/lit/ - Literature

what's a good fantasy (or earthbound scifi) that has a really detailed fictional culture complete with its own cuisine?

>>6959265
define good

at any rate, I'll venture Way of the Kings if you're into that XXXXXX-tier of fantasy (same tier as Kingkiller Chronicles, Abercrombie, GRRM).
It had some degree of science and culture with enough room for lengthy paragraphs on cuisine, chemichal substances, etc. (comparable to late Byzantine Empire).

Even though I didn't like it for its mediocre prose and rather conventional use of lit devices (flashbacks, exposition x10, multiple PoVs, edgy epic powers at hand) and meh flashy kung fu bladed fights, I was rather more interested in how all the different characters were trying to understand stuff around them, be it's the weird spirits, ancient artifacts, deranged dreams, history, etc.

And that's why people emphasize Branderson's world-building, because half of the book is all about presenting this strange world with as many contrasts as possible. Or that's what I noticed in the 1st volume of the series (I don't think I'll read the rest though).

>>6959265
Jack Vance did this. I'm not sure if he fits your criteria of "really" (his books were never too long), but he did seem to have an inexhaustible supply of different human cultures, complete with cuisine and music[al instruments].

Is Glen Cooks Dread Empire series as good as The Black Company? I cant decide if i should read that or Malazan once i'm done with my current book.

>>6960257

Have you read the Prince of Nothing or Books of the New Sun?

I went to those after BCompany, like them quite a bit.

>>6960262
Not yet, but i intend to at some point. I'm working my way through Robin Hobb's books right now, but i'm not enjoying them as much as i did the Black Company series, so i want something similar to read when i finish.

>>6960296

I <3 Fitz too

>>6960257
I tried reading The Black Company, but the prose was terrible it made me drop the book.

>>6960296
>so i want something similar to read when i finish.
I always find this is a mistake, best to shake things up between books.

>>6960257
It's pretty good based on the first three books. I wasn't fond of the first book actually, but the next I liked. It has a larger scale to it, as it's not restricted to the members of a company, but to generals and top class wizards and such.

>>6960296
Which of her books?

In the last few months I've read the following genre books.

* The Martian, Whateverhisnameis - mediocre book, sustained only by nerdly interest in the "hard" elements. Wish I'd just waited for the movie.
* Authority, Jeff Vandermeer - Creepy, dense, unpleasant, as I'd hoped, but a big step down from Annihilation, particularly in terms of pacing.
* Soon I will be Invincible, Austin Grossman - Lovely, melancholy, engaging--this guy just clicks with me. I like You better, but this was still really up my alley.
* The Devil in a Forest, Gene Wolfe - early Wolfe book with a nice twist and easier puzzles than most of his work. Really enjoyed the writing quite a bit.
* Seveneves, Neal Stephenson - Megainfodump as usual. Not one of my favorites of his, but still quite worthwhile. Begs for reams of fanfiction to fill in the gaps in the future history.
* Half the Day is Night, Maureen McHugh - some of the strongest characterization I've found in an SF novel. A little thin on plot, perhaps, but with convincing settings and mature writing.
* Armada, Ernest Cline - A real letdown...felt even more childish than Ready Player One. I was glad when it was over.
* Crooked, Austin Grossman - loved the Cold War rewrite, enjoyed the Nixon narration, but it wasn't as engaging for me as You or Soon I Will be Invincible.

I'd be interested to see what anyone else thought of these. I'd also appreciate any recommendations for new work based on what I've said here.

Pic unrelated.

>>6961435
>The Devil in a Forest, Gene Wolfe
I recommended that here some weeks or a month ago, still love it and glad someone else has read it too. I don't have any recs unfortunately, but would ask if you know of any books that have a similar medieval rural setting?

>>6961534
Oh, nice. I've never talked to anyone else who's even heard of it.

I can't think of any other fiction that really gets into that sort of setting, but perhaps you'd be interested in the nonfiction Life in a Medieval Village by Gies?

>>6961534
>>6961711
Oh, I thought of one, perhaps: Ishiguro's The Buried Giant. I haven't read it, but I believe that's the setting.

>>6961711
>>6961748
>Life in a Medieval Village
I googled this and apparently there's ones about life in a city and a castle as well, now I want to read them all. Cool to have specific books on them all, they sound interesting and easy reads.
>The Buried Giant
Not sure if I'll like this (read the wikipedia plot summary) but I might check it out.

Thanks for the recs.

>Arthur Machen - The White People

So I just read this and was incredibly spooked but have no idea why.

Can someone please explain who the white people were? What did this have to do with Ambrose's idea of true Sin? Why am I so fucking spooked? It wasn't even scary.

How is this book?

Anyone read Latro in the Mist? Good? I've Started with the Greeks already btw

The whole Lapine language is just a big build-up to let a rabbit say "eat shit" covertly.

>>6962260
Yeah, I read the two books a couple of years ago, and totally loved them. I feel like there are tons of threads I didn't pick up on...just a feeling, but given the particular nature of the narrator I think it's pretty likely. But even from a single read-through, I was captivated by the story. I found it especially rich since I had recently read Herodotus and a few other ancient texts.

I didn't find out about the third book, Soldier of Sidon, until more recently, and haven't yet read it.

>>6962288
truth

>>6962170
Been thinking about picking it up myself actually, heard it has a really good and varied form of swordplay involved rather than just "swings towards head".

>>6962170
Pretty good military fantasy. Just beware the high horse casualty rate.

Obligatory Quantum Thief post

>>6960778

Same here.

>>6962701
I heard it deals alot with christianity, does it become bothersome?

>>6959265
Gene Wolfe, Tolkien

>>6962882
Can't remember any special cuisine from either except for maybe lembas.

>>6962924
They don't go into detail, but they have enough to make it feel like a distinct world.
Really if you want to read about exotic food buy a cookbook.

>>6962924
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Middle-earth_food_and_drink

>>6959265
I think it was more of a children's series(I read them when I was a kid), but Redwall had some fucking good food

>>6963116
I'm not the anon who asked for recs. But if he's the one from last thread looking for fantasy food porn I just don't think those two (or anything I know of) is really what he's looking for.

>>6963161
I just assumed he wanted vivid, detailed things

Just finished Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, and man that climax was a crock of shit

>>6963161
If he wants food porn, he should just check out GURM.

The fucker waxes poetic about lamprey poes and eel soup.

>>6961534
>similar medieval rural setting?
I haven't read the Wolfe book so I don't know how it compares, but perhaps The Innkeeper's Song by Peter S. Beagle?

>>6965595
I'll check it out, thanks.

>>6962771
not really, its used more to hammer home that this is an england france setting.

>>6963721
Yea, that was garbage. Fucking strong independent princess slut.

>>6960296
If you don't like the books with Fitz and the Fool, you're a jackass.

Hobbs other books suck though.

>>6962170
It's worth reading. You need some sort of degree in medieval warfare though.

And everyone looks at everyone with hero worship.

>>6967292
>Fucking strong independent princess slut
Easily the worst character in the book, was a turbo bitch to literally everyone who bent over backwards to save her The best part is after all of her "development" she still went on to berate an orphan servant about how his life was so much easier than hers.

Did the author get bored of writing the series at the end because he just sort of said by the way all the mysteries didn't matter and dumped them all on you at the last 30 pages. The Norn Queen getting defeated off screen and the Storm King and Pryrates just went full retard out of nowhere and died in a really stupid way also.

>>6967420
I think he just had no idea what to do with them, so he just kinda said fuck it.

So is Sword and Sorcery and it's related genres dead?

>>6969017
its been dead so long the bones have crumbled to ash

Why does Old Man's War and Scalzi keep getting mentioned to me?

Old Man's War just seems to be a shitty knockoff and Scalzi just seems to be a spergy asshole.

Any of the work I read just seems like pure and unoriginal garbage.

what's a good series to hold me off until the next dresden files books. I don't enjoy vlad taltos and I'm almost done with iron druid

>>6969146
It's not a great book, but, what do you think it's a knockoff of? Have you read it?

Also, I totally get being annoyed with Scalzi, but he's not spergy at all. He's extremely outgoing, social, relates well to people, etc.--he's just a bit of a nerd.

>>6969287
You could try the Charming series, The Daniel Faust series or the Hellequin chronicles.

>>6969287
The Garrett Files? The early books are especially good.

>>6962170

I found it pretty good. I hated how it turned out stupid numbers of people were powerful magicians by the end of it, and the problem with having so many characters is that they don't get fleshed out enough that you care once they die (and its mostly minor characters that die anyway).

The sequel is a lot worse. It's clearly filler, some plot threads from the first book are just dropped and some new plot threads appear but don't go anywhere, there's little real tension and a lot of the characters end up in roughly the same place they were at the start, just with the bad guys finally having gotten lined up for Round 2 of the conflict of the first book.

>>6971106
Scalzi spergs out about everything. He gets mad over the stupidest shit. He has been going on for 8 days now about reddit not liking his book. He also shits on people who disagree with him and tries to smear him. He acts condescending too.

He said so much shit to people that even Anne Rice stepped in and so did the GR stop the bullies thing to call him out.

Old man's war just seems like a cheap knock off of starship troopers mixed with some popular sci-fi works to me. Just seems like a terrible book. Scalzi just seems like a terrible person and writer.

He is still butthurt about that sad puppies thing when called out for vote blocking. He embraces the Sci-Fi clique bullshit just to get popular. He called a guy married to a black woman a racist and a gay man a homophobe. He just seems like a hostile asshole.

Hugo's used to mean something. Now they don't. Hell, even some of the old sci-fi writers called it out a while ago by saying they don't mean much anymore. Also I would not say he relates well to nerds or people considering he shits on nerds all the time on twitter.

>>6958982
How did Klingons ever manage to get off of their planet? They're literally space Muslims.

>>6974000
they're space mongolians in case the warrior culture, fu-manchus and top-knots didn't make it obvious

>>6973865
Wow. You're totally entitled to your opinions, and hey, you might even be right--but it's funny how this is the exact opposite of my impressions, on virtually every score. Perhaps it's a little illustration of how we tend to hew to our own.

>>6974588
These are events that happened.

He called one of my Transexual friends on twitter a sexist bigot and then she got harassed by his fans on twitter. She even got doxxed and quit any form of social media due to this. All my friend did was say that sad puppies and Scalzi/ the Sci-Fi click were both wrong to try and vote block. She said it showed how the system needs to be re-worked and actually make the hugo's based on quality of writing

He said horrible shit to a guy married to a black women and a gay man. He acts like he cares about people, but he is a child. He bullies people who don't like his work or disagree with him.

Hugos mean jack shit now thanks to people vote-blocking. Some of the best sci-fi writers even said that it would be like this.

These are events that happened. You can say what you want about Scalzi, but these tweets are already there. I will never like someone as horrible as him.

He got called out and was criticized as being a terrible writer, and he is still sperging out about it on twitter. He talks shit on nerds all the time.

These are facts.

Himself and his fans also vote-brigaded Anne Rice's books and any of the books Anne Rice's friends wrote when they criticized him for acting like an asshole. Mass 1-star votes by people who never read the book. This got so bad that a stop bullying tumblr even called him out for treating people like garbage and being a hypocrite.

He is still going on and on twitter, and has done so for 8 days so far, about how some people on reddit criticized his book. He also went on and on about how not mad he is in all caps.

He also called the people who criticized him mentally deficient. He compared them to people who suffocated themselves or suffered brain trauma.

I will never like Scalzi after all the shit he has done, and his books were terrible when I read some a friend gave me.

>>6974660
Jesus. Sad puppy people are the fucking worst. A friend of mine is desperately trying to get me to read larry correia and I don't know how to tell him there's no fucking way.

>>6974683
It wasn't the sad puppy people who did this. They are much better people and have treated my friends nicer than Scalzi ever did.

It was Scalzi and his fans. Re-read my post.

I used to not understand the sad puppies thing either, but now I actually get it after what happened.

Larry Correia is a lot nicer than Scalzi has ever been. He even gave up the Hugo award because all he wanted to prove was that it was easy to rig.

Some of the sad puppy people actually got doxxed by Scalzi's fans and the other sci-fi fans. A sad puppy person, different from the one I previously mentioned, was married to a black woman and had death threats sent to his family and was smeared in media as a racist.

>>6974683
My whole post was about Scalzi.

Scalzi is one of the people in the Sci-Fi click who hated sad puppy.

I thought I should clarify that he was the one who did that.

>>6974683
Sorry to keep posting, but I keep forgetting to add shit.

I would recommend Larry Correia as a writer. His work is good. Larry Correia even gave up his Hugo award because he only wanted to prove a point rather than get the award. People in Sad Puppies were some of the few people who actually responded to my concerns.

I used to not like sad puppies either since I confused it with Rabid Puppies, another group made by a guy who thought sad puppies was too liberal.

I am talking about what Scalzi has done. All the shit he has done to my friend and some of my favorite authors was just too much. I really am growing disenfranchised with sci-fi do to Scalzi.

>>6974660
Lmao where so you find these people

>>6974959
What? The gay guy was some sad puppies member, and there was a guy who was married to a black woman who sided with sad puppies that got called a racist bigot and people said he only married his wife to have a shield. He had awful shit said against him.

My friend just does not use social media anymore.

>>6974660
>one of my Transexual friends on twitter
what is this

what does /lit/ think of the Earthsea series?
Does it like the stories? The themes? The prose?

>people who unironically praise a book for having a "snarky" protagonist

How representative is that >Fantasy list of this general? Because that shit is old af.

>>6977012
There is a lot of trash on it too, no idea who made it.

I love Glenn Cook but Swordbearer was easily his worst book. Not to mention fucking Goodkind is on there.

>>6977061

I'm just like ''where's The Magicians, Lies of Locke Lamora, Kingkiller Chronicles etc etc''

>>6977113
>Lies of Locke Lamora
Trash
>Kingkiller Chronicles

ULTRA TRASH

>>6977157
Everyone loves TLoLL, it's the sequels that are shit.

>>6969017
>So is Sword and Sorcery and it's related genres dead?
Nah, it's just resting.

>>6974683
>>6974660
>the silver dildo award
Aha-ha! Check out the awards Meme Wolfe and Meme Martin got. Yeah, they got silver dildo from speeesh. But that's chickenshit compared to the other prizes they got.

>faggotry on Twitter and Tumbler
Aren't people supposed to work?

>>6977489
I agree. I called the Hugo's useless awards in my post. Mainly because people like Scalzi has a shit fit and tries to slander anyone who calls him out like the sad puppies.

>>6975912
Scalzi one time called my friend a bigot and my friend got doxed by Scalzi's fans because she said she did not like Scalzi and the Sci Fi clique.

>>6977630
Jesus, are you still here?

>>6977630
So I guess your friend must be @A_Boy_in_Indigo? And by "called my friend a bigot", you mean where Scalzi refers your friend to this post?

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/03/02/standard-responses-to-online-stupidity/

...specifically item #8 (8. It appears an asshole has hacked your account and is posting in your name.)
--whereupon @A_Boy shows a lack of reading comprehension and thinks Scalzi has pointed him/her to #9 (Funny, most people go out of their way not to be a public bigot.)?

Sorry if your friend got doxed as a result, but if this is the situation you're referring to, then you've either misunderstood or misrepresented it.

>>6977634
Scalzi, go to bed.

Just finished The Left Hand of Darkness..anyone want to discuss?

>>6977835
Sure...it's been some time since I've read it, but it's a great book. I'm sure others here have read it, too.

>>6977850
It was kind of weird. I liked the way she fleshed out the "romance," but still skipped the alien sex stuff.Probably the best love story i've read in a sci-fi novel.
Anymore Le Guin recommendations? Science fiction, preferably.

>>6977884
Yeah, I agree--and I remember thinking about it that Le Guin called into question what it really is to feel "romantic love" when the gender of the object of affection becomes an indeterminate or changeable thing. What is the protagonist's "sexual orientation"? What kind of love is it, really, and what does that mean to us, who are so careful to only "romantically love" those that correspond to our apparent inborn orientation? Unfortunately I have no background with such topics other than my own basic thoughts, so I can't go a lot deeper than that at the moment.

If you haven't read The Dispossessed or the novella The Lathe of Heaven (which to me always felt like a PKD work), they should both be on your list. I really like the Earthsea Trilogy, too, but they're straight fantasy.

>>6977942
Thanks, Anon.

I'm going to finish up the Demolished Man then i'll get right on those.

>>6977665
No that isn't the person.

Scalzi is a child and an asshole who treats people like shit if they disagree with him.

I don't even know who that is, but that just builds up to add another one where Scalzi acts like a dick.

Scalzi is a horrible person, and that whole blog just shows his childish behavior to people he disagrees with.

>>6977012
>>6977061
I did, so it's not very representative. It was made in the first week of /lit/ with all the excitement, so it's not all that well planned out. I never did get around to cleaning it up (unlike the SF guy who was dedicated enough to make 2 (3?) updates to his first list). The next one ought to be a community effort anyway.

Goodkind is there because in the beginning there were 200+ post threads about him (and not the kind you see now) filled with people who didn't seem to have read very much else fantasy, and it was an attempt of "look at the other books Goodkind is associated with".

I don't think WFR itself is all that bad, actually

>>6980053

Thanks for creating that list though, and of course tastes are different but there are some good books in there.

On the sci-fi side, my complaint is that most of the books in the "modern" section aren't all that modern.

The official list of redditcore Fantasy authors

Mark Lawrence
Patrick Rothfuss
Brandon Sanderson
Scott Lynch

How does the Witcher series rank, usually? I'm curious because I usually like the re-imagining of classic folklore tales, but I don't know much about the series' quality. I've read for example that the writer isn't good with descriptions?

Also, if I wanted to read Asimov, where should I start?

>>6981737
the witcher is a translation, so maybe the prose suffers as a result, I've read only the first short story from the last wish, but it seemed pretty ok to me. iRobot is a good place to start with Asimov or the Complete Robot, then you can look up reading orders for the robot series and foundation series.

>>6977835
I thought it sucked.

>>6981293
sounds about right

>>6981293
>some of those authors were around before redshit
Please leave fagget

is dhalgren worth reading?

I think I've just found a new favorite Young Adult series. Harry Potter has got nothing on these books.

>>6981737
I tried reading Blood of Elves but it was awful.

I've heard the short story books are better.

>>6981293
except Mark Lawrence is actually good

I haven't read much scifi in the last 2-3 years.

any great works made in that time?

through struggle, the stars has tickled my fancy something fierce and I want more scifi in my life again

>>6969146
Scalzi seems to be a complete twat but I genuinely enjoy old mans war.

It was a simple scifi war noel that kept me entertained for a few work nights.

>>6981193
At the risk of misrepresenting SF guy's intentions, I seem to remember he didn't want to include books that hadn't withstood a little bit of time at least. That excluded the "new hotness" books.

>>6984453

I highly recommend Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, though it can be a bit difficult to follow if you don't have a technical background.

All the rest of the sci-fi books I read from the last few years have been pretty meh unfortunately.

>>6983927
It has a hell of a reputation, but I haven't read it yet.

What are some must have short story collections? The rec images tend to have very few.

>>6984426
>Mark Lawrence
Mark Lawrence is a hack

>>6974660
>one of my Transexual friends on twitter

Hey, what ARE the "new hotness" books? Who should I be reading if I want to read the sci-fi and fantasy writers who other authors will be copying in 5-10 years?

>>6986685
Ask again in 5-10 years.

>>6986685
Hey, I've noticed that the Book of the New Sun is raising to proeminence and mainstream culture. I mean a couple years ago, no one around these parts ever knew about it, and now people actively quote the book. And I live in a third world country in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.
I imagine in 2-5 years it'll become popular enough to make a film / tv series out of it and then it'll reach GURM status, when it'll become hated by /lit/

Thus, the vicious circle closes, and starts again.

>>6971106
>>6969146
>>6973865
>>6974588
>>6974660
Scalzi is the platonic ideal of a spergy, bitter SJW sci-fi author.

He's also partially responsible for the politicization of the Hugo Awards.

>>6986875
Wolfe is only popular in small clusters, /lit/ being one of them.

>>6986875
>you will never experience the love-hate success cycle of pretentious nerds on the internet

>>6986875
Mainstream doesn't like Catholicism.
Wolfe is not subtle about it.
Thus I assume there is a line of authors bound to get adaptations before him. And let us not pretend he is good movie material. Too odd, expensive, complicated, religious.

>>6969146
It's easily the worst book I've ever read. Fifty shades was better.

>>6977835
It was okay I guess. Really not engaging after a while and has no well written characters whatsoever. It's like a Gene Wolfe novel without grandeur, style or characters, but with the very spectacular imaginative work.

>>6974698
Your crazy is showing.

Hugos soon m8s

You ready for hackery and disappointment?

>>6989400
I think that one steampunk novel with the black punk transgirl heroine has a good shot at winning.

>>6969017
Not with cheap used books on Amazon, it isn't.

But new stuff, yeah, that's dead.

>>6977835
Dispossessed was miles better tbh, but nothing she has written since has beat City of Illusions. Yeah it's her least favorite but she liked The Telling, so there you go.

I recall closing Left Hand and thinking, "huh. That must have been pretty cold." Maybe it was mind-blowing when it was written.

>walk past the discount bin
>spy this sexy cover
>"Hrmm I could use a good escapist fantasy read."
>read the first three pages
>cold opening with sword dude on a quest
>good so far
>flip it to a random page halfway in
>PART TWO: THE TWENTY-FOURTH CENTURY
>toss the book back in the pile
I just want to read some random trashy fantasy.

>>6989835
Did you check to see that it was the twenty-fourth century in our world and not the twenty-fourth century of some evil empire's rule that our reluctant hero will eventually challenge to free mankind from the bonds of tyranny?

>>6989456
are you memeing or is this real?

Quick FYI if you're thinking of buying one of Brandy Sandy's tomes: fucking DON'T unless you want them for the novelty. They're gargantuan and unwieldy.
Left side is Words of Radiance hardcover, top right is some western book I won a few years ago, bottom right is Way of Kings paperback.
Just stick to paperback. It'll be cheaper and easier.

>>6991255
Why are all anon's pictures in gigantic resolution but have shit image quality?

>>6983945
is this u???

>>6991255
>buying Brandon "John Green" Sanderson books

Hi reddit

>>6991598
ok can u explain the hate associated with sanderson on this board?

>>6991255
>paperback
>for a series with high-quality, well-formatted ebooks

>>6991621
Probably his popularity despite his rigid, mechanical style because /lit/ plebs don't know that worldbuilding is the 20th century's great literary innovation and also because here you are liking Sanderson and saying "ok can u."

>>6989835
>I just want to read some random trashy fantasy.

>When parallel worlds collide
>Book Three

Congratulations. It turns out this was the third book in a series about parallel worlds colliding, and one of those worlds is futuristic.

>>6991647

His worldbuilding comes off as massively contrived, the slightly hidden heroic gimmick that saves that day never gives the impression of organically springing from the setting - his settings always feel like they hang from the gimmick.

>>6991621
Hes popular

>>6991647
Worldbuilding is overrated, anyone with just a little imagination can do it on the spot tbh

The real meat with inmersion is how present all your wonderful things. That being what we call good prose. Arranging it all for plot and thematic consistency is another deal in itself

>>6991255
You buy the hardbacks for the artwork and illustrations.

>>6991692
In Stormlight, ANYBODY with 'powers' springs up organically due to how spren function.

>>6991621
He writes video games and anime, not books

>>6992036
Why do you hate Prachett so much anon?

>>6992043
I've never read Pratchett

Just read pic related. It was good. I'd like a prequel detailing the history of the world in that book AND a sequel so we find out what happens to the characters since it was left pretty open ended.

Almost done with Paingod and Other Delusions. Not great, hands down the weekest Harlan Ellison book I have read.

>>6962170
I'm 150-200 pages in and so far it's been pretty disappointing, a poorly written man-child's fantasy, and I'm not sure I want to finish it after reading what this guy (>>6973607
) said about sequels. Does it ever get better?

Plot-wise, the first half is literally AGOT set in fake-England. They fight the Wild and the first scene is actually some character observing mangled corpses. There's a fucking Wall full of mysterious dark forces. The North or whatever is pretty fucked up. There's a company of mercenaries, ex-rapists and killers, that come there to help defeat some dragons. Yay, dragon-fighting... It couldn't have been more mediocre (but they were fighting a wyvern so who knows).

Regarding the multiple PoVs, which are thrown around for who-knows-what reasons, there is a fucking BEAR PoV. Literally, it's a momma bear very furious and sad because humans killed her cub.

The prose is shitty with some very questionable word choices, like how a cape "depends" from the lower rim of a helmet. It feels unevenly modern at times (too much 'fucking' and formulas taken from action movies). It tries to be bad-ass or smart, but it fails most of the time.
>(...)The captain could read him like a book(...)
>(...) Its wave of terror was a palpable thing, expanding like a soap bubble around it (...)
EXPANDING LIKE A SOAP BUBBLE. Wow, the poetry.

The bits about armor and sword fighting techniques are kinda excessive, YA-tier literature that depends on describing quillons and sabatons and HEMA tactics is meh.

There's some dialogues that sound pretty damn stupid, esp. the witty ye olde refined English between the upper classes. Humor-wise it's bleh, Abercrombie tier, probably less funny. And this line is in the fucking book:
>All shades of grey, he thought to himself, and smiled as he climbed the steps to the massive monastery door

The only redeeming bits were the stuff about religion, which could be promising. At least it's kinda original.

What are some Fantasy books that'll give me a boner?

>>6994880
Kushiel's Dart

>>6994880
ASOIAF tbh

So where do I start with sci-fi? That chart's really comprehensive and all but it doesn't really help me find an entry point.

>>6994958
pic related might be a good starting point

>>6994990
As an indecisive person, that style of chart is quite good. Can anyone speak as to the quality of the selections?

Are there charts of scifi and fantasy ranked by quality of prose?

>>6995013
>Can anyone speak as to the quality of the selections?
Author selection is OK when it comes to the classics, but I haven't checked in detail if there's any Stanisław Lem or Strugatskys'. It seems fine and it's a selection of popular titles (top 100), so there's less chance of encountering utter bullshit. Title picks are good babby's firsts at least for the sf portion and those particular classic authors (until the 70s). You can always juxtapose it to /lit/'s chart for time period/subgenres.

>>6995013
http://scifilists.sffjazz.com/lists_books_rank1.html
i like this list. not that i agree with the order but you pick up any of those books odds are you're gonna be happy.

>>6995053
yeah, that's a pretty good list. Canon-wise it's very standard at least up to rank 30, then it turns silly by listing Hunger Games and sequels.

>>6992747
I've read Ship Breaker, I think it takes place in the same world or a similar one. Went in expecting dystopian social commentary, got a pirate adventure story. Couldn't be happier.

has anybody read this? what did you think?

>>6977157
>Hating on the lies of locke lamora

Don't be shy /lit/. Remember, we're anonymous. What's the science fiction or fantasy story you want to write about? Are you one who dares to defy the conventions of genre fiction and wants to create something truly different, or do you just want to stay comfortably within the confines of what came before, maybe adding a variation on a theme?

>>6996567

>>6996676
Nice try, I'm not sharing my ideas for you to steal.

>>6996721
Just explain what you're trying to do in a broad sense then

>>6996727
no

>>6996497
Watched the movie Saturday was bretty gud.

The author herself said she enjoyed the movie, good enjoy for me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl%27s_Moving_Castle_(film)#Differences_between_film_and_novel

>>6994880
The Black Jewels Trilogy
Let the Right One in

>>6992747
I'm never sure...
I don't know if people that post this book, the Dino Lords, that martian book, etc are genuine or shills like those Dey woman's shills.

>>6992043
Sanderson is ok, but if an Author has Terry somewhere in their, don't read them.

>>6991647
This Shallan looks like she has Potato Syndrome Would still fug am I a bad person?

>>6996858
No, you just have low standards.

Can anyone recommend me some fantasy/scifi/anything books that have 1(maybe 2) PoVs, first person preferred but is secondary.

>>6996935
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

>>6995013
Disappointed that the earthsea trilogy isn't on there.

>>6996956
We talked about this, the circle has come around we have to hate it now.

>>6996867
or maybe she pushes my fetishes buttons

>>6997221
Then you just have shit fetishes.

>too obsessed with Star Wars to get invested in other Sci-Fi and Fantasy
>Don't want to read a Star Wars novel because tie ins are trash

What do I do, /sff/?

Why the hate for the kingkiller chronicles?

Also any love for the Dark Angel trilogy? I,ve been reading the first one and I'm eager for the next 2.

>>6998740
>Why the hate for the kingkiller chronicles?
Poorly written buts pretends it's well written. Kvothe is the most painfully obvious self insert since Conan, but isn't even a likable character.

>>6998694
why would you assume the tie-ins are trash before even trying to read them? If you don't read sff, why are you posting in this thread faggot?

>>6998887
You misunderstood, I usually read SFF but lately I've gotten back into Star Wars and I'm too enthralled by it because of all the hype and I'm having trouble getting into other Science Fiction and Fantasy stories.

>>6987302
How? These events were publicized and Scalzi was always a piss of shit.

The sad puppies just called out Scalzi and the SJW San Fran Sci-Fi clique. So they slander him. How is stating events that happened crazy? Most of them gave up the awards to prove a point how the Hugo's are easily abused.

>>6986962
Exactly. I don't get how anyone could like him after all the horrible shit he has said and done.

>>6989400
More butthurt from Scalzi and the Sci Fi clique would be nice. Maybe Scalzi will call a gay writer a homophope again and say a woman writer who disagreed with him has internalized misogyny.

>>6998932
Piece of shit*

>>6998779
>self insert
I'm not saying everyone has to like the name of the wind, but I see this board say the MC is a blatant self insert all the time, why? did you guys miss the point that hes so amazing because he's telling his own story, and is obviously not that great because now is pretty much alone and unknown. Also the prose fits the perspective of the story. A first person account. Or a story about the telling of a story. My take is that it is written like it would be spoken.

Again, not saying it's the best book ever, but this board fucking hates it, and no one can really give good reasons why?

>>6998900
my b, my experience with the EU has mostly been with comics, but I recently read the Darth Bane trilogy and it was alright. Maybe I'm overlooking some glaring faults because of the Star Wars setting, but It was at least an enjoyable storyline. Also people fucking love the rogue squadron books, shadow of the empire, the thrawn trilogy and darth plagueis.

Most people recommend to start the novels with any of those series (including bane)

>>6998994
I've been more involved with the new canon lately and from what I've heard all the new canon books are meh to bad.

I wish I could find a book similar to Star Wars. A Space Opera with sword fights, space magic, lots of aliums and space battles.

>>6999022
eh, I heard tarkin was good. But yeah, I've heard the rest are fairly meh. Maybe check out Deathstalker by Simon Greene, haven't read it yet buts it's space and swords.

>>6999117
Ty for the rec

Honestly I cant wait fot Episode 7 to come out so I can forget about Star Wars until the next film

>>6999127
yeah I'm pretty psyched for it as well. Here's hoping it doesn't suck.

>mfw the Scholars tale

Fuck this is so hard to read. I'm on the verge of crying like a bitch

>>6999407
Finished it, now I want a daughter

Any books that are similar to the zero escape games, where thought experiments are explored as actual physical phenomenon? Or just complex/weird mysteries that aren't your standard murdered for love/money? I ask here because assume SF is the place to find the cure for this itch.

>>6998955
The reasons have been given, what, 300 times?
Prose is mostly shit, but ok at times.
He can't write an unreliable narrator. It isn't ok to make a shitty novel and say I was just pretending to be retarded.
It has cardboard characters. Really some of the poorest I've ever read, yesterday I've listened to a Eisenhorn audio drama which had better characterisation in what are 30 minute short stories. And this is 600+900 pages.
It's just a huge amalgamation of cliches. I'm not sure if the novel has anything that isn't one.
It has the plot of a video game or a shounen.
It's shallow as fuck.
Rothfuss is an insufferable progressive cunt.

>>6999694
Book of the New Sun.
>>6998955
Also none of us missed the point. Kvothe isn't unknown, he is a legend, enough to have a scribe search for him to write things.
He is super duper because Rothfuss doesn't know how to write an unreliable narrator. It does not excuse a shitty style nor does it make his characters less shallow. Wolfe does unreliable narrator all the time and he often does it for characters or low intelligence or low education or narcissistic liars. None sound like crap. It isn't about being needlessly flowery and complex.

Im writing a pretty brilliant sci-fi mystery book you'll really like OP, it's Star Trek meets True Detective meets Psycho Pass meets Interstellar. Keep the thread up for a year and ill recommend it to you when it's published.

>>6999585
>Finished it, now I want a daughter

nice try /tv/

>>6999965
Icky.

>that part were her former lover comes back and sees that she's completely forgotten him and has no regressed into a 13 year old

Funny yet tragic

>>6999407
Consuls tale too, man.

This is the worst one so far.

I blame OP. He didn't even include questions to trigger discussion so it's just devolved into discussion about reddit-tier authors and that one Scalzi autist.

damn, I don't come on /lit/ often, is it normal for these threads to stay for over a week

Looking for something to read, preferably SF and/or Cyberpunk

I read
Neuromancer
Snow Crash
Diamond Age
Altered Carbon

so far. Read too much SF to name everything, I generally enjoyed everything by Asimov, Ellison and I liked Hyperion.

Will this conclude the "The Dagger & The Coin" series?

I'm going to miss it ;_;


>tfw no more assassinations, mercenaries, qt3.14 banker grills and medieval dictators spilling spaghetti everywhere

>>7000458
is altered carbon worth it at all, especially next to Neuromancer?

>>7001043
Not even Neuromancer is particularly good.

>>7000951
I heard its ASOIAF Lite

>>7001068
Lukkedoerendunandurraskewdylooshoofermoyportertooryzooysphalnabortansporthaokansakroidverjkapakkapuk!

Reading Malazan's House of Chains. 400 pages in and it's darn good. Fiddler is finally back, Kalam as well. Still no idea if I like Crokus or not, it seems like he will became some great figure but at this point he is still mostly annoing. Apsalar was great killing lady be she seems to be moping and not really doing much of her own lately, so that's a bit concerning. Karsa's part was really well-done, at first I couldn't believe we are following this retard for so long but then he got mentally better. Not much of Felisin so far which is certainly good.

I love names in this series. Most soldiers have hilarious ones but they are also quite neat. And then there are names which sound naturally amazing to me like Korbolo Dom, Rallick Nom and Kamist Reloe and such shit. Sound amazing. And after that these awesome titles like Caladan Brood and Anomander Rake.

>>6996676
I don't want anything fancy, just for people to say I'm the second coming of Zelazny sprung Athena-style from the head of Gene Wolfe.

>>7001897
Sound like anime names tbh. I think I'm still halfway through Gardens of the Moon. I know the other books actually had rewrites but I'm not feeling very inspired to try them right now.

>>6994880
The Daniel Black series

Wish fulfillment at its finest

>>6959499
the second book is a lot better in terms of plot advancement

>>7001043
Altered Carbon has 2 sequels (Broken Angels and Woken Furies), maybe try those?

Anyone know any good dieselpunk novels?

>>7002173
Bitter Seeds is literally the only modern one I know of.

If you're just interested in stuff that bares a superficial similarity to stuff like Indiana Jones/Sky Captain/Bioshock/etc. then your best bet is just reading pulp adventure novels from the 50s/40s or regular alternate history stuff about world war II - they'll likely not have the retro-futurist elements but the tone and setting should be similar enough to scratch your itch.

>>7001919
It is anime.

>>7001210
It's an 80s action movie dude, not great literature.

>>7001190
>ASOIAF Lite

Yeah, in the same way a banana is a potato lite.

Just

>>6996935
Ventus.

>>7002173
That's something else that only happens in anime. There's a niche, though, definitely more room for dieselpunk in the West.

Out of curiosity, is there any novel that takes vampire sexualization to the logical extreme and makes the vamp virus an std?

>>6996935
almost all of Heinlein's stuff is written in 1st person. try Friday, Starship Troopers, The Puppet Masters...

What do you think of this reddit SF list? It's the highest voted threads on /r/books right now.

https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3hl2tv/15_scifi_books_you_should_definitely_read/

>>7003163
well i was immediately triggered by ancillary justice on the #1 spot but i got past that and sure if you're into sci-fi those books are the kind of stuff you might want to be reading but why anyone would put together that mixed bag of books as some kind of a list i just don't get.

>>7003163
>Memecillary Justice #1
>JDatE is SF
>Seveneves when it hasn't been out three months
>War of the Worlds with nothing else later than 1970
>Tie-in novel
>Scalzi
What a mess.

>>7003163
>Ancillary Justice
>Ender's Game
>Warhammer 40K novels
>no Stapledon
>no Verne
pleb as fuck

>>7003216
>>7003227
Why hate on Ancillary Justice? It was p. good

>>7003242
>https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3hl2tv/15_scifi_books_you_should_definitely_read/
Are you a girl or just stupid?

>>7003216
>Tie-in novel
Which one?

>>7003163
ugh

>>7003266
Are you dismissing it because people you disagree with politically like it? Are you angry it went out of its way to express gender in a different way?

>>7003324
>Are you angry it went out of its way to express gender in a different way?
i had a hard time reading it because of that. now we don't even have gender pronouns where i live but still reading that in english where everyone and their potted plant is a she confused the fuck out of me
i still read both books

>>6961983
Mah nigga. Spooked me the first time I read it, still spooky today.

>>7003340
Where are you from?

>>7003353
spurdoland

>>7003380
Didn't know Finnish didn't have gender pronouns.

That's pretty burdo bordo.

>>6983945
Man those were great in sixth grade.

What are some good 40k fiction to read?

I know bits about the story, but basically for someone who has never read any of the novels which series is the best to pick up first?

>>7003684
Horus Heresy

>>7003684
Gaunts Ghosts

>>7003684
Frank Herbert's Dune

http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/2015/03/aisfp-289-larry-correia-brad-r-torgersen-sad-puppies/

Anybody else listen to this? Had no idea that Hugo awards were so shit. I never really paid attention to it because I just find good scifi by rooting around at my bookstore, but it sounds like it was fucking awful before their group stepped in with counter-bloc voting.

From what I've read about Scalzi, he's always been a rancid piece of shit (a while on his twitter and blog just confirms it) so it's easy to see him doing what people have been accusing him of.

Sorry if I'm slow poking this, I only saw an article about it a few days ago because someone I follow was talking about it.

When did the Hugo awards stop being about the best scifi book?

I just finished the very last book in Gene Wolfe's solar cycle and now I'm looking for something easy and cheesy, like Brandon Sanderson or Stephen King.

I was thinking of going full pleb and read a Star Wars or WH40k novel. Any of those half decent?

>>7003953
You want the old EU or the new EU?

>>7003953
Traitor is pretty good for a Star Wars novel, and surprisingly the Revenge of the Sith novelization also is. Most of the EU is varying degrees of pointless dreck, though.

Source: read probably a solid third of all Star Wars novels as a kid.

>>7004026

don't really care one way or the other.

>>7003801
The Scalzi defenders here have pretty much scuttled off with their tails between their legs.

How long until the Hugos regain their respectability?

>>7004738
>>7003801
The damage is done.What pisses me off is all that slander agaisnt the sad puppies. They got a ton of shit thrown at them and called horrible things. A few of the sad puppies people got doxed.

One of my friends got doxed after calling out Scalzi by one of Scalzi's fans. She got called a sexist bigot even though she was transexual. I actually didn't even know that before she told me.

Scalzi is such a piece of shit though. He called some guy married to a blakc woman a racist and a ton of people ran the article and said he only married his wife to have a black shield. The people in Sad Puppies had there families threatened. Talk about being progressive when you have to threaten and bully the people you disagree with. Scalzi is such a piece of shit.

Is there any notable science fiction that adresses the future growth of mankind through analogies to insect/arachnid/etc lifecycle?

>>7003953
Thrawn trilogy or Revenge of the Sith novelization are the recs usually thrown around.

>>7004738
>How long until the Hugos regain their respectability?
Never.

Joe Abercrombie is bretty good at writing fight scenes

Reminds me of Robert E. Howard but with worse pross

Does his prose in Before they are Hanged?

What is "sad puppies"?

>>7003953
The "Tales of..." series is pretty good. They're anthologies of short stories centered around a particular scene from the movies, I.e. Tales of Jabba's Palace, Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina, etc. It goes into the background stories of all the random characters that populate the scenes. Jabba's Palace contains the story about Boba Fett and the Sarlacc pit as well.

>>7003163
It's horrible. Not only because it takes Hugo as a thing, but it clearly shows lack of knowledge and taste on Sf. Who the fuck would pick Dicks most mediocre novel as his must read. A Warhammer novel is a shitty choice for any list of sf must reads because there is nothing must read about it. And I've read like 10 of those.

>>7004947
I think you should work on your own prose, mate.

Anyone a David Gemmell fan here?

I don't often see him being mentioned in these threads.

>>7005365
I'm sure it's great in whatever the hell his native language is.

Can anything beat Hyperion?

>>7005595
Yeah, many, many things, even within sf alone.

>>7003163
>no Bester
>no Brunner
>no Aldiss
>no Lem
>no Delany

simply ebin

>>7005629
name 2

>>7005651
post above yours m8

>>7005651
Book of the New Sun and everything else Wolfe wrote.
Almost everything Dick wrote.
Almost everything Le Guin Wrote.

>>7005764
We gotta chill with the Wolfe shit man. He's quickly approaching meme status.

Limit yourself to mentioning Wolfe or his works once a week tops.

>>7005595
Too perfect. To a fault, too perfect. If someone is too perfect, then they are just plain.

>open novel
>it has a map

>>7005861
so you can laugh at all the random mountain ranges

So I'm almost done with Abercrombie's trilogy, should I read The Black Company or Book of the New Sun next? Any other recommendations?

>>6958982
If you have an eternity to read fantasy Dune, Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan has gibberish Latin and ladies night sign language. I enjoyed it despite his overlong descriptions of worthless objects.

>>7005806
How does one not mention the greatest sf and fantasy writer in sf fantasy thread?

>>7005861
You don't seem to understand how this fantasy thing works.

>>7005861
>open novel
>it has a map made by the author
>author is a cartographer with a PhD in Geography

>>7005925
Read Black Company. It's bretty gud.

>>7005925
Second Apocalypse

>>7005925
Both

>>7005365
>caring about how you write a comic on a phillipino finger puppet website

>>7006580
*write a comment

>>7006341
>open novel
>it has a map made by the author
>author is a cartographer with a PhD in Geography
>dat pic

Does Sanderson have a PHD in Geography?
Is that why he is focused so much on world building?

>>7006341
>>open novel
>>it has a map made by the author
>>author is a cartographer with a PhD in Geography
>author is still trash and writes YA shit for RPG nerds

>>7005642

Got any recommendations for Brunner and Aldiss?

>>7006767
>Philosophy, Marx, Nihilism and other meme threads are slow today
>let me shit up the fantasy thread

>>7006827
I don't care about Philosomemes, I just don't like Sanderson.

>>7006833
Get with the times grandpa.

Wolfe is the new guy cool people hate.

>>7006867
I have yet to see anyone give a legit reason for disliking Wolfe. It's all just meme tier arguments

>>7006833
What doe you think is living in that moat?

How long do you think, it took them to dig all of that mud?

How much people do you think makes up that community?

>>7006833
>A motte to protect four thatched houses

Why even?

>>7006833
You sound like you could take a good dicking in that sweet boipussy.

>>7006827
but >>7006767 is rite. See, I drew a detailed chart of the facts.

>>7006753
I know he went to BYU but I am pretty sure if he has a degree it's a bachelor's. He wrote his first four unpublished novels while he was a hotel clerk. I guess in eighth grade someone gave him a fantasy novel and right then he decided he would be a fantasy author.

And whatever the quality of his work he works like a madman. If GRRM had his work ethic we'd be halfway through his next series.

Not strictly /lit/ related, but you fags will know it best.

Where do things like Hitchhiker's Guide, Futurama or Rick and Morty fall on the soft/hard sci-fi spectrum? On one hand, they are not rigorous at all and can pull out technology out of their asses when needed. On the other hands, they really do explore various philosophical and scientific concepts in order to use them as comedy devices ; the science in the is more than a backdrop. They are quite different from regular "wacky alien xD ayy lmao" sci-fi comedies like GotG or Men in Black.
Is there a name for this subgenre?

>>7007220
Comedic SciFi

>>7007251
the opposite end of the comedy axis would be drama (Star Wars).

So are there any good post-apocalyptic books that are actually kinda pulpy? Cuz it seems like that subgenre is dominated by extremely literary books like The Road and Riddley Walker.

>>7007344
Metro 2033 (and Metro 2034) are very good; not too pulpy but certainly very entertaining and quite fast paced. They're set in the Moscow subway after a nuclear apocalypse, and generally seem to have the /lit/ /sff/ seal of approval.

>>7007220
On the soft/hard spectrum, they are soft. That has nothing to do with the merit of their ideas.

>>7007344
Ship Breaker, Paolo Bagicagalalupi. Bagicagulpi. Whatever. Look it up.

>>7007368
>Paolo BACIGALUPE
I really loved his debut novel The Windup Girl. Never got around to reading his other books, but I should.

>>7007220
rick and morty is maybe one of my favourite shows ever and thats maybe the best episode i think

definitely soft sci-fi, that and futurama are quasi-parodies of soft sci-fi so they'd have to be considered soft themselves i think

>>7007344

>>7007474
Already read it. I don't really consider it post-apocalyptic really.

>>7006885
>LoTR is the best thing evar
>it has nothing to do with my nostalgia
>everyone is copying him
Nice meme Brah

Does anyone who any books similar to the Dance of Cloaks/Blades series by David Dalglish?

>>7006753
>>7006767
Nah, he isn't the one with the Geo PhD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Kirkpatrick

>>7007542
>LoTR is the best thing evar
I didn't imply that or that was being copied. Stop putting words I didn't say in my flawless chart, you idiotic faggot.

>>7007557
>hooded figure in the cover
>he's brandishing a bladed weapon
>he's actually wearing a long cape
>the cape is black
>his histrionic pantomime expresses confidence and coolness of character

into the trash it goes

>>7004848
I'm gonna take this to mean no

>>7007557
I never could get myself to read those books.... the Blurb and covers just fuck with me. and this is from someone who LOVES the Night Angel Trilogy.

Is The Sharmillion any good?
Is it better or worse than The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings?

This is the third time in 2 days I've had to do this. Damn mormon marketing.

>>7008755
the silmarillion? it's only good if you read LoTR and thought "i want to know where this ring came from and what shaped this continent"

so which of you sanderfags is ready for qt brown terris waifu?

https://twitter.com/PeterAhlstrom/status/634012031415271424

>>7009139
>le 80s nostalgia wankery mixed with Sanderson grade vidya-ing

Fantasy is dead

>>7007630
>literally judges book by its cover
People time me that /lit/ are a bunch of faggots but I didn't listen.

To whoever is making the next thread: dont forget to add some questions!

Remember, the Hugo's are still good and relevant.

There was never any problems with it or issues until the sad puppies came along according to the media. I hate these hypocritical hipsters.

https://archive.is/KcSwl

bump

New thread: >>7009525

Naturally the theme will drift almost immediately

>>7002645
what film?