/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

>>8326566
Recommendations:
>Fantasy
Selected: http://i.imgur.com/r688cPe.jpg/
General: http://i.imgur.com/igBYngL.jpg/
Flowchart: http://i.imgur.com/uykqKJn.jpg/
>Sci-Fi
Selected: http://i.imgur.com/A96mTQX.jpg/
General: http://i.imgur.com/r55ODlL.jpg/ http://i.imgur.com/gNTrDmc.jpg/

>>8326566
>What's the name of the obligatory space despot of your hard SF novel you're working on?

The Sun, everyone worships the Sun and Two Moons. It's inspired by early Catholicism taken to a pagan extreme in the far future. The main symbol of the See is the Chi-Rho, although to you the reader it feels perverted in its form, due to their pagan worship.

>most competent leader in fantasy literature

Leto II, no contest

>WoT Book 11
>no Aes Sedai has EVER done anything even remotely useful in eleven books
>in fact they often end up aiding the Shadow, whether willingly or unintentionally
>all they can do is bicker amongst themselves over who gets to lead them

Remove Aes sedai remove Aes sedai witches genocide best day of my life

Anyone know anything about Jerry Pournelles Codominium books?

>>8326566
historical question - who was the first to writet a real fantasy story?
it must have taken a lot of guts to say "we have this world and it's god, but what if there was another world with different gods?"
I bet that looked kinda blasphemous at the time.
could proper fantasy even exist without the secularization of Europe?

>>8326663
God you are retarded, no wonder you post here.

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http://pastebin.com/raw/HZGV6jT9

The Ring of Light quintet, part 4 is here.
The story is slowly but surely coming to a close as Hao ventures ever further into the vast wasteland of his world. Following the encounter with the conciliator Uanshing in part 3, Hao comes to sudden realisations and his resolve is now stronger than ever.

The previous parts are in the previous threads but I'll also post the complete story as I finish it.

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>you'll never have anyone to discuss Attanasio with

>1st person POV

disgusting

>>8326851
Why? It's fine for stories usually revolving around one character. I found 3rd person is better for multiple narrative and character arcs. There's benefits to both of them really.

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>>8326270
>I am human garbage on an Urban Fantasy binge
have this old version of a chart

>>8327022
>chart anon has actually read all of those "female urban" books
This is reason alone to never take a recommendation from him

>>8327026
Hi female author hater, made any anti-female post lately?

I was reading for years, if something was interesting I read it. Women can make some nice worlds and write great fantasy... but it always, ALWAYS, turns to shit when they inevitably turn it into romance shit.

Ask anyone, Anti Blake book one was a great piece of urban fantasy... then Anita's pussy started to run, and the whole series went to shit.

>>8327159
Reading The Word For World is Forest.
Best Le Guin book thus far. She's much better when she's short and to the point while being less preachy.

>>8327159
I'll generally avoid female authors just because they generally have female protagonists.

I will admit though, the Robin Hobb books are some good quality shit, lack of deus ex machina, realistic in every important sense, no moments where I cringe at how cheesy something is.

>>8327022
Try the Magic Bites/Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. It got sold to me as "Dresden Files but if Dresden wasn't a tool" and is actually pretty good.

>>8326677
Ayy, keep going anon. Few people are so dedicated. Are you published? I swear I'd buy your book

>Friend asshurt the fandom for the shitty YA fantasy book he likes considers what the author says about the story's world to be canon
>Talks about how they're using canon the wrong way and that WoG isn't canon
>Tell him that when most people use canon (especially in the context of shit like fantasy) they're using it to mean "Every thing that's true about the story and its world" not the literal definition of it
>He still doesn't understand

>>8327671
>Reads shitty YA fantasy

Why the fuck are you friends with him?

>>8326594
Been a while since I read it but thinking back on it, I'm annoyed at how annoying the vast majority of the women were, they were almost always some sort of fucking Mary Sue that did little else but bully all the men with less power than they had.

Needed more Mat and pre-whipped Perrin.

>>8327671
>YA
>"fandom"
Unless it's a qt3.14 asian girl unfriend this faggot.

>>8327760
>pre-whipped Perrin
doesn't he meet her in like book 3? by the end of the series it's impossible to remember what his character was like before that

>>8326589
#sotrue even when he was fucking up, it was on purpose.

So I just finished the latest from Robin Hobb and now I'm in a deep book-depression and can't seem to read anything else. Should I just stop reading for a while?

>>8327462
Thank you kindly. You have been following the story from the beginning haven't you? Sorry for not replying, I only really have time to check the thread a few times a day on my phone. Too busy.
No, I'm not published although I write for the university magazine. Not in english mind you though I wish to be published in english because there is no market for sff in either of the languages that I read / write in. It's quite literally the closest thing I have to a dream.

>>8327822
Read short stories. Wolfe, Chesterton etc.

>>8327022
>The Strain
>Del Toro
>A book
I thought it was only a TV show...?

Which SUCKED. I couldn't stop watching though hoping it would get better.

How different is the book from the show?

>>8327965
More vampire sword fighting

>every WoT book has literally entire paragraphs of women getting spanked

I can just picture Jordan writing with one hand and masturbating furiously with the other.

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>>8328159
He even looks like a Garth Marenghi.

What's a nice standalone, small-scale fantasy novel you'd recommend for someone unfamiliar with the genre? Something you could show your parents or a friend or a sibling.

>>8328214
The Buried Giant

>>8328214
The Hobbit

Finished the first Black Company trilogy. Keep going or does the quality drop in the later books?

>>8328625
I've only read the first one after it, it was fine. I liked how moe The Lady was.

>>8328625
Pretty solid for the most part

Only comes into question towards the end of the series when the PoV changes somewhat. But that's more an opinion thing

>everytime Sanderson and Rothfuss come up on /r/fantasy they get trashed

Can reddit be saved?

>>8328719
Staying there and leaving /lit/.

>>8327781
Slow.
Perrin was slow.
Also I'm pissed. The women get to the Tower in book 2 and I was all excited for some real magic learnin'. Come to find out 9/10 of their time is off on wild goose chases and when they're actually in the Tower they're washing fucking dishes or some shit. Fuck.

>She summoned her awesomeness

What did Sanderson mean by this?

Is there any well written fantasy books that are sort of like the D&D format where a small rag tag group of people go on adventures? Dragonlance and D&D novels are decent but I want something that's slightly more mature and well written

>>8328809
Malazan was originally a D&D script

>>8326566
>Who is the most competent leader in fantasy literature?
Havelock Vetinari of course

>>8328816
Malazan is too grand in its scope though. I want something that is in between the perspective of a single hero and a vast number of characters like Malazan or asoiaf. Something akin to Belgariad maybe but more well written

>>8328809
Affinity for Steel

>>8328719
I haven't seen this happen ever. Then again I haven't been there in months. Can you sauce me a thread where that happened?

>>8327434
But The Dresden Files writing is shit though. Is the writing in that book also shit?

>>8327434
But The Dresden Files writing is shit though. Is the writing in that book also shit?

>>8328880
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/4uuqf9/what_are_your_unpopular_opinions_about_fantasy/

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What are some websites and magazines for those of us who are aspiring to become SFFG authors to submit their short works?

The Scientology Opus.

So looking at Rothfuss, all I need for the average fantasy reader to think I have good prose is to slap "clever" metaphors everywhere?

>>8328942
Yes

Is there a fantasy writer that doesn't take 30 books to write one simple plot that they drag out for so long and end up forgetting key details to it?

>>8328881
Can't be that bad, I mean the first three Dresden Files books were literally the author's homework from writing school that got published because he was shopping it around right as the Urban Fantasy craze took off in the early 00s.

I mean the working title for it was Semiautomagic for christssake.

>>8329048
No because if you hit upon a successful series you're gonna drag it out and milk it for all its worth, fuck extensive planning and a well foreshadowed conclusion

>>8328910
/lit/, you can be like the Ring of Light guy.

>>8329048
Plenty.

>>8329202
Post on /lit/ doesn't put money in the bank

Is City of Stairs good or a meme?

>>8329203
Name ten.

>>8329048
literally my diary desu

>>8329247
It's good. Little light on the GRI but it's there. Excellent look into what the post white genocide, culturally enriched world will look like.

Half through part 2 of way of kings

When the fuck does the plot start?

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Thoughts on this guy?

>>8328719
Doubtful, I'm reading the link >>8328888 and even their criticism is bad, for example:

People love the opinions of their favourite authors, what they don't like is being disappointed in them; Rothfuss is the absolute worst in this regard, the guy is a pathetic individual while GRMM derives all his self-worth from the opinions of others like a high-school girl.

Trying to find a short story I read a while back. What I remember of it is:
Earth was abandoned at some time in the past for some reason, the POV character is a low-caste engineer on a pirate ship.
The captain of the ship is a purple-skinned hermaphrodite, I specifically remember this because it had something to do with not marrying outside their caste.
Anyways, the pirate ship finds a drifting space ship, the other ship's captain comes aboard and claims a sort of a "guest right"/Hospitium thing, but the pirates intend to capture the ship and sell the crew as slaves, but (I think) the other captain kills everybody because they're actually the agent of a AI intelligence on old Earth.

>>8329247
It's good but the SJW themes are super heavy handed and completely unsubtle

>On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen.

really

>>8329247
Read the sequel first. Not memeing, it's way better by every metric and its mostly unconnected.

>>8328225
Just give up anon, you're not even marketing it properly. No one will read.

>>8329245
Tell that to Tao Lin

>>8329411
He looks like he diddles kids desu

>>8329602
Does he post on /lit/?

>>8328159
>every WoT book
Doesn't that only happen in 11 and 12?

>>8329539
The next Chaucer, show respect

Do I need anything other than Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy to load my work with "depth" and "symbolism"?

>>8329140
>"Semiautomagic", working title

... actually that's pretty badass.

"Dresden Files" is just "I want people to think this is Noir while they read this".

>>8328883
>>8328881
The writing was fine in terms of it's passable for what it was. What he does very well though was pacing, especially compared to other authors in the Urban Fantasy swamp. That and memorable characters.

Finished The Word For World is Forest. With Earthsea the best Le Guin because it's relatively short and to the point. Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness felt like she was out of things to say for 1/3 of the novels and while her characters aren't bad, they thus far didn't have the depth necessary to pull off 400 pages.
The ideas with her are the main selling point and the societies she creates, it's great anthropology, but it can become too drawn out. Luckily she never goes full fantasy world building meme autismo.
Going to finally start Dying Earth, Jack Vance is a pretty big name I've missed. Hope it's as good as his reputation says.

>>8330071
Jack Vance is a dated meme. Stay away

>>8330079
>dated
Retard

>>8330006
>writing was fine
Objectively wrong, fampai.

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How is zotl* pronounced?

* = the o has a small line above it which is why I ask. Doesn't seem to be an alt code for it.

>>8328214
The Hobbit. Warbeaker if a female POV is important to them.

>>8329493
Elantris

>>8330101

>he posts white sand

>>8326566
Kellhus, the Aspect Emperor, is the most competent leader by far. Nobody human comes close

>>8330158
That's because he's a self insert power fantasy lad

>>8330161

This. And inb4

>B-but he isn't a Gary Stu because he has no emotions!

If anything that makes him even more so, neckbeards think that having no emotions makes you 4x cooler.

>>8330169
He doesn't have to be a Gary stu to be a self insert power fantasy. They often coexist, but not necessarily.

>>8330158
>>8330161
>>8330169

not really...nobody actually wants to be Kellhus. What would be the point? you wouldn't be able the enjoy anything. Sure, you can bang all the chicks you want and take over the world...but what's the point of that if you become a robot?

>>8330227
Him not feeling doesn't mean you don't feel when you self insert into his ass rape and power.

>>8326675
thanks for the helpful comment.

anyone care to help? I'm a STEM fag with a poor background in academic literature.
I'd really appreciate some assistance.
was Dante the original fantasy author? Shakespeare?
if you'd rather just point me towards reading material, that would also be great

>>8330256
Iliad & Odyssey

>>8329048
>30 books
Lol, the only writers that written that much are Pratchett and Norman.

>>8330263
Gilgamesh was much earlier.

>>8327853
Its cool anon. Just keep up the good work and you'll get there eventually. A friend writes in English and pays and profy translator to translate her novels for publishing. They work together to match the prose ofc and it work great for her. Already has 2 published books.

>>8329247
Read The City and The Stars instead, or not.

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>downloading the audiobook version of The Way of Kings
>it's 2GB
been reading short stories recently and now i'm intimidated

>>8330487
>audiobook

Read the first Dying Earth story. It was actually great. I expected a more stylized prose, but the mysterious mythical feeling is not something I mind at all, very reminiscent of Earthsea in that.
>>8330491
It works for fantasy, usually it's devoid of depth and requires little attention, Sanderson is the perfect author for it desu

>>8330487
>Listen to Sanderson Audiobook
>Now know the correct pronunciation of all of his retarded names.

>>8330506
>retarded names
>they are brilliant compared to Bakker

>>8330586
Kek

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How do I keep up with Bill Gibson? I just read The Hinterlands (among other things) and I liked it a lot, but I had to read every sentence twice and look up every other word. His prose is very information-dense for me, and I'd like to enjoy it more, how do I do that?

>>8330710
His prose is pretty awful desu

Is Ilium good?

>>8330506
Not true. The two narrators he always uses fucks it up and pronunces all the retarded names and words completely differently.

>>8330071
Don't touch Vance, it's shit... but maybe you have an acquired taste for shit. Read and see if you like it, but I want to gut the anon who was spamming dying earth.

>>8330710
how come in every pic of him he look like a black eyed kid?? hmmm maeks u thikn

>>8330751
Read the second story, he's really great. Interesting concepts, great prose, atmosphere, to the point, mythical characters. There's nothing not to like.
Unless you are a Sanderson/Bakker obsessed plebiean.

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Started reading some interviews by good old Orson Scott Card and this guy seems to think the big appeal of the book is its depiction of leadership and community. But it's the incredibly difficult, almost shocking moral paradox it poses -- that a perfect killer can be perfectly innocent, isn't it? It's not just me, right? Because I'm thinking ... Is he so opinionated that speaking as himself, and not lost in his art, he is not even able to see the philosophical problem he so deftly poses?

>>8331054

I think OSC wrote a great book by mistake, an hypothesis proven by the fact that he has never repeated the feat ever since.

>>8328719
for good reason. They are trash.

>>8331054
Eichman in Jerusalem

>>8330161
His self insert is the incestuous bisexual masochist pederest cuckold, actually.

>>8330747
In the warbreaker audiobook, the grill doing it accidently calls Bluefingers "bloodfingers" once

>>8331147
Bakkerfags have really odd fantasies.

>>8331054
It really doesn't, no character espouses Card's personal beliefs or are "perfectly innocent", he makes this abundantly clear in Ender's Shadow.

>>8331083
Ender's Game isn't even his best work, Songmaster is.

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I have book #35 of the Xanth series. It it okay to start here? Are they stand-alone, or...?

>>8331147
>Akka
>bisexual pederast

His teacher student relationships are a father/son dynamic

Keep your slander to yourself

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>>8330837
*tips*

>>8331184
Sorry, I just assumed the worst considering how absurdly dark everything else is

>>8331176
theyre like discworld, pretty standalone

>>8331272
It was pretty comfy during the first two books right up until Akka goes to the library.

It's not really grimdark for grimdark's sake

>>8331226

>if you like one universally acclaimed old author and don't like two new ones you're a dinosaur

Your retardation knows no bounds, I'm surprised you reached the age of 12 that you display in your posts without having killed yourself by accident.

>>8331351
I am the original dinosaur tho.
My reading of contemporary works is mostly philosophy and rarely fantasy because of the minefield it is right now.

damn, you guys weren't memeing.
Bakker is a god
I would've never imagined, reading about cucking could be so satisfying.
how does he do it ? what's his secret ?

>>8331782

>what's his secret?

There's a large community of cuckold fetishists on the Internet, and also a lot of pretentious failed philosophy majors.

>>8328159
Please stop, more talk like that and you're going to meme me into reading them.

>>8331782
>what's his secret ?
Idiotic fans, shitty philosophy and massive amounts of edge.

>>8332388
Alright, Wolfe and Bakker are probably beyond my reading skills at the moment. Also I don't fancy re-reading several times to catch everything the author buried in the text. Too many other books to read.

Recommend me something easier and less edgy, but not trivial either. Not Sanderson. Not Sword of Truth.

>>8332470
The Buried Giant

>>8332470
If you aren't mentally challenged Wolfe isn't beyond you.
Neither is Bakker because he requires no actual comprehension skills.
But, Amber Chronicle is pretty simple, but well done.

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>It's a cyclical hermaphrodites episode

>>8332480
It isn't going to happen Anon, stop trying already to make it a "thing".

>>8332480
what's in it for ypu?

>>8332572
>moba fags in /sffg/

not even surprised

>>8328159
I don't recall that many spankings. Only the memorable ones later on in the series.

What books have seductive, lewd girls (12-15) in them?

>>8332822
Lolita

>boringly plowing through Knife Of Dreams
>suddenly Moiraine might be alive plus Mat and Thom are going to attempt an interdimensional rescue to bring her back

Fuck yeah, thank you based Jordan

How do you guys want to see Morning Star (of Red Rising trilogy) to be followed up? Who do you want to die first?

Why didn't we kill Lysander? Isn't killing children a part of ancient Roman culture?

Hey familia, I'm a fucking pleb when it comes to fantasy, only read the silmarillion-hobbit-lotr
Which books from the Selected and General images from the first post are similar to Silmarillion or The Hobbit (If Any)?

>>8332961
I hear Shanara is Tolkein-lite

>>8332822
Orphans of Chaos

>>8331782
People seriously overrate the cucking in Bakker's work.

>>8332860
yeah that was actually cool

imagine if the book was full of stuff like that though instead of pointless filler

Halfway through Ancillary Justice, it's pretty cool, feels kinda like a old story from the 70s. Dunno why everybody got so worked up about it.

>>8333362
I thought the first book was great

the second one went full retard though and I couldn't finish it

>>8333362
It's painfully mediocre, it shouldn't have won either award, but neither should have Redshirts.

Isn't it Ancillary Sword people "got so worked up about", not justice, anyway?

Who feels like talking about Snow Crash?

>>8333382
Then I'll temper my expectations accordingly for it.

>>8333390
Dunno, I think it was just because the Radch use feminine pronouns for everybody (less cumbersome than "they" but gets across the concept of "you're either a citizen or you're shit" Roman-style system) and that got fedoras in a flutter?

Redshirts won, I think, partly because the quickest way to a scifi fan's heart is REFERENCE TO THAT SERIES YOU LIKE. Additionally looking at the list for 2013, the only thing that really jumps out is Throne of the Crescent Moon. I mean for christssake they nominated a zombie apocalypse novel.

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>Spiritual sequel to Man in the High Castle
>Seems to be nothing at all like Man in the High Castle
From a scale from 1 to 10, how shit is this?

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Would you guys recommend Bakker to someone who hasn't read a lot of genre fiction outside of Earthsea, HPL, Ligotti and Gormenghast (if that counts)?

A lot of his gooey alien concepts appeal to me, but the philosophizing not so much. I took a peek into one of his books and there seemed to be huge blocks of text devoted to infodumping. Is this common, or are there descriptive passages as well?

>>8333465
Name of anime for your pic?

I think bakker is a pro sjw, I mean his characters (skinspies) have "feminine penises ".

>Mistborn
>Sanderson names the jive talking kid with street smarts, "Spook"
Wew lad

>>8333560
I think Bakker's madeup fantasy universe reflects very little of his personal sexual biases.

>>8333560
>this retarded shit again

skinspies are neither male or female, they take a fucking body and use it.

>>8333465
I've heard it's really bad.

Are Brian Herbert's Dune books worth reading or should I just stop after Frank's books?

>>8333793
stop

>>8333539
The first book is heavy on the infodumping, but that clears up if you can make it through there. It clears up about halfway through the first book, and then you can relax and enjoy the comfy crusade.

>>8333581
>take
I only read book 1-3, from what I understand they look like you(transform) and keep the penis, am I wrong? Is this explained more in the other books? I just wanted to complete the trilogy. The "you will kneel" after cucking and betraying just put me off bakker.

I know the most dangerous of fags likes his dick. I also thought that they turned into whatever sex, but if i recall the mother having a dick, and that trap "prize" had a dick reveal later.

Who is right? Are they trannies that like to fuck and be fucked, or are they genderless? Who do I believe?

>>8333808
They're genetically modified monstrosities whose only purpose is to act as spies, basically upgraded Sranc. "Tranny" has nothing to do with it. Hell they dont even have souls.

And you're right they don't take the bodies, but they do kill the person they're attempting to impersonate once they've perfected the mimic.

>>8333808
They literally cut off your face and wear it as a mask.

They are empty souless beings driven only by desire for pleasure. The most base of urges and make a mockery of actual life. They cant hide the dick when they are aroused ( raping, fucking and killing)

>>8333824
>They literally cut off your face and wear it as a mask.

read Aspect Emperor

>>8333831
Wasnt that why they did it to Akka's contact in book one? Or was it to hide who the body was an I'm an idiot

>>8333833
To hide the body I'm assuming. In Aspect-Emperor they get into detail how skin spies work.

>>8333835
Yea, theres an autopsy scene in Judging eye. I need to reread it.

>>8333804
Maybe I'll give the books another shot. I remember reading the first one years ago and being completely bored with the first 100 pages or so. Maybe it's better with the right mindset.

>>8333871
I had the opposite experience. I thought the prologue was awesome, then Achamian's section began and I was falling asleep.

I've read City of Blades. And while the ending was fine, I was hoping the novel would focus on the spy heroine's past.

May I have a fantasy novel with espionage as a theme?

I need to stop overthinking about something unrelated to books at all.

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>>8333570
Spook balls hard.

>>8332961
Try The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe

Finished Battlefield Earth the other day. It was ttgl the sci-fi book, or rather ttgl is Battlefield Earth the anime. What a fucking ride.
[spoilers]remove brigantes, Scots are true bros

>>8331054
Just tried to read Ender in Exile and it was the literary equivalent of eating cardboard.

>>8330263
>>8330371
Gilgamesh was about gods people believed it at the time. mythology and fantasy are not the same things.
I don't know about the iliad though, I'll check it out.
thanks.

>>8334180
>i don't know about the iliad

>>8334180
>Gilgamesh was about gods people believed it at the time. mythology and fantasy are not the same things.
So is the Iliad. If Gilgamesh isn't fantasy then neither is the Iliad. Gilgamesh has two warriors going into a forest and killing a giant by summoning a god's magic. It's fantasy,

>Earth Abides

I'm 50 pages in and nothing is happening. From what the main character is thinking, I'd say nothing will happen and he will be a silent watcher, a witness, to the end/rebirth of human civilization.

Should I drop it now, if I'm not interested in that sort of plot?

Can anyone recommend me a good fantasy picaresque story/book

>>8334266

>Fantasy picaresque

Dancing with Bears and Chasing the Phoenix, both by Swanwick. The latter came out this year. Very good.

>>8334266
The Lies of Locke Lamora.

>>8334266

Cugel the Clever

fuck you dinoposter, I know you're gonna reply, kill yourself.

>>8334266
Fictions by Borges
Napoleon of Notting Hill
Dying Earth

>>8327022
That's bullshit, asshole.

>>8334268
>>8334270
>>8334281
>>8334282
thanks lads

>>8326594
>>8327760
Fucking hated Aes Sadei.
Felt like a SJW wankfest
Acting superior then everyone else on earth. Had difficulty getting through the books because of how fucking angry the Aes Sedai made me
Absolutely loved everyone else though

Does Herbert's Dune contain any pro anything bullshit?

>>8334521
>Felt like a SJW wankfest
He was showing how shit it would be if women ruled the world. Nothing got done until Rand came along.

>>8333876
He needs to set it up. The second apocalypse is happening ( it's in the title, after all) you can't just rush into it.

Alo, Cnaiur, Comphas and Angry akkamian are the coolest characters in the first trilogy

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>>8334330
It's an old chart, and the anon specifically wanted urban fantasy junk food.

Here's the lastest rendition.

>>8333824
So.... does the most dangerous of fags keep his trap prize?... Seeing that it's bakker we are talking about, did anyone try to cuck him and got raped for their troubles?

Anymore incest like "how can an old whore look so virginal... mother you know you are the only one I can trust, i need you"????

It's like I have Stockholm syndrome and I'm fiending for another dose of bakker, because you fags are memeing so much.

>>8334846
You don't know what happens to Cnaiur until TGO

And no more incest unless you think people who aren't related actually are. Basically only the appearance of incest.

>>8326566
>What's the name of the obligatory space despot of your hard SF novel you're working on?
NEUROMAX. It's building a new heaven.

>>8335118
Wait, scratch that, didn't notice the "hard" in "hard SF".

>>8335125
I think it was cosmerefag that made the thread. He has a hardon for any hard scifi books.

>>8335141
Actually it was me, Ring of Light anon.
I also do have a hardon for hard SF with space autocrats.

>try to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
>style is too quaint and posh

>try to read Wizard of Earthsea
>too much narration and main character barely talks

>try to read Garden of the Moon
>too many characters and jumping around

help

>>8335570
I think
>Name of the Wind

Is more your taste

>>8335598
>mary sue harry potter that uses storytelling to avoid the YA label

I finished both and am waiting for the third to come out actually.

>>8334618
Thought the same.

Good stuff

Is Wizard of Earthsea supposed to be good?

>>8335650
Nah, just shilled to hell by feminists.

>>8335650
Yes, but it's also shilled to death by shitty anarchists.

>read the magicians
>"shy" nerdy love interest cucks the main character

why

Is Bakker the Tolkien of our generation?

Does any one know if ardents can be darkeyes in the Stormligh Archive?

>>8335736
No, thankfully. He's much better.

>>8335650
Yes. It's quite good. Nice, allusive prose with a mythical feel to it, simple, but defined characters, fast pace, well designed setting.
>>8335652
Not at all. It's a work almost entirely devoid of ideology. Even her actually feminist/anarchist works are not as preachy as to make it take away from the quality. And this is coming from a Aquinas dick sucking Catholic.
>>8335736
He isn't influential and the shills even claim he's having a hard time getting published further, his work is a linguistic shithole where retarded made up words go to dwell, his imagination is limited, he offers little to no depth of thought, his philosophy is shallow, his character are awful.
I would say no. Our generation doesn't have a Tolkien, as far as I know.

>>8335839
>Catholic
Opinion discarded.

>>8335839
>It's a work almost entirely devoid of ideology
WHAT.

You can say it's not preachy, but like any piece of literature, it is not devoid of ideology.

>>8335857
I detected none whatsoever, unless by ideology you mean any sort of political opinions.

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Did I like it?

>>8335888
You are really bad at reading.

I honestly don't think it's possible to write a work that isn't filled with ideology, unless you're mindlessly following a successful author/genre.
>>8336025
No.

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What's the general opinion on Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever over here? I hate how everyone in there is an unlikable hippy, the protagonist is a whiny jerk and the villain is cartoonish. But ti has good world building.

>>8336025
I liked it, but it was kind of a mess at the end just like Elantris. Also I thought Lightsong was really annoying.
I finished the first Mistborn earlier today and its my favorite Sanderson book of the three books of his I've read so far.

>Fantasy by black authors
>They don't have high fantasy race riots
Wasted potential.

>>8335839
How are Bakkers made up words different from Tolkien's made up words?

>>8336131
Politics is without a doubt the worst purpose for a book.

>>8336140
Terry "LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT AYN RAND" Goodkind.

>>8335650
Yes.

>>8335652
>>8335661
The 'shilled' metaphysics of the Earthsea Trilogy is a sort of wu-wei subtle quietism sort of thing, and the characters for the most part believe in the right of kings, the ideal of which again seems to be some sort of quasi-Taoist ruler who doesn't need to do anything at all if things are going well. The Tombs of Atuan has some allusions to female liberation and veiled commentary about the way women are given limited power through being associated with darkness and mystery. The POV character of the Farthest Shore has an affection for an older man that could be read as slightly more than platonic.

If you continue on to Tehanu though, all bets are off, you've been warned.

>>8335669
Your fault for reading pleblit.

>>8336131
>No antinatalistic high fantasy
>No anarchocapitalist high fantasy
>No techocratic high fantasy
>No simulated reality high fantasy

>>8336028
>You are really bad at reading.
I beg to differ
>I honestly don't think it's possible to write a work that isn't filled with ideology
There is no work without a worldview, which is different from an ideology

Note that I have only read the first novel.
>>8336133
They don't speak to us in a meaningful way.

>>8336254
>they don't speak to us
>us

Wow what an unbiased and objective statement

>>8336052
I'm reading it now. It's more conservative than I thought it would be, and a lot of it preserves aspects of Tolkien I'm not crazy about, with a less believable world. I'm not sure if part of it is supposed to play into the reader's doubts about whether the Land is real, by making it seem like a deliberate caricature of a high fantasy world that is 'straight out of a fantasy novel' and so lacks the flesh of the real world, since unlike in LotR we're not asked to suspend our disbelief since Thomas is aware of his previous life and consciously notes that the world he left behind is more complex and 'real.' In a way the ploy if intentional -- deliberately asking the reader to join in the disbelief of the very fantasy they're reading, or to show how the simplicity of the fantasy worlds we read about actually fail to suspend that disbelief in their simplicity -- seems weirdly postmodern, and the fact that Thomas himself is a writer is telling and typical of this sort of metafictional move. Even so, though, large portions of the book tone back this element a lot and really just seem to be 'we're walking some more' portions of LotR. It's an oddly solipsistic story, which mirrors Covenant's own solipsism -- his relation to himself is more interesting than the Land's relation to him, or the characters' relation to each other. I just think it would be more interesting if the 'postmodern' elements took more center stage and less time was spent on describing the raising and lowering elevation of the landscape.

>>8336258
Glad we agree.

>>8326851
Heinlein usually pulled it off exceptionally well.

>>8336025
is that a final fantasy tie-in?

>>8336052
Dropped after the unnecessary rape scene

>>8336322
What made it unnecessary?

>>8336326
Really??

>>8336349
Yes??

>>8335613
Red Rising
Enjoy your GRI

>>8336322
cuck

>>8336353
It's near impossible for anyone female to want to continue reading about a rapist protagonist just like how I imagine "castrating feminazi" would not be pleasant for you to read

>>8336390
cuck

>>8336390
kill yourself,cuck.

>>8336388
>>8336398
>>8336405
samefag

>>8334184
Yeah lel anyone who's graduated middle school should at least be familiar with the name The Iliad.

Is there any book around in which the protagonist is out to kill gods? I've recently played Apotheon and it was so fucking enjoyable, I really need something remotely like it in literary form.

>>8328809
Latro?

>>8336425

Corum, by moorcock.

>>8328910
http://semiprozine.org/semiprozine-directory/
This should probably go in the OP desu.

>>8334175
Don't read anything he wrote after Children of the Mind, and even that's for hardcore fans.

>>8332822
Witches of Karres

>>8336425
The Powder Mage series has a character who shoots god in the face with a rifle after the not-French revolution where the nobility that ruled with actual divine right got put to the guillotine.

The Instrumentalities of the Night series eventually involves the main characters going to a Asgard-style domain and killing most of the pantheon (IIRC most of them had gone insane as their religion died out and they ran out of worship to sustain them) as part of a war against demons.

>>8332909
>Isn't killing children a part of ancient Roman culture?
Thus the baby-stomping in Golden Son.

But honestly I don't want to see anyone in particular die, I want Quicksilver to fund an interstellar voyage to the colonies the Iron Golds secretly set up before they went full LARPer.

>>8333457
>Dunno, I think it was just because the Radch use feminine pronouns for everybody
David Gerrold did that literally decades ago.

>>8334134
I liked it too.

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>>8336425
Second Dragonlance trilogy (the only one that isn't total shit) is all about Raistlin trying to kill the goddess of evil and take her place

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>>8336131
Gotchu pham. Not by a black author but Saunders is too chill for race riots and Jemisin is too high on Hillary fumes to write right now.

>>8336521
I'll have a look

>>8336539
that powder mage series sounds a bit silly

isn't Lord of Light about killing gods?

>>8336560
>isn't Lord of Light about killing gods?
Yes and no.

>>8336553
never liked dragonlance so I'll pass
I've got nearly 300 forgotten realms books though

>>8336547
Yeah but back then they didn't have a bunch of retards trying to weaponize nerd culture and going "Starship Troopers is SJW propaganda because the main character isn't white!"

>>8336567
well I know it's about people who are so scientifically advanced they are practically immortal gods and pretend to be the indian pantheon and terrorize a planet with it or something. near enough, so I'll just order it now.

>>8336576
There's a scene where this assassin who has achieved true Buddha-nature acts out the first chapter of the Katha Upanishad with Yama. It's a massive trip, you won't regret it.

It's really fast-paced compared with modern fantasy, though, so you'll probably be done before you know it.

>>8336573
>because the main character isn't white

Oh yeah, he's from Argentina, isn't he?

>>8336573
Nobody says that because the debate's still about whether it's fascist propaganda.

>>8336584
okay, thanks

>society grown from a comet mining ship ruled by two women for forty years and the only ones challenging their authority are each other
>only one character is shown to be thriving under adversity and he's a joke
>nobody ever sees the whole thing as a grand adventure they're fortunate to be on
The women in Seveneves had more balls than the men in Pushing Ice. And that wasn't even a manly story.

>>8336585
Filipino, his mother was on vacation in Buenos Aires when the bugs nuked it.

>>8326566
Need fantasy book with alot of rape and other acts of women humiliating.

>>8336611
Bakker

>>8336611
Gor.

>>8336262
>--
It's Alt0151, faggot. —

I wouldn't say caricature, it's more like someone making fun of fantasy cliches by making everyone a raging faggot who faints at the thought of a tree being chopped down. And yet, the unholy amounts of cringe and the protagonist being a tool who overblows every fucking thing makes you think that this shit is dead serious. Yet it reads like something written by a guy who read fantasy, didn't get any of the core concepts of the genre and then tried to write something that looks similar failing horribly. Yet at the same time, it's quite original in it's faggotry, bad in a very unique way. If I had to describe it, imagine if everyone from LotR had a mood disorder AND were on their period all of the time. The world he created is quite good, too bad it's populated by moody faggots.

>>8336322
>>8336390
It was jarring, I was expecting your usual Tolkien rip-off fluff, and then bam — rape. But it's not just there for shock value. The guy is a leper, hated and avoided in his town. He has no feelings in his extremities, his wife left him when he got sick, he doesn't even have companionship, hadn't had sex in forever. Suddenly, he is cured and alone on a beach with a beautiful girl who adores him. All this he assumes is a dream/hallucination, so he goes for it. This is something that haunts him physically and mentally throughout all of the series. The victim forgives him, but he doesn't forgive himself. The repercussions also snowball in later books.

But from the reader's perspective, I agree that it was jarring bullshit that doesn't have anything similar to it in the rest of the series and I wish it was replaced with some other catalyst. Due to human nature, we tend to empathize with mass murderers more than with rapists. And Covenant is an unlikable douche without being a rapist to boot. He is however not an evil person.

>>8336795
That's what it felt like when I read about it, a concept that sounds really good but isn't pleasant to read. One critic said it was reverse Christ, with Covenant being the only fallen man in an unfallen world, or something like that. He still hated it.

>>8336795
>And yet, the unholy amounts of cringe and the protagonist being a tool who overblows every fucking thing

I disagree. It goes to the whole suspension of disbelief thing. In a pure high fantasy where our world doesn't exist, we just expect al the characters not to behave like human beings and take everything that happens to them in the fantasy world for granted. Thomas' reactions to being swept up into this sort of world are perfectly understandable, minus the rape. I wonder how people think they would behave if something like that actually happened to them? Again, this is the point of the story -- DON'T suspend your disbelief as fantasy usually requires of you.

>>8336832
Humans are actually terrific at adapting to sudden life changes, in general. Sure, sometimes we can't handle them at all, but a lot of people flourish.

>>8336832
Pushing Ice was like this, everyone was professional and resigned about being thrust into a far-future alien construct, and when advanced aliens told them they shouldn't explore because they Just Weren't Ready they didn't.

It wasn't a good story.

>>8336832
He supposedly doesn't even believe that it's real 100%, but he literally gets tumblr triggered by all sorts of shit that shouldn't even make sense to him and behaves similarly to the denizens of this world by getting the vapors every time some vague concept of purity gets defiled.

You either have a protagonist from the real world who acts as an anchor and reacts as a real world person would, or you have him be a magical fairy dust sniffing elf who faints when an orc pisses in a sacred river. Because if you try to mix the two, you get confusing, uncannily "off" crap like the Covenant series.

>>8335839
>Our generation doesn't have a Tolkien, as far as I know.
>who is Sanderson

>>8336254
>They don't speak to us in a meaningful way.
What does this even mean. DESU names are names.

>>8336418
>everyone is an Americlap
Kys burger

>>8336980
>he doesn't feel the gentle yet icy call of the Anglo-Saxon language

>>8336990
The Iliad is an American masterpiece and Mark Twain's second-best book you colossal faggot.

>>8337001
I feel it in Tolkein's language well enough, but I dont really have an issue with Bakker's names. Some of them sound quite nice when sounded aloud, like Ikurei Conphas.

>>8336606
Are you thr hard sf anon that I recommended that book to a few threads ago?

>>8337012
Nah, some anon asked for something like Blame a couple of weeks ago. The anon that said Pushing Ice acknowledged that the resemblance was superficial.

I liked the aliens, I loved the hard SF elements, the moment they realize Janus didn't slow down for them is always going to be one of my favorite SF reveals. But the characters just didn't ring true, even after I got over miners in the 2060s having 2000-era corporate customs. And the company man that went catatonic when his company abandoned him almost made me drop the book. He's introduced by Bella talking about how he's more than what he seems, then he turns into a stereotype.

I don't regret reading it, in all it was like Rendezvous with Rama but not boring. It was not without sin, though.

I oughta be beatified at least for forgiving it when it ignored the alien battle for the rescue mission for Svetlana's kid. That was hard to swallow.

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>>8336975
I know I'm an hour late, but gullible people might actually take your post seriously, and I'm here to prevent that.

>>8337119
What's your problem? Our generation's nowhere near as articulate as Tolkien's was. Good writing is a sign of atavism.

What should I read now, the Black Company or First Law?

>>8337148
Black Company

>>8337148
First Law. It's redefining fantasy

>>8337119
Tolkien is known for his world building, people imitate him a lot

Sanderson is known for his world building ... people are starting to imitate him en mass.

Romance novels are my vice. Can you recommend any good fantasy novels where this is a central element and done well?

>>8337495
Sugar Dark.

What kind of romance? The sticking-together-through-thick-and-thin romance? When they quietly discover they love each other after all, or when they passionately click for no reason when they first lay eyes on each other?

I'm a much bigger fan of the first kind, which is why the romance in, say, Hyperion didn't interest me at all, and why the romantic elements in Patricia C. Wrede's books still bring a smile to my face.

>>8337508
My experience with romance is mainly in the western novels I read

Im more towards the former of your options. I like to see love develop from the ground up and progress gradually through ups and downs.

>tfw getting older everyday
>tfw bones slowly fossilizing with time
>tfw young tender meat don't do it as much for me anymore
>tfw slowly becoming my worst enemy
Just distill my ass desu

>>8337495
http://www.immortals-series.com
Try not to fap too much... like I did...

>>8337538
My experience with romance is in anime. But like I said, a lot of sweet tender stuff in Patricia C. Wrede, probably a lot in YA for girls really.

Recommendations for romance novels?

>>8337583
>masturbation
>romance
Get your vulgar fantasies out of here.

>>8337587
Danielle Steele writes romance, I can still fap to it.

>>8337495
I thought the romance in the first mistborn book was cute

>>8337583
>>8337584

Thanks anon ill give it a look

I dont have any works as of yet I would recommend given how they tend to fall into that second category you mention. Ive only recently gotten honest enough with myself to admit its the romance in the pulpy novels I read rather than the setting itself, am checking out a book recommend by someone and if its good ill report back on it though

>>8337637
That is really sweet. You'll make a good husband someday.

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Are there any sad dystopias?
Or any really sad /sffg/ in general? I wish to be depressed.

>>8337658
Funny you should mention that, but romance is what got me out of misogyny and into interacting with women as equals

>>8337676

Dystopias are sad by definition nigger, I hate how the term has been so deformed people don't even remember what it fucking means.

>>8337695
just hit me with the depressing lit, senpai

>>8336975
A person who can't write for shit?
He's our generations R. A. Salvatore.
>>8337472
Tolkien is known for many other things.

>>8335839
how was the prose allusive?

>>8337683
It really, really helps to understand those sorts of things from lots of viewpoints. You're doing fine.

>>8337676
Are there any happy dystopias? Let's get names of emotionally extreme SFF, give that anon his sad books and send me on a Yokohama shopping trip.

>>8337700
But to answer your question, Thomas A. Day's A Grey Moon Over China, and everything by Paolo Bacigalupi that isn't Ship Breaker.

>>8332961
Dragonlance, The Fionavar Tapestry

>>8337749
It used few words effectively to create an atmosphere. It was intentionally vagueish, or rather reminiscent of myths.

>>8336052
Bane?

new thread >>8338132
>>8338132
>>8338132
>>8338132