Science Fiction and Fantasy General

Can you have a space opera with a small amount of characters?

op that comic is insensitive, first it marginalizes people with unusual sexual interests, and it stereotypes dark skinned ppl as violent thugs prone to hate crimes, u need to write an apology or i'm going to put u on blast on twitter and tumblr

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>>7716530
no

>>7716511
Why call it an opera then

>>7716035
>tfw everyone skips the songs and calls them boring
>tfw Tolkien is mocking the linguists of his day for trying to ascribe an origin to "hey-diddle-diddle"
Plebs.

Also >>7716502 are you trying to make this /tg/? You can talk about /tg/ things over there all you want, you know.

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>>7716511
If they're transhuman gods.

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Any recommendations for series with really engaging relationships? Just finished reading the Witcher series, Geralt and Yennefer have so much charisma and chemistry together, it's awesome to read.

Fantasy or sci fi, doesn't matter.

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>>7716906
>check wikipedia entry of John C. Wright
>his photo

dare I?

>>7716973
I wish genre barriers never existed.

>>7716993
Oh, no, he's been the Catholic version of fedora since what, 2002? Before which he was the fedora version of fedora. Anyway he writes really good space opera.

>>7717001
I'll take your word for it, anon.

http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/2012/12/22/episode-128-live-with-gene-wolfe/

Podcast with Gene Wolfe, he's such a funky old guy.

New Sun was almost a trilogy with the third being called Sword of the Autarch.

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>>7716906
>Book 4 of 4

>>7717077
It's Tor screwing him over. There are two left. Although worst case scenario they drop him because of muh puppies and they get edited by Vox Day. The guy can make people angry so beautifully but he just can't edit prose.

>>7717001
Is the The Golden Oecumene worth it?

>>7716510
>I'm going to read The Black Company, what am I in for ?
Decent first book that quickly went downhill.

>>7715553
Yes, I think so too.

>>7717526
>Is the The Golden Oecumene worth it?
It's his best work, he really balances the transhumanism and Victorianism and it's loaded with sense-of-wonder.
>Having to take the stairs out of a space elevator

>>7717526
What this anon said basically. The first book is practically a complete story and covers the lion's share of character development. It also has the funnier bits of old men bitching at each other like they're on crack, which might be relevant to anyone who's played in a MMO guild and experienced something similar.

The second book is a novella stretched out to the length of a novel, and the third has interesting world building, but has a thin plot. I only read it out of habit, and consider the trilogy's last two installments to be unnecessary.

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>>7717775
Very well, I'll put it in my library.

>tfw backlog of books is growing everyday

>>7716906
>>7717526
>>7717775

Oh gosh, transhumanist gods penned by a dorky fedora neckbeard? Ahahaha, too funny.

>>7717803
The man loves his hat but this modern day fashion faux pas is also why aristocrats had a stylist (either their wife or someone else) in ye olde times.

>>7717821
Well I wouldn't mind if he were a neckbeard in addition to making it work (which old Turkish men do wuite well), but unfortunately he has a fairly pussy-ass jawline.

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>>7716502
Is there any epic poetry about scifi stuff?

>>7716502
>that feeling when a guide you made is included in the OP
cozy

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>>7717077
>mfw just read book Honor Harrington, book 13 of ???

>>7718033

I dunno how you guys do it. I can't even get into TV shows unless the series is finished

Any hard sci-fi recommendations?
I've read Blindsight and Revelation Space, so they have to be at least on that level.

>>7718042
Leviathan Wakes

Blish - A Case of Conscience

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>>7718033
>that pic
is there any sci-fi that deals with humanXalien sex and relationships?

>>7718092
Nope, not at all, never, uh uh, not a chance, zilch, zero, zip, negative, nada, no.

Ask me three times and I'll spin the beans, I'd have no choice

>>7718092
LILITH'S BROOD

Note despite the tentacles and abominably cute half-alien starspawn, it's not actually smut, just classic science fiction social commentary

>>7717352
I believe they're still contractually obligated to publosh the next two, though who knows. He's got a decent fanbase and their money's as good as any other.

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>>7718100
pls?
>>7718120
I'd rather something with human as the dominator

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I'm looking for some sci-fi horror but recommended lists are stuff like, zombies, alien invasions, that sort of stuff.

What I'm looking for is something like nautical horror but science fiction or maybe some futuristic neo-noir.

I'm definitely not looking for some post-apocalypse story, or a monster movie in novel form. I want something dark and stylish that's going to paint an atmosphere and take me on a ride. Not something that's going to read like a tabletop manual between bouts of existentialism and philosophizing

This probably isn't welcome here but is there any good fantasy with gay or LGBT characters?

>>7718292
Book of the New Sun, Baldanders.

Are the Dresden Files any good? I read a bit of the first book and it felt like really forced crap but I like the main character.
I also heard the series pissed off SJWs pretty bad which means it must be at least worth reading, right?

>>7718355
>I also heard the series pissed off SJWs pretty bad which means it must be at least worth reading, right?

No? Why would you even care about that?

>>7718367
Because everything they like is shit and everything they hate is good.

>>7718373

Okay 14 year old

>>7718199
Rizal - Noli Me Tángere

Aliens=Flips

>>7718384
Name an example in which I'm wrong.

>>7718415
>ARGUE WITH ME

nah, you can go to your home board for that

>>7718442
Better yet he can kill himself

>>7718292
Didn't Sanderson include an LGBT character recently?
Can't remember.

>>7718042
Greg Bear - Hull Zero Three

>>7718292
>Prince of Nothing

Why is it so hard to find decent books with Wizards as the MCs? Is keeping suspense up when you can do magic too hard? Specially Urban magic. What even is there? American Gods (kinda) and Harry Potter?
I tried Lev Grossmans "The Magicians" and while I thought it was okish, his Magic power levels really go wild. At one point they can magically fly halfway to the moon and create miniature black holes, at the next one they struggle creating fireballs for some reason.

tl;dr recommend me good books with wizards

>>7716978
She's really a barren ugly whore, who keeps herself looking young and beautiful with herbs, sorcery and the seed of young inexperienced men.

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>>7718390
I read the whole summary trying to find the aliens, m8.

>>7718442
>/pol/ boogeyman

How different is Do Androids Dream from Blade Runner?

I really love Blade Runner's aesthetics but I've never read the book.

>>7718561
The aesthetics were transplanted from Neuromancer.

Imagine a dreary post-nuclear 1960s California Suburb. Android Dream is pretty much set in that.

>>7718092
C. J. Cherryh's Hestia
Short novel. "Primitive" catgirl.

C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series
Whole series is about humans getting along with aliens. One intimate relationship is a central theme. Aliens aren't that exotic physically.

Larry Niven's Ringworld series
Encounter several alien races. Inter-species fucking is an important diplomatic function. Don't remember any serious relationships.

Jack Chalker's Well World series
Forced transformation. Several races. Centaur lovin'.

...

Why do I have all this shit?

>>7718452
Some gay shit, the jelly monstergirl turned into a man and wayne was willing to fuck "her" later.

>>7718493
Cnainur was just a self-hating bisexual t b h

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>>7718092
play mass effect

>>7718604
>Inter-species fucking is an important diplomatic function.
I'll put it on my list

>>7718532
pls respond. I need some fucking magic in my life.

>>7718532
Have you read Raymond Feist's Magician series? I rate it pretty highly.
Also
C. J. Cherry's Fortress series
More of a "Sorcerer coming into his own" story

>>7718243
>that pic
fuck you barry!

also good luck finding stuff like that. I'm not sure it even exists outside comics/manga/videogame/x/urban-legends form

>>7718243
Altered Carbon is futuristic neo noir. People are the monsters.

>>7718651
I'm gonna give Feist a try then. Sounds pretty promising.

But someday, I want a really great Urban magic book.

>>7718243
Crichton's Sphere is nautical scifi horror

>>7718561
Main difference is Deckard is an android in the [former].

>>7718722
Who's to say he wasn't an android in the latter?

i n c e p t i o n

>>7718722
why even read it now?

>>7718736

If that kind of spoiler ruins a story then maybe the story isn't very good

>>7718681
I dunno man, I'm not real familiar with that genre.
Would either of these count?
Terry Brooks' Landover series
Guy purchases magical kingdom cause he's single, depressed, and well-off. Kingdom turns out to be real. He isn't magic, but his retainers are.

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series
MC is female. Lerns she has teh magics. Setting is technically urban, if Medieval.

>>7718736
because theres still plenty of other characters to figure out if theyre android or not. its like the Clue of androidal paranoia

>>7718681
its called rushdie's midnights children

set in india. if you dont like reading about indians, you dont deserve to day you want to read a great urban magic book

>>7716273
Don't start with Night of Knives. Gardens of the Moon is where you start and don't stop until you've read the entire series. The books by Esselmont are what you take when you need a hit of Malaz and you're out of cash in a bad neighborhood and a festering stranger comes up to you with a questionable substance he'll give to you for a rimjob. You know it's ruffies, he knows it's ruffies, but you take it anyway because you need the hit and don't care if you catch sithilus and get raped by a terrible Canadian author. Unlike The Black Company it gets better with time. >>7716510

>>7718671

Yeah, it really lends itself to visual mediums I guess.

>>7718691
>>7718675

Picking these up, I also remembered Starfish by Peter Watts which I've been meaning to read.

>>7718790
Then you've read Watts' Blindsight? (also could count as scifi horror)

>>7718782
That's one of the problems with Malazan. It doesn't have a shorter self-enclosed story to offer a sample for the series. Are you seriously expecting him to read 3,000,000 total words on your drug-analogy based account?

>>7718798

No, I haven't read anything by him other than the first few pages of Starfish. It was recommended to me at some point years ago but I never got around to actually reading it.

>>7718648
John Bellairs, Face In The Frost.

>>7718798
Blindsight fits into the same niche as Evangelion in my opinion.

>>7718756
i'll put them on my list. Basically all I want is some wizardry that isn't set in a LOTR like world you know? Don't care if it's necromancers secret plots in cold war russia or Warlocks and Enchanters in todays New York or whatever. just please no more classic high fantasy locals any more. (but desu that's secondary, as mainly I'm just looking for really decent books centering about wizards)

>>7718781
I have nothing against India. It's a shithole but if the book is good, it doesn't really matter where it is set.

Kind of off topic but, may I ask what are the feelings of the people in this thread towards fantasy comedy or parody?

I got a couple of ideas for a story that I am trying to put together. I am wondering about the best way to go about it or how to make it so that I and other people like it.

>>7718891
It's not something I would buy, but if it's good, it's good...

>>7718844
Ah, not my usual dreck, sorry. Is it a more contemporary thing? Most of the stuff I have is 60s-90s.

>>7718575
What do you mean by >The aesthetics were transplanted from Neuromancer. ?

The movie Blade Runner came out before Neuromancer.

>>7718736
Sorry i dont know how to add spoiler text

>>7718648
Sergei Lukyanenko - Night Watch

>>7718532
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

>>7718816
Yes. Why would I expect otherwise?

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>>7718292
>fantasy

I'm wary of recommending Storm Constantine's other works than the Chronicles of Magravandias but they supposedly deal with that in a larger manner.

Seriously though you people put Jim Butcher's Dresden Files on the rec list but not this? I am disappoint.

>>7718891
Terry Pratchett.

>>7718390
lol

Indio gonna ind

>>7718355
>>7718532
If anyone in your life recommends Dresden Files, you shoot them in the face. You shoot them in the face good. In here, you just hide their replies.

>>7719067
I know it was racist but I hate flips so i may as well take a shot at them on 4chan

>>7716502
Why hasn't Neal Stephenson been given a movie deal yet?

>>7718645
Yeah...
It's a good Hard SciFi. I got pretty sick of the "Diplomacy" though.
"Ooooh baby, first contact"
"Big problem guys, they're water breathers. Who can hold their breath the longest?"
OH MY GOD SEX VAMPIRES!!!!! THEY CAN'T MIND CONTROL US IF WE FUCK GOTTA FUCK ALLLLLLL NIGHT HHHHGNHHHHGNHHHGNNHHHHHGNGHHHHNGN
Yes, I'm bitter.

>>7718532
Rhialto the Magnificent by Jack Vance. Ultrapowered wizards who just fuck around at the end of time.

Despite the hate, try HPMOR and see if you like it. Drop it if it rubs you the wrong way.

>>7718561
The aesthetics are the main difference, and not to the better. Blade Runner is just a superior work of art.

>>7718296
Ohhhhh

>>7719106
because hes a gross bearded dude that even other nerds dont like. moore only got movie deals because he has dorky filmmaker fans to intermediate for him

>>7719102
Filipino isn't a race, anon.

t. Flip Lipino

>>7718827
I've been looking for a second-hand copy of this book for years

I just started Poe's The Narrative of Author Gordon Pym, which technically isn't sci-fi or fantasy but a weird adventure book.
Never read much Poe before but I'm intrigued that this is his only novella-length work.

>>7718292
City of Stairs' protag has an ex-lover who's a closeted gay man.

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This was too dry and boring, and focused too much on repetitive, minuscule details, although I liked the deviation in writing style atypical of sci-fi. Are there better Malzberg stories out there?

>>7719352
It seems to be relatively popular. It's in print.

>>7719440
Am i doing it yet?

>>7719359
It falls into lost world fantasy

>>7719209
See, and they manage to be pedantic on top of being uneducated.

So terrible.

>>7716502
I'm looking for some fantasy that's like... hooray, whimsical adventures! Like a Miyazaki film or something.

>>7719525
Especially something that evokes childhood. That would be super great

>>7719525
>>7719537
Bridge to Terabithia.

>>7717931
Aniara

>>7719525
Piers Anthony - A Spell for Chameleon, The Source of Magic

Fuck man, Umberto Eco died.

>>7719537
Steven Erikson Willful Child

>>7719525
>>7719537
Graham Dunstan Martin, Giftwish
good luck finding a copy though

>Ctrl+f Patrick rothfuss
>0 results

Opinions descartes

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So what are the best Discworld novels in your opinion?

Currently re-reading them in english, having read most of them before adulthood in another language. (Captain Carrot sounds better in english.)
I like the earlier Watch novels, when the watch wasn't yet cluttered with too many characters. Actually I like most of the books, hard to pick favourites.

>>7719852

I hate when people with cool names die

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>finished wheel of time, thought Sanderson did a great job with the last few books
>wonder what else he's done
>oh great he's writing a series right now, let's get into it
>finish the two available books
>check wiki page
>10 book series
>book 3 planned release 2017
>mfw
he's gonna fucking die before I get any closure isn't he

>>7720006
my personal favorites are Thief of Time, Pyramids, Jingo, and Monstrous Regiment; I tend to prefer the standalones, as it allows him to play around with the mythology and world a bit more

>>7720006

I've only read Reaper Man

I thought it was ok, but I don't really remember it at all.

>>7719525
Check out The Belgariad

>>7719051
I know it's probably not popular to admit that here but I actually really liked Harry Potter. I mean sure at the beginning they where very much for kids but they've grown into something young adults and grown ups can enjoy.
I specially liked how it was a traditional "good vs evil" fight in which even good guys could die.

>>7720140
No he won't. He's pretty regular at putting works out, and he reckons he'll have everything done in 20-25 years or so. That puts him at 65, which isn't that old for an author.

He's also very honest about his schedule and such, so you always know what's happening with him.

You can dislike his work, but the man's a very dedicated writer who really knows how to connect with his fans.

>>7718534
>who keeps herself looking young and beautiful with herbs, sorcery and the seed of young inexperienced men
I thought it was with the magical equivalent of plastic surgery?

>>7720641

Sorcery would cover that

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>>7720006
I've read 'em all, and they're all worth reading. Even the ones that shove sexism, racism, or slavery themes down your throat. Terry writes(wrote) excellently despite being a bleeding-heart nouveaux-wanker.

>>7720698
Were we reading the same books? pratchett wasn't bleeding-heart, he was angry at everything.

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>>7720769
Yeah, I think maybe /pol/ has trained me to lump anything that's slightly progressive in with those far left attention whores.

That's not healthy is it?

When Pratchett makes allegories to racism, and sexism I imagine he's referring to the historical, rather than the imaginary "racism/sexism" retards see in the modern western world.

>>7720769
He was angry but it didn't come across like that. The narrative voice was never angry at magic racists, just pitying and even a little disappointed. And the ones that shove themes down your throat are usually the later ones that his daughter actually wrote.

>>7720791

Taking /pol/ shitposting seriously isn't healthy, no.

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>>7720815
b-but the m-memes

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>>7720140
He's writing like ten different series though.

>>7720791
>rather than the imaginary "racism/sexism" retards see in the modern western world.
>implying racism and sexism don't still exist


I always like assuming that lots of /pol/fags are impressionable underage kids.

>>7720970
Great comment, thanks for replying.

>>7718891
>fantasy comedy
If you ever read Malazan book of the fallen long enough, and met our eccentric king, you would know comedy.

How about some comedy with robots in it?

>>7718891
Off to see the wizard is a great comedy.
It's a 3 book series, kind of fall off after the first book but the story is still great.

>>7719563
Don't do that to him.

>>7720141
It's one of the more forgettable ones, I have a soft spot for Guards! Guards!, and Hogfather is the ultimate christmas book

>>7716502
>What you are you currently reading?

The Warrior Prophet. The first book was so much better, it's like he ran out of ideas in this one.

>Are you for keeping peace with alien races or prefer all-out war?

Peace with political intrigue?

>Are you able to ignore obvious weird fetishes injected into a book or do you get angry and stop reading?

That depends on how well the fetishes align with my own. I wrote about this in one of the earlier threads but for example I was put off from Spin because of the cuck-like themes.

>>7720006
AT LEAST YOU DON'T NEED TO ADD ANY UPDATES ANY MORE RIGHT GUYS?

and yeah they're mostly all right to top-tier. I re-read Mort a few months ago though and it didn't feel as funny as the last time I read it (like 10 years ago)
kind of funny that Thief of Time (as that other anon mentioned it's definitely one of the best) isn't even in the discworld hardback library.

also are you German? because I read them in German and they translated most, if not all names. Ronald Zervelatwurst instead of Ronald Saveloy sounds so fucking retarded I just wanted to hit someone every time I read the name.

>>7721765
Why would they change the names?

>>7721765
Estonian actually. So that pun in Soul music was not translatable. Are you elvish?

>>7721770
because German translators are retards

>>7721783
I don't remember that, I read that book like 20 years ago. literally. holy shit I feel old now.

>>7721235
The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem.

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Is Joe Abercrombie any good?
People say he is like Martin but good
is that true?

>>7721770
Because Terry had literal names for his characters, like Carrot, Bloody Stupid Johnson, or Beastiality something.

Is there any list of sci-fi horror? Mostly in the vein of Alien, as in takes place in a starship. Better yet if it's not aliens/zombie-kind of horror.

>>7721770
German translators are known for being terrible. I don't know why they're so bad.

>>7721809
He means comedy, not complex-ass storytelling with only a little comedy in between.

>>7721813
He's alright. I actually found the first book in the First Law trilogy quite boring until the Bloody-Nine appeared and made it all worth while

>>7721832
Revelation Space might not exactly be horror, but ifor me it had a spooky atmosphere. Might just have been the audiobook narrator John Lee though.

>>7721813
The modern day Howard. Not even joking.

>>7721813
He's alright, I wouldn't compare him to Martin though. Two very different creatures.

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>>7721817
but they were funny in english. they don't make fucking sense in German, especially if you translate them with a completely different type of sausage andyouknowhowimportantsausagesaretous!

>>7721770
Almost Harry Potter name was changed in Italian.

>>7721917
Don't do this to me, nigga. If you're not serious I'mma cry.

>>7721917
For real?

>>7721917
>>7722070
>>7722082
>tfw don't know which Howard you're talking about

>>7721832
Blindsight and Hull Zero Three for recent, I can't recall much of the older stuff.

>>7721813
He's alright. GRRM was unreadable but Abercrombie has a few fine points in his characterisation that make things great.

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What are some cowboys and gunslingers applicable to the thread other than Han Solo and Roland Deschain?

>spend weeks coming up with a complex pantheon of gods, time travel mechanics, demigod protagonists based on relativity and quantum physics
>So much work was sunk into symbolism, wonder and mythological parallels
>realize that my prose is shit, my charactes are mary sues and my plot makes no sense

It hurts /sffg/

>>7722577

write short stories that all take place in your autistic universe then

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>>7722577
This is where you learn how to actually write

>>7722585
Do this, and also pick up a book on plotting/characterization, I recommend Art of Fiction (John Gardner) for general literature practice, and Art of Dramatic Writing (Lajos Egri) for characterization and plotting.

Just applying what you learn from those will upgrade your shit pretty well, alongside just reading more and regular practice.

Holy shit! I just found out Liu is making a sequel to The Grace of Kings and Kuni is still the main character

>>7722585
That's kind of what I was doing. I was goign to write a bunch of short stories that all tied together but after like 6 different drafts of the first few pages I got stressed out and couldn't write naturally anymore.

>>7722624

Don't bother trying to connect them together honestly. If you get better you can start having recurring characters or something like that or have intersecting stories later on.

>>7721838
The Cyberiad is hilarious. That hilarity isn't the only thing going for it doesn't detract from my recommendation.

>>7722778

Is it hilarious or "hilarious"?

Which is to ask, is it humor or "humour"

>>7716502
>http://i.imgur.com/igBYngL.jpg

>3Edgy5Me Grunts included in Comic Fantasy
>Robert Aspirin's Myth series, Castle Perilous series, Spellsinger series, Tom Holt, Craig Shaw Gardner, Magic Kingdom For Sale missing from same category.
>No A Man Of His Word in Coming of Age.
>No Oath of Swords in Entry Level/Epic.

This is a list put together by pseuds, isn't it?

Note that if you want to argue the quality of writers I listed, you'll then have to justify the presence of Melanie Rawn and Terry Goodkind.
>>7718243
Neptune's Cauldron if you want a underwater murder mystery with fishmen agitating for union rights. Very much an Ace double style book though.

>>7718292
The Darkover stories were basically sword and sorcery fantasy with "lost colony ship" stitched on to the setting so the writer could publish them in Analogue.
The author was a closeted lesbian acting as the beard for a pederast. Her personal fetishes are very much present in her writing.

>>7722565
Menelaus Montrose. Wax Ladrian. John Carter. Wash Morris. Northwest Smith. Mad Amos.

>>7722878
>This is a list put together by pseuds, isn't it?
Every. Single. Thread.

One dude put it together many years ago. He didn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre so he asked /lit/. Since then there have been many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of complaints, but no one has gone ahead and made a better picture.

>>7722565
There was probably one in that YA series about a fantasy South Pacific English-colonized island country where people can cross into the dream outback, pick up dreams, and psychically play them for other people, and the girl makes a golem from dream outback sand, and there was time travel in the end. They all had pretty generic "Dream Something" names so I can't find them now.

>>7718532
Not urban fantasy but A Bad Spell In Yurt has a mediocre magician stuck as the court wizard in a backwater duchy and trying to deal with a whole bunch of shit that pops up. He's not completely incompetent, but he has definite strengths and weaknesses at magic.

>>7722878
>doesn't realize there simply isn't a new list yet because everyone is too lazy to make one

>>7718532
For urban fantasy, the Wizard of 4th Street novels are pretty good.

There's also Tom Deitz' novels, though those are more Rural Fantasy than Urban Fantasy, as almost everything he wrote took place in Georgia.

>>7718756
>TFW you find out Steve Carell is attached to a Magic Kingdom For Sale movie in an act of perfect casting, but the movie's been in development hell for years.

>>7718532
>Specially Urban magic. What even is there?
https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_hfnv_hd_bw_b4D8_ir02_b?_encoding=UTF8&node=3559310011
i gotcha pham

>>7719781
So what would people say is the breakoff point for Piers Anthony, the point where everything afterwards is a useless mess of puns and pedophilia?

Dragon on a Pedestal maybe?

It was definitely by Heaven Cent.

>>7722966
>pedophilia
>useless

>>7722890
>Wax Ladrian

Do I need to read the other Mistborn books first?

>>7721235
The Cyberiad, of course. Don't be put off just in case it's not what you're used to reading.

>>7723063
No, you'll miss a few references but you probably won't notice. Well, Harmony actually being real would probably catch you off guard.

>>7723075

Okay cool, sounds neat. I'll add it to my short list

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I've been shilling for her for years and Archer's Goon is the very most fun I've ever had reading a book, but now I'm really going for it. This week is about to get delightful.

>>7723470
>women
>authors

>>7721813
abercrombie injects his white guilt into his shitty, uninteresting stories

>>7723495
Women tell excellent nursery tales, yes.

>>7723506
>tfw Mother Goose has a cameo in Baroque Cycle

>>7718532
Because they're fundamentally broken, seriously if you've ever played any tabletop rpg you know how a single wizard can hold the entire game hostage, at literally any moment they can just fuck your shit up and throw your adventure off the tracks.

>>7718243

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTG6AGHMxnQ

>>7723470
Where's Dark Lord of Derkholm???

I just read Archer's Goon a few days ago :3

>>7723609
Read it twice, years ago. Same with Deep Secret. Homeward Bounders and the one with the ghost that doesn't know which sister she is were very clever and I keep remembering bits but they didn't hit me as hard.

There's a decent BBC adaptation of Archer's Goon, by the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b0Mnru_l_0

But you're not going to see it because you're going to have to suicide over that ??? and :3.

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Just finished this on your guys' recommendation. Overall it was pretty meh. A couple exciting parts, but by the end of the book I still didn't give a shit about any of the characters, most of which are annoying. Also had the prose of a YA novel.

Overall you guys disappointed me. Can yall do better?

>>7723753
Why not just read a YA novel? Wrede and Diana Wynne Jones get mentioned here now and then. Jane Yolen, Bruce Coville, John Christopher. The Dragon's Blood and Tripods series were both plenty dark and had memorable characters.

>>7723791
Are you retarded? I didn't like that book because it had the prose of a YA novel

>>7723799
You might like R Scott Bakkers stuff

much more dense and involved than Abercrombie

>>7723799
And those YA novels have the prose of adult novels, they're just marketed to young people.

>>7723799
That's more of an insult to YA novels t b h

>>7723753
Also he kept using these expressions that pissed me off so much:

>he padded away
Padded? As a verb to walk? WTF??

>upon hearing this his lip curled
lip curled? What kind of fucked up expression is that? Makes no sense

>>7723836
I've always pictured "padding" as moving with soft, ponderous steps, like an animal with pads on its feet, and curled lips are sneers, a common expression among low fantasy types. What makes me angry about the second one is awkward grammar. No sentence should have to be shaped like that.

>>7723741
>There's a decent BBC adaptation of Archer's Goon, by the way.
Very nice. I'll check it out.

>But you're not going to see it because you're going to have to suicide over that ???
Okay, that's fair.
I can't help :3 though

You keep talking about Witcher, but are the Metro novels any good?

>>7723842
>I've always pictured "padding" as moving with soft, ponderous steps, like an animal with pads on its feet,
I agree, but he didn't use it like that. He literally used it to replace any type of normal walking.

>>7723852
I guess when you're living in a gritty, realistic medieval world you gotta pad everywhere. I'm sure Pratchett made fun of padding at some point.

>>7718292
The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan, main character is a gay dude, and one of the other main characters is a lezza.

>>7722565
John Creedmore from The Half Made World

>>7723753
This series gets exponentially better with each book desu. I too was far from blown away by The Blade Itself but Abercrombie is one of my favourite authors.

>>7724058
Are you sure about that? Even with the whole white guilt and 99% pandering?

>>7724058
First book is basically a setup.

But to be real, the three books after the end of the trilogy are better.

>>7724120
should I just skrip the trilogy and read those then? I feel little desire to start the 2nd after finishing the first

I started reading Mistborn because on of you guys recommended it to me but it just feels like it has bland characters. Completely black/white flat characters. The world is nice though and the magic system is pretty good. Should I keep reading? It bothers me that it's basically a YA fantasy novel and I feel like I'm wasting my time. I need something with more developed grey characters.

>>7723836
Those are both very common expressions, are you foreign?

>>7724164
Common expressions? No, my friend, not in civilized places. Maybe in britbongland though. Can you please explain to me how "padded" means walk, and wtf "lip curled" means?

>>7724163
I started reading it recently too. It's bad, and blatantly simple in scope. People recommend it for its magic system, but if you're like me that's not really enough to make up for the bad prose and characters.

>>7724189
have you tried the Stormlight Archive or Malazan? Those might be more up your alley.

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>>7724173
Not the same anon, but:

verb (used without object), padded, padding.
7.
to travel on foot; walk.
8.
to walk so that one's footsteps make a dull, muffled sound.

And it means he fucking curled his lip. You know what curling is,and you know what a lip is. You can do it in front of your screen right now. Here's an example.

>>7724193
I tried Malazan but just couldn't get into it. I might try Stormlight, but if it's anything like Mistborn I probably won't be too into it.

>>7724206
Another anon here. Why couldn't you get into Malazan? I see this name dropped here often, and people say it's difficult to read because it's like you get dropped into a party and you don't know what anyone is talking about and only 5 books later you learn why the bartender didn't give you your drink.

>>7724211
That's a pretty good way to put it. What put me off from Malazan, besides not really liking most of the characters , was the way it would drop random concepts out of nowhere as a means of settling a plot element, only to explain books later why it wasn't bullshit. I don't mind getting a handle of a world over the course of a book, and I think series like the Black Company do very well with telling you what you need to know when you need to know it. But with Malazan it's like you're at a table where everyone has watched Mad Men except for you, and they're talking about Mad Men and you're there like "fuck, I don't know what to make of this conversation" until you finally watch Mad Men a week later and go: "Oh, that's what it was."
You have a bunch of people all over looking at eachother, sweating, and repeating: "Oponn's in the game." "Wewee, Oponn's in the game. Can't believe it." But you never have anyone stepping forward to ask. "What the fuck does that mean? Is that even a bad thing? Why do all of you care that Oponn's 'in the game' and why do I have to hear this for the eleventh time?" To me, Gardens of the Moon is that awkward conversation at the table where everyone's talking about shit that you aren't in on. But then that pretty much just makes me an impatient reader.

Is the Farseer trilogy good to read? or is it a children's book? I most of all want a comfy, amazing, memorable read that I can dive into for half an hour before sleeping every night. Not some extremely heavy stuff like Malazan.

How do you guys balance reading other literature on the side of those 900 pages multi book fantasy series? I sometimes feel like it's too much commitment into one universe and start thinking about all the other stuff I could have been reading.

>>7724120
Third book of the trilogy was great, if you enjoyed the ending. The next two standalones are even better. Wasn't a fan of Red Country, though.

>>7724266
I liked the rape, gay and incest in Farseer series.

>>7724267
I generally don't read long fantasy series any more. I think you eventually grow out of them. These days I'll read a trilogy at most, and won't read all the books one after the other.

>>7724311
What kind of books do you read instead after growing out of them?

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>ordered prince of nothing from 3 different sellers from overseas because price was low for the hardcovers
>book 2 and 3 are already here for over a week
>book 1 still not in sight

>>7724267
Books that in total have over 2k pages are almost always garbage so I don't read them at all.

>>7724351
>implying Sanderson's Stormlight archive is garbage
10 book series and 2 books out so far, total pages is more than 2000 right no
>implying Malazon is garbage
10 book series and around 10.000 pages

>Are you able to ignore obvious weird fetishes injected into a book or do you get angry and stop reading?

What? I've never encountered this. What kind of hack writer does that shit?

>>7724266
I fucking like it, but at the end the pace drops somewhat. I never minded, since I liked the meandering character oriented bits, but at least the two first books should be fine in terms of pace. Its not a very happy series though, some alienation and violence and stuff

>>7724342
Trilogies, standalones.

>>7724370
These are the best series you could come up with to counter that?

>>7724390
Yes, because those are the best fantasy series there are.

>>7724400
Amazing b8, I came so close to biting.

>>7724266
It's an adult book.

They're pretty easy reads due to the simple plot, but still very heavy as it deals with some dark themes, albeit in a very natural and human way. It's by no means grimdark or gritty, just very emotional.

>>7724404
Great b8 by denying that fact, m8.

If you had to recommend 3 scifi and 3 fantasy books (not series) to get somebody into the genres, which would you choose?

>>7724489
Children of Hurin, Book of the New Sun, Ubik, Lord of Light, The Wizard Knight, Swords against Death.

Can you guys recommend me a wonderful fantasy series that is finished or almost finished and doesn't consist of 4+ books? I want to read a trilogy or 4 books maximum.

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>>7722577
>want to write a short story about emotion
>have no actual story to go along with it
>create one as I idly type
>create a whopping four paragraphs and realize I can't write a story worth this
This was nearly three years ago. Never again.

>>7722903
Next OP should really add "make a new list(s) before complaining about the current list(s)" to the OP.

>>7724163
To think about it, Kelsier is probably the only grey major character--off the top of my head, at least for the early part of the trilogy.

>>7724311
>won't read all the books one after the other
I've noticed that I have begun to do this too. Right now, I finally finished Black Sun Rising and I've begun reading other books in the meantime before going back.

>>7724498
Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen.

>>7724498
Wizard Knight

>>7724498
The Engineer Trilogy by KJ Parker

>>7718452
There are some included in several of his books (most prominently the gunsmith in his most recent release) but they're not really the focus in any of them. I don't think Sanderson is where someone with specific interest in that sort of thing wants to head.

I really want to like Gaiman's novels but I don't think his prose can carry something longer than than 60 pages.

Hey guys, what do you think are some things to be careful of when writing fantasy?

I'm not talking big, obvious things but like, smaller stuff that might be easy to miss but could add up to the book's detriment.

Weird question, but I'm just trying to make myself think from a more detached perspective as I look at my own work.

>>7724678
Underdeveloped magic system/culture/religion.

You wouldn't believe how many authors spend 50 pages describing their favourite homosexual characters and 3 lines describing what's making their love "forbidden".

>>7724688
>Underdeveloped magic system
Fuck that, it's books where the magic system is better than the characters, the plot and the writing that are fucking shit.

>>7724678
Explaining things too much and not allowing the reader to figure things out themselves.

>>7724163
It's set up like a black and white fantasy at first because Sanderson was young and didn't know how to subvert things subtly. It gets more gray.

>>7724697

I believe the response to that is an eyeroll and a "in that case write a real book instead of fantasy then".

>>7718532
The Dresden Files
>>7718355
The first two or three books aren't all that good, but the series as a whole improves with each book.

>>7724678

It's a minor thing but I don't like it when every myth or legend actually happened in some form.

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>books based off of video games
I can't remember the last one that was even decent.

>>7724678
Contrived reasons for the Normal World not to know about your Cool Vampires or whatever you've got going on.

>>7718532
Only correct answer would be the night watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko. Its like a better version of Harry Potter and the wizards actually interact with the midern world instead of being completely separated from it.

>>7724924

Well, does "magic" count as contrived?

>>7724944
Only if you don't change its spelling or use a different word.
ie magia or psych

>>7724489
Isaac Asimov - I, Robot
Robert Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
Tolkien - Lord of The rings
Roger Zelazny - Nine Princes in Amber
Terry Pratchett - Small Gods

Any horror sci-fi about exploring an spaceship?

>>7724944
If the entire world is ensorcelled to not notice witches but the witches never seem to do any magic of that nature. That sort of thing.

>>7725526
Hull Zero Three. I keep mentioning it here but I don't know if anyone else has read it. MC wakes up fresh-cloned on a generation ship on the last legs of a war, genetically engineered monsters everywhere, there's a boob-covered lamia. Nature of self, nature of memory kind of horror, existential dread. Some monsters too but those never do anything for me so I can't judge.

>>7724944
>>7725570
Wizards never using their magic full stop is contrived as fuck yet 90% of newly published books focused around them contain less magic than mother fucking Tolkien.

>>7725580
Seems good, will read it.

>>7725580
ta, gonna read that. Greg Bear's Eon was excellent. Also now have read that there are books after Eon while linking off H03, already have 5 books or more waiting to be read.

>>7725587
>b-but if they don't use magic there's more wonder
Tolkien's world was full of magic, it was everywhere, there were freaking evil trees right next to the Shire. It's just the first thing anyone thinks of when they see "Tolkien" is a Peter Jackson movie.

>>7725580
*Colony ship, I don't think generations were intended.

>>7725631
>Tolkien's world was full of magic
"Vulgar Magic" then like casting fireballs 'n shit.

I was reading some book where they previously established that saying a characters true name would immediately summon them 5 foot in-front of you. Literally a page later they came to a locked door and decided to spend 10 minutes picklocking it.

>>7725683
Oh, yeah, I'm with you. I just hate Tolkien being used as an excuse to cockblock wizards.

>>7725683
Have you read Face in the Frost? They use magic for everything. It's amazing.
>We need to escape through this drain pipe, but there's a grate over it-
>We're wizards! Let's shrink ourselves and ride this model boat through!

>>7725764
I haven't but speaking of "Vulgar Magic" the Taftani are too hilarious, they go full Arabian Nights in Modern Dubai and beat the shit out of reality so hard they're the only Wizards that the universe doesn't actively punish for existing, good times.

>>7716502
>What are you currently reading?
The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi.
>Are you for keeping peace with alien races
If they're not significantly weaker than us, yes. If they're less advanced, I wouldn't mind expanding on their turf and taking their resources for glorious humanity.
>Are you able to ignore obvious fetishes
Yes, unless I like them, in which case it's fap time.
>What has, to date, been the weirdest fetish you saw in a book?
I dunno, probably everything from 120 Days in Sodom.

On the 19th I decided to catch up on all the discworld books that I hadn't read. So far I've got through A Hat Full of Sky, Thud, Making Money, Wintersmith, Unseen Academicals and I'm nearly done with I Shall Wear Midnight. I was curious how the Alzheimers would affect his writing, there's definitely some odd repetition of short scenes near the beginning of some of the stories based in the city, as though he unknowingly reused material from one book to the next. UA is also... strange, a lot of the early jokes and references don't seem like his usual sense of humour at all. It did pick up towards the end however. I Shall Wear Midnight is really strong so far, better than the previous Tiffany Aching books.

>>7725832
I Shall Wear Midnight had one of the most impressive villains in the series, who then doesn't really get used

>>7725837
You mean the Cunnilinguist? Honestly I don't give a fuck about that plot line, I'm more interested in the conflict with the duchess and Roland. The books don't seem to hold together as well in terms of overarching plots to how I recall they used to, but it has been a long time since I read his earlier works.

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YA for adults. Not bad at all.

Tell me why I'm wrong.

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>>7725580
>a boob-covered lamia

>>7726015
Plot sounds like crap, senpai, but then again that's par for the course with YA novels.

>>7726083

The plot does reek of YA cliché, I agree. But it's fun, and executed well. And not as simplistic as is typical of YA (which this work actually isn't a part of), I think, though it does kinda start out that way.

Is it okay to sneak my fetish into a story if I do it tactfully?

>>7726307

No, people will resent you for it and you will be known for it. It's like drawing furry porn, sure, the money is there but you'll never not be a furry artist.

>>7726307
If you drop it once, and for only one character then it's no big deal. Just don't go full Malazan where everyone wants to fuck the fat chick.

>>7726307
only if you have the objectively correct fetishes
>>7726380
>low test

>>7726307
If you don't write about what you like what the fuck will you be writing about?

>>7726409
The wonder of mankind and this beautiful planet.

>Trying to think of some young adult series I read when I was younger for the past few days
>No luck finding anything on-line

Any of you familiar with a story involving a bunch of kids doing investigations in one time period, while one of their grandson's has his own plot going on? Pretty sure it was sci-fi or fantasy because I recall CLOCKS and time shenanigans occurring with one of the characters.

>>7726493
Sounds a little like Sleator's The Boxes/Marco's Millions. Also sounds a lot like Cryptonomicon.

>>7726500
Not the former, thanks though. Sleator's stuff any good?

>>7726015
Two faggets suggested this book 2 threads back, after the hunger games cringe show, I couldn't out the book down.

It was fucking great, he should fire his fucking blurb writing though , if it wasn't for those anons I would have never touched that book.

>>7726083
>>7726620
>Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

>Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

>But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

>Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so

Is it Communist propaganda?

>>7726380
If you were in an army, marching everyday on foot, and you didn't see pussy in 3 months, a fat chick will look like fucking Aphrodite to you.

>>7726630
Read and find out

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>finally reading Childhood's End
SHIEEEEEEEEEEEEET I'm only 1/4 of the way in and this is very enticing even though the plot is simplistic thus far. I like it.

>>7726710
That book is far from simplistic m8, it just plays itself straight

Is A Canticle for Leibowitz considered required reading?

Is there a list of required reading for sci fi and fantasy rather than just a list of what's considered the best?

>>7726641
I haven't seen pussy my whole life, I find fat chicks disgusting nonetheless.
>>7726710
>>7726774
I've been reading Childhood's End and The Death of Ivan Ilic and, while I enjoy CE, Tolstoy's prose is on another level.

>>7726848
Talking about thematically m8

Dune has "simple prose" but it embraces very profound concepts. Thats honestly what matters more.

>>7718033
Sauce

>>7726866
No, it's not, especially in fiction.

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How is this fantasy novel?

I hear the worldbuilding is excellent.

>>7726878
Yes it does, but I suppose that all depends on what you see as the function of literature, fiction included.

Its extremely easy to write a whole bunch and not say anything at all. I'm not in any way dissing Tolstoy who was mentioned in compression, I'm just outlining why its not really good to be so impressed by dense prose. On some levels its really just another stylistic choice, in the end its what you're saying that counts..

Consider William Blake who really wasn't the best poet or even artist in terms of technicality, but his work survived by the pure power of his vision. Which in turn influenced entire generations of artists, writers and musicians.

>>7726879
I liked the magic system, the author didn't explain shit,

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>>7726897

>>7726895
I'm not saying it not good, I'm saying it's inferior.

What do you think would be more interesting or more appealing to a wider audience, a story set within Greek mythological canon that uses a combination of original characters and classic mythological figures, or a completely original setting that would be a loose analog of this mythological canon?

>>7726911
Sure, I'm just saying prose isn't the be-all-end all because I notice the trend of /lit/ to make it seem so, but I guess that isnt really your case, just honest appraisal.

>>7726958
>Wider audience

you want some dystopian female protag wankery

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>>7726976

What are some good books with female protagonists?

>>7726989
Ashamed to say I dont really know since I've largely read books with male protagonists.

>>7726976
Good thing my protagonist is already a woman and it would be considered a dark fantasy. I'm trying to take a legitimate shot at submitting something to a particular publisher in the next couple of months. I know I need to tailor my story to some kind of audience

>>7726989
The Wasp Factory

>>7726989
but have you read friday tho

>>7727032
Way to spoil the ending, asshole

>>7727049

I've been meaning to, my backlog has gotten long. I need to go lock myself in a cabin for a week

>>7726989

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Dead Romance by Lawrence Miles
The Scar by China Mieville
any Pratchett book with the witches

I just finished Redemption Ark. He really dropped the ball with Scorpio. He starts off being introduced as an immoral scumfuck asshole, and then almost instantly turns into a perfectly reasonable and nice guy. I thought for sure he would be some kind of anti hero, but no, he's just a hero.

>>7726989
SABRIEL.

>>7727296
Redemption Ark best part of the trilogy.

>>7726879
Too edgy with all that incest and genocide.

>>7726848
>I haven't seen pussy my whole life, I find fat chicks disgusting nonetheless.
You're a low test beta, I am not surprised. Once you fucked before, there is a craving that makes you look for more.

>>7727677
Oh fuck off, fat fetishist. I've fucked before, and couldn't give less of a shit when my next time is. If anything, it lost its mystique. Stop trying to justify the fact that you can only bag hambeasts.

New Thread
>>7727735
>>7727735

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>>7727707
You have been brainwashed by society that skinny(skeletal) girls, who look like prepubescent boys are attractive.

Enjoy your your subtlety indoctrinated, pedophilia.

>>7724381
Heinlein.
Also Stackpole (he's a hack anyway) has a fetish for funny colored eyes. there's at least 1 character in a battletech book written by him that has irregular eyes. one even had yellow eyes.