/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General Thread

>tfw the bunnyman plugs our charts in the other video
Why you do this bunnyman?

>>9774950
I'm not sure but I do prefer novellas to fifteen books long novel series. They're really nice when you're busy but still want to read something. Novellas and standalone novels is pretty much all I read these days with a few exceptions that are series but not of bloated length.

Sanderson.

Book of the New Sun

*notices consult influence*
OWO what's this!?

I'm bored with life and want comfy normy fantasy to remind me that there's still magic in the world.

I don't care if its patrician, I don't care if you think its good. In fact, it might just help to assume I have shit taste so you know where to point

>Severian inside sidero
h-h-hot

>>9775178
A Song of Ice and Shatting
The Pleb of the Wind

>>9775187
Okay, maybe I should have specified that it's shitty and normey but not being constantly shoved in my face every moment of every day.

Something lighthearted

>>9775196
I assume you've checked out Vance, Bakker, Wolf, eetc. Right?

>>9775196
The Face in the Frost

>>9775196
The princess and the goblin.

>>9775207
now you're just trolling

>>9775178
Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom. Unironically great YA.

Can anyone toss me some recs based around any of the following genres/ideas:
-dark fantasy or horror a la Lovecraft(no zombies/vampires; I'm thinking of a hellish/demonic or otherworldly flavor)
-sf/f that discusses or focuses on sexual degeneracy or other decadent excesses
-sf/f involving peoples/races with unusual or alien sexual/relationship practices

Thanks.

>>9775178
Plebby Potter
Pleb Of The Rings
A Song Of Ice and Plebs
The Pleb Files
The Pleb Of Shannara

>>9775238
I'm still fucking butthurt over the fact that Mister Monday died.

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What Egan books are good? four threads running fuck all of you

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How to deal with post The Unholy Consult depression?

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>>9775247
Perdido Street Station, maybe? It's got these horrific moth creatures that eat your mind and leave you a drooling vegetable, giant spiders that walk through dimensions we can't see and weave probability together, and at least one man/insect sex scene.

>>9775263
Everybody died

>>9775218

Underrated, probably too patrician for him desu

>>9775303
Why is Mieville so obsessed with bugs, squid, and trains

In a foreign thread, in a foreign board.

Forget it. It's impossible to get a good rec out of this board. Your heads are so far up your own ass all you can do is shit on books that are popular and insist upon horrible ones that aren't.

How have you been reading for so long and you have yet to find a single gem that you don't hate because other people agree its good?

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>>9775386
>mfw

>>9775379
A U T I S M
U
T
I
S
M

>>9775395
It's a slow general, faggot. Have some patience.

>>9775395
But I rec good books all the time anon :(

>>9775412
Autistic people always want recs and then they're never good enough

>>9775379
Don't forget rusty junkyards/wreckage

I LOVE FANTASY

>>9775411
I've been asking for at least two years. I've had maybe two hits and hundreds of misses

plus I don't have another source of recs since Charlie Jane Anders left io9 to write terrible books. Her replacement literally recommended a minecraft book this month

>>9775269
I'd start with Permutation City or Diaspora. His new book that just came out, Dichronauts, seems pretty cool, but havent had the chance to read it yet.

>>9775386
start with the greeks

>>9775379
Marxist retardation

What is the best PKD book besides Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, UBIK, The Man in the High Castle, A Scanner Darkly, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, or Dr. Bloodmoney? Those are all of his novels I've read and I'm wondering what to read next. I've tried to read VALIS a few times and never got very far. What else is good by him?

>>9775395
You do know that this is /sffg/ right? Are you lost?

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>>9775178
Here you are my friend.

>>9775547
I'm well aware. How can you be the plebs of the board and still be such fucking elitist douches

>>9775583
There's bound to be spillover, even in a pleb enclave like here. Not much we can do about it.

>>9775395
Your request is vague and retarded. Just go read Harry Potter.

How important are tax policies to a good fantasy book?

The Dying Earth series is probably one of the best books I have ever read in it's respected genre. Simply amazing stories

>>9775735
Every story's different. If your story is about taxes and economics on a basic level, then really important; but if it's about something else, they should be a background detail at most.

>>9775294
Mog/Kel probably killed Esme

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Is urban fantasy a meme genre or are there actually worthwhile books in it?

>>9775247
Read Bakker's series. It's literally 100% demonic alien rape monsters vs. decadent middle eastern slave kings.

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>>9776093
>that cover
>that title
>"Carlton Melick III"

Going through the third book of Wheel of Time.

Well. At least Rand is not the main point of view character.
But reading this is painful. I might have to take a break from this series if it doesn't get better fast.

>>9776215
If you don't like it by now chances are you never will. It does gt better from here, up til around book 6 or 7, but not drastically so. Then again I suppose there must be something you enjoy about it for you to have kept going so far.

>>9776093
>Is urban fantasy a meme genre or are there actually worthwhile books in it?

Meme Gaiman is good

>>9776215
>Spanking (duh)
>Bondage
>Submission
>Femdom
>Public humiliation
>Sissies
>Mind control
>Bimboization
>Mental torture/mind break
>animal transformation? (Moghedien turning Nynaeve into a horse)
>transgender transformation? (Aran'gar)
>Ageplay
>Multiple personality rape
>Wolf nuzzling :3
Stick at it senpai

>>9776231
>I suppose there must be something you enjoy about it for you to have kept going so far

Curiosity. I know it was fairly popular, I just want to know what made it so.
It just uses too many of those lazy fantasy storytelling crutches, like the cliched actions that supposedly help you identify characters.
A long time ago I went through some of the Dragonlance books and that kept bugging me.

In general the books just feel like they're full of padding and restating of conflicts and intention with no progress whatsoever.
Book 1 was generally just meandering and slow paced without a good aim. Book 2 was plagued with the main character verbally struggling with the same issue ad nauseam. Book 3 seems to have switched to Perrin but I fear it might end up being just a different repeated complaint.
On the other hand I appreciate the author is dedicating time to another of the main boys. But it probably should have been Mat, since he's still a non character, having spent a large portion of the first book not being himself and barely present in the second one.

>>9776282
Mat will get time to shine, but if you're not enjoying the first books you'll probably not enjoy the later either.

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>>9776107
>>9776093
>"Carlton Melick III"

>>9776093
Vurt by Jeff Noon is great

We really should assemble a chart of recommended/essential Carlton Melick III.

is there anything that does political intrigue better than or as large as ASOIAF?

I was going to read Malazan or Inda.

>>9776329
Is malazan really like that? I was under the impression it was going to be almost entirely warfare focused at least from other people talking about it. I only just started reading it myself.

>>9776339
Oh no, I only inferred because it's epic fantasy! I just assumed because it has a shitload of characters to my understanding. I have been sitting on the first book for ages.

>>9776306
>Doesn't have an audiobook

>>9774751
>but I thought it fit perfectly
Same here. It was absolutely fine, it's just that it was also very short and didn't have a traditional denouement, just like Snow Crash.
>>9774621
>How's Cryptonomicon? What can i expect?
Mad soldiers. Autistic savants. Entire passages explaining the superiority of STEM fields over humanities. An early idea of cryptocurrencies. And lots of cryptography. The book is like a computer nerd's wet dream.

>tfw the hardcover edition of Cryptonomicon that would go perfectly with my collection is out of print and costs 40 bucks on the second-hand market
I think I'll finally shell out the cash for it and Anathem next month. Collecting hardcovers is more addicting than crack.

Any Malazan readers who have completed the series ITT? I have a question concerning (MT or RG spoiler) Silchas Ruin.
Brys gave him a couple of swords. When Brys and Quru chose the swords, the chapter ended along the lines of how the choices would have been different if Quru had been told whom the swords were for, and it was implied the choices made would have grave consequences. I never really saw any consequences, so can some of you enlighten me?

>>9776339
>>9776329
It has quite a lot of social commentary. Book 5 and 7 deals a lot with the Lether society, and while many have asked if the Lether society is based on the USA, Erikson refuses it is. I guess it's easy to jump to that conclusion, so be wary.
The series doesn't really have the same political intrigue as ASOIAF does. There are characters scheming and conspiring, but it's not in the same way as ASOIAF's kingdoms fighting over the throne.

>>9775247
literally bakker on all points

>>9776877
Not the one you're replying to
Bakker has middle east shit?
Fuck, and I wanted to read his shit because it's shilled so much here, so thanks for the warning.

>>9776901
Meant to reply to this:
>>9776106
sorry who I originally responded to

Hello, /sffg/. I'm looking for a fantasy series with detailed history where lineages, culture and the present are heavily described. See:
>Tolkien
>ASoiaf
>Gormenghast

>>9776904
>>9776901
Imagine the bible, but with a lot more rape demons.
Why does the middle eastern stuff bother you?
If it helps the protagonist is a six foot tall blond hair blue eyed Ubermensch come from the far north who the lesser races worship as a living God.

What are some SF novels that are like Star Trek but are not Star Trek novels?

>>9776957
literally any pulp sci fi mag from the 50s

>>9776942
Sanderson

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While waiting for the next translated book, is there anything else like this I can read?

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Just finished The Night Land, that ending was pretty good. I was so scared it was going to be shit, but it was actually better than most of the book. It would be 10/10 if someone took a hacksaw to the endless nonsensical philosophical asides, and took the air out of the hideously bloated prose.
The setting, the quest, the characters, and the resolution are all amazing. It's like a scifi odyssey, a true epic.

Has anyone read the other versions(shortened edition and rewrite)? How do they compare?

I'm a little way through Shadow of the Torturer and it's quite good, I'm definitely going to finish the whole Book of the New Sun.

Got a question though: does it ever become more overtly scifi? At the moment it's just fantasy with some hints of scifi at various points (the forested moon, mentions of alien visitors etc.). Does it ever become more scifi-ish?

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I need some good fantasy young adult fiction for research references.

I'm about this far away from just starting a web novel about !not skeletor.

>>9777114
>Does it ever become more scifi-ish?

Yes. Definitely does. Don't want to say any more for fear of spoiling it for you.

>>9777114
Also if you ever go back an re-read the Shadow of the Torturer again, you'll probably find it much more sci-fi than you did the first time. There are some big obvious sci-fi things sitting there in plain sight that you might have missed due to reading things from Severian's point of view

>>9777189
Cheers, good to know, thanks for no spoilerino
>>9777194
I'm sure, but hold your horses there buddy I need to finish it once already for the time being

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Everyone on /lit/ hates sapkowsky right?
or is just a meme?
Just readed Viper and the Hus wars trillogy recently and find them very good.

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>putting sci-fi and fantasy into the same category

kys

>>9777282
they're two different categories and almost all books discussed here fall very neatly and clearly into one or the other
however as a part of literature as a whole scifi and fantasy are incredibly pervasive, hence deserving of their own general

>>9775735
It's important to understand how feudal tax actually works compared to modern tax if you don't want to sound like a dipshit yank

But other than that it's not important unless you're writing economic fantasy

>>9777289
Also there's a shitload of authors who write in both genres

>>9775735
It's very important. The lack of this is why Tolkien is overrated and a scrub

>>9777243
Sapkowski is a curmudgeon, who thinks he's "above it" even though his best works are just grimdark inversions of classic fairy tales.

His Witcher trilogy is just the adventures of his anti-hero Gary Stu Geralt and his Mary Sue daughterfu Ciri. It's all easily skippable.

Can't speak for his other works.

>>9777350
witcher is not a trillogy, and i find its prose really fresh and I like how it does not take itself too much seroius. Its really character driven, and Gary Stu is a perfect character right? Geralt and cir are the oposite of that.
My 2 cents

>>9777350
oh and he is a curmudgeon indeed, this doesnt automatically make his work bad. It rather make his character more funny in my eyes

>>9776942
Anyone willing to recommend something?

>>9775133
Book of the New Sun

>>9775303
Could never get into Mieville. It astonished me how a book with such an original setting could end up being so dull.

>>9775532
A Maze of Death

>>9776843
either because he's a baddie (and the swords are really good) or because he later gives them to rud ealle

>>9777419
Names of the Wind.

>>9777114
Yes, definitely. Although it's 'sci-fi' right from the start if you pay attention. But to Severian, a lot of this stuff is just as astounding to him as it would be to us, and he can only describe it in terms he understands.

>>9777457
He's not really a baddie tho.

>>9777282
>not realising the best works of both genre embrace the patrician area of Science Fantasy

>>9777457
"More than any of us – more even than Anomandaris, Silchas Ruin thinks… draconean. As cold, as calculating, as timeless. Abyss below, Sukul Ankhadu, you have no idea…"

"The Cruelest"

yeah but it's from a certain point of view, I'm saw the soldiers at pale thought Anomander was an evil piece of shit.

>>9777350
>His Witcher trilogy
How does one read a book series without noticing it's longer than three books?

>>9777589
maybe he doesnt read it and got all his opinions from a chinese cartoon image board

>>9777621
That was pretty much what I was implying.

>>9776306
Isn't this by the same guy that wrote "Ass Goblins Of Auschwitz?

>>9777775
Nah, that's another nutjob. To bad about the digits senpai.

>>9777777

>>9777775
FUCK..

>>9776093
The first Anita Blake is great.

>>9777802
GODDAMN IT. FUCKING CHRISTFAGS!

>>9777802
>the fire of hell is God's sustaining energies
Well that's some /sffg/ tier stuff.

>>9776306
>>9776093

Can we get an excerpt of this gent's prose?

>>9777840
lol

>>9777948
Laughing because of how bad the series eventually became or do you just disagree?

>>9777976
it could only be called "great" in comparison to the shit that comes after it

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>>9775050
I just started reading this and I'm wondering if GRRM should have refrained from identifying horses with names of horses that exist in this earth. Shouldn't he create his own lore for this?

>>9778097
this is the best GOT related post I've seen in about six years

>>9778097
more importantly why the fuck is that cover not level.

Almost done with The Dark Forest now. I'm still very much enjoying the series but there's some retarded stuff surfacing, I have a hard time accepting the absurd idea that literally every war ship in the space fleet would go to look at the potentially deadly probe in a tight formation. Even considering that the most people at the moment believed the Trisolarians to be peaceful.

>>9778097
literally what the hell did you mean by this?

>>9778097
Wrecked the immersion just as much as Sheeran's cameo.

>>9778331
“Will went in front, his shaggy little garron picking the way carefully through the undergrowth”

>garron
>a small, sturdy workhorse of a breed originating in Ireland and Scotland.

>>9778372
The word "horse" also originates in Europe, and is used to describe species of the Equus ferus caballus, which is found exclusively on Planet Earth. Should he have avoided using that one too?

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Your thoughts?

Why are the bad guys in the Wheel of Time so dreadfully uninspired? They're literal cartoon villains

>>9778395
No

>>9778212
Because it's been scanned poorly.

>>9778395
Yes

>>9776943
>Imagine the bible, but with a lot more rape demons and way worse writing

FTFY.

>>9778407
Everything in Wheel of Time is super generic

It's the best/worst example of an american writing in a setting based on european myths that they've never personally internalised

Kim Stanley Robinson

Whats her must read books?

>>9778525
Mars trilogy.

>>9778533
Im not a communist, anything else I can read?

>>9778535
Oh, is it the accent? Let me try again.
>Whats her must read books?
Mars trilogy :3

>>9778547
thats better :)

I'll read red mars next. Anything else thats good qt :o

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>>9778553
I have yet to read Kim's other books and don't have any info on your tastes, but since I like you, have this :3

>>9777156

I'm partial to Applegate's Everworld series, mostly for nostalgia. Not sure if that qualifies as wholly fantasy

>>9778304
I have a theory Hines mind control was misused by his wallbreaker wife to install overwhelming optimism in the armies of earth but who knows

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Do i need to read Edgedancer before Oathbringer?

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>>9778802
If you are itching for something to read before Oathbringer is released then you might as well. It's a fairly short novella.

>>9778400
I read it a million times when I was a kid

>>9778802
You should read some good fantasy and drop Sanderson

If I were to read one non-LotR fantasy series or novel, what would it be?

>>9779034
You tell me I'm not fucking guessing

>>9779030
I enjoy The Stormlight Archive books, what are you gonna do about it Elitist?

>>9777319
>economic fantasy
is this an actual thing? i've read the Dagger and Coin series, and I've heard that the Traitor Baru thing has it too (though it's not really fantasy in the traditional sense, and I don't really want to read it), but I don't know of any others.

>>9779060
Spice and Wolf.

>>9779034
What kind of question is that? You make it sound like LotR makes up half of all fantasy or something and isn't one book series among thousands.

>>9777282
There's enough overlap that for organizational purposes they are usually lumped together into a single category. For this thread though, it's because sci-fi can't survive on its own.

>>9779070
watched the anime years ago, but I haven't read the light novels

>>9779060
Abraham's other series (Long price) has some of it, Discworld touches on it a bit (Making Money being the obvious one), Empire trilogy is more political but a huge part of the first book is addressing economic concerns.
Feist also has Rise of a Merchant Prince, which is a book about trade, although weirdly it's the middle book in a trilogy with the other two being action novels.

Craft Sequence also is clearly part of the subgenre but it's pants

>>9779111
>Craft Sequence also is clearly part of the subgenre but it's pants
is it really bad? the concept sounds dope from what I've read. i know it's extremely niche but I've wanted a series that explores the effects of fantasy elements like magic and monsters on more mundane things like the economy and government.

>>9776943
Kelhus is the protagonist? I thought akka was the protag.
PS. Pls no spoil

>>9777073
>reading memes

>>9777101
>then i did ascertain that the maid did lie thrice naughty kisses upon mine lips and kist just lightly upon my slumber. I then did hear the fizzle that showed that the maid did make use of the water pellets that did be formerly ensconced within the scrip
ad nauseum

The Nightland is full of the cheesiest fucking affected old-timey English I've ever read. Story's fun, though. 7/10

>>9777101
Check out The Boats of the Glenn Carrig and The House on the Borderland if you enjoy Hope Hodgson. They aren't as bizarrely stylized as Nightland.
Also his short stories are good and you can enjoy those until you get totally and completely tired of nautical themes and the perennial morasse of seaweed. I like the Voice in the Night and some others. Think there's a good "megapack" file for Hodgson on the IRC.

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>>9778400
It and the sequel was so good. Cienfuegos didn't deserve to die.

>>9779352
For the first three books he's co-protagonist, and gradually gets less and less direct focus as he becomes more and more powerful. In the next four books we're following a bunch of other people but he shows up all the time. The first few books are the best though, and they're also the one's where he's mostly the protagonist.

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>>9779367
>Not reading memes exclusively

>>9777282
>he doesn't know that the genres were indistinguishable once upon a time
lol fuck off, yuroshit pleb.

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>>9778525
The Mars trilogy is great, best series of hard science fiction books I've read. Icehenge is good. The Martians is okay. Aurora is pretty cool.

>>9779689
Yeah, Arthurian legend, folktales and myth were totally indistinguishable from crappy pulp stories about muh progress. Thanks for edumbucating us, Amerifat.

>>9778525
>her
Kim Stanley Robinson is a he. I've met him a few times. He lives in my hometown

>>9778097
It's not Gurm's fault he doesn't have the imagination for epic fantasy.

>>9775257
>Pleb of the Rings
Yeah nah get fukd

>>9779722
What's he like?

>>9779752
Kind of a commie/hippy chad in person. He metaphorically kicked sand on me, stole my lunch money, and fucked my girlfriend.

>>9776843
>ASOIAF's kingdoms fighting over the throne
Is the series unique in this way?
I found a rec for the Legend of the Galactic Heroes novels in the archive so now before I watch the anime I'm going to read the books.

Also that The Witcher is basically "ASOIAF with James Bond."

Is there a decent amount of political intrigue in The First Law series?

>>9779752
>>9779763
He flirted with my mom and tried to explain to me why I'm no good with women.

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>Used to be a big sci-fi fag

>Haven't read a science fiction book in a month short of a year

Why is sci-fi such low brow utter shit?

>>9779801
That's all you're capable of reading.

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>>9779801
READ MY BOOKS

>>9779831
No.

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Quick, I need a super comfy sci-fi story to read.

More modern the better.

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>>9779843
TAKE PSYCHEDELICS UNTIL YOU HAVE A SCHIZOPHRENIC BREAKDOWN

I just read the book of the New Sun and Urth of the New Sun and I have nothing to do anymore

>>9779862
Well, I did just get some San Pedro seeds in the mail today.

So I'm working on it.

>>9779888
>LMAO DRUGS XD AM I COOL YET?
Fucking junkies I swear to god.

What are some good horror sci fi books?
Is who goes there worth a read if you've seen and loved the carpenter movie?

>>9776106
>decadent middle eastern slave kings

Most of the main characters are from nations loosely based on southern and central Europe.

>Nansurim - Eastern Roman Empire
>Conriya - Greece
>High Ainon - mixture of Asia Minor cities
>Galeoth - Frankish Kingdoms
>Ce Tydonn - Wales, Ireland
>Scylvendi tribes - Scythia

Of the middle eastern equivalents, there aren't many other than a villain in the second series and a few minor characters.

>Kian - Arabia
>Shigek - fertile crescent (Akkad, Assyria, etc)
>Nilnamesh - India (Pakistan?)

>>9776329
Book of the Long Sun is my favourite intrigue-based /sffg/ thing.

>>9777114
Yes, the telling style doesn't change but the story takes some crazy turns.

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>>9779867
Yes you do anon.

>>9780210

its pretty short since its a magazine story and would take you about an hour to read, what else are you doing?

>>9780260
It's Wolfe so I have no doubt it's good but is it as good as the first couple book of the New Sun volumes? The series was best when Severian was wandering around with his sword and cloak to Thrax and beyond

>>9780275
I was very skeptical at first but found it to be a very pleasant surprise. It's not more of the same but it's very good in its own way. It's not presented through the first person perspective and the story actually switches between various characters' viewpoints. If Book of the New Sun was one man's spiritual journey Book of the Long Sun is an entire city/cultures' one.

As for style Severian's adventure felt like classic pulp while Long Sun is more like a contemporary /sffg/ work, with more focus on intrigue and character drama. It's all very interesting and unlike Wolfe's earlier work in a good way. Severian is a classical style hero, in that he's kind of horrible but does great things and is good deep down, Long Sun's hero, Silk, is a completely different character. While still conflicted and nuanced, he's undeniably a good a person who holds values not so different to our own. The setting is what really makes Long Sun worth reading though. Culturally and technologically it's far closer to our own time than New Sun was, and how it ties into New Sun is remarkably clever. Long Sun should be considered just as essential /sffg/ reading as New Sun imo. Our meme rec should be the entire Solar Cycle.

Is there a slice of life scifi book that takes place in the 2020s? With an actual attempt to predict what the world will be like? Ideally something written in the 2010s.

>>9779060
One of the major themes in The Baroque Cycle is the birth of modern economics.

Just finished the first Mistborn book. Putting aside the cheesy romance, I thought it was a great book with some good twists. Do the other 2 books hold up? I feel like you could easily put on a happily ever after onto the end of the book and call it a day.

Also I just got into reading fantasy, after all Elantris/Warbreaker whats the next thing I should read?

>>9780545
They're pretty pretty good. I remember the third one being a bit of a drag compared to the first, but it wrapped everything up.

>>9780192
>viewing gods beautiful universe through a keyhole
leave

>>9780393
dude I can tell you what 2020 life will be like
near-future would be 2050s-ish, thr 2020 is so close I'm pretty sure Apple have already got their advertising campaigns lined up

>>9779771
>>ASOIAF's kingdoms fighting over the throne
>Is the series unique in this way?
I don't know. Since it was inspired by the War of the Roses and written by GRRM, I guess it's bigger and more detailed than most series.

>>9779099
Might as well. They go a lot more into the economic details and there's a shitton more trading even during the few books the anime is covering.

>>9779167
I didn't like it but it was apparently published out of order. I'll give it another got once I've finished what I'm reading now

>>9775294
>shauriatas

probably the saddest thing about tuc ;_;
or
aurang dying like a bitch

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>>9780724
>cucked out of a consult showdown by dunyain fucking shits

>Speak again the ancient oaths,
>Life before death.
>Strength before weakness.
>Journey before Destination.
>And return to men the Shards they once bore.
>The Knights Radiant must stand again.

PFTTTHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>>9780732
SOMEONE HAS TO STOP THEM REEEE

I always agreed with what the consult were doing and their motives and now that the Dunyain have taken over I guess I support their endeavors with the No-God too.

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>>9780734
THICC

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>>9780745

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>>9780748
>>9780745

>>9779771

>Is there a decent amount of political intrigue in The First Law series?

Nah. There's a little but it's mostly wondering around.

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>>9780748
That's next level cringe. Good god. I'd rather take writing advice from Goodkind than that fat autismo.

Read The Red Knight and it was decent, a quarter into the second book and I'm hating it. Is it worth to continue the series?

>>9781381
doesn't really get any better imho

>>9780243
The caste system in the three seas is very reminiscent of Persia/India.

Fanimry is very much Islam. The Solitary God aligns with Islamic rejection of the holy Trinity and Allah having any "sons".

Inrithism is a amalgamation of Christianity and Gnostic Christianity. And the Holy war is very obviously analogous to the Crusades

>>9777419
Sanderson, Rothfuss, and not listening to people on here who recommend books over 35 years old unless they are Sci Fi.

>>9781626
It's for your own good you ungrateful cretin :3

>>9781647
I mean, I've taken a well over 100 recommendations (if you count series works as individual recommendations for each book); it just seems that the early works of fantasy conform heavily to troupes in a way that later works actively subvert. I also really enjoy speculative fiction, so a series work with firm rules and still books remaining until it's completion is ideal imo.

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so we all agreeing Too Like the Lightning is winning the Hugo?

DAE feedback loop where seemingly all I know how to do is make tea and inhale novels and although I remember details of these books with almost compulsive clarity I don't get the feeling that I was very invested in them or that they affected me very much, and then I don't know what to do so I make tea again

Bought Sufficiently Advanced Magic as something light to read before TUC, friend highly recommended it.
>prose is basic as shit
>YA 17 year old protagonist
>this happened then this happened then this happened action prose without meditation
Has "literary" fantasy spoiled me? I feel physically ill reading this stuff.

>>9781716
I don't know how to make tea.

>>9781738
Boil vodka with grass clippings.

>>9781738
Lure Canadians into a hot tub.

>>9781698
I don't understand. How is the subversion of a trope not itself a trope?

>>9781777
It is a trope, but the subversion makes it so I don't just instantly guess the outcomes like I would in a conventional story, they sometimes use the tropes and sometimes don't, so it keeps you guessing, creates tension, etc.

>>9781777
Also nice lucky trips

>>9775055
Link and timelog?

>>9781777
Also most authors in the last 35 years defy the tropes, it's the putrid shit that slips into obscurity that never gets recommendations other than these little communes on /lit/ that I am warning of. Probably your favorite fantasy would be something I've enjoyed or would; and (if it's not one of the trope definers; think LotR) it probably is a trope defier. Just a guess though.

>>9781823
There was a video posted last thread about the decline of scifi. That same account has another similarly themed video. The mention happens near the end. It's just a quick blurb though.

>>9781705
>six-hive transit system
yeah nah fuck that I'd rather join the Utopians

>>9781851
I saw it too. He says something along the lines of "if we can't trust professional critica and youtube reviewers then how can we find out about good new books? People will organically form groups and can suggest things to each other, for example /lit/ has these images for reccommended books."

>>9781842
You have specific experience with /sffg/ or do you mean /lit/ in general? You don't like Vance, Howard, or others such?

>>9781865
I thought I did at first too, but the humanists got more appealing as I read.

Seriously though, what else could win? Death's End maybe, or that Common Orbit one, the latter of which I still need to read

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>>9781381
Read the historical fiction that he wrote under his real name instead .

Alexander: God of War
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13550519-alexander

Long War Series
https://www.goodreads.com/series/48559-long-war

Chivalry/William Gold Series
https://www.goodreads.com/series/132815-william-gold

>>9781974

Read the whole Tyrant series and God of War. His edgy Makedonophobia is grating and he does this weird thing where he kills off a character, and then a few chapters or a book later introduces a new character that looks and acts exactly like the last one. Does it like 5-10 times over 5 books. Also all the obnoxious leftism that I'm sure fans will argue is 100% historically accurate but really isn't.

>>9782019

Oh yeah and my number 1 autism trigger, confusing Berber Numidians for black "Nubians" (Sudanese). He tries to correct himself later but Jesus what a fuckup also there were maybe two black people in the entire Mediterranean outside Egypt but he has dozens living among the Greeks as equals which is a fucking joke, and literally every single one is married to a white woman

>>9781738
You need loose leaves and one of those mesh ball thingies, don't listen to Americans who tell you tea bags are acceptable

>>9780192
>People that look like this: >>9780745
>>9780748
>Being "cool" str8-edgy contrarians

You're just jealous because you were too scared to break the man's rules and get a glimpse of other worlds in person, pleb

>>9781842

At least 90% of the books published in the past 35 years have been memes

>>9775583
If you want to be spoonfeed you get it at the pace it is given, now shut up and open WIDE

Started reading some Guy Gavriel Kay this past year. I read Lions of Al-Rassan, Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors and really enjoyed all of them.

I'm currently reading Tigana and I'm not enjoying it anywhere near as much. Any recommendations? Should I try Last Light of the Sun next?

>>9776093
That is the Bizarro author right?

Real crazy kinds of books he writes, messed up, extreme, they aren't really satisfying in the way they end but they are worth it for the messed up settings

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>>9777419
The city of the Saved, real god, part of the faction paradox series but you don't have to read any of the others, they are really stand alone- any book in the faction paradoz series really-

-This Town Will Never Let Us Go (Authors very preachy, strong voice in the narrative but if you cant stand someone elses opions then why read?, story is a bit odd, nothings really explained, I liked it, worth a look at or borrow at least)
-Warring States (set in 19th century China, real good)
-Warlords of Utopia (Alt Hitler v Alt Romans - better than it sounds, trust me)

>>9777775
yes he did write it
>>9777910
4chan would literally melt -joking

>>9779801
if you don't like the newer sci fi books why not go to an old bookstore and pick up some older stuff instead?

>>9779689
>implying God didn't create each genre separately exactly 6000 years ago

>>9782544
I would read an SF novel where all the weird creationist/Flat Earther theories were true

>>9782565
Ted Chiang wrote a really interesting short story based on hebrew myths of creation. Tower of Babylon.
Probably one of his stronger works IMO

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>>9782463
>mfw someone else has read these

>>9777282
>not having medieval sci-fi
>not having far-future fantasy

>>9781727
>Sufficiently Advanced Magic
now this is pure anime

the power levels are a thing of beauty

>>9776942
Robin Hobb
Peter V Brett

>>9778097

He was too busy spending 19 months composing and perfecting that gay fucking bear song

What's some stuff that's like cyberpunk with the Burroughs influence turned up

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Alright /sffg/ I am trusting you to provide me with a sicknasty radical name for my Wood Elf ranged Fighter dnd character okay go

Who wants to talk about aSoIaF?

>>9782996
Ellevesta
Fiabitte
Leyrellyn
Kallas
Jettica
Neftagan
Tarris
Velyradana
Beschebella
Libbortatia
Mellenaris
Ybettis
Listrakki
Edeoramat

Good books on political/court intrigue that's not GRRM?

>>9782983
Dick-
scanner darkly

>>9780192
Hmm, you sound upset. Pussy.

>>9782507
I've pretty much already read all the noteworthy golden age works tho.

>>9783398
This is where you write the book you would want to read yourself

>>9783216
Farseer trilogy, a lot of Sherwood Smith (Inda in places Crown duel in its entirety(, Empire Trilogy, Dagger and Coin+Long Price, Kushiel's Dart and finally The Goblin Emperor is probably the perfect book for intrigue.

Second Sons supposedly but I can't rec it because I'm only just starting it

If you're okay with Scifi there's shitloads there too i.e. Luna New Moon, Merchant Princes by Stross and Vorkosigan Saga for the best courtly space opera going.

>>9781705
It will probably go to that retarded shit YA book

>>9782463
I love FP

Is there a discord?

>>9783689
No, it's 4chan you can already discuss stuff in the fucking threads you stupid cunt

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>>9783694
Discord is faster though.I want to up my meme velocity.

>>9783701
Then go find a fucking discord. This thread is for talking about scif-fi and fantasy books, if you don't want to do that then fuck off. I'm not interested in joining an IM circlejerk with you.

>>9783216
Daughter of the Empire and its sequels, by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts.

>>9776093
Reading nightwatch and its interesting

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How do I get Django Wexler to watch LOGH?

>>9775055
Bunnyman is actually catfag. I saw him plug Cherryl/chauir.

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>>9775178

Folks whats a good coming of age story?

>>9783960
Cherryh isn't an obscure author, anon. Also, bunnies are low-tier.

>>9783976
Citizen of the Galaxy by Heinlein

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>>9776329

>>9783689
https://discord.gg/DbWsnWW

>>9778525
2140
Kinda political intrigue and crashing the economy with no survivors

>>9775532
VALIS is his best work, read that.

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>>9782019
>>9781381

Can anyone give me some names of fantasy novels that includes badass dragons?

>>9775178

Try some Joe Abercrombie

>>9775178
REDWALL
E
D
W
A
L
L

>>9776093

Zombies and Shit has the same plot as The Hunger Games, but it predates it, and it's legitimately hilarious and entertaining.

Great starter for Mellick and bizarro.

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I just finished The Eye of the World and really enjoyed it. Hoping the next book is just as good.

>>9784262
When I was a kid I didn't understand the idea of anthropomorphism and I thought that when Brian talked about characters being stuff like mice and badgers they were 100% realistic, walk on four legs, Mice and Badgers.

>>9784324
I'm up to the fourth and it's starting to get drawn out now. Multiple paragraphs in between lines of dialogue in a conversation, and pages of description of the most mundane shit. Easy to skip paragraphs when your brain starts to bleed. But I mean yeah, when it's good is really good.

>>9784215
McCaffrey's Pern Novels?

>>9784361
It's basically Malazan if It was written by a poor author.

>>9784485
Isn't that Malazan?

>>9784508
MALAZAN IS DEEP THE MORE MADE UP WORDS YOU HAVE TO MEMORIZE TO UNDERSTAND ANYTHING THE DEEPER YOUR WORK IS

>>9784519
I detect discomfort emanating from the region of your tushy.

>>9777101
The weird pseudoarchaic prose is the book's only barrier to greatness. Definitely read House on the Borderland. You also should read Wright's Awake in the Night Land.

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>>9784519

>>9784331
To be fair in the first book the animals are much less anthropomorphic.

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>>9784558
>mfw the first book has a cart being pulled by a non-talking realistic horse
This shit don't make no sense.

>>9784361
4 is the one with Nynaeve and Elayne on their own for the first time right? God those two suck together. Pages of nothing. Lots of bitchy Egwene in it too, but she hogs so much space in any given book.

>>9784215
Children of Hurin

Does anybody know of reviewers that seek out "hidden gems" of self-published stuff? I feel like I've read all the good regularly published stuff but I don't want to sift through piles of shit just for a few flecks of gold. I've already read enough regularly published crap.

So far I've found Mark Lawrence's yearly blog-off thing, but he doesn't do scifi.

>>9784801
>hidden gems of self published stuff
I refuse to believe that these exist

>>9784801
I don't. It's really unfortunate because there's bound to be some good stuff in that mountain of garbage.

>>9779857
read Bradbury's short stories

>>9783971
what's with that shitty watermark?

>>9783971
Breeeeks wadya doin on that chart my man

>>9783745
By Pratchett or some other fags?

Sam vimes is a total g, my moral compass

>>9784934
>what's with that shitty watermark?

I think it's so that rebbit won't steal it

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>>9780724
>>9780732
>At lasht our disparate empires meet.
Nope ;_;
RIP my sweet prince.
>>9780740
Yeah, the world needs to be closed. At least it's kinda cool to have four logic-men of the logospocalypse.

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What was the name of that lesser known series with apparently "the best" magic system? Above average otherwise but it's magic system is supposed to be bar none. I'm combing the archives but my google-fu is off tonight.

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I just finished battlefield earth and enjoyed it. Am I a Scientologist now?

>mfw I didn't even realise it was written by THE L Ron Hubbard until after I finished it

>>9782996
xXxL3g0l4zxXx

>>9785302
Wizard of earthsea my man. Only read the first two though.

>>9785302
Found it. The Runelords. Thanks for nothin, /shit/

>>9785311
Ah that sounds great too though. Thanks! I was actually recommending this stranger on twitter because he was asking my friend.

>>9775269
I've read Permutation City and Diaspora. The fact that Egan can't write a normal modern person makes Permutation City a bit weak but it's still has a bunch of really cool ideas. Diaspora on the other hand is one of my favorite books. If you like hard sf and find all that paradoxical stuff that comes with humans being simulated by computers intriguing, give Diaspora a try. It starts with a fairly technical description of how a brand new AI-human created from scratch. If you don't enjoy the first chapter, Egan is probably not your cup of tea.

>>9778497
I felt a sense of wonder when the first bit of "real magic" was shown, and Moiraine grew to step over those city walls. The rest, I agree.

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>dude imagine how advanced humans would be if we never developed consciousness lmao

does Watts actually believe this crap?

Is there urban fantasy about modern wizards and shit that isn't porn for middle aged women or shitty pulp? I'm more of a hard sf fag but I feel I would enjoy an urban fantasy novel that doesn't just play to pulp cliches and insult readers intelligence.

>>9783971
>no Wizard Knight in the fantasy section
The chart needs more Wolfe!

>>9785386
Is it actually good?

>>9785419
It's great if you can enjoy hard sf concepts over the plot.

Is Rogue Angel scifi and/or fantasy?

>Just read all six Mistborn books in two weeks
>have to wait a year for the conclusion of Wax's story

I've made a terrible mistake.

>>9784215
Malazan, kinda. Dragons are important to the world and story ("Dragons will be at the center of it all" was once said in one of the books), but it's not dragons-doing-dragon-stuff if you catch my drift. It's not Eragon.

>>9785386
Petey said on his blog or in some of the notes somewhere that he slightly believed the concept at the start but by the end of the publishing slog he thought it was bogus, or something along those lines.
You have to admit it's a pretty good premise, and furthering the long overdue wed of scifi and philosophy.

>>9785341
>>9785430
Let me ask you guys something: do you think having cool concepts or ideas can make up for having a weak plot or characters?

Because to me, the niggas who do this should just go write an essay or something instead of hiding their ideas behind a flimsy plot like cowards. A book is a storytelling medium and needs a good plot and characters, if it has a bad plot then it's a bad book.

But you get a lot of people (especially in sci-fi) who think differently, so maybe there's something I'm missing

4 days for age of swords!!

>>9785614
I tend to value the plot and characters over the concepts, but it depends what the book is going for. Candide doesn't have much in the way of plot or characters, but those weren't why Voltaire wrote the book, it was to demonstrate his worldview. Many sci-fi authors similarly are writing to explore ideas, not to tell a story, and there's nothing wrong with that (you and I just don't like those works as much).

>>9785614
This gets discussed a lot.

To quote a smarter anon that I:

>Depends on how well those ideas can support it. Arthur C. Clarke is a great example of an author who in 90% of cases clearly did not give a fuck about anything but all the neat ideas he had for a setting, and was still popular and successful because his ideas were interesting enough and conveyed with such sincerity that they worked as the focal point of interest in the story. Rendezvous with Rama is rightfully regarded as a classic and is carried entirely by the sense of grandeur and mysticism he builds around the alien spacecraft.

>Though I think the key distinguishing feature of Clarke's writing regarding characterization is that he doesn't do stock characters, since he usually just doesn't bother with characters at all. Everybody in Rendezvous with Rama's main cast is a competent, focused professional with maybe one or two gimmick traits thrown in to keep them from being completely identical. Anything more than that would just distract from the true focus of the story, which was "how fucking cool is this spacecraft". You can immediately tell how little he had to do with the sequels by how hard they banked towards character drama.


Personally I think it's about's about balance. Obviously the two depend on each other, but scifi (especially hard scifi) needs both a strong core idea but also the storycraft to carry it. Something like Echopraxia, BS's sequel, it chocked full of interesting ideas and ruminations, but lacks in the character and narrative department. But then I can name books which were readable but had no innovation of cool concepts. I think Pohl's Gateway is the golden example for getting the balance just right.

An semi-related interesting example, which I doubt anyone will get is two short stories, Chiang's Division by Zero, and Watt's The Second coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald. Both centre around a female protagonist, the first who tries to kill herself after perfectly proving maths isn't constant and the entirety of the field is bogus, while the second is who works out the entire universe is a simulation built at the end of the real universe and kills her husband trying to cure his cancer. While offering radically different ideas, and both being interestingly scientifically, there is essentially a very common story here, with similar emotions being felt by similar characters.

The ultimate cuckening of TUC

Half of it indexs and no actual hintings as to what occurs/may occur.

besides the obvious. Color me salty.

>>9785511
I thought Wax was pretty much concluded at this point, and the author will move into a new technological era like with Mistborn -> Cowboys shooting magic metals -> spacecraft powered by metalborn

>>9785879
How the fuck are they gonna do that when that faggot new god got rid of the mistborn?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375413960

I found the perfect book for you, /sffg/

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>>9785406
Has enough wolfe.

>>9785431
Don't read it. It's a shit series. I was interested and read a book (I think 31?) and it was shit. It's fantasy because of the "angel" and it's urban. Can't recall scifi under /overtones.
We are both talking about the chick with a sword on every cover right?

>>9785617
If Sullivan followed his Riyria series, this could have been a great expansion... But the seemingly forced sjw tones I got in book one put me off. Will read 2 and make up my mind to drop or not.

>>9785403
>Is there urban fantasy about modern wizards
Pic related.
Also library at mount char, the strain trilogy.

>>9785913
t-thanks

>>9785933
>Guy asks about modern wizards in urban
>Posts a chart that doesn't even have that category
what a tactic

>>9785913
This cunt looks like a wannabe China Melville, and he took Grok and turn it into a book.

>>9785942
Male urban fantasy IS modern wizards.

>>9785949
Hey, at least it has dragon sex scenes according to the comments.

>>9785979
Is he the same anon who was writing a dragon sex novel years ago in outer lit ?

>>9775050

new HYPE thread

>>9786011
>>9786011
>>9786011

>>9786011

>>9784151

Are you saying there's no gay/rape/incest in it? Cus there was plenty in the tyrant series

>>9785308

You gotta watch the move, bro

>>9785913
>Curse Words, volume 1: The Devil's Devil

Looks better desu

>>9785038
No, its by Sergei Lukyanenko