18252863
Im not reading any chinkshit

Rec me if the celestine prophecy had a plot

>>18252863
Hard to tell if it’s the translation or the prose but this shit is unreadable

Any good? I already read The Road and just finished Day of the Triffids so I'm in the mood for more post apocalyptic stuff.

>>18253219
?

>>18253435
I got tricked into buying this when I wanted to read the Harlan Ellison story. It looks very YA.

>>18253444
>It looks very YA.
You're probably right. My bookstore's sci fi section has a ton of ya mixed in. It can be kind of annoying when you see a book that looks interesting and it turns out it's really all about a student falling in love with her magic teacher or something.

>>18253223
You might have started with an older translation, which is in fact worse than newer ones.

>>18253223
Don't expect good prose from some amateur translator writing on his free time.

can anybody recommend me bizzare books like coraline

or books in desert locations like dune (i already read dune)

>>18253958
Chinese can't write regardless. There are decent east Asian writers in the world, but none of them are Chinese

>>18253981
>Desert
Recently read Master Assassins by Robert V.S. Redick, did the desert part well I think but otherwise kind of mediocre to me.

>>18253992
Different anon, but I have heard good things about Three Body Problem.

>>18254002
I tried it and did not think it was worth reading. Not as bad as web novels, obviously, but nothing to change my mind about china

>>18253981
Blood meridian was rather bizarre and takes place in a desert. Wouldn't classify it as scifi nor fantasy, but a lot of odd and unexplainable things happen.

Why are people spamming anime in the thread?

>>18254115
to get a reaction out of you

I don't care what any of you virgins say, Stardust is a good book and Gaiman is a good writer!!!!

>>18254375
>kneel gayman

Fuck E William Brown

>>18254407
>not having tomgirl faggot kneel as you use their onahole boipucci

>>18252397
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May-June 2021 (F&SF, #755)

NOVELLAS
Refugees - Robert Grossbach
Literal illegal aliens, miniscule in size, seek asylum in Long Island from their government. A lengthy court case ensues.
Ok

NOVELETS
The World, A Carcass - Rich Larson
Her royal parents have died. She's fourteen. Now she must live with her uncle who wants to marry her off, which is where she meets a man called Nothing. A gothic fantasy story.
Ok

Babylon System - Maurice Broaddus
A story about for-profit prisons and their relation to slavery in the Albion colony of America. It's very much about religion and oppression. This was written to provide more information about a character, a Rastafari, from one of the author's steampunk novels.
Ok

SHORT STORIES
A Father's Hand - Stephanie Kraner
A nice little post-apocalyptic story of a boy and his adopted father, a robot. Explores what it means to sentient in different ways and how to determine when it's time to let go.
Ok

Dontay's Bones - Danian Darrell Jerry
Afro-Futurism Hood Life filled with stereotypes, but it's okay because the author is Black. Maybe it's intended to be a depiction of lived experiences. It wasn't something I was able to enjoy.
Blah

Goodwill Objects - Nina Kiriki Hoffman
First word is "CDY", which later is Cody. I don't know if it's particular to the digital edition, but I've been noticing considerably more obvious errors like this in recent issues. It's distracting.
A weird story about a strange relationship. This could be probably be easily repurposed as a creepypasta. A guy gets a package that has a plastic baby that talks to him.
Meh

Severed Fruit - Pan Morigan
A story about dying and being unhappy with the life that comes after death. Disillusionment for all follows. Somewhat reminiscent of a A Christmas Carol, though of a tyrant rather than a miser. I appreciate the expressed sentiments. Unfortunately this is a only a fragment concerned with making a statement.
Meh

Molly Whuppy - Corey Flintoff
A take on a Scottish fairy tale that I hadn't heard of before.
Blah

Drunkard's Walk - Jason Enge
Apparently one of several stories about a drunkard wizard not doing well in life. Seems to be a mythology inspired sword and sorcery tale.
Meh

The Plus One - Marie Vibbert
A Mars habitat is a harsh place to live. I assume it's about the homelessness crisis in the US and the unwillingness of employers to not fully exploit their employees. It's certainly about devaluation and dehumanization, especially of those with mental health concerns. Also, it's a mystery about why someone died which leads to the practical concerns of speaking truth to power.
Enjoyable

When the Water Stops - Eugen Bacon
Several connected flash fiction polemics about a world where climate change has wrecked everything. I'm sympathetic to everything stated within, but I'd rather not read absurd caricatures and pure emotional appeal.
Blah

>>18254375
I refuse to find out in case it mars my view of the movie as anything less than perfect

>>18254523
Thanks for the update, I'll be checking them out.

>>18252397
What’s the point of science fiction and fantasy novels? At this point in time, all of them are just derivative to one another that, if you look close enough, they tell the same story on repeat. Are we ever going to get a novel that will revolutionize the genres? Or are we just witnessing the death of these two genres?

Want to get rid of the anime and Bakker falseflagging? Just don't respond to it. Simple as.

18255799
You're adding to the problem by just mentioning it.

18255813
Wrong. It has to be said because clearly you people can help yourselves.

>>18255777
These threads are pretty good about giving recs, you don't have to bait for them

The English translation of Roadside Picnic reads like ass.

>>18255839
Awkward in its over literalness or what

>>18255856
You can hear the cheeki breeki stereotypical accent as you read. The prose is awkward as fuck.

>>18255839
Just learn russian bro.

>>18255880
>You can hear the cheeki breeki stereotypical accent as you read
Isn't that the point

is wsffg dead for good?

could you recommend me some fantasy novels?
i would like something well written that is also relatively easy to follow, as i have a ruined attention span and would like to build a reading habit, improve my english and eventually (if god wills it) learn how to write at least some shorter stories
i am not so huge into sci-fi but i'm open to suggestions. mostly i like comfy worldbuilding, forests, tough winters and such, i could also enjoy some slight horror elements

>>18256509
The Long Earth series? There's a lot of forests there.

>>18256357
Doubt it. A successful localization reads well in the target language. If you can tell that it's a really shoddy literal translation that reads like ass, the translator's failed.

>>18256770
Not all translations have the same goals, and certainly not all translations are meant to be localizations

>>18256792
No translator aims to deliver a product that reads like ESL fiction.

/sffg/, I miss feeling interested in things

>>18257061
I hope this never happens to me, but I wish you best of luck.

decided to put wheel of time down today and I'm not picking it back up. Book 7 is as far as I will go. These books are stupid and a waste of time. Shame on me.

>>18253170
>>18253992
I was sceptical about Chinese novels myself, but barring some anti-religious humanism courtesy of the CPC, their fiction is actually very good. At least when it comes to amateur web and serial writers, they are miles above and beyond anything you will see from western writers. Western stories are all about muh emotions, muh men of the people, muh angst, muh moral dilemmas etc. Chinese novels are the exact opposite of that.

>>18253587
>a student falling in love with her magic teacher or something
that sounds hot, any recs?

>>18257266
Yes. They're all about lying, cheating, and just generally fucking over everyone else. Their characters are hollow, completely lacking in empathy and morality. They are literal bug people.

>>18257292
It depends on the story, the most exaggerated and trope-y Chinese characters fall under the category of complete sociopaths. Usually though, you will find a lot more balance even with villainous protagonists. Even the caricatures are a lot more refreshing to read than the western stories though. Last Western web fic I tried was very popular, but reading it was hell - shitty, corny, Hollywood-like joke dialogue all the time, beta cuck male characters, shallow and melodramatic character interactions, shitty plot, Rousseau-esque "everyone is good deep inside" assumptions taken to absurdity and a general lack of any redeeming qualities, really. Chinese novels are not perfect, but there is simply no comparison between the whiny, cringe-inducing shit western writers create and the stories of determined and masculine protagonists who just get shit done no matter the cost.

>>18255799

>>18257061
it's called depression, go see a doctor

>>18257209
Skip to the end books

>>18257462
Skip to the wikipedia summary.

>>18255799
Nice conspiracy schizo. Anime has been part of 4chan since it's inception. If you don't like it you can stay in reddit.

Does anyone want to hear my top 10 isekai recommendations this season?

Also why don't western books have seasons like Japan does? It makes managing things so much easier

>The only bit of rampant nationalism was Eda Ostrom, a geologist, who taught everyone Danish through sheer force of personality and taking double shifts, so that her native tongue was our lingua franca by the time we arrived. The rest of the long-running edutaintment was Jain Diaz from the NASA contingent teaching us considerate use of pronouns with sufficient patience and determination that ze even had the most hardcore Russians respecting hir life choices. Ze was an indicator of just how much looser things had got in the States after the fighting, which I suppose is some small consolation. By the time the interplanetary satnav told us we’d reached our destination, then, we were fully up on nonbinary etiquette and everyone’s messages home were peppered with incomprehensible Danish slang.

>>18257651
>Does anyone want to hear my top 10 isekai recommendations this season?
I sure hope they are not the ones in your pic, anon...
>>18257675
I have no idea what I am looking at but I feel a sort of repellent attraction towards this, if what I am saying makes sense.

>the croning
>dude what if we take the whisperer in darkness and add a bunch of filler garbage to it and call it a new story lmao
>the fisherman
>dude what if we take the dunwich horror and add a bunch of fish fucking to it and call it a new story
Lovecraftian horror is always shit.

>>18257651
Go on

>>18257321
If I recall correctly, the Chinese have a term called "Murder Hobos" for their protagonists who go around killing everyone, without any reflection or remorse on their part.

>>18253444
To be fair it's very difficult to differentiate between what's supposed to be YA and what's supposed to be for adults when it comes to modern fantasy/sci-fi, generally speaking if it's meant for adults the only real difference it'll have from YA is they use the word "fuck" in every sentence.

>>18258133
I didn't realize /tg/ was a CCP outpost

So I just bought Frankenstein (the 1818 edition), what am I in for?

>>18258204
sadness

>>18258204
Depression, sadness, death.

>at work
>literally not a thing to do but listen to the murakami audiobook on my phone
>would still rather stand around and listen to my own thoughts
bros is murakami
boring?

Jesus Christ this book has absolutely no idea what it wants to say.
Half of it is this weird feminist rant about how the setting is so stuck in its ideas that woman belong in the kitchen or whatever, and yet like 90% of the soldiers in the book are female, both on the protagonists and antagonists side, and I'm not even talking about named characters who are supposed to be the "odd ones out," tons of completely unnamed background characters are referred to as she or her. Shit's just completely inconsistent and makes all the times the main character goes on about how sexist the setting is just seem like random bitching for no reason.
The other half is just torture porn, we're talking entire paragraphs just describing what kind of pain the main character is in, at times it honestly felt like watching a man jerking himself off under a coat on his lap at a Saw movie.

In short, it's pretty shit.

>>18258297
>male feminist writes a book he thinks women will enjoy, all to get laid down the line

>>18258311
Author pictured here.

>>18258221
Read 2-3 of his works then stop, he has a distinctive style that may bores you when you're used to it. I recommend Kafka and Norwegian Wood.

>>18258431
I've started and dropped him across a bunch of his books, the only one I've enjoyed enough to finish was Tsukuru Tazaki

>>18252397
Just finished Neuromancer. I really liked it. Highly recommend.

>the only good thread
>not just on this board, but the entire website
>still under siege by discord trannies
Oh well I have 3 more bakkers to get through before I need a new book rec hopefully you guys die in race riots or something.

>>18258735
based

>>18257459
bad advice, therapy is literally a waste of time and psych drugs fuck your shit up for no benefit. Getting high off SSRIs is fun for a brief period but that's about it.

If you've got brain problems eat healthy, adjust your diet so that you're not vitamin/mineral deficient, and go for walks in the sunlight.

>>18258735
this, I'm literally rereading the Prince of Nothing and shooting the shit with my fellow Bakkerbros in the secret discord and the subreddit while my bull is "visiting" my gf in the next room, I hope by the time I finish it again we won't have to deal with this dreadful situation

>>18258823
Nice joke. You don't have a GF.

>>18258830
lol yes I do, the whole experience also enhances the numerous cuckoldry scenes from Bakker's work, which makes me think he also experienced it personally

>>18258837
You're a terrible writer. I'm not buying this at all. 100% buy that you'd want to watch a potential GF get fucked by men of color, though.

>>18258854
>I'm not buying this at all.
You're not buying that Bakker series is cuckoldry focused? I don't think you've read it then

>>18258863
Bacuck's existence is cuckoldy focused.

>>18258823
We have shitposters like this in these threads and yet people bitch about Bakkerfags...

Stop demonizing and dehumanizing Tentacle-folk. If you depict them as world-exterminators you're a writing hack.

>>18258903
Truth shines!

you said it, what would /sffg/ be without us? If we made our own /bakgen/ it would die right away

>>18258948
You did make your own general. It was called /wsffg/ and it died.

>>18254375
It's a very cliched reworking of fairy tales but has some charm. The last drawn page is very melancholic and cathartic

Are there any good sci-fi novels set in space that deal more with the darker dealings of the space's underbelly, focusing on intergalactic organized crime (slavery, drug and human trafficking, etc.)? It can be from the perspective of the law authorities or from the criminals themselves.

>>18259140
Star Wars.

>>18259140
Book's theme: How would a tiny minority who possess almost god-like powers be treated in a galactic society? The question is explored through the lens of a reincarnator from another world, who uses his NPC-powers to show how power truly operates in this galaxy consisting of countless civilizations.

Now, one of the focuses during this journey is one the international slave market of the galaxy. How can it be used to advance the agenda of the protagonist? Or should he given in to his ethical side and abolish it?

Not much focus on drugs, expect as ways of awakening super-powers. But the "underbelly" per say, turns in this work out to be the galactic ruling powers.

There is no more any good website where to discuss good SFF books. Even 4chan lit is ruined. I will turn inward know and just read all the classics. Ill come back in ten year’s time.

>>18255777
Holy digits, could mean something. Please explain further, what is the same story they keep repeating?

>>18259264
Try joining local book clubs until you find your scene. Or God forbid, you start your own.

>>18259264
Just use reddit.

>>18259140
Demon Princes by Jack Vance is right up your alley

Any of you read the cradle series? I am about halfway through soulsmith and just curious what I'm supposed to think of this series.

>>18260771
It’s decent ya fun

>>18253435
Read Swan Song by Robert McCammon. It is everything "The Stand" by Robert King aspired to be and failed miserably at.

Also of course the famous apocalypse books liek Earth Abides, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Cats Cradle, I Am Legend and Lucifer's Hammer.

The Forge of God by Greg Bear is also OK but the sequel Anvil of Stars is much more memorable.

>>18261053
>"The Stand" by Robert King
Stephen King of course, fuck

>>18259140
Try the Deathstalker series by Simon Green. It s wild stufff but very enjoyable if you dont take it too seriously.

>>18260771
It gets better til Underlord, then shits itself pretty bad afterwards.

>>18255839
it really did feel awkwardly translated

I enjoyed the book and thought the concept was awesome, but the translation felt kinda amateur and rough

>tfw no zone to explore

is there a 40k equivalent of gotrek and felix? these books are really comfy

Any books that are a big space opera like Mass Effect? I know there's ME books but was hoping for something actually good.

>>18262089
Just go and reread Dune.

>>18262089
Ringworld? Maybe Man-Kzin Wars. Foundation too. Banner of the Stars works as well.

>>18262163
>>18262175
Thanks.

"Good"reads is a treasure trove.

>>18262235
god, why is goodreads like this?

Are there any good fantasy novels with a villain protagonist?

>>18252407
what is this supposed to be
anyhow favorite isekai remains to be faraway paladin

>>18253444
Same thing happened to me but I haven't read it yet.

>>18262591
The Black Company

>>18262591
Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
I, Strahd: Memoirs of a Vampire by P.N. Elrod
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
The Young Elites by Marie Lu
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Knight of the Black Rose by James Lowder
The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

>>18262591
The Prince of Nothing by RSB

>>18262708
I'm already up to #5. They were only really the villains until the end of the second book.
>>18262725
Thanks, I'll check these out.

>>18262725
>The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Fuck thank you anon. I couldn't remember that for literal years.

>>18258204
It's a masterpiece.

>>18262725
>Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Is it really good, or just a meme?

>>18263337
It's YA

>>18263442
I've read the Prince of Nothing so I'm used to YA.

I decided to try Xianxia and started I Shall Seal the Heavens. I can't tell if it's the translation or the writing itself that bothers me, it feels kind of stiff. I guess I would describe it as very matter of fact, or that everything is told not shown. Is the whole book like that?

>>18263505
Chinese writing is bad

what are some good scifi anime this season?

>>18263526
This combined with exclusively shit translations means chinktasy is a waste of time.

>>18263337
I mean it is YA but it’s ok, I felt like I was suffering in certain POVs tho and just waiting to get back to the “villain” protagonists POV

Where do you guys go to find stuff to read if you're out of obvious ideas?
Nothing in the new releases or goodreads recommendations is jumping out to me so I'm looking at running out of stuff I really want to read in about a month or so.

>>18263821
The rec charts

>>18263505
The author's a much better writer on A Will Eternal because it's more comedy but he's kinda the chinese Sanderson, it's all very functional and similiar no matter which book you're reading.
Read a Mao Ni book if you want good writing in your chinese webnovels

>>18263821
I'm trying to larp like it's still the 20th century, so I look at the ads in the back pages and see what I can see. I look it up on the line before I actually spend any money, though.

Any books like Book of the New Sun or Second Apocalypse?

>>18263821
I just read everything that looks interesting by authors I end up enjoying, then check the similar recommendations on goodreads. Never had any downtime or been out of things to read. One thing I do know is that reddit has shit taste and will regurgitate the same recs over and over in every thread.

I impulsively purchased these. Are they any good or did I waste money?

>>18264092
Spending money is usually a waste in general.

>>18264744
True but are the books decent as far as sci fi goes?

>Boy gets adopted by a race of aliens working in a restaruant disguised as humans
What do guys think so far?

>>18264794
Whats the conflict?

>>18264820
He needs to exterminate all of the planet's inhabitants in order to sell it in the galactic market.

>>18264843
Eh

>>18263845
>>18263505
A Will Eternal is very comedy focus, and most of the book is very entertaining. However, similarly to his other world Desolate Era he does struggle with ending his books. I do recall Desolate Era more fondly since it has a darker world and contains a more interesting universe than A Will Eternal. Consequences seem more real in Desolate than Will.

>>18264843
i know things were a little different 1,300 years ago but it wasn't that bad was it?

>>18264843
>the galactic market
The Planet Trade Organization never made sense. Who determines how much a planet cost. And who would be rich enough to afford such cost to begin with. it sounds like a real estate scam on a galactic level.

I want to get through a fantasy megaseries once per year. The only thing I've read so far that I'd qualify as one is A Song of Ice and Fire. So far my to-read list includes:
>all 12 Cosmere novels
>Malazan
>Wheel of Time
>Memory, Sorrow and Thorn/Last King of Osten Ard
>The Dark Tower
Any others I should add and what would you recommend first? What would the science fiction equivalents of these be?

>>18265100
sci-fi? Maybe the Culture series by Ian M Banks.

>>18265100
Of the ones on that list I would recommend Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, because it's reasonably paced and doesn't drop plot arcs all over the place like so many greased marbles.

>>18265100
Gene Wokfe’s Book of the New Sun, Book of the Old Sun etc.
Bakker
Witcher

>>18263975
Dune

>>18265100
Shadows of the Apt. 14 books total.

>>18265100
Prince of nothing
Powder mage and the sequel series
Dresden files if you’re feeling somewhat masochistic
Book of the new sun

>>18265100
Read every Discworld and Forgotten Realms books pussy

>>18265273
>every Discworld
That's like recommending all the Xanth novels.

>>18265251
>10 primary books
>first book released in 2008
>tenth book released in 2014
wew lad

>>18265253
Dresden Files is really solid for at least the first 12 books, so there's plenty of good to pull from it

Hey
Any good books about a reality like earth now where we're contacted by aliens who are part of an alien federation of worlds who think they can solve our problems and so give us some technology and we unite as one world and then we conquer and enslave all of the alien worlds and destroy them and spread out into the stars?
Thanks

Are there any books with great alien cultures and characters I can get attached to similar to Mass Effect? I was obsessed with that aspect of the games as a teenager and want to recapture some of that

Is there any book on some genetic freak who is super smart and basically conquers everyone?

Are there are books on some post apocalyptic setting where the protagonist can’t forget stuff and instead remembers everything? Bonus points if there is magic.

Any sci-fi space opera books about some desert planet and a prophecy to be fulfilled.

>>18265685
Novelisation of Homeworld games.

>>18265370
Line of Delirium.
>>18265361
That question is for HFY reddit.

>>18265361
I'm not sure if SRW Alpha, or SRW:OG novelisations exist, but if they do, it's exactly what you want.

>>18265685
think dune is a good fit

>>18261337
No. Unlike fantasy, 40k has only ever had one (1) good author. This means there are almost no long-running good series in 40k, it’s all dreadful standalones or garbage tier trilogies.

You pretty much read Eisenhorn, Gaunt, then a few lightning in a bottle standalones and the rest is shit.

>>18262235

>>18265330
True, Changes is the last solid DF book in my opinion. It peaks there, then starts slowing going downhill before falling off the deep end entirely with the most recent two books.

Just finished this. Mixed bag, weakest in the series, but I wan to know...

Why the FUCK did the Bene Gesserit want Duncan? Was it seriously just to start a rumour that he had secret powers to bait the Honored Matres to destroy Rakis? Why train him up so much then?

Seems like overkill to me if that is the case.

>>18265900
Must be one of Sanderson’s books.

>>18257277
Paper Magician was the one I was specifically referring to, but its not sexy at all. It might get steamier in the next novel, though. Its a trilogy I think.

>>18265069
Planets are actually much cheaper than you'd think because its such a fucking hassle to colonize and run one. It's less 'selling the planet' and more people buying the mineral or colonization rights.

>>18265903
Changes was good but then yeah, it got really stale for the next couple. I admit, I thought Skin Game was a nice return to form, but now it just feels like a race to the end.

>>18253435
It’s a YA read but I thought it was alright.
It’s a pretty quick read but I didn’t mind it.

>>18253444
It’s YA but done well I think.
No stupid romance subplot going on.
I thought it was ok.

>>18261053
I really enjoyed swan song and would recommend it.

>>18263821
Ill finish my book soon anon ;)

Halfway through God Emperor of Dune and the feminist garbage has become too much for me to continue.
0/10

>>18267075
It gets more and more preachy on all kinds of fronts. Luckily heretics makes it more palatable as both female factions are flawed and moderation and respect for humanity tries to win out.

>>18267075
J can’t believe you fell for it.

Read Penric's Demon and I really enjoyed being back in the Chalion setting, the theology side of it is so well done.
Think there's a real case to be made that it's at least the best fantasy world created in the 21st century, possibly also the best fantasy series too.

Still not sure if I've ever encountered another fantasy series that manages to successfully wed the idea of religion as we know it irl with a world where the gods are known to definitely exist and act upon the world.

books like The Martian but good?

>>18267885
If I were to pick up the series would you recommend the publication order or chronological?

>>18267908
The Martian is honestly as good as it can be. It's a story concept that lives and dies on its plot alone, and the plot is well done

>>18267908
Red Mars by Robinson

>>18267938
Publication, doesn't matter much beyond the 2nd book being set directly after the first (not a sequel but it references events of it and characters from it) but the worldbuilding is slightly clearer if done in that order.

>>18258735
>>the only good thread
>>not just on this board, but the entire website
That would be /cyc/ sir.

If the novel doesn't even have a world destroying dragon then are there really any point in reading it?

>>18259348
this place is bad, but its not that bad

>>18262336
cause its full of women

>>18266723
He has made Harry too much of a gormless bitch now. I swear to god the last two whole books were just "Harry goes to X place, gets his ass beat and things 'woaw these guys are super badass' ad Infinitum."

In book 2 he threw a fucking werewolf through multiple buildings. Book 16 or whatever he is taking it up the ass from every semi-superhuman shitheel he talks to.

>>18268751
>>18259348

>>18268917
lel

This has been pretty underwhelming so far.

Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer is the best sci fi work in decades

>>18252863
ohh... author is still blocked from uploading new chapters.. fuck the ccp

>>18252863
you lot should make a general for chink shit

>>18252863

>>18268961
So you fell for the meme?

Is The House in the Cerulean Sea as good as they say? It looks comfy.

>>18269377
The House in the Cerulean Sea tells an equal parts heartwarming and silly tale. The world in this novel is fairly reminiscent of our own one however its pages are full of magical people and creatures. The government closely monitors those who are deemed not human and they are raised in government sanctioned orphanages.
As a case worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth (often abbreviated to DICOMY) Linus Baker, a solitary forty year old, oversees and inspects these orphanages. His job consists in ensuring the children’s wellbeing and that the people who are running these orphanages are following DICOMY guidelines. Linus himself abides by DICOMY's strict rules and regulations.
His routine is brusquely interrupted when he is summoned by DICOMY's Extremely Upper Management, only to be unexpectedly tasked with an unusual and highly sensitive assignment: he has to leave the city and travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage. The orphanage is run by the rather mysterious and eccentric Arthur Parnassus. It is up to Linus to determine whether the six children who reside there (a female gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist) should be taken away from the Island.
As the story progresses Linus begins to question DICOMY and its methods. Once he is able to move past what his case files tell him about these children, he begins to see them in their own right.

In the novel magical powers/appearances is a metaphor for being different. They are isolated from ‘ordinary’ humans, raised in controlled environments, treated with mistrust and or outright hatred. Linus finds himself challenging his own assumptions and preconceptions about these children.
Ultimately this is a story about the family that you choose: Linus himself has always felt like he doesn’t quite belong. On the Island, alongside the children and Arthur, he starts to feel more at ease with who he is as well as the type of person he wants to be.
The novel is filled with quirky humour and charming dialogues. There were quite a few elements that struck me as being a bit too silly for my taste, so that occasionally the story verged on being ridiculous (such as all of those ‘Oh My’ that Linus utters) but for the most part I liked this novel, it even made me smile here and there.

>>18264092
Cool covers, so if you got em cheap worth it already
Also nice foot

>>18269021
That's a pretty big claim.

Hi /sffg/, sorry if it seems off-topic, but could you tell me who is this guy? Already tried reverse image search and it didn't work.

>>18269631
It's not like there is a lot of great SciFi in the first place...

>>18269632
Pretty sure that's "Dune" of the eponymous series.

>>18269021
Cheers, ill read this. Ive been in a massive fiction slump for a couple of months now. Nearly every book written in the past 5 years that i have read recently has sucked.

>>18261236
Other than Pillman explaining the book's title, I don't think it was enjoyable. Maybe Redrick was a unique and daring character back in the 70s, but he was just generic and boring to me. I don't think they explored the concept of the zones nearly enough. They had, what, 170 pages to tell the story and establish the world, and most of it was spent on weak worldbuilding and character interactions outside of the zone. I gave absolutely zero fucks about the ending.

>>18269793
Nah man, he's actually the character "Do Androids Dream With Electric Sheep" from the novel of the same title.

>>18269283
I fell for it. My own mother was in on the meme, and I fell for it.

>>18269861
Nigga stop trolling, it's clearly "The Bible" from the novel named after him

>>18268961
Honestly it's so fucking boring. Not even slow, just boring. Nothing important happens, people talk about it, then repeat for 650ish pages.

>>18269793
>>18269861
>>18269885

Never gonna know who this guy is.

>>18268917
fucking kike admins

>>18265674
think you just described Geralt

>>18270057
He gets fucking killed by a kid with a pitchfork. If that's what you call conquering everyone then I guess you must be Canadian. (The most cucked president is Canadian, right? or was he French?)

I OBJECT to the all-pervasive SFF trope of 'small group of people have magical powers and the rest are normies.' From Herbert to Jemison to literally almost all YA its almost always done this way. This even spills into magical realism (XXX character can talk to ghosts or birds or some crap). And don't even get me started on capeshit. My book will be different. Are there any good books in which EVERYONE has powers (though some are better at it than others) I can read for inspo? Some Ursula K Leguin books are the closest I've seen.

just finished reading Echopraxia. Why didn't I like it as much as Blindsight? Maybe because the protagonist is an uninteresting old man with no agency at all, surrounded by characters who are so much smarter than him that they don't even tell him what's going on. The aliens were less interesting and LITERALLY two-dimensional. I liked the tangents into advanced technology and consciousness, but they added even LESS to the plot this time around. Ironically my favorite parts were those related to the Theseus and the previous book. Also the Bicamerals made zero fucking sense. A religious hive-mind so intelligent that they all fucking died and weren't even aware of it. I liked how the vampire and zombie lore was expanded, but Valerie was not as interesting a character as Sarasti.

Is there anything out there that's similar to the 'Book of the Wonders of Urth and Sky' stories?

They were my favourite part of New Sun, and apart from some of Wolfe's other short stories and maybe Lord Dunsany's work, I haven't really found anything like them.

Oh fuck that penric book i's great. Wish I didn't start it at midnight

>>18266302

>>18270265
A Select Party by Nathaniel Hawthorne feels like a brown book story to me.
Kipling’s Jungle Book was one of the inspirations for the Tale of the Boy Called Frog if you liked that one in particular.

>>18270180
The first Xanth book was about a magical world full of magical beings and the protagonist is a dud without powers. Ofc it turns out in the end that he does have a power

>>18268961
Just wait until kino emperor of dune
Imo they all get better up until god emperor then go down in quality after that.

>>18270228
Blindsight was pure fucking kino.

>>18262235
is it true that ricetongue is a grave insult to asians? I will remember this.

>>18271012
No.

>>18271035
That sounds like something a ricetongue would say.

Can we stop being racist for just one thread?

>>18268961
Honestly now that I'm a few books in the original actually seems like the weakest of the bunch, like it's pretty much just there to set up what's to come.
Other than muh boi Baron Harkonnen all the characters have pretty much no personality and spend entire paragraphs talking about how a single eyebrow twitch is a secret code or whatever.

>>18271076
these threads are never racist

>>18271076
Can we? Probably. Will we? Should we?

>>18271076
No

>>18268069
Yes.

>>18271012
How the fuck is ricetongue even an insult

>>18271474
It isn’t.

>>18270368
I downloaded the curse of chalion and am definitely enjoying it so far. Good rec by that anon

>>18271516
t. Seething ricetongue

>>18271076
no.

Any actually good Black Library books with Chaos in it?

>>18271474
It calls out their accents, which asians are frequently very self-conscious about.

>>18271634
Hard to pick.

>>18271762
That looks like thousands of dollars wasted when you can just torrent it.

>>18271945
Torrents don't make your room smell nice

>>18271961
https://www.bustle.com/p/9-candles-that-smell-like-books-to-help-you-set-the-perfect-reading-atmosphere-13115412

>>18271970
Do people still buy candles?

>>18271975
Yeah. I buy my mother heaps because they’re cheap but she loves them. It’s better than buying her books because she doesn’t read...

>>18271979
>It’s better than buying her books because she doesn’t read...
That's a good woman, i've seen plenty of people waste thousands of dollars in books that they will never read just to impress other people.

>>18271751
People make fun of Scandinavians English accent all the time. Do we go around wining and bitching about racism? No. Why not? For most I imagine they are too scared and passive to even bring it up. Whereas I just don't see the point in complaining about racism. It's a downwards spiral. You can always find something that is racist if you look close enough. And all it will bring to you personally are negative emotions that drain your will to live and hope for the world.

>>18271970
>Oh no, what you're smelling in my home isn't books, I spent $30 on a candle instead

>>18272010
There's a $9 one. Candles often last half a week or more if you're good at blowing it out after reading/before bed. The scent stays as long as you don't open a window.

>>18272010
>$30
What the fuck is wrong with that pricing?

>>18272022
>I can't believe anyone would spend money on physical books
>But definitely you should buy this consumable product that will last four days if you treat it right and never take any fresh air
Be honest, how much is Big Candle paying you

>>18272037
I have 500+ books but I don't think I needed them. I could have downloaded most of them. I just hate having to use free epub readers, etc., but that's solved now that I was given an iPhone X. I don't really want to buy another book after I bought Laughlin's Pound as Wuz last week, which is an admittedly nice-smelling hardcover.

If anon wants book smell, which I don't much have in my room anyway (probably because I let fresh air in all the time), then candles are cheaper overall. Black Library is notoriously pulpy and he could have fielded a 2000 points army with the money he spent on BL books.

>>18272064
>500+ books
What a waste of money.

>>18255777
Aren't most novels the same story on repeat if you look close enough?

>>18272099
Nothing but words all the way down

>>18272108
They really need to change things up.

>>18272118
Try picture books, comics, or manga. It's not even reading.

>>18272127
Already reading Dragonball. It has Journey to the west vibe going for it.

>>18272127
Nothing but symbols and meaning all the way down

>>18256509
Maybe try the The Tales of Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card. Pretty easy to follow alternate history with magic realism elements. Something of worldbuilding as well.

>>18271945
>Reading books on a screen
Talk about excessive eye strain

>>18258494
If you like Neuromancer and the sprawl trilogy wait until you get to the bridge trilogy. I think it's even better.

>>18272134
ereaders are actually pretty legit and don't strain the eyes much
I was against using a kindle until a friend gave me one and I tried it out

>>18272131
>The Tales of Alvin Maker series
>Things are not always what they seem in an alternate American history where folk magic actually works, and there is certainly more than meets the eye to Lolla-Wossiky, a perpetually drunk Shaw-Nee who cannot seem to shake his addiction to whiskey. But as Lolla-Wossiky ventures north in search of his dream beast, he also is on a quest to cure the ceaseless presence of the "black noise" - a shroud of darkness inside his head created by the violent death of his father that he can only push back when he is drinking. But along the voyage, an experience in Wobbish territory will change Lolla-Wossiky's life forever, and change him from a drunken Red Man into the wise and powerful Red Prophet.

>>18270180
The Stars My Destination

>>18272166
Yeah, that's certainly a part of the later books. The series does center on Alvin though, not Lolla-Wossiky.

>>18272187
That's the first book though.

I love you scififags
Thats is all
Goodbye

>>18272213
Thanks anon.

>>18272207
Oh, okay. I haven't read them in years.

>>18269868
I'm sorry to read that, anon.

>>18258204
A classic.

>>18272130

>>18257651

I'm surprised that there are people here in /lit/ of all places low enough to read Isekai shit.

>>18263975

Jack Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth. It was the inspiration for BOTNS.

>>18272328
If you don't read the mentioned genre, how can you even say that they're bad? By reading the reviews? I'm more surprised that an anon from /lit/ actually has this kind of impression.

>>18268961

I've read over 550+ plus pages in and I say that this book is pretty overrated. As in Black Panther overrated. Things got even boring once Paul and his mom entered the desert.

To tell you how bored I was, I was in a two hour long line while reading this book. I was currently in the part where Paul and his milf were crossing the desert silently to avoid the worms.

Long story short, I found sleeping more entertaining than reading Dune.

>>18269632
He's HP Lovecraft's cat reborn into an Elder God.

>>18272343
Then why do people keep recommending it.

>>18272375
Because it's good, regardless of what some contrarian retards from a rice-cooking workshop who recently had a civil war about Japanese cartoons and a Canadian cuckold fantasy author think.

>>18271076
maybe.

>>18265680
none

>>18253435
It’s YA but it’s okay for its genre.

>>18257209
Who was the idiot to make them that long to begin with. You can cut off the middle novels and nothing of value would be lost.

>>18272001
Scandis aren't ashamed of their accents, while asians are. That's why Asians in anglophonic countries are very often soft spoken; they don't have confidence. Scandis are generally very confident people.

>>18272517
The most famous internet cunts are also scandis and millions of people seem to love their accent, this guy is a faggot crybaby.

>>18272582
Guy has a victim complex that's for sure.

>>18254523
Thanks for the update.

What did lovecraft mean by this?

>>18272698
That he hates foreigners.

>>18272698
Squids and air conditioning units can make you insane.

>>18272713
But how?

>>18272726
By being a virgin in your thirties.

>>18272734
But lovecraft was married.

Just finished rereading Dune Messiah. Goddamn, if I weren't sleep-deprived I probably would've teared up once again. Such a great book.

>>18272740
He never fucked though, vagene is a portal to an eldritch dimension.

>>18272753
Who doesn’t fuck when they’re married?

>>18272773
Volcels

>>18271634
Fulgrim is decent Chaos. The Abbadon and Ahriman series are both pretty good.

Honestly the number of "good" books from black library is very small, and almost entirely by Dan Abnett.

>>18272791
Name the ones that aren't written by Dan Abnett

>>18272749
Kinda suspicious to see a positive post about DUNE.

>>18272803
The Emperors Gift, First Heretic, Helsreach, Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter, The Reverie

>>18272773
People with kids

>>18272823
Thanks for the recommendations.

>>18271634
The First Heretic is actually very good. It shows chaos as an insidious, mysterious thing, and was ADB before he got a big head and started winning woke points on twatter

>>18272827
They still fuck.

>>18272791
People seem to complain about Black Library a lot but I don't think their average is any worse than fantasy and sci-fi in general. You only avoid it by reading classics that are still talked about decades later.
And even then fags recommend trash like Black Company.

>>18272835
Are they right?

New thread
>>18272844

>>18272829
No problem. You could add Fifteen Hours to that list too - it's old and not quite as well written, but probably the best "grimdark" story about the average Joe soldier that they've published.

I personally like most of Aaron Dembski-Bowden's work, and both Guy Haley and Chris Wraight have some pretty good books, plus the guy who writes most of Warhammer Horror is surprisingly good. The rest of the authors range from "workmanlike prose checking off plot points" to "anonymously posted fanfiction" in quality, and the pulpy "bolter porn" stuff really doesn't do it for me.

As always, I recommend zlib or one of /tg/'s volas rather than buying anything.

>>18272839
That's actually fair, and BL has been slowly improving over the years. They just also have some absolutely awful books in headline series - a full third of the Horus Heresy novels are bad or terrible (plus the series was stupid bloated, it did not need 60+ books), the entire War of the Beast series was dreadful, Space Marine Battles as a series has maybe 2 good books, etc.

>>18270180
My Hero Academia, unironically.