/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

Just let it die.

>Sanderson is published and you aren't

>>8547111

You don't write 10,000 pages a year. Work harder, faggot.

P.S. I dislike his books too, but it's obvious why he's successful.

>>8547139
I wrote 10 000 pages of shitposting on /sffg/

>>8547139
I've written two enormously long fanfics, each one in the span of a single year. Are you saying that if I take that fanfic-quality writing and just write original fiction, I can be the next Brandon Sanderson?

>>8547155

The next Brandon Sanderson will be chosen when GRRM dies with his series unfinished and his publisher chooses someone to finish it.

>>8547139
Sanderson lucked out with Elantris and his popularity exploded when he was chosen to finish out WoT.

>>8547139
>Write 10k pages a year
>Writing is still fanfiction tier

I admire his resolve for writing though. I wish I had it.

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>I haven't found a new book to read in like 3 months
>Almost everything either looks cringey or is just plain boring

Should I end it /sffg/?

I'm about halfway through reading Roadside Picnic. Are the other books by the Strugatsky brothers also worth reading? The only work of theirs I ever see mentioned either here or any other literature websites is Roadside Picnic.

>>8547111
I enjoy Sanderson as basically a modern Pulp Novel writer. Sure his work isn't 100% amazing, but they are fun short reads, his Dialogue is getting leaps and fucking BOUNDS better with every book.

>>8547034
Why didn't you link to the other thread cunt?
>>8536090
>>8536090

>>8547298
I was trying to get rid of you.

>>8547202
You're trying too hard. I've felt that kind of thing before. Usually what ends up breaking it is a sudden whim to read a particular book. "I can;t decide on anything, but I could try this on for size" and it just goes from there.

>>8546650
>Should I read Count to a Trillion?

Did you read all three Golden Age books?

Anybody noticed how strangely similar the name Rick Deckard is to René Descartes?

>>8547330
No duh, it was the first thing I noticed.

>>8547316
I've been saying that for almost a year but my luck finally ran dry. I've spent the entire time re-reading the dresden files, and if I don't find anything new I'm probably re-reading the orphan's tales next

>>8547354
Re-reading is fine. Backtracking can be helpful to any thought process, including the intellectual project of being a reader.

You went where you did, and didn't know where to go, and now you are going back to see where you've been and where to go next. Makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

When I get like that I often take a break for another form of media (watch a TV series, read a comic book, or something) and then when I feel an urge to read again, I dive into as many suggestions as I can find and just start reading whatever catches even the slightest bit of interest first. Getting ebooks on the internet really helps with that.

>>8547185
What kind of ridiculous bullshit is this. Its easy to write all the time if it isn't fucking good.

>>8547457
You
Me
the sea~

>>8547457
> Its easy to write all the time if it isn't fucking good.

then why is it hard for me

>>8547239
Hard to be a God is fantastic

i just finished 'the stars my destination' and wtf happened at the end? i was really enjoying it until the last 40 pages.

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>>8547034
What's the best China Mieville book to start with?

>>8547813
A good writer

>>8547813
Probably that one, or New Paris (haven't got to it yet myself, but anons seemed pretty positive and it's short).

>>8547512
You have standards?

>>8547512
Could be two things, you are apprehensive to actually try and publish bullshit, and though you say you want to, you don't really or it could be that you are possibly insecure like me and don't finish anything. Anyway good luck.

>>8547536
Sounds good, thanks. According to the synopsis, though, it's part of a shared universe with most of the other Strugatsky books. I won't have to read the rest of them, right? It's a standalone novel that just happens to share a universe with the other books?

>>8547630
He went "some men just want to see the world burn" with the PyrE, then with his super jaunting powers travels the stars looking for interesting shit and also chilling with the cargo cult from time to time.

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Forging Zero

I read two of the books a couple of years ago and enjoyed them. However, I was much younger back then and my tastes have changed. Has anyone recently read them and can comment on whether or not I'd enjoy them if I hate YA books.

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>>8547202
Look at this fucking pleb lads.
He probably only reads autistic fantasy.

Books that make you excited about the future?

The Culture series by Ian M Banks.

Culture utopia best utopia

How's A Darker Shade of Magic?

>>8547813
That one and Embassytown are my favourites. Just pick whichever one you feel like you'll enjoy more.

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>time for the hate

Hopefully this will be the last time you see this version. I read a few books that I wanted to see if I should put them in, and feel like it's time for an update.

>>8548473
Hopefully you die in a car accident.

Can anyone recommend a scifi book, or series, that tackles the science of life away from Earth?

I'd prefer if it was set on the moon, or Mars, and not in a very distant place. I'd like to read something that tackles the engineering of colonies, the cultivation of agriculture, and even the psychology of living so far away from where you were born.

>>8548493
Already was in one a few years ago(got hit by a car) walked with with a few scratches.

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>/lit/ has gotten to the point where the genre shits are more willing to praise this hack then mock him relentlessly

>>8548543
You're living on borrowed time, boy.

>>8548549
That's because his books are very enjoyable and surprisingly don't feel as pretentious as you'd expect.

I'm going to write a high urban science fantasy superhero epic and it'll be published by 2025.

>>8547813
Perdido Street Station

>>8548549
I want more writers like him. Not personally but style wise.

Not as pretentious and boring as Wolfe, but also not as plain as Sanderson. Good middle ground.

>>8548549
>praise this hack then mock him relentlessly
No, you have it backwards. We mocked him relentlessly, then we praised him.

Why do you keep reading Sanderson if you hate him so much?

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Anyone here read "Random Acts of Senseless Violence" by Jack Womack?

>>8548760
>>8548740
>>8548630
Why did you prove my point for me

>>8548549
Isn't he a far-right loon who constantly preaches in his books? Isn't everything he writes completely florid and purple?

>>8548773
What point, that you have brain damage?

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You could try this. It's mostly set/dwells on people living between Ceres and Saturn, and the way they've adapted their culture and biology to living so far from Earth. However, your mileage may vary depending on your tolerance for certain tropes which pop-up in the last-third and are out of tone with the first four-hundred pages. The sequels are okay too, but with less focus and more 'monster of the week' vibe about them.

>>8548777
Tag >>8548540

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>>8548540

"Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson is the first of a trilogy set on Mars. It's focus is more terraforming than colony outpost though.

>>8548771
Absolutely great, a forgotten gem, very much like a darker Robocop comic, a child of its time (early 80s). I've recommended it to quite a few people and everybody loved it. The Elvissey books are all fun to read, even though they're all way over the top.

>>8548773
I was mostly pointing out that you used 'then' when you should have used 'than.' Oh no, how embarrassing for you.

>>8548777
Thanks, I'll check it out.

>>8548780
>It's focus is more terraforming than colony outpost though.
Also fine with me.

I just want to see how different authors tackle the science of "life abroad" space style.

Military and/or civilian are both welcome and appreciated.

>>8548549

Not me, I will always mock him. My way of remembering when /lit/ had actual taste.

>>8548775

yes and yes.

>>8548792

>military life away from Earth

If you haven't already, read Forever War.

>>8548785
Good to hear! Bought it just yesterday, I'll move it to the top of my to-read pile. The SF Masterworks are pretty great for bringing more obscure books back

>>8548799
Seconded. Forever War is the best military sf book by far

>>8548853

For me it will always be tied with Starship Troopers. They're both so good I can't decide which one I like best.

Alright /sff/, let's try something.

Recommend others a book you want them to read but with one condition: it can't be a book that was mentioned even once in the last dozen threads.

>>8548540
Red rising

>>8548861
Alright...Bring the Jubilee, by Ward Moore. I'm confident that wasn't mentioned

>>8548870

Easily "Finch" by Jeff VanDerMeer. I'm probably the only anon in this thread who has read that and it's a shame because urban fantasy has a reputation for being shit and this book actually does it right.

>>8548882
Meant to reply to >>8548870

>>8548884
I've read it, I just re-read it not a week ago.

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>>8548870
>i want obscure books but no one responds to me with what I want when I ask plainly
>i know, /lit/ are a bunch of idiots who can't read in between the lines
>I'll trick them into suggesting obscure books for me
Might have worked on /v/ (where you are probably from), but not here in sffg.

>>8548884
I'm hearing more and more about Vandermeer lately. Finch, his short story book thing and Southern Reach trilogy. All of their short descriptions sound quite interesting, I think I'll finally check him out.

>>8548902
autism

>>8548889

The feels when Finch has to kill his best friend because he's too far gone with the fungi infestation. That hit me hard.

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I finally got yall fossil fags measure.
You don't want fun books ("kiddie prose" as you call it) you want books that have hidden political, and socioeconomic messages strewn throughout all the pages.

You want books that preach conservatism, and humanity divided. You want books with the faux Christianity prevailing over all other, and enslaving the populace to a new world order.

Fuck all of you.

>>8548874
Shit book fuck off

>>8548916
Doesn't mean it's not true

>>8548932
Fuck off frog poster

>>8548932

I find it funny how you have created this "fossil fag" boogeyman in your head and you keep tilting against this particular windmill

All this because you fail to realize the simple concept that we like good books regardless of their age.

>>8548775
No, he actually doesn't preach much, even if Golden Age has a clear political line.
>>8548932
Large swathes of "fossil" science fiction and fantasy is leftist. The only conservative authors that I know are Wolfe, Chesterton, Lewis, Tolkien. Peake, Dick, Le Guin, Lem and others are left leaning.
But, yes, I want this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism
It was even largely developed by Chesterton, even if Belloc is the superior philosopher.

>>8548870
Try Whose Justice? Which Rationality? by Alasdair MacIntyre.

>>8549010

>Philip K Dick
>left leaning

This guy wrote to the FBI because he though "Stanislaw Lem" was actually not a single person but a group of Sovietic masterminds.

>>8549010
Wolfe is conservative?

How could you not mention Heinlein, the most famous conservative Scifi author

But yes, in general scifi and fantasy is leftist. That's because the majority of artists are leftist, in practically every genre or field. I wonder what that says about conservatives...

>>8549033

Heinlein's political beliefs can hardly be summarized by a simple "he was conservative", it was a lot more nuanced than that.

>>8549031
>reading comprehension

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anyone hyped for worm 2? It should be starting within the next month or two.

tfw a webserial with average writing completely btfos every other take on superheroes out of the fucking water

>>8549033
>Wolfe is conservative?
Oh yes. Book of the New Sun is very political, in a sense where it's clearly inspired by Aquinas' political philosophy, as well as metaphysics. In short, it's catholic.
>How could you not mention Heinlein, the most famous conservative Scifi author
Because he's shit and his conservatism is just militarism which is really, really dumb. Assuming Starship troopers wasn't 100% ironic.
>But yes, in general scifi and fantasy is leftist. That's because the majority of artists are leftist, in practically every genre or field.
As far as quality artists go, I can't say that's the case. In recent years, sure. Historically? Not so much. Even now I'd say it's close.
>I wonder what that says about conservatives...
Nothing, because the amount of quality conservative authors in literature and philosophy and science fiction and fantasy that stand out as giants of the respective field is extremely high. If we stick to sff alone, they dominate it.
>>8549031
And that makes him be any less of a druggie anarchist mystic any less?

>>8549031
Wasn't that when he was really insane?

In any case, I don't really think he had consistent politics.

>>8549039
It's really not. Other than free-love, he embodied and supported most conservative ideas.

>>8549064
>Because he's shit and his conservatism is just militarism which is really, really dumb. Assuming Starship troopers wasn't 100% ironic.
Dumb conservatism is still conservatism. And there wasn't a shred of intended irony in Starship Troopers.
>As far as quality artists go, I can't say that's the case. In recent years, sure. Historically? Not so much. Even now I'd say it's close.
Quality is pretty much irrelevant. Of course I mean recently. Are you going to claim with a straight face that even close to half of musicians are conservative, for example? It isn't close. Same with authors.
>Nothing, because the amount of quality conservative authors in literature and philosophy and science fiction and fantasy that stand out as giants of the respective field is extremely high
Maybe if we exclude the last century, but clearly that's what we're discussing here.

>>8548932
its ok shitchart anon

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Anyone here read this and if so any similar books they would recommend?

>>8549130
>YA
Please leave

>>8549111
>Dumb conservatism is still conservatism. And there wasn't a shred of intended irony in Starship Troopers.
I don't want to include him for the same reason I don't want to include J. K. Rowling. Championing crap for the political opposition just means you want to argue the worst instead of the best.
>Quality is pretty much irrelevant. Of course I mean recently. Are you going to claim with a straight face that even close to half of musicians are conservative, for example? It isn't close. Same with authors.
I don't know about musicians, probably not.
About authors? Plenty are as far as quality goes and I think that's important. Who cares about the YA feminist authors? I don't see why anyone should care about nameless shit authors.
>Maybe if we exclude the last century, but clearly that's what we're discussing here.
Why would we exclude the last century? Last century is full of amazing and plentiful conservative authors, the only way to avoid them is to do so intentionally.

>>8549055
Didn't worm end in a way that completely defies any attempt to do a sequel?

>>8549141
>YA
Forgive me if I'm wrong but the general is fantasy right, or does YA stand for something else, completely new to /lit/

>"It was wonderful," Sarene replied. "However, there is one thing I have looked forward to even more than my wedding."

>Raoden raised an eyebrow.

>She smiled mischievously. "The wedding night."

Fucking dropped. what a slut

you guys told me sanderson's characters were pure

>>8549188
"young adult" books.

>>8549010
Or maybe it's just that a lot of conservative SF/Fantasy authors are able to keep their political views separate from their works.

Regardless, one should hardly be surprised or shocked to find that a genre of writing fantastic tales of the future or magical lands to be populated by authors with progressive viewpoints.

>>8549033
>Heinlein, the most famous conservative Scifi author

I think Heinlein ended up "conservative" by virtue of his views not changing much over time. You start out with the wildly futuristic "lunar society is mixed race and poly" and "the main character isn't white" in the 50s, but by the time he dies this is just "grandpa is being creepy again".

>>8549198
Oh I see, I suppose that's correct, but I'm not a very good reader so It was a nice easy read

>>8549193

>>>/r9k/

>>8549198
people on /lit/ who read YA were just awkward in high school and want to relive their lost childhood and vicariously experience teenage romance

what do you have against that

>>8549206
Read Orphans of Chaos by C. Wright, you'll like it.

>>8549200
>Or maybe it's just that a lot of conservative SF/Fantasy authors are able to keep their political views separate from their works.
I don't know of any person in general who can do that. It's always very clear, but it isn't preaching, because quality authors in general keep it to a minimum.
>Regardless, one should hardly be surprised or shocked to find that a genre of writing fantastic tales of the future or magical lands to be populated by authors with progressive viewpoints.
I don't find it odd or surprising at all. There certainly are more progressive authors, especially now compared to 50 years ago.
It just isn't hard to find something conservative in any art form.

>>8549217
It's shit, that's about it.
There's not much to it.

>>8549157
>About authors? Plenty are as far as quality goes and I think that's important. Who cares about the YA feminist authors? I don't see why anyone should care about nameless shit authors.
Mate, I'm talking total number of authors published, which would undoubtedly be more leftist. And even among quality authors, it would mostly be leftists. Just look at the recommended list here, how many of the books were written by conservatives?

>>8549222
>It just isn't hard to find something conservative in any art form.
Of course, but that doesn't change the fact that most of what that art form produces would be leftist or written by leftists.

>>8548932
>You want books that preach conservatism, and humanity divided. You want books with the faux Christianity prevailing over all other, and enslaving the populace to a new world order.
Whut. I'm probably the primary Mievillefag here, but my other favourites are Golden Age and druid folklore stuff. Stop putting people in autistic categories.

>>8549249
Here?
Chesterton, Bores, Lewis, Tolkien, Wolfe, R. A. Laffery Dunsany, Eddison of the top of my head.
I'm unsure about Vance, Leiber, Howard, Swanwick and a few others.

>Only 1 month until Blood Mirror

:3

>>8549267
I feel like off the top of your head you could have come up with a far longer list of leftist writers

what does it feel like knowing you will die before your favorite series is finished?

>>8549280

Extremely bad

>>8549273
Yeah, as I've admitted before, it's not disputed that more numerically are leftist and some of them were really great.

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is this bad?

It's unfair that all the books I read are 1000+ pages, so when I tell people I read around 15 books a year they scoff at me even though the books they read are around 400 pages.

I propose we compare epeens through word count per year.

>>8549298
Yes, of course.

>>8549267

I'm facebook friends with Swanwick and I think that while fairly patriotic, he's mostly apolitical.

>>8549298
The real question is "is it triple crown worthy"?

About to join my college scifi fantasy society. What's the

>best
>worst
>stupidest
>funniest
>most pretentious
>ridiculous

thing to say?

>>8549303
How about we compare who reads better books instead? Any idiot can eat up a high volume of shit.

What does it matter if an author is conservative or progressive? It doesn't affect the quality of your work.

>good conservative : Wolfe, Tolkien, Vance
>bad conservative : Wright, Lewis, Goodkind
>good progressive : Le Guin, Peake
>bad progressive : Scalzi, Leckie

>>8549329
quantity still makes up for quality

no I'm not being sarcastic

10 game of thrones books > 1 war and peace

>>8549338

You are either baiting or retarded or possibly both.

>>8549333
People still boycott Card's works even though the only catholic values that shows up in his works is in the importance of forgiveness.

>>8549333
It doesn't. But Wright and Lewis aren't great, but are good.

>>8549333
Well I disagree, because the ones you list under good suck.

>>8547903
It stands on its own

>>8549348

pleb

>>8549324
Do a sounding test to see how pretentious they are. Bring up Wolfe and see how people respond. My guess is they can't possibly be more pretentious than /sffg/.

>>8549346
He's actually not even a Christian, let alone a Christian.
>>8549353
This is a festering ground for /v/, /tg/ and reddit after all, you can't expect sense or standards out of them. If it isn't instant gratification that holds your hand, its bad, and if you like it you are 'pretentious'.

>>8549324

>>best
"let's compare recommendations."
>>worst
"you guys are all plebs, you should learn from my refined taste."
>>stupidest
"I think Eragon is really underrated."
>>funniest
"I think Eragon is really underrated."
>>most pretentious
"I really like the works of R. Scott Bakker. You probably haven't heard of him."
>>ridiculous
"I really like the works of R. Scott Bakker. You probably haven't heard of him."

>>8549346
He's Mormon and the Mormon theology is all over the place. All of his heroes are walking abortions who were "given a chance to live" instead of being aborted (e.g. as an "illegal third child"), and go on to fulfill their god-given "special purpose" (a bit of Mormon belief). In the later books he cleverly hides behind Catholicism to make his (comparatively light) point about forgiveness, because he surely knew how ridiculous LDS theology would seem to outsiders.

I actually like his books and don't really have a problem with the proselytizing, beyond the heavy-handedness of the abortion thing. But it's foolish to read something while blinding yourself to its obvious biases. That's how you get cognitive dissonance.

>>8549367
>"I think Eragon is really underrated."
Worst case scenario most of them agree with you, but you'd have to be living in some kind of nightmare dimension for that to happen.

>>8549367
The last two are more something a Wolfe memer would say. At least I've never seen a Bakker fan call others too dumb to understand their books, like Wolfefags do constantly.

>>8549367
>ridiculous
>"I really like the works of R. Scott Bakker. You probably haven't heard of him."
>and so what if I smoke pot

>>8549379
>At least I've never seen a Bakker fan call others too dumb to understand their books

You must be new. I've seen it done constantly here, as soon as someone dares to say they don't like Bakker they retaliate with "pleb" and "you're just too dumb to get it maaan!"

>Sveth and Kaladin fighting

Jesus fuck, was Sanderson marathoning Bleach and DBZ or something?

>>8549379
But it's not something I say.
I always try to write a thing or two up when someone asks actual questions about Wolfe.

>>8549410
he can carry enough spheres on his body to fly across continents

we neo now

>>8549410

You haven't read the Perrin vs Slayer and Lan vs Demandred boss fights? Straight out of Kubo.

Any good SF/F with the internet as a main thematic/plot point?

I read the 4th mistborn book
Do I want to read the fifth one?
Do I like the 2nd era of mistborn?

>>8549419
>Perrin vs Slayer
One of the best fights in the entire series. Despite neither one having magic it looked more like a real magic fight than anything else in the series.

>>8549010
>No, he actually doesn't preach much, even if Golden Age has a clear political line.

PTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

>>8548776
No that John C. Wright is a hack and you have brain damage for being contrarian and enjoying his science fiction schlock you fucking moron. What point do you think I was trying to make

>>8549557
Otherland by Tad Williams. It's the future internet with VR interface, but something like 80% of the story takes place online.

>>8549298
It's good and was unfairly memed. The sequels are middling.

>>8549372
I had a family member who worked for a Mormon-owned and run company for a while. It's very much a "Stepford Wives" religion and culture. Every time there was some scandal with the church or Mormons they'd all get called in to have a one-on-one with the owners about how "this isn't mormonism," "they don't represent us or the church," "this is how it really is," "religion of peace" and so on.

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>>8549636
The whole book is meme schlock, being libertarian only adds to how fun it is.

>>8549324
>best
"Lets each write a harry potter fan fiction but set in a sceince fiction universe... Like enders game !!"

>>8549654
They do seem to be very image-conscious and aware that their beliefs and practices seem very weird to others.

It seems like they are trying to promote a positive image by encouraging Mormon celebrities, athletes, authors, etc. to be "visibly mormon" while also being popular and mainstream so as to drown out the scandals and stereotypes.

I remain skeptical of the LDS church as a group, in so far as they are obviously a powerful and wealthy institution that is working to amass even more influence, but I also find myself believing more and more that Mormons themselves are reasonable, intelligent people. I believe they are the fastest growing religion. It's a bit scary how powerful they could be in a few centuries.

>>8549367
>R. Scott Bakker
That's a funny way to misspell Steven Erikson. If I had a nickel for every time an actual mouth-breather jumped to defend his work starting with the term "in media res", even though that's not even one of the many problems his writing has, I'd be rich enough to personally fund a mission to Mars.

>>8549710
Fastest growing religion is still Christianity, mainly in Africa and China.

>>8549737
Not too long ago it was Islam, but I guess it peaked in the last few years and now the world is growing leery of it. Surprised to know Christianity is spreading through China, might be we'll see the downfall of the Communist Party in China within our lifetimes if that continues.

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>>8549631

I kept thinking of this as they continuosly teleported while uselessly trying to hit each other.

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This is the best PKD book of the five I've read so far, diverse in characters and ideas and yet not incomprehensible, with a domineering plumbing union boss, his do-gooder ex-wife, his mistress, a schizophrenic repair man, black market luxury goods salesmen, mysterious native Martians, the United Nations, and an autistic child whose perception of reality is infectious.

There is a lot in here about mental illness, but it reads mostly like a darkly comic soap opera on Mars.

>>8549773
All the crazy shit they did when they clashed like turning the air into water or constantly conjuring walls and pits and birds and shit was like something out of a Harry Potter fight.

>>8549737
I agree that Mormonism is not really a denomination of christianity (despite calling themselves the "Jesus Christ Church of LDS") any more than say, Islam is (they have their own canon of unique holy books that just happen to include some of the older Judeo-Christian scripture), but what the fuck do you mean by "Christianity"?

Capital-C "Christianity" is not really a religion with a measurable number of adherents, surely. Does it include Catholics? Seventh-day Adventists?

Anyway, I was thinking only of the United States. Now that I think about it again though, I'm not sure if it is actually correct that LDS is the fastest growing religion in the US. It might depend on how you count that.

>>8549783

Also kek at Demandred randomly deciding to take on the best swordsman in the fucking world in a fair sword fight despite having the ability to burn him to a cinder on the spot.

And no the medallion wouldn't have saved Lan, the copy made by Elayne only shielded against weak weaves not Forsaken weaves.

>>8549793
That was so contrived. But everything about Demandred felt contrived. Just pops up out of nowhere because everything he'd been doing was never shown and then he never even gets to fight Rand.

>>8549710
>but I also find myself believing more and more that Mormons themselves are reasonable, intelligent people.

Well like you said, they do a very large amount of work to paper over their problems. "Don't make us look bad for the gentiles god damn it."

>>8549768
Hah. The Chinese way is "keep your head down and don't cause trouble for the government." More like it'll end up being "Christianity with Chinese characteristics," just like how they've moved from communism to a bizarre communism-with-capitalist-economy setup.

The "downfall" of the CPC will be more likely related to corruption and the rise of the Chinese middle class.

>>8549784
In common usage, capital-C Christianity generally tends to refer to the Protestant and other non-Catholic/Orthodox branches.

>>8549805
>Just pops up out of nowhere because everything he'd been doing was never shown

Sanderson shows a little of what he was doing in his "River Of Souls" short story. It's canon too.

>>8549736

Did you wait for a dozen of heatbeats and a long time before submitting that post

So which one should I begin to read right now

Long Sun or Way Of Kings?

>>8550032
WoK is miles better

>>8550032
Do you like pretty sentences or anime fights?

>>8550068
What if you like both?

>>8550068

I uh...what sort of question is that? Anime fights of all things? I like good prose I guess.

>>8550086
Then Sanderson is your way to go.

>>8549181
itll be a different main character but in the same universe. The ending actually was kind of a cliffhanger, but the main characters storyline was resolved.

>>8550086
Sanderson is anime, Wolfe is nice prose. The beatific vision parts were some of the most haunting he even put to paper.
>>8550083
The closest thing is John C Wright. He's schlock, but his prose isn't bad.

>>8550086
Sanderson always describes his fight scenes like they are from a video game or shonen anime.

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>>8547034
Would you read a book set in a world where all conflict is forcibly resolved on a turn-based basis?

>>8547294
Does Sanderson even write short novels? They're all huge.

>>8550289
emperor's soul is like 150 pages

>>8550258
go read the Player of Games

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>>8550289
>The Emperor's Soul
>Sixth of the Dusk
>Mistborn: Secret History
>Edgedancer
>Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
>Legion
Maybe more, idk.

Is there a fantasy series about warm air, friendships, and green grass?

>>8550428
Teatro Grotesco

>>8550428
The Ass Goblins of Auschwitz by Cameron Pierce

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>>8548540
Aurora

>>8550258
Only if it comes with a soundtrack by Murray Head.

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>Well first off, you should know that I don't write fantasy - only hacks write fantasy. My books are about the triumph of the human spirit which just happen to have everything you would find in The Wheel of Time.

>>8550557
>the quote is real
wow

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>>8550557
>http://www.sffworld.com/2005/12/scifiint_164/
>Well first off, you should know that I don't write fantasy - only hacks write fantasy. My books are about the triumph of the human spirit which just happen to have everything you would find in The Wheel of Time.
Fucking hell.

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>>8550557
He looks like he hasn't showered in weeks

>>8550557
>>8550944
I didn't believe Bakker actually posted on /lit/ before, but now I do.

>>8550299
Not really what I'm leveling the narrative toward. This is a world where characters are cognizant of the turn system / their own hit points, and it actually seems to open up a lot of interesting narrative points.

Armies being moved like chess pieces across the battlefield. People who have to wait with dread and hope that their "turn" actually comes around, forced to resist natural fight-or-flight responses to approaching threats.

>>8550961
...
You mean like Erfworld?

>>8550557
>>8550580
>>8550944
I'm pretty sure that was a joke.

Didn't see a general for this type of question so this seemed next best. Trying to remember a fantasy series I read as a kid. There were at least three books but I want to say it was five.

The first book had three siblings as the main protagonists, with their grandfather as a sage-like figure. Climax of the book occurs with them exploring some oceanside cavern in a cliff or something. Second book the protagonist is Will, who learns that he has magical powers. The kids' grandfather sort of mentors him. Things he can do include controlling fires (including extinguishing), and suddenly and inexplicably knowing all of the constellations by sight. In later books Will and the kids from the first one meet up and do some stuff together.

Obviously I'm fuzzy on details since it's been so long, but anyone familiar should pick it up from that I think. I'm sure it's pretty YA but not being able to remember these titles or the author has been bugging me for years.

>>8551377
The Dark is Rising
Susan Cooper

>>8551472
Pro. Thanks for that.

I really want to read something cyberpunk. Any suggestions?

Best 80's cyberpunk novels that weren't written by William Gibson?

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>>8551525
Just look at the news xD xD xD

>Neuromancer of course.
>John Brunner
>Charles Stross but he's shit
>Greg Egan, novels or short stories, he uses all the cyberpunk tropes.

>>8551538
https://www.goodreads.com/series/91183-shadowrun-novels

Some of them are actually good.

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I have a reccomendation for you.

Stowaway to Mars by John Wyndham.

Super comfy stuff. Also extremely sexist which is both disgusting and amusing.

I went to goodreads now and it's all one and two star reviews. Fuck them, great book, read it.

I read Asimov's Robot trilogy, are the Empire and Foundation books also worth a read?

>>8547034
sauce on that pic?

>>8549329
If he's reading fantasy novels that are 1000+ pages then it's unlikely he can claim quality as an argument.

>>8551807
My point still stands.

>>8551769
yes

>>8550428
Adventure Time?

>>8551097
Yes, it's very obvious.

>>8551807
No man, he devoted his year to reading the great philosophical masterpieces, he has read 5 volumes of the Summa, City of God, Leviathan, Democracy in America, the complete Plato and Aristotle etc.

>>8551826
Nobody gives a fuck.

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>>8549271
I can't wait to see Part 4 of Gavin Guile's fucked up life.

>>8551980

I can't wait to see him draft black and white

>>8551991
Since one of the books was called the Black Prism I hope he doesn't just get stuck with black at the end of book 4.

>>8551995

The ARC anon confirmed someone was gonna draft both I forgot if it was gavin or the kid

>>8551998
I know, ARC anon has gotten me hyped.

>>8552000

Why did he have to be such a tease :S

>>8551769
absolutely.

>>8552034
I hope that anon wasn't rusing.
Anyway even so the black and white was the cliffhanger anyway and two chapters are apparently out so the chances of Weeks not putting out the book like Lynch is slim to none.

>>8552043
>two chapters are apparently out

Huh???

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>>8552056

>>8552056
Here we are
http://pastebin.com/TmAxMeNC

>>8552061
>>8552059

>That chapter 2 ending

Woah

I started reading The Whipping Star not so long ago, and the setting was near incomprehensible at the beginning.
Is there any other scifi that will confuse you by how fucking weird it is?

>>8552295
The Quantum Thief

Hey guys. I have a few ideas for stories and I want to know if they sound at all appealing to you and if so which sounds most promising.

1. Beauty and the Beast meets Isaac Asimov where a human girl ostensibly falls in love with a homicidal Android but in actuality it's a reversal and she's going to kill the Android.
Themes for it are Human Nature, Romanticism contrasting with reality and the hobbesian state of nature.

2. Epic 3 book story of the fall of western civilization except that it's an alternate history timeline where the Roman Empire survived until the advent of modern technology which in this timeline happened in the middle 1600s. The main story takes place in 1798 with the main character of each book being based on an actual historical character. 1 Frederick the great 2 Robespierre and 3 Napoleon. It follows a Charles the first-esque regicide into a revolutionary state and ends with Napoleon trying to regain the glory of the former state but failing against Serecen aggression.

3 another epic where the main character is a naval admiral in a space Empire that acts as a colonizer and strategist in their war to dominate the explored parts of their galaxy. The fist part will focus on the act of colonisation and the brutality entailed. The main character has no qualms about committing genocide to settle a new planet. At some point they encounter an alien race from an unknown part of the galaxy that appears to be much older than the humans and has a moral structure based on Zoroastrian chaos Vs order mythology. Core to this is notions about individualism and the effects of colonialism. This is the least developed of the three.

Let me know which I should actively work on.

>>8552364
all sound gay

>>8552368
Well thanks.

I'll go suck some robot cocks, I guess.

>>8552364
Would read 2. Not sure about 1 and 3.

>>8552364
3 sounds interesting.

>>8552364
agree with the other anon that 2 sounds the best

>>8552364
All three sound both generic and awful. I would work on something else if I were you.
If you must, the third is the least bad.

>>8552364
>Beauty and the Beast meets Isaac Asimov where a human girl ostensibly falls in love with a homicidal Android but in actuality it's a reversal and she's going to kill the Android.
Themes for it are Human Nature, Romanticism contrasting with reality and the hobbesian state of nature.
Short story at best.

>.Epic 3 book story of the fall of western civilization except that it's an alternate history timeline where the Roman Empire survived until the advent of modern technology which in this timeline happened in the middle 1600s. The main story takes place in 1798 with the main character of each book being based on an actual historical character. 1 Frederick the great 2 Robespierre and 3 Napoleon. It follows a Charles the first-esque regicide into a revolutionary state and ends with Napoleon trying to regain the glory of the former state but failing against Serecen aggression.
This is rather ahistorical, even in ways you don't intend. If you do write this study long and hard before penning the first sentence.

>another epic where the main character is a naval admiral in a space Empire that acts as a colonizer and strategist in their war to dominate the explored parts of their galaxy. The fist part will focus on the act of colonisation and the brutality entailed. The main character has no qualms about committing genocide to settle a new planet. At some point they encounter an alien race from an unknown part of the galaxy that appears to be much older than the humans and has a moral structure based on Zoroastrian chaos Vs order mythology. Core to this is notions about individualism and the effects of colonialism. This is the least developed of the three.
This sounds interesting, and has the most relevance to our post-colonial world. Try not to hit the mark in too black-and-white a fashion.

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I'm really enjoying Marko Kloos' Frontlines series. Anyone know anything similar in style, perspective, and tone?

>>8552490
I wrote the first sequencence of the second already.

It starts in a small village on the South Americn shore as a boy who lives in the village escapes his duties for the day to visit his favorite spot, an alcove a little ways from the village. As he sits and stares at the water he hears talking of other people from his village and hides from them, peering over a palm frond and noticing that more people are joining them in staring and pointing toward the sea.

He looks out and sees on the horizon the silhouette of a great sail-less ship in the distance through the morning fog. Still hidden, he stands to get a better look at the apparition when he notices three smaller ships approaching. The sound of waves is overtaken by the drone of diesel as the ships, traveling in formation, approach the alcove. The boy, moves to join the group of villagers now crowding the beach as the three landing craft reach the beach head.

Marines exit the ships to form a perimeter, watching the crowd closely with bullpups drawn. One beats on the front gate of the middle landing craft twice to signal all clear and it falls to create a ramp. The other two follow suit and three vehicles, two matte brown military trucks and between them a spotless black luxury SUV exit the crafts and form a motorcade.

The scene then follows the motorcade as it drives past the village toward the regional governor's house at which there is a scene that greatly resembles the Melian dialogue.

That's the first chapter.

>>8552621
So the boy is the main character?

>>8552637
No, the boy disappears into the crowd and isn't heard from again. His fate is the same as the rest of the village. His father is killed just like all adult men in the village and he, the rest of the children and the women are used as slave labor in the construction of a military base and canal.

When I come to sffg, the most important thing in life is getting some fantasy , a modern read.

Fantasy, getting some fantasy , is more important than sci-fi , is more important than horror .

When I see a book I like I tell sffg like this, I like it, and I will recommend it.

Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The chaws is yaws.

And they cheer my recommendations every time .

>>8552621
Maybe you'll luck out and nobody with a glancing knowledge of history will read it.
>>8552637
It's a cold opening.

Anyone got any paranormal detective series recommendations? Asking for my totally pleb girlfriend because I have patrician taste and would never read schlock like that, haha, am I right guys?

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>>8553155
>cunny
Could read both male and female in pic related. She will like female more.

Just got Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind as a gift, having never heard of the writer before or novel does /sffg/ hold it in decent regard?

>>8553169
Thanks, haven't heard of about 1/2 of those. though I thought it was pretty obvious that I was being sarcastic and the recs were for me. I don't see Ilona Andrews on there, but I thought she was pretty popular. Is she shit?

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>>8553155
This suggestion is off the beaten path, but William H Hodgson wrote about a dozen stories about just as you say, an occult detective. In every story, Carnaki recalls a ghost-hunting tale to his dinner guests. They read like Arthur Conan Doyle and are more entertaining, comprehensible and mainstream than Hodgson's novels.

>>8553213
Fuck, I love Hodgson. I love how Carnacki stories are half regular mysteries and half have supernatural explanations. That era was definitely the golden age of paranormal and horror shit.

Thanks for reminding me I sill need to read his Ghost Pirates stories.

>>8553230
I enjoyed House On The Borderland and Carnaki most of all. Ghost Pirates is too badly written IMO (dropped halfway through) and The Night Land is interminable. He has great ideas and memorable images, but he is hard work when he is esoteric. Interesting author and range of work though - would have surely developed if he had lived through Ypres.

>>8553197
>>8553197
Never got around to reading her.

I got burnt by the female urban fantasy genre a few years ago. I don't pick up new shit anymore.

They all start off great and continue that way, until the author's pussy wakes up and the book goes to some romance shit with a billionaire /millionaire (a rich guy) chasing the mc (ofc she speshual) because he wants her/her to do something for him. And she keeps denying until she gives in/he rapes her/compels/geists her to do his bidding.

I've gotten tired. Those aren't even a fraction of what I read, just the best to recommend.

Bakkertalk.

>Onkis is the Goddess of hope and aspiration.

>Her idol depicts the severed head of a beautiful woman upon a copper tree.

>"The idol worked in white marble, eyes closed with the sunken look of the dead. At first glance she appeared to be the severed head of a woman, beautiful yet vaguely common, mounted on a pole. Anything more than a glance, however, revealed the pole to be a miniature tree, like those cultivated by the ancient Norsirai, only worked in bronze. Branches poked through her parted lips and swept across her face—nature reborn through human lips. Other branches reached behind to break through her frozen hair."

So is the goddess of hope shilling for Kellhus?

So let me get this straight.

>Alethi highprinces camp out in the shattered planes to "avenge muh king"
>They scout around for giant crab creatures
>When one is found they must battle the Parshendi because they want to get it as well
>These fights consist of men wearing medieval power armor running around with swords as big as their body
>The ones who don't have this armor hope to get it by chance or killing someone who does
>After driving back the Parshendi they go kill the giant crab things and take out its gem to sell
>The king keeps score of how many each high prince gets

I now see what you faggots were saying when you called this book a video game in prose.

>>8553155
Nocturnal by scott sigler?

>>8553720
They went to avenge the King, but greed got in the way.(like american bombing their own towers to get oil, then when they got the oil they can't leave) The new "king" is a fop(George W Bush), who likes to say capital and party, he turned the whole campaigning into a summer get away.

Read the entire book.

>>8553860
>Read the entire book.

I'm 400 pages in and fuck all is happening. Sorry for getting bored.

>>8553913
First books are usually the foundation of a series.

It lays the corner stone for the others books to go upon.

>>8552364
1 sounds pretentious as fuck, would not read

2 sounds interesting

3 is the most generic pitch to a sci-fi story i've ever read

>>8554088
I'm pretty sure that I've already read 1 before. Alien comes to earth to study humans, lives with a husband and wife at a university, turns out the alien was seeking to figure out how to kill humans but the husband and wife were actually government agents from a biowarfare program doing the same.

>>8552364
1 and 2 both sound really shit and 3 is kinda generic.

>>8554171
Name of book please

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>Rothfuss livestreaming his opinions on the presidential debate

so, sanderfags, shallan was just confirmed bi by twitter

hey you degenerate who wanted watersports shallan look up a blog called anonsmeresin; it just got posted

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Why do we never talk about the dresden files here? I'm re-reading the series and it's a fucking wild ride

Anyone else betting dosh that Thomas will end up with amoracchius? He's got the royal blood being the son of the white king and the sword of love might end up subduing Hunger or even allow him to kill it outright

>>8554500
It's usually talked about when a new book is dropping... seeing as he didn't release a book in like 3 years because he wanted to do that steampunk book. there is no great debate in /lit/.

>>8552364
1 sounds awful
2 could be good, but I don't know if you would have the talent to pull it off
3 might be fun

Does wheel of time get better? I was reading the 8th book before I had to stop. How long does it take for something to happen. Also I swear Jordan must have some issues with his mom or wife with how awful the woman in this series are. I want to finish it because it ended but Sanderson isn't the best and I was spoiled a bit. Supposedly Rand runs away at the end I wouldn't blame him

>>8554665
I don't think I liked any of the females especially if they were aes sedai. The yandere was sort of amusing but like all of the forsaken was retarded

>>8548870
Sean McMullen, Souls in the Great Machine. It's crap but it has wind-powered trains and a slave-powered computer.
>mfw updating drivers on the Calculor
>mfw you fist-bump your slave drivers and tell them the haps and they are updated

>>8554681
Perrin's wife managed to piss me more than the aes sedai

>>8549251
I shill JCW and John Barnes equally, with a side of Adam Roberts and George MacDonald.

>>8554665
If you want to finish use Rand as you self insert. Once you get to the ending you'll be really satisfied

Never again will I read wuxia

Can someone explain to me why rothfuss is so popular?
All his books are complete trash self insert power fantasy with no substance

>>8554721
You just answered your own question

I've searched high and low but I can't find a good fantasy book with necromancy. Fuck it's always the same old lame elemental crap or the authors thinking their awful magic systems are good

>>8554740

Prince of Thorns has necromancy in it

>>8549710
We're very traditionalist at heart but we try to get along to get left alone. Mix that with the urge to proselytize and you've got a fairly decent driving contradiction. I mean, it's a real propaganda problem, you've got to present us as different but not too weird, wholesome but not boring or creepy, and meanwhile we're just us, a tight collection of subcultures made up of mostly lower-class converts mixing with the descendants of European converts who group-migrated 150 years ago. We could just let other people make up their minds, but when they do that they always end up talking about the tunnel we dug to England to steal women or whatever.

Bringing it back to Card, there's a forgiveness theme with Ender making up for killing all the buggers but there's also a much bigger theme of Man as Creator, with the universe made up of intelligent particles that are willing to take whatever form we want for it if it has a guiding intelligence. That's actually a very strong theory in LDS theology, and it parallels the other creation going on in the Ender sequels. Jane being a godlike AI yet incomplete until she took a body, that's another big LDS thing, that we're all eternal spirits going through mortality to gain experience. And that's just in Ender, the Homecoming series was a Book of Mormon adaptation and Alvin Maker is fantasy Joseph Smith.

So yeah, maybe we'll be a threat to your way of life someday. History does weird things. I'd compare us in a lot of ways with the Japanese, adapting to fit in but always a little late and always keeping a core identity.

>>8549303
Kb.

>>8554745
(You) need to write a book. This has to be one of the most nicely written posts I've ever read on 4chan. Well done.

>>8549557
Cryptonomicon. It's actually reaaally low fantasy. Radio Freefall. A Fire Upon the Deep (alien fleets trying to annihilate humanity while griping at each other on Usenet). Don't read cyberpunk unironically.

>>8549768
Depends 100% on long-term social stability and fertility rates, the whole issue.

>>8550428
Yes it's called Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

>>8552295
The Golden Age.

Holy shit I fucking hate it when writers attempt to use physics with magic. Not only does the magic not make any sense but the faggot does not know anything about physics

You know what I hate? Enormous quantities of jargon about basic science shit.

>>8554766
Let me guess Sanderson?

>>8554751
Thank you, you're very kind. I'm working on it but it's going to be a while.

>>8554766
You need some Compleat Enchanter in your life.

hey /sffg/ which of these sounds like the best idea to work on

>years ago, a famous stage magician sold his soul to make his magic real. Realizing he made a terrible mistake, he bought it back with the souls of his two kids. Years later, his two soulless, cold-hearted kids need to buy their own souls back (the price is still 1 of yours for 2 of another), but old scratch has four specific ones in mind: four magicians just like their father who cheated him and won, and now those siblings have to con men who specialize in conning people who know they're being conned.
>a wheelchair-bound korean war veteran is living with his parents while he recovers. While trapped in his appartament, he carries on a relationship by mail with a woman his parents don't approve of and learns his father's rabbinical library dates back to 16th century Prague. Based loosely on a true story
>A few weeks ago a shepherd lost his daughter. Today while watering his flock he finds a half-drowned amazon with a potted sapling tied to her back. Little does he know the girl didn't want to be saved: years ago she committed the gravest sin her people were capable of, and the gods cursed her to become a werelioness until her debt was repaid
>An intentionally scandalous autobiography of willy wonka, telling the full story of how he ran away from home looking for a chocolate factory in bavaria (during the 1930's), his apprenticeship to a witch, his rise to success, and his Jobsian ousting by his own board of directors. There's a subplot about the witch sweeting her candy with "high glucose blood syrup" but this being Willy Wonka I'm being VERY careful to keep things goofy and not edgy as fuck

>>8554766
It can be done well enough if you know where to give and say "we have no goddamn clue how this works, we're just throwing science at the wall here and seeing what sticks"

>>8554766
>>8554769

>When the author is trying to explain some simple physics from the PoV of a character

pls dont

>>8554776
1
Why do the kids need their souls back?
2
could be cool.
3
eh
4
nah

>>8554772
I heard people praising his magic systems. Never again. What really sucks is that one of my favourite magic systems comes from a series I dislike. I think it was called Runelords

>>8554776
All but the sapling/lioness sound pretty neat desu

>>8554776
>werelioness
>werelioness
>werelioness

>>8554776
>1
Ok.
>2
This isn't /sffg/
>3
>werelioness
No.
>4
It would make an interesting fanfic.

>>8554776
Cons conning cons is best, shepherd and werelioness second. That is, if you can pull of cons and didn't just think "I can do that!" while watching Now You See It.

My turn:

>vagabond traveling orchestra getting into shenanigans
>idiot demigods battling it out in a secret ESP high school
>playing-it-straight magical girls

>>8554785
generally speaking it's not a good idea to leave your soul in the hands of a demon

>>8554795
Rabbinical texts from 16th century prague doesn't count? Let me guess, you're more of a scifi type

>>8554799
the first one has my attention, though it doesn't sound very sffg

>end of Fractal Prince casually drops that zoku tithe children to the Oort
>thematically fits, sets up probably the most interesting set of classical references so far
>completely dropped
dangit Hannu
At least the battle scenes were cool.

>>8554833
I'm more the fantasy type actually but I've consumed all forms of speculative fiction in some form or another including alt history/history.

>>8554833
They'd be traveling by train on a fictional continent that has jungles and plains Indians and European-style pocket monarchies, but that and the occasional gypsy curse would probably be the only things making it even magical realism. I want it to feel pulpy, though, not focused on the world or the characters as much as the adventure of it. A world-weary conductor MC seems almost obligatory, but I really haven't fleshed it out much.

>>8554840
>I'm more the fantasy type
faggot

>>8554847
Are you retarded?
>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

>>8554840
Ooh, let's share our crappy alt-hist ideas.
>1. Industrial Revolution happened really fast and Napoleon nuked Europe, Chinese and Russians trying to figure out how to get space colonies because they don't really understand fallout
>2. Indian reservations are really independent and sovereign and are surreptitiously involved with the Soviets; cold war Rez spy games
>3. Hitler wins but his empire dissolves into tiny Eastern European esoteric Hitlerite fiefdoms; they have a thirty years' war with the million Stalinite kingdoms
>4. cold war goes hot, widespread devastation; the 500,000 Americans in Vietnam set up a militaristic power state that revives modern civilization in SE Asia

>>8554849
idiot

>>8554850
I like 1 and 3 the most.

>>8554851
6. The quality of posts is extremely important to this community. Contributors are encouraged to provide high-quality images and informative comments.

>>8554850
>4. cold war goes hot, widespread devastation; the 500,000 Americans in Vietnam
Vietnam would've been a nuclear target while American assets were deployed there. So I think you need to explain why that area survives and why the Americans, now unsupported, are able to beat back Charlie. Maybe the American nukes land on north Vietnam while the Soviet nukes aimed at the country get fucked up somehow?

I think the idea needs some work. It probably needs to acknowledge a larger scope. If American GIs in Vietnam survive, there would be many more pockets of survivors all over the world. Lots of American installations still in the Pacific left over from WWII at that time, for instance.


I don't have a well formed alternate history plot, but if I did it would have something to do with Hanno the Navigator.

>>8554880
Haven't given it much thought. Haven't even pulled up the target maps, actually. I figured if the Americans are unsupported so is Charlie, and they get to My Lai as much as they want now. Other pockets of survivors aren't as big and eventually fall into the Saigon empire, which surges with its mixed-blood middle class until they're launching a Mars mission in 2000. Probably a bad place to live though.

The idea was for an anthology of short stories dealing with alternate history nukes and space programs, with everyone fuming about how advanced their programs would be if we just stopped wasting our time and money on fruitless nonsense I know what-ifs in what-if stories are weak, I'm working on it, when every one of them has something better going on than we do.

>>8553443
>there is a head on a pole behind him

Sounds more like she furthered his madness when he went Outside to try and save serwe's soul. It's always hard to tell with Kellhus though.

I'm more interested with his son's idea of the Zero God and how that relates to Mog-Pharu

>>8549781
I wish I read that one instead of Flow My Tears. Everything I read by PKD is way better than that mess.

>>8554740
Pick your poison:

Super original fantasy series where the author tries really hard to be unique.

Fantasy that has necromancy in it.

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Reading Anna Karenina at the moment but when I'm done with that I have pic related to get started on, and a couple of other fantasy titles for after that.

>tfw chemo for a chronic condition means that I will always have a guaranteed 2 whole days every month that are entirely free to read the day away

>>8554740
Sabriel

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>pick up sci-fi book
>written in 1872
>set in the "distant future of the 1950s"
>all those old wordviews indjected into the "future"
>mfw all the things that could have been

>>8555045

What did the author imagine the 1950s would look like?

>>8555078
Austria-Hungary exists,with Budapest as capital still allied with germany
Russia falls to the nihilists,who recklessly pursue power and influence.
Sorta like the soviets.
The USA faces a political crisis because of german/anglo divide
Planes haven't been invented yet.
Spain sells cuba to the use.Spain is over all fucked up because constant revolution.

Pretty fun book,too bad no english translation exists

>>8549273
>I feel like off the top of your head you could have come up with a far longer list of leftist writers

You could. But the conservative writers tend to produce more quality work than the leftist writers.

The left leaning writers do have their fair share of great works (LeGuin, Delaney, etc.), but by and large, the majority of it is mediocre at best.

What the conservative leaning writers lack in quantity they make up for in quality.

This isn't to say one is better than the other, just a general observation which this anon >>8549267 correctly points out.

Right-leaning writers also tend to be a bit more innovative than their left-leaning counterparts (see: Wolfe, Borges, Tolkien, Lafferty, Dunsany, etc.)

Does Sci-fi Horror even exist in a literary form? I've binged the entirety of the Alien and Predator franchises over the last few days and I still want more. I really like the kind of low-tech gear that the Humans have in Alien in particular. It's advanced by modern standards but still obviously barely sufficient for space travel.

>>8555206
Blindsight

>>8555206

I asked this many threads ago and got recommended Black Destroyer and The Ruum. Both stories are kinda dated, but good scifi horror nonetheless.

>>8555209
Seems interesting, I'll check it out thanks.

>>8555212
I'll look those up too.

>>8555206
Blindsight
Hyperion - mostly confined to the first book but this one is excellent
Solaris
These three are the best examples.
To a lesser degree: Shades of Grey (by Fforde), Evangelion (Anime)
However, none of these have an easily defined 'direct' threat (except maybe Evangelion), some parts of it arguably live in the minds of the characters.

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any good steampunk (or dieselpunk) book? No deviant Art-tumblr-tier outfits or flying machines but a real graps on the politics of the period like in Victoria's boobs.

>>8549781
I'll keep in mind for when I'll crave Dick.
Out of the 8 I've read I liked A Scanner Darkly the most, it was mostly autobiographical so it had the best feel to the actual theme. There was more than just cool psychedelics.

>>8555227
Iron Dragons Daughter obviously.

>>8555254
please stop recommending this

>>8555260
Why?

>>8555260
why?

>>8555206

Also Dead Space is the definitive scifi horror game.

>>8555260

Never, it's a good book and criminally obscure.

>>8555278
It's not obscure. It had something like 5-6 editions

>>8555342
New thread ni plebs allowed

>>8555008
>deborah harkness
She took so long to release book 3 that I lost my hype when it finally came out.

New thread. Plebs welcome but must wear a club blazer.
>>8555870