/lit/ - Literature

>>19806731
First for sffg is gay because you read schlock

I am looking for a dark fantasy series with intense battles, pitch black lore, highly intellectual themes that dovetail into real world philosophy, poignant character psychology, and just a hint of Lovecraftian horror. Is there anything out there like this?

>>19806740
I would heartily recommend the works of Brandon Sanderson who has helped modernize and popularize the concept of "hard magic", which is basically the idea that magic needs rules to make sense just as there are rules for science. Fantasy can largely be divided in to before and after Sanderson, a divide which is synonymous with Unrealistic and Realistic fantasy.

>>19806734
Why yes, I do read schlock

King of /sffg/.

Simple as.

>>19806761
I translated the first page of TDtCB to my language once for fun
Turned out pretty good

>>19806740
Malazan.

>>19806731
any particular way i should get into China Mieville? or just start with first published?

>>19806731
Trying again with this >>19806408

what are some books that deal with interspecies romance?

post words you learnt from bakker, ill start.
Marmoreal
Shriven
Chiaroscuro

>>19806879
Moby Dick

>>19805961
>a chapter [of Seveneves] where it was clear that he [Neal Stephenson] had really weak, beginner-level knowledge of cryptography

He wrote Cryptonomicon you cretinous Zoomer

>>19806761
looks of... yearning, like he wants some... love

>>19806740
I got a good laugh out of this.. thanks anon. have a great day /sffg/

>>19806740
I will take the bait and offer the Iconoclasts trilogy. Pretty entertaining.

Bakkerchad besiege your board
With shiny armor and sharp sword
Read Bakker or lay beneath our feet
If you disrespect you are dead meat

>>19807203

>>19807203
Bakker has nothing on the likes of R.A.Salvatore, seethe.

Libgen or zlib

>>19807408
>Virus A of Virus B
Huh?

>>19807411
stop being such an american.

>>19807283
"Bakker Bakker, go away!"
I hear the feeble minded say
Conditioned by the dark before
Their wasted shouts I shall ignore
Darkness be thy only fruit
Thou shall not grasp the Absolute

>>19807415
I speak more than one language anon, please do not offend me.

>>19806746
https://youtu.be/n3BqLZ8UoZk
Mormons have to have literal explanations for everything. I don't mind Mormons or Sanderson but if the Sanderson haters want to piss off the vast demographics of snowflakes that buy these books, look for Mormonism in the books and remind them the cosmere is about inter galactic mormonism. Sanderson does believe non whites are evil and that he is is going to have a shit load of wives in space heaven as he becomes a God from his book success in the afterlife.

This question probably gets asked all the time, but I read Hyperion and enjoyed it. Are any of the sequels worth it? I've heard very different verdicts of them

>>19806731
A Shadow in Summer, Long Price Quartet #1 - Daniel Abraham (2006)

I may have enjoyed this prologue more than any other I've ever read. Although it's only a small part, I feel like the entire book, and indeed the whole of the series, will be commentary on the decision made then. It reminded me a lot of one of my favorite PKD stories, "The Exit Door Leads In". The reason why this prologue, and the book, had such a strong effect on me is due to my personal beliefs and experiences. I can't separate myself from my enjoyment, so my rating on this is hopelessly biased and likely will not be of much predictive value for you. There's a lot in this book that I could see as being off-putting to many readers for several different reasons. After reading a lot of reviews, there's apparently also a lot that I don't understand why they believe it's so off-putting. None of that bothered me in the slightest though, which again is an indictment, but I make a lot of allowances for fictional works. Based on the book's GR rating and those of /sffg/, clearly that wasn't the case for many.

This book is political intrigue, moral quandaries, and ethical dilemmas from the beginning to end. There aren't any heroics, let alone heroes. Not only isn't there any adventure, the narrative openly mocks thinking there could be. Instead, it's an assortment of people who are just trying to get through life and are inexorably and unknowingly drawn to the tragedy at the center of the story and surviving the aftermath the best that they can. The viewpoint characters are two teenagers, a young adult, and a late middle-aged woman. I enjoyed reading all of them. Although there is a protagonist, overall it's more like an ensemble as they each have an important role to play. Romance plays a significant role and there are a number of sex scenes, but none are described in any particular detail. That's all I have to say about that because there are too many who are too sensitive about such matters. This book is about character interactions to the exclusion of almost all else. I greatly enjoyed that.

Aside from being able to bind concepts into physical manifestations that do the binder's bidding, there are no other fantastical elements other than it taking place in a secondary world. Those who expect a traditional, high, epic, heroic, or similar sort of fantasy will probably be disappointed by what they read. That's the case with this first book at least, I can't speak to the others yet. Because of this, the author's next fantasy series, The Dagger and the Coin, was more traditional. I enjoyed that one well enough, but already I prefer this series. The only thing I'm disappointed by is that I haven't read more fantasy like this. I'm eager to see how this series progresses. If it maintains this level of enjoyment for me, then this will easily become one of my favorites.

Rating: 5/5

>>19807408
Zlib is a front-end to libgen with daily limited downloads. If you don't mind libgen's interface there's almost no reason to use zlib

>>19806761
Okay I'm someone who reads, Beckett, Pound, Joyce, Wolfe etc, and I'm incredibly elitist with literature you get the jist. I wanted some easy reading so I tried Malazan and bounced off of that because it was shite, and I like tolkien. Will Bakker deliver what I want? Is he actually fun to read? Good prose? Solid philosophical concepts?

Why can't scifi produce masterpieces like Lord of the Rings?
is it simply waiting for the right author to pen it, or does the genre simply not lend itself to be expanded like fantasy allows.

>>19807550
>jist
It's gist. Some elitist you are.

>>19807551
You've clearly not read enough science fiction.

>>19807551
yeah, sci fi sucks

>>19807551
Dunette
Valentine’s Game
I, Girlbot

>>19807550
Bakker is sort of a mix between Tolkien and Herbert.
In the sea of shit that is modern fantasy, Bakker stands out as an island of pure KINO. He's unironically the greatest contemporary fantasy author, hands down.
He uses philosophy to spice up the plot, but don't expect more than that, other than some regular character introspects.

You should definitely give it a shot. Aside from Wolfe, not a single author in the genre comes close to his prose with regards to quality.

>>19807551
nobody even heard of LoTR until the movies came out. the books are kinda boring not finna lie

>>19807550
>He still hasn't read Bakker.

>>19807551
There many sci-fi masterpieces anon.
What do you mean by a sci-fi masterpiece?

>>19807562
I've only ever seen it spelled with a "j" in southern USA.
>>19807589
Cool, I'll check it out. My love has always been epic poems, and I've tried looking for a fantasy series that encapsulates that feeling but nothing besides Tolkien has. I've only read Latro in the Mist from Wolfe, and I enjoyed it back in HS.

>>19807551
The Lord of the Rigs books are not a masterpiece, the movies are.

>Why yes, I do come to /sffg/ everyday to make the exact same posts over and over whilst circle jerking Bakker.

Just stop

>>19807607
>I've only ever seen it spelled with a "j" in southern USA.
There's an entire world outside of there. Same for "yinz".

>>19807607
The Second Apocalypse Series (Bakker's Magnum Opus) is quite literally the most epic, tragic and biblical-like fantasy story I've ever read.

You will soon understand why.

>>19807615
I'm from WV and I've never even heard of that holy shit lol.

>>19807550
Bakker is certainly better than Malazan. The prose quality ranges from good, for the genre, to inoffensive. The writing shines in moments of stress or extremity, and is weakest when it comes to politicking and court drama. Bakker doesn't know how to make court drama interesting, but he doesn't let that stop him. Thankfully it isn't the main focus of the series.
The prose initially aspires to emulate a biblical cadence, but he can't keep it up and so it fluctuates between the poetic and the mundane.
The philosophy is ever present as subtext and theme, but only commented on explicitly briefly when required by the plot. It is in the last two books when much is revealed as the plot itself becomes more metaphysical. However there are no grand John Galt speeches laying out any philosophical schema directly. Which isn't a bad thing imo.

>>19807617
>biblical-like
Accurate, it felt like reading a Sumerian myth at first. I grew on me though, once you figure out what the fuck is going on.

>>19807617
Thanks. I'm gonna give it a go after I finish the last of my backlog. Also the books are sub 1k pages from what I can tell, which is so fucking nice. Fucking hated how Malazan could have been 400 pages shorter for every book.

>>19807613
just ignore the shitposting americans
I have all bakker posts filtered

>>19807630
>"Why yes, I do come to /sffg/ everyday to make the exact same posts over and over whilst circle jerking Bakker."
>"Bakker"
>I have all bakker posts filtered
You clearly do, retard.

>>19807613
Not my problem.

>>19807622
Thanks, good summary. I'll hopefully knock them all out this year.

I am thinking of writing a Lovecraftian horror story about an Anti-Bakker poster who slowly comes to realize that during his frequent fainting spells he actually post Pro-Bakker content. Naturally he goes insane and jumps from a cathedral's bell tower.

>>19807551
Sci Fi is superior genre and futurist settings that are believable require a lot of research to pull off. So you want to set earth in 2100? Well you gotta shape the world from here to there without info dumping. You need to have vast understanding of history, science, and culture. Or you can go the Dune route and make a universe that is more a fantasy setting than anything, but even then Frank spent like 6 years researching.

>>19807630
let them have this, this is their only joy left after their total societal collapse

>>19807551
Its called Battlefield Earth, and everybody hates it because of the guy who wrote it.

>>19807551
>space Tom Bombadil

>>19807654
Let's see, no vax passes (never taking it, worked every day past 2 years), less taxes, less living expenses, room for "white flight" expansion outside of urban areas. Economy that can work dispersed rather than centralized in large metro populations. Growing libertarian communities. Things are bad, but pretty much anywhere else is worse. At least we can outlive eurofags and their archaic prison EU states.

>>19807622
>>19807617
I'm interested in reading Bakker too, but how many of the books are worth reading? Is prince of nothing an okay stopping point or does the quality continue?

Not a Sanderson fan, but I do like magic a lot so also how's the magic?

>>19807701
Prince of Nothing is its own story, but of course leads directly in to Aspect Emperor. PoN is very clearly influenced by history, and is more modest in scope, whereas AE is very much an Epic Fantasy affair. AE also suffers from lack of a good editor.

Magic isn't just is varied and carries with it consequences for the user. It is in complete harmony with the plot, and themes, but not especially technical. So don't expect any Sanderson/Naruto do X with Y to produce Z blow by blows mid-fight.

>>19807752
Ah cool. Yeah I fucking hate the "hard magic system" reads like anime fights. But I do like lavish descriptions / metaphors for magical abilities.

>>19806731
What are some classic good western fantasy books? You know something about elves and shit, interesting lore and stuff like that. Should be classic, so I can read it in german. I got myself lotr (only watched the first movie) is it good? I am more of interested how this whole thing created a universe.

>>19807788
Here's your starting trilogy, newfag.

>>19807793
thanks I will try and read the first book

>>19807803
Viele Spaß. Gibt es auch auf Deutsch.

>>19807809
already downloaded them anon thanks. Hoping it will be good. I also have "die trolle" from hardebusch.

>>19805248
... yes (?)

>>19807818
?

>>19807836
Isn't gnosticism reality?

>>19807589
for some days I felt really fucking silly at myself in general after reading the intro to the first book when kellhus told the hunter that the world wasn't the one making him suffer anymore but it was himself. The way he wrote it allowed me to see it in myself and I'll always be grateful for having that anchor taken off me, from a fucking dark fantasy book of all things.

>>19807873
you have long ago become the architect of your own suffering or something like that

Snapped a picture of this specimen "philosophizing" in the fantasy section of our local Barnes and Noble.
She stopped trying to master with the darkness that comes before when she realised we were laughing.

>>19807873
And that bit is just a sample of the walking contradictions (or caricatures) that we, Humans, are.

>>19807977
Bakker stacy

>>19807977
The only time I see women in bookstores is if its attached to a starbucks.

>>19808064
yeah because women don't like based things like books and grimdark fantasy with nihilism, they like pozzed things like starbucks

>>19806740
I know it’s bait but the Kane books by Kar Edward Wagner is actually what you want.

What's the best fantasy epic poem for reading in English? I read a bit of Crawford's translation of the Kalevala and it's wonderful, I plan to read more. The Odyssey of course. Anything else?

>>19807465
some anons here will recommend Fall of Hyperion. I think it's pure shit and one of the largest quality drops in history.

>>19808210
It's been years since I read the series but I remember Hyperion feeling like it ended in the middle of a book and that it should have been published as one volume with Fall.

>>19807589
Robin Hobb btfos Bakker when it comes to prose quality

>>19808240
That's not how you bait.

>>19808240
Robin WHOBB?

>>19807613
It's been like this for at least 3 years and it isn't even Bakkerfags only. This general will never return to a point where civil book discussion can be had.

>Open book
>It is written in third person
OR
>It is written in present tense
>Close book

>>19808278
Ok, but who asked?

>>19808285
Fuck I meant first person

>>19808285
Third person is the only acceptable person. I agree about present tense though.

>>19808285
holy based first person connoisseur
>>19808292
cope

>>19808278
No shit. If you actually want to talk about a specific book, make a thread for it. This general is for discussing a genre which hasn't had anything worth talking about published in something like ten years.

Discuss

>>19808416
>rots your brain
Nothing personnel… kid.

>>19808416
>solo leveling
Ew

>>19808416
Man I'd love to see what Cain would do when you put him into a room with your average isekai neet protagonist.

>book won't be written in future tense
trash

Reading this at the moment. Is there like a per-page homosexuality requirement in publishing nowadays?

>>19808416
Who actually read this shit?

Reminder that all Bakkerposting is made by the same autist who phonefags and replies twice to every post mentioning Bakker's irrelevancy
See >>19808240 and its replies
Bakkertrannies in action:
>>19808243
>>19808256
Reminder that this autist (Probably Bakker himself) is actively making /sffg/ unusable and preventing any decent discussion about actual literature (not Bakkerturds) from happening

>>19808651
Yeah, you're probably right. But I don't really mind, I like Bakker, so that's that.

>>19808651
Robin Hobb is shit.

Cope.

>>19808538
I don't remember any fagotry.
Except at the very start with mum. Wich made me kind of hard.

>>19808681
This desu.

>>19808538
Pic related has a fag MC but it's great.

>>19808651
How does he prevent you from discussing anything? You seem to rather complain about innocuous bakker posts than discussing anything else.

>>19807481
>If you don't mind libgen's interface there's almost no reason to use zlib
Very often there are missing books on libgen, while zlib almost always has them.

>>19808803
this guy knows

I am not reading Bakker until I'm done catching up with the Cosmere.

>>19808932
Bakker is not for the faint of hearts, and not for the soft of cock.

>>19808681
Hobb filters the autist.

>>19808951
who was the most based venerable

>>19808651
>Thinking that mentioning Robin Who is somehow related to Bakker's irrelevance.

>>19809122
Bakker is literally living rent free in their heads.

Many such cases.

Simple as.

Babe, I'm going out for a quick great ordeal with my bro Proyas. Just look over my Empire for a couple months. Literally just make sure our children dont kill each other and respect my brother and simply stay put. Just do that, okay? Love you.

>>19809048
Spectral soul obviously

>>19809206
The most hilarious part about that is you assuming he didn't know what would happen.

Hi lads, I never use this board but I got a book token for Xmas. I'm thinking of picking up either Black Leopard Red Wolf (first choice) or Anansi Boys. It's not necessarily fantasy I'm craving, just a rich setting and an adventure. Which of these would be recommended?

>>19809239
Never heard of them. Read Prince of Nothing.
>no captcha required

>>19808616
>wizard knight by wolfe is bad
seethe

>>19809239
>xmas
It is Christmas, anon, Christmas..

>>19809239
Since you're a lazy fuck who won't read the thread, here you go.
Thank me later.

>>19809268
it's called winter time

>>19809239
First one looks super gay and the 2nd one is pretty gay, so overall I'd say stop beating around the bush and go full GRI.

>>19809289
I myself liked when the loli shota vampire got stuffed.

in The Knight isn't time supposed to go slower the lower you go and faster the higher you go?
Then why do months go by when he went down the cliff to fight the dragon or went underwater for a couple of days or hours? Were those higher realms, just not physically location wise?

>>19809289
How old is this chart? Unironically

>>19809326
or oh, nevermind lol, after writing it out it made sense. Time goes slower (for you) in lower realms and faster (for you) in higher realms.

>>19809208
>resorts to killing as the first and only resort

>>19809331
Years. It needs to be updated.

>>19809326
Even Sandersnoy admits he's the top of fantasy lit

So am I the only one who noticed the exponential growth in butt fucking in Aspect Emperor vs. Prince of Nothing? There is almost no hetero sex in AE, but homo every twelfth page.

>>19809413
Bakker is a closet homosexual, how are you surprised?

Anyone know where I can see the reactions of ASOIAF fans to the first season of Game of Thrones?
Or any blogs you know?
I'm ok with hateful autists to hopeful but disappointed to loving it

>>19809331
3 or 4 years probably. I just grabbed it from the Mega.

love putting my penis in femboy ass
simple as

Is there anything else like VALIS? The other two books in the trilogy worth reading?

I really like this Lightbringer cover.

>>19809541
I always prefer originals to fan art.

>>19808296
>Third person is the only acceptable person
100% wrong.

Now that I think of it, CYOA books were fucking great when I was a kid, so you're wrong about 2nd person too.

>>19808792
I thought the second book had one of the saddest sex scenes I've ever read.
I've read the first book four times and I have no idea why.

>>19809558
>2nd person
I tried to read How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia recently and it was fucking cringe, it really does only work for game books.
>tfw killed the dragon but only had 2 of the 3 keys

>>19808792
Same. The worldbuilding was pretty good, and the only real mention of faggotry were in the few scenes that I skipped. Plus everyone in the story hates the MC for being a fag too. I think it helps that the author is straight, so he didn't lay it on thick or feel the need to constantly remind the reader that it's OMG so progressive.

k

2nd person future tense books where?

>>19809598
>everyone in the story hates the MC for being a fag too. I think it helps that the author is straight
A straight man does not choose to write a story from the perspective of a faggot.

>>19809629
Unless his wife is a beard, he is at most bisexual.

>>19809641
>Unless his wife is a beard
That's literally how the entire first wave of north american faggots, the ones who gave us GRID, started the whole modern gay scene, by being married.

>>19809433
I'm not surprised at the debauchery, but I am incredibly surprised of how exclusively homo it was. Even exclusively hetero characters like Sorweel [\spoiler].

You think his wife read the books?

Captcha: 4K G0D

>>19809681
nobody read his books

>>19809681
Fuck, how does even work?

Truly I am retarded

>>19809694
PRO-TIP: Press Ctrl-S

>>19809437
That retarded shit didn't exist in 2011 for an HBO fantasy series nobody had heard about. It was mostly word of mouth in those days. Shit blew up after season 2. I would expect reaction culture to pick up to what we know by season 3 with the shocking wedding.

>>19809541
I like Jian Guo's covers.

>>19809629
I can think of plenty of reasons to write a homo character. If I did it to a character you, you would be repulsed or you would be proud of you yourself was a fag. The point is it involves a reaction out of the reader. Example: Baron Harkonnen. It made him more vile because when Dune was written it was culturally vile to be gay, let alone a pedo which is another level entirely. It's very small brain to just see sexuality in books at face value. It's adds character and motivation. Now, if Bakker is straight and he's explicitly describing homosexuality out of context of character and tone then yeah that is pretty gay.

>>19809746
Maybe I'm just retarded but I do remember finding forums and blogs for ASOIAF back when the first season came out
Unless you're confusing my usage of the word reaction to refer to videos in the genre of reaction videos in which case that's incredibly depressing

>>19809541
>>19809757
Has Brent Weeks ever written anything worth reading? I feel like his books start out ok and then go to utter shit

>>19809777
If you want posts then ironically reddit probably has old stuff you can look up. No idea about websites. I would shit post on IMDb message boards back then.

>>19808416
Are you the anon who made the old chart from a few years ago?

>>19809788
>reddit probably has old stuff you can look up
Dude 90%+ of those threads are going to be profiles that used a bot to "delete" edit all their old comments and then the mods going back in time to remove problematic commentary.

>>19809355
>literally kill everybody who causes you trouble and inconvenience
I don't see how this is a bad thing

>>19809855
I've never used reddit so I wouldn't know.

>>19810170
Didn't ask.

>>19809810
yes

>>19810228
Not my problem.

>>19809355
>>19810046
Nice anime.

Is this pozzed? I need a new fantasy series

>>19810375
What have you read so far?

>>19810375
It is mid 90's lvl pozzed. Woah, women in the army! How radical!
Mostly it just the shitty novelization of some DnD campaigns.

>>19810429
>It is mid 90's lvl pozzed.
That's practically fascism!

This protagonist is embarrassing as fuck to read about. It would make sense if he was a prince throwing his weight around, and people put up with his chuuni bullshit because of that, but the book makes it clear he's actually just that badass that the bandits he's with take it.

>>19810405
I’ve only ever read SciFi because I was only ever into military history and I didn’t read a whole shit load of books. Stuff I did like was Hyperion, Botns, lots of 40k, expanse(it was ok), Alastair reynolds.

I didn’t mean I need a new fantasy series but a fantasy series.

Thanks

>>19810454
Have you read Bakker?. Not even meming, just asking because it's way better than Erikson.

>>19810451
This is the prince who drove nails into the guys head in the opening chapters of the first book?

>>19810470
The very same. He also kills one of his followers for no reason in the opening chapters.

>>19810464
I haven’t I just assumed people were trolling so I was looking at malazan

>>19810517
>I haven’t I just assumed people were trolling
They are.

>>19810504
I remember that series, it was a fun read and while not the greatest story ever told it's far from the worst.
I tried an audiobook version too but couldn't do it, the narrator was a man and he tried to act out all the voices including old women, which makes the book stick out in my mind because of how ridiculous it was.
Have you finished the books yet? I don't want to spoil anything.
It's like Shannara but if you got to the point in two books instead of a lifetime of milking the idea.

>>19810517
Well if you look at >>19809272 you will know that even Erikson praises him.

The trolling is still happening, but that doesn't mean that Bakker is bad, quite the opposite.

>>19810533
>but that doesn't mean that Bakker is bad
He may or may not be overrated, but what is for certain is that he is over debated.

>>19810539
He's over-debated for a reason. Not understanding why that is makes you look like a fool.

>>19810546
Because one autist who phonefags and replies twice to every post mentioning Bakker's irrelevancy?

>>19810546
I know what you mean, I see one right here: >>19810559

>>19810565
It's literally rent-free at this point. It's like Bakker broke their minds for some odd reason.

Bakker isn't ever really debated

>>19810559
Shame it kills any discussion /sffg/ might have otherwise had.

>>19810582
Yeah, but that's the word that rhymed.

>>19810582
Obviously, he's the King.

>>19810592
Bakkertrannies just want to kill /sffg/ at this point.

>>19810595
Based.

>>19810592
Not my problem.

>>19810532
The follow up trilogy was fun too, with the loser coward prince.

>>19810592
just ignore the shitposting americans

>>19810375
Just read Bakker, dumbass.

>>19810617
Hard to do when the entire thread is nothing but shitpost of the exact same posts over and over

>>19810616
>The follow up trilogy
Didn't know that was a thing, I figured the ending kind of killed any potential for a sequel.

Ok, I will read Bakker, you dumbasses.

This better be good.

>>19810692
It takes a while to begin to pay off.

>>19810692
You're going to be imagining graphic gay sex.

>>19810893
I originally picked up The Darkness That Comes Before because I had been promised "GRI" and was expecting a lot of gratuitous gritty gay stuff. A male child faced impending rape on the first page, but then after that there is pretty much nothing, for several books into the series. Later on, there is a fair amount of gay stuff, especially with the nonmen, that I actually found pretty compelling, but it seemed like the series had that reputation before those later books were even published.

>>19810940
>Yes, you will be imagining graphic gay sex

>>19808416
People in this thread have been asking for an updated chart for years so it's nice someone finally made one but wouldn't the correct terminology be Portal Fatany rather than isekai?

>>19810886
>It takes a while to begin to pay off.
Just keep reading bro, it gets good after page 200 of the third book,
LOL

>>19806951
>>19807203
>>19807439
>>19807550
>>19807589
>>19807598
>>19807622
For all you fuckers taking the bait. I did it for you. I read the first bakker book, and it's SHIT.
Don't waste your time with Bakker trannies on this board.

>>19811021
>Just keep reading bro, it gets good after page 200 of the third book,

No one is saying that, you irrational ape. The first book is great, it just isn't action oriented like some other entries, but that doesn't make it bad. Characters are established, threads are drawn together slowly. If this bores you go back to reading YA.

>I read the first bakker book

No, you didn't.

>>19810625
It's not a sequel, the plot happens in parallel to the first series but with a protagonist who is basically the opposite of the first guy. They even briefly interact a few times.

>>19806731
Why does a laser weapon require a feed belt?

>>19807551
You are just willfully fucking blind

>>19807589
All space operas and fantasy epics are the same. He combined aspects of both science fiction and fantasy!?! WOW

Fuck off, I'm not reading it.

>>19807593
Explain further

>>19811021
fuck you man I can't ever see this pic without jerking off
i was doing so well controlling my urges this week too

>>19810940
xerius? moenghus? 8WJ02. the consult and esmi? Serwe?WP4N0

>>19811198
it's a gas feed

>>19811293
Didn't ask.

>>19811095
>Characters are established, threads are drawn together slowly
I found it much easier to understand and remember who's who once I came across people's lists of real-world analogues to the nations and races, since he clearly patterned many off of them. Like Shigek=Egypt, Nilnamesh=India, Nansur=Byzantium, Galeoth=Anglos/Celts, etc. That way you have a frame of reference instead of having to learn completely fictional borders and regions from scratch like in other lore-heavy fantasy.

>>19810692
I thankfully found Bakker from /sffg/ two years ago before the shills, and it was fantastic. Probably my favorite genre fiction. But the shilling now probably would make me not want to read it.

I get it's a meme now but it's retarded. Unless it's people who hate Bakker, in which case they are doing a good job.

>>19811301
You did. Stop being a faggot about it.

>>19811259
>the consult and esmi? Serwe?
Did you forget what you were posting about midway through? I said I picked it up because I wanted to read about gay stuff, not nasty women.

Anyway, that other stuff wasn't introduced until later on, and by then I was reading the books for other reasons.

>>19811349
You had to look that stuff up? I don't mean to be nasty, but anon, you may be a midwit.
I really hate to say something that is going to sound like "your IQ must be this high to enjoy Bakker" but I wonder if not recognizing stuff like that (and not being smart enough to even try to learn about it, like you did) is one of the things that makes some people hate his books so much.

>>19808285
>Book is written in second-person future tense

>>19811415
All of that is in the first book, also that's the R and I

>>19810375
Not overwhelmingly so, but some characters and interactions in the later books might cause a mental eye roll or two.

>>19810327
It is not anime. It's a Literature of a highest tier.

>>19811162
Ohh, the undead?

>>19810893
>>19810940
>>19810956
probably the only book with gay sex that wasn't written by a women

>>19811484
Stop responding to shitpost.

I would like to thank all participants in this general for reliably keeping your genre trash confined to a single thread. I wish you well.

>>19811534
I think you mean genre kino

>>19811431
No, I didn't have to. I chose to once I noticed the similarities, so as to more quickly understand the characters and factions. Like I said, I don't like learning every author's stupid encyclopedic lore from scratch if I don't have to. If you would read more than just one fantasy series, you'd understand that seeing
>Globothil, a Rumnorami princedom from the Frangolix Marshes in Eastern Prondor, was constantly at war with the vexatious Horstroth tribes
in every fucking story and having to memorize all that shit just to know what's going on gets tiresome. When the author is kind enough to model people after real places, it makes it much easier to get into the plot instead of having to (unholy) consult the 15 appendices.

>>19810992
Good luck telling that to a guy who made a chart of self-published books but still put a book published by TOR on there among other silliness in that and other charts.

>>19809250
Kek, I was about to say the same thing anon.

Which of Tolkiens books should I read if I'm not autistic about it but still love Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit?
I'm going to read the Silmarillion, is that basically it?

>>19812241
yes read it

>>19806740

Can you make 'Collections' on your Kindle through file explorer, like making new folders, instead of having to do it through the Kindle itself, and adding books manually that way?

>>19811554
I read all of this and was not the biggest fan. Too long and too many anime stereotypes.

>>19812280
>1000 pages of fight scenes and training montages
>Doesn't even get halfway through the first year of high school
it really is just like my japanese animes

>>19808701
His mother is a lesbian and has a harem of girls she spends time with instead of her family.
His brother thinks he's gay.
The only passengers on the ship he boards are a gay couple.
His friend is a gay sex slave.
The lord of the planet he's on is gay.

>>19807551
Asimov, Herbert, Clarke

Are there any books in the magic the gathering cannon worth reading ?

Have any of you read any good ones ?

>>19812399
Read them and find out.

>>19812399
The harperprism books that got immediately decanonized are all GOAT. The ones published by wotc themselves are all shit.

>>19812399
brothers war i believe

>>19812437
>>19812410

Thanks for that, why were those books removed from the canon ?

>>19807672
Is this fantasy or sci-fi?

>>19811230
Not my problem.

>>19812278
Feels like there are two missing...

Pat yourselves on the back Bakkerchads, The Darkness That Comes Before was fucking based. Utterly unlike anything I’ve ever read before. The prose was incredible. Bakker is succinct to the point of being dry, and yet not a word feels wasted. It goes beyond any sense of ‘trimming the fat’, it reads more like there was never any fat to begin with. Just meat. The action scenes - few though they may have been - were as smooth as butter. It reads like Bakker is a character himself, merely an omnipotent recorder of the historical goings-on.

The characters were amazing. I feel inspired to write like, an essay or something. Primarily to address some criticisms I kept hearing about before going into it. Especially about the women. As a woman myself, I find the casual dismissal of this book as sexist to be mostly retarded. ‘Sexist’ is a description, not a criticism. Game of Thrones (the show, I haven’t read the books) is a very sexist world. But women forgive that variety of sexism (which is similar; medieval, pre-enlightenment, trad views on women) because of its rampant girlbosses, which lends to GOT being less realistic. Sure, maybe only one in a million women in Westeros actually get to be girlbosses, you as the viewer just happen to know all of them! Fucking weird, right?

Yes, actually weird. I don’t know a single girlboss. Most of the women I know are common, uninteresting millennial wageslaves like all the men I know, because how often do people actually know a Hillary Clinton or an Elizabeth Holmes? Or a Bezos or a Musk for that matter? Those people surround themselves with people that are like them, not faggots like me.

Granted, I also don’t know a lot of prostitutes, but I’m sure I would’ve known a lot more prostitutes than queens had I been alive pre-Enlightment, which is basically the setting for this book. Also, it’s taking place during a fucking HOLY WAR. What role do women occupy in wars? Take Saving Private Ryan, for example. There’s Ryan’s mom and some secretaries. There’s like two women total in that movie. But the reason retards don’t bitch about it being sexist is because modern women have the broader historical context of knowing that at one time, back when America could still be taken seriously, women had no place in a fucking WAR.

Bakker mentioned once some tattooed priestesses, I’m sure there’s a girlboss or two to be found in there. We’re not hearing from them though, because it’s the first book in a sprawling multi-volume story a), and b) because having Strong Female Characters every time strains credulity. The women in this novel are using the one tool they have naturally to exert some sort of control over their situation, via the manipulation of the men around them. Just because their survival doesn’t look like fighting with swords doesn’t make it less impressive. They’re doing what they can to not fucking die, like everyone else.

TL;DR, it’s just real swell.

>>19811021
>Filtered by Bakker.
Many such cases.

Started reading the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Nearly finished Lord Foul's Bane and I don't think I can be bothered with anymore after this.

Even when you get over what a whiny, annoying faggot Covenant is and the fact that every page has some variant of the word "clenched", it's just so boring. Nothing seems to be happening.

Do people actually like this?

I don't want to be a bakkerchad anymore, I just want to be happy

>>19812613
Yeah, it sucks. Covenant is a really awkward attempt at psychological realism within a Neo-Tolkien setting, but it just doesn't work.
I actually feel like the setting is wasted on the character. The Land is actually pretty comfy in that attractively cliché way you find in Dragon Quest games , AD&D illustrations, or Dungeon Synth album covers.
I feel like it could have been THE generic fantasy series if it had taken a different approach.

I love Dune, Lord of the Rings, Earthsea and Harry Potter with ASOIAF (only read 2 books so far) coming close
Yes I'm a pleb but I'm ok with that

>>19812634
Oh wait, I like Skulduggery Pleasant and His Dark Materials too but both are behind ASOIAF, you really had to be there unlike with Harry Potter for me which I've re-read a few times, only re-read the first Skulduggery once and re-read His Dark Materials twice I wish I had been born as a girl

>>19812615
a man that lives on the misery of others will never find true happiness

>>19812663
>Imagine being miserable over shit-posting

>>19806740
Three Body Problem series. Each book has a different them that only grows in scale. Characters are a little retarded but the scope / ideas is so good that it makes up for it.

>>19812718
>dark fantasy
ignore this post my bad

>>19812721
I will, because you're clearly new here. And not because you missed the "dark fantasy" part.

>>19812613
i dropped it after book 2 or 3

>>19812633
I came to a similar conclusion after finishing book 1, Thomas was just s terrible mix of inactive and miserable. All I remember is the struggle snuggle girl escorted him to a village, her mom escorted him to the giant, the giant escorted him to the city, and then he went with an army all without doing anything but bitch and moan.

Except for the kino cover art, the entire series should be left in the dustbin of history.

>>19812553
>>19812591
>>19812615
>>19812663
>>19812703
kys you fucking faggot. Watching you samefag is the most cringe fucking thing I've seen. Take your mental illness to a tranny board where you belong.

>>19812718
>Characters are a little retarded
Just the women.

Anyone read this?
I deeply enjoyed and Satoshi Kon movie and I was wondering if there are big differences between the novel and the movie. I think might buy it later.

Can some german bros recommend me some hard sci-fi or dark fantasy novels from german authors? I'm trying to learn the language.

Sometimes I wonder if those who really enjoy, The Three Body Problem, which is relatively popular as far as Science Fiction goes, do so because they haven't read relatively that much science fiction. To me, Liu Cixin is a less enjoyable Greg Egan that also happens to be translated which causes more problems.

>>19813568
The Dark Forest is a neat little answers for the great filter. Cool idea that elevates an otherwise second rate affair.

>>19806731
Any Scifi out there that isn't woke feminist bullshit?

>>19812399
I read basically literally every single one that had came out through my teenage years, which was a lot, and still most of them. Overall, you can probably just read the Brother's War and be fine with it. Possibly The Thran as well. Almost none of them are particularly enjoyable. Some have some neat ideas, but not enough to make them worth reading. Overall, you'll have to choose for yourself.

As for the first 10 then books or so, it's not so much that they aren't part of the canon as it is that they were standalone books without any shared setting that were much more about the mechanics of the game than the story.

>>19813521

>>19813591
That doesn't mean it needs an entire novel though to show it off.

Why don't writers dare add a bad ending outside of short fiction?

>>19813521
You're unironically not prepared for those books yet.

>>19813606
Because they aren't commercially viable.

>>19813612
What a bunch of bitches.

>>19813617
There are some bad end movies, but they tend to be rather controversial and/or poorly rated as far as I can remember about the ones I've seen and know about.

>>19813635
Like "No Country for Old Men"?
Seems like only the (YA) SFF crowd seems to be hell-bent against bad endings.

>>19813606
>>19813612
>>19813617
>>19813635
To be more specific, I'm assuming you mean in SFF. Horror and Noir are probably the most likely to have bad ends, but they're also more expected to be as such. Both are that commercially viable though either, outside of a couple of notable authors though.

>>19813645
Maybe we have a different idea of what a "bad ending" is. I wouldn't say that would necessarily be one. Maybe you mean more "the villain wins" instead. I was thinking more about the sort of movies where everyone is dead by the end or the protagonists have entirely failed.

>>19813606
that's not a writer problem, but an american problem

>>19813650
*not that commercially viable

>>19813664
Provide a counterexample.

>>19813671
books not written by american writers

>>19813662
> Maybe you mean more "the villain wins" instead.
Who wins in No Country for Old Men exactly? Not the villain.

> everyone is dead by the end or the protagonists have entirely failed.
I am Legend?
Most novels by John Brunner.

>>19813664
Fair.

>>19813650
Yea. Horror is less shy of being transgressive.
I"m talking SFF specifically though.

>>19813671
Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.

>>19813434
Does it trouble you?

>>19813597
I really like that they changed the title. It adds some mystic to it.

>>19813606
What kind of bad endings do you prefer?

>>19812553
Bakker is great but he definitely has a problem where gratuitous sexual violence and degenerate violence detracts from his work. I get that it sometimes serves a purpose, and it has its own dark aesthetic sort of like Beserk, but this only holds vis-á-vis the Consult. Some of the shit regular people pull is just over the top at times.

And he has problems with his female leads. There isn't necissarily anything wrong with any one of them, it's that collectively they all end up falling into the same pattern of victimization, pregnancy, etc.

Although they do get a good deal better in the second series, but the trend continues. The chances for exceptional women to be characters are all truncated. The Nonmen lost all their women to a disease. Ok, fair enough, it works with them being a doomed race. But then, not to give anything away, there are these "Whale Mothers" who could have been strong female characters, but instead they are rape slaves, and their being so also makes no real sense in the plot.

When there is a powerful woman in the second series, she's an avatar of fertility magic and gets at men through their dicks.

Not to mention the arbitrary sexual attack stuff. Two characters get played against each other, one outsmarts the other. Good stuff. Then one drags him off in front of his soldiers to fuck him... because....? I guess that is some solid dominance.

Or there is a section if great dialogue getting into some deep lore and ideas later, a sort of battle of wills, but then one guy just rapes his interlocutor midway into the discussion. At least in that case it served a plot point, but it still seemed gratuitous.

I suppose it is a counter argument that Bakker isn't misogynistic though in that the men get fucked too.

>>19813751
my favorite ones are the one that just sizzle out, not bottom of the pit endless suffering and despair kind of ending, but just lingering restlessness of no resolution

>>19813597

Thanks

>>19813609

Can you recommend something that you think would be more appropriate?

>>19813765
Is that a reflection of your own life?

>>19813773
What's your current level? Can you say something on vocaroo? Yes, unironically

>>19813777
of any life

>>19813782
Have you read Stoner? I haven't, but from everything I've heard about it, it seems like exactly what you'd want to read.

Also, I wouldn't really consider that as a "bad end".

>>19813762
>When there is a powerful woman in the second series
Serwa was pretty much the only other meta-gnostic sorcerer around, wasn't she?

>>19813793
More like "unfulfilling" than "bad".

>>19812613
If you're the anon to whom I suggested this series, I'm sorry.
But hey, at least now I know not to read it. Thank you for your sacrifice

>>19813751
I prefer the despair of impending doom, and the acceptance that comes with it.
The realization that regardless of actions it will all result in the same unfulfilling end and every bit of happiness inbetween is on borrowed time.


>>19813765
And a very close second to me.

>>19813852
Ok, Emil Cioran.

>>19813781

Like no level at all. In my retarded mind i was thinking of translating word by word as i try to advance in the book. Neither am i a native english speaker, my main language is spanish.

>>19813762
Bakker is writing from this kind of neuroscience/Evo-psych perspective that sees sex and violence running on the same circuit.
Somewhere on his blog he mentions that he modelled much of the "Evil" in his series on Serial Killers, who also operate in an entangled mesh of sex and violence and through this have created a sort of dread mystique for themselves.
There is the fact that in the series objective morality exists, god exists, and it is a very Old Testament god. Women are inferior, not because of cultural prejudices but because the real god that does exist made them so.

These are the parameters of the world he created.

I agree though that the Whale Mothers are the most weakly integrated part of this. They feel like they are that way just because everything else is. I think it is actually pretty neat body horror, but it doesn't feel narratively inalienable like the Nonemen do. Its just more of the setting's aesthetic.

>>19813474
It seems rather unlikely that a book that probably wasn't translated well will be any better.

>>19813975
>sees sex and violence running on the same circuit.
He likes it rough and hard

>>19813975
That white boi needs a black kween in his sexlife.

>>19814151
Queen comes from Cwen

>>19814106
P E G G I N G

300

>>19814151
he stopped writing literature to pursue a black kween, once he gets one he will continue writing.

>>19814349
*become a

>>19814351
if you can't get a black kween... become the black kween

Only two types of people post at the end of a dead thread: the oblivious and the funposter

>>19807589
I really like the first three books and but the judging eye and white luck warrior don't seem to reach the level of kino that the original trilogy have. Still haven't read the great ordeal or the unholy consult.

>>19814449
>Still haven't read the great ordeal or the unholy consult.
It's worth the slog, believe me.

>>19813886
I'm sorry to be the one who bring the bad news, bas as someone who speaks both Spanish and German at fluency levels, it will be near impossible to pull off a word by word translation. Try another romance language, that might work.

>>19806731
>No military science fiction about the Star Wars universe
Would have a lot of potential.

>>19814502
I would pay for a Star Wars novel that’s like Halo.

>>19814502
Star wars is garbage

New thread
>>19814514

>>19813781
>>19814466

Thanks both for the answers. Aside from that, do any of you have a rec of hard-SF or dark fantasy from germany?

>>19814456
Are the Coffers at the end?

>>19814572
At the end of the WLW? Yes

>>19814449
They are definetly weaker. I got sick of the fucking slog and the other shit was slow to develop. But after the Great Ordeal starts it's pretty much non-stop kino, no more aimlessly walking around.

You got some actual Nonmen parts, not just a lone erratic, more Consult lore, more Kellhus, major metaphysical plot lurch about the role of the Ordeal, this Survivor dude who is kino... lots.

>>19814603
me on the left

>>19814572
The Coffers come at the end of book 2 and the payoff is pretty great but not worth the amount of build up. I think the series would have been better with the Slog of Slogs and Coffers taken out, along with the Underground City, Mother of Birth Arc.

Maybe have them in as tie in novellas for the die hards, but essentially condense the second series into slightly longer versions of TGO and TUC.

I'm glad I have it because it still beats most stuff, but it didn't seem essential.

>>19813595
>Overall, you can probably just read the Brother's War and be fine with it. Possibly The Thran as well.
This, the books with Urza were a good story, everything jace era and onward is just crap pushed out as hard and fast as they can.

this is gonna be a retarded sounding question, but are there any novels about having an extremely mundane job(like trucker, merchant, etc) that involves having to do scifi/fantasy shit? like you literally wanna haul wood but you have to haul it through fluidic space, through a 200+ year genocidal war zone, a haunted dimension and then finally to your home? You don't end up saving the world at the end, you just...make it to where you gotta be...

>>19815984
I don't know but if you find one let me know, that sounds comfy as all fuck.

>>19815984
The problem is they usually start like this (eg the Expanse) but quickly turn into something entirely different

>>19815984
Watch the anime Planetes. Or read the manga, although I think the anime has superior direction. It's just about trash collectors.

>>19816447
Oh yeah, I remember someone talking about this manga either here or on /tg/ when someone asked for something along these lines a while ago.

>>19816517
Ugghh... that means it's probably still the only or the biggest example in existence.

>>19816524
Actually I'm pretty sure there were otehr suggestions, as they were reesponses to a post specifically about mundane things in a space setting, but it mixed various genres (Movies, manga, etc) and I don't rememebr if there were any books
I'll look into the thread an the specific post (>>>\tg\80526628 ) and see what I can find