/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

The Shadow Campaigns series has a pretty good build up to a betrayal in the 3rd and 4th books.

>>8555870
Gollum for me because Frodo and Sam are rather weak so I was really worried that something bad was going to happen. I could see the betrayal itself coming a mile away but my worry for them kept me really engaged in LOTR

>>8556524
Any other fantasy with non-fighters as protagonists? I swear some authors need to learn that simply saying their protagonist is talented isn't an excuse for them to be good at everything

Friendly reminder that Bakker is our guy

I uploaded my Gene Wolfe ebook collection: https://my.mixtape.moe/rlmgmt.zip

It contains the following books:

A Borrowed Man
An Evil Guest
Castle of Days
Endangered Species
Epiphany of the Long Sun
Free Live Free
Home Fires
In Green's Jungles
Innocents Aboard: New Fantasy Stories
Litany of the Long Sun
On Blue's Waters
Pandora by Holly Hollander
Peace
Pirate Freedom
Return to the Whorl
Shadow & Claw
Soldier of Arete
Soldier of Sidon
Soldier of the Mist
Starwater Strains
Storeys from the Old Hotel
Strange Travelers: New Selected Stories
Sword & Citadel
The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction
The Devil in a Forest
The Fifth Head of Cerberus: Three Novellas
The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories
The Knight
The Land Across
The Sorcerer's House
The Urth of the New Sun
The Wizard
There Are Doors

File: Abort Thread.gif (860KB, 500x248px) Image search: [Google]

860KB, 500x248px

>>8555342

Link to the aborted /sf&inexplicably-f-g/ thread.

>>8557245
Seems legit.

Thanks anon.

I just finished reading Solaris, now what? Where can I go from here?

Also, is the "definitive edition" audio-book worth it, or is the polish>french>English translation good enough?

Wheres a good place to look for audiobook downloads?

does /lit/ like American gods by neil gaiman? first time here and i'm curious

if yes, any recommendations with similar setting?

File: clipping.jpg (102KB, 1200x1200px) Image search: [Google]

102KB, 1200x1200px

Tangentially related, but thoughts on the newish Clipping album? It's a sci-fi concept album that I think is pretty neat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpXiEb2KVoY

>>8557907
I get mine from usenet, but I need to use a pay service. Also downpour.com, but their selection is limited.

File: bakker rumbled.png (169KB, 1830x578px) Image search: [Google]

169KB, 1830x578px

>>8556560
Hello Scott

>>8558014
I would smoke pot with Scott-senpai desu

>>8557259
You should have been aborted

File: her smoke rose up forever.jpg (47KB, 321x499px) Image search: [Google]

47KB, 321x499px

I have to say I was surprised by how much I liked this book. I've recently been disappointed by other SF feminist books by Le Guin and Atwood so I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to to be really good.

It isn't a watered-down feminism -- a couple stories feature complete androcide as a solution to social ills -- but she just seems more human than the other two. Their work felt like dogma clumsily translated to story, hers feels organic and personal.

Do avoid if the mere concept triggers you, but otherwise worth checking out.

>>8558021
Same honestly.

File: 1444488194982.jpg (52KB, 552x496px) Image search: [Google]

52KB, 552x496px

>>8555870
>Best treason/betrayal moment in a work of Science Fiction? In a work of Fantasy?
Reminder to use spoilers

File: 1446664728034.png (1MB, 500x1541px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 500x1541px

>>8555870
>Best treason/betrayal moment in a work of Science Fiction?
Traitor Baru Cormorant
1984
Pic unrelated.

>write my own shit
>its literally just biggirl and smallguy going through adventures in a lanhkmar ripoff
>use anime personalities because I'm lazy, literally used a d6 drop table to design the protagonists
>biggirl is unsure of herself despite being iron tough
>smallguy is an ambitious little shit despite being worthless in any situation that isnt lying through their fucking teeth at everyone around him including himself
>people tell me it's really good and I should send it in for publication when I literally wrote it out of boredom and hate it and wish I was fucking dead for writing it

So basically 4chan I don't really come here seeking praise, I just want some feedback from people that aren't my friends but aren't from that shitty fucking feedback thread. "Oh this is fantasy, it's shit. Thread 404 now."

Is this an ok place for that? I'm not looking for backpats, I'm looking for, "You suck here, there, that, this, and there. You can improve with x, y, and z."

I just want to be good at writing.

Just finished white luck warrior and found it to be a bit of a slog of slogs. Great ordeal any better?

>>8557965
Yes I liked it.

>>8558058
This is one of my favorite collections of short stories. Dark and brutal as fuck for sci fi.

>>8558588
yo, my nigga, post an excerpt on pastebin or something and I'll read it and try to write something useful in response

>The Unholy Consult manuscript done

How do I get Bakker to give me a copy

File: totally normal prose.png (160KB, 1314x687px) Image search: [Google]

160KB, 1314x687px

>>8555870
>highest likelyhood of satisfaction
>Dune

File: LetoWorm.jpg (101KB, 203x644px) Image search: [Google]

101KB, 203x644px

>>8559916
The prose is totally fine. Distant, impersonal, yet omniscient and penetrating. We know everyone's thoughts as if they were spoken aloud. Just the tone the book wants to set.

What is lits opinion on david zindell?

>>8559916
except for the interjection this is all pretty great stuff.

>>8559961
No, it's horrible. Like Dune for other reasons, but this is awful.

>>8559961
sure brah, whatever floats your boat

>>8559981
if this is "pretty great stuff" for you, real literature is gonna blow your mind.
maybe you will even stumble upon something called "show dont tell", a technique herbert didnt achieve to grasp in his lifetime

>>8560001
what's there to like except for "the worldbuilding is pretty great, innnit?"

>>8560030
>maybe you will even stumble upon something called "show dont tell", a technique herbert didnt achieve to grasp in his lifetime
Yes, if only he had taken the same high school creative writing class as you he would have learned the Iron Law of Show Don't Tell.

>>8560075
>tugs braid instead of adverb

>>8560030
>he passes a short mention to "show don't tell" off as reasoning behind his claim.

>>8560075
>>8560087
Yes guys, you're right.

>Jessica said "It's a maker -"
>"Eighte-e-e-e-e-e- [...]"
>The key word was . . . maker
>Maker? Maker.

How couldnt I see the magnificence of this prose. This and The Martian are both on the same level of genius, and I was wrong to not see that.

>>8559980
Neverness was a bit wild (how many books would have communing with space god as a middle event rather than an ultimate climax!?), but I really enjoyed it. It could be described as sprawling (in need of an editor) as well as dated, but I think it wins points for sheer audacity.

Many of the scenes and segments of the story really stuck with me. If a novel could ever be called ambitious, this is the one. I think fans of Gene Wolfe would feel right at home.

I haven't read any of the sequels or any of his fantasy stuff, so I can't speak to that.

>>8560125
>the one interjection
>"Word repetition, Susan. That's a minus point!"
>Hah, it's like [Popular Book]

>>8560146
>y-yes but only that part is shit
>the rest of the book is suuuuuuurely much better
lol

>>8560160
God Emperor is better
>“The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.”
>“Most men go through life unchallenged, except at the final moment.”
>“Most civilisation is based on cowardice. It's so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice. You water down the standards which would lead to bravery. You restrain the will. You regulate the appetites. You fence in the horizons. You make a law for every movement. You deny the existence of chaos. You teach even the children to breathe slowly. You tame.”
>“It is difficult to live in the present, pointless to live in the future and impossible to live in the past.”
>“My Uncle Malky always said the Lord Leto never responded to prayer. He said the Lord Leto looked on prayer as attempted coercion, a form of violence against the chosen god, telling the immortal what to do: Give me a miracle, God, or I won't believe in you!”

>>8560191
I never read God Emperor, so I can't and won't comment on its prose.

I am just a bit irritated how books with mediocre prose get shat on /lit/ but Dune doesnt. Maybe its just this general being accustomed to shitty prose, that Dune doesnt stick out. Maybe its just me and I have some kind of allergy against that book and I jus try to rationalize my hatred. Who knows.

I'll try to re-read it and try to find more cringey and low-level prose, just for sanity's sake.

>>8560260
It's partly that it isn't bad prose, partly that Dune is insanely fun to meme, and partly that we don't actually talk about it that much.

>>8560160
you're terrible at this

>>8560146
>>8560191
>>8560260
>Piter frowned, then: "But I don’t think he’ll be able to carry it off."
>Paul thought about this, then: "Yes. I tell the girl you came and put a stamp of strangeness on me."
>The old woman stared at Paul, then: "Young man, as a Proctor of the Bene Gesserit, I seek the Kwisatz Haderach
>Paul stared at his father, unable to speak for a moment, then: "A Mentat? Me? But I . . . "
>- the two deep breaths, the ritual thought, then: "When I assign rooms, is there anything special I should reserve for you?"
>"Soo-soo-Sook!" Then: "Ikhut-eigh! Ikhut-eigh!" And again: "Soo-soo- Sook!
>And then: Great Mother! They planted that one here! This must be a hideous place!
>Then: "They . . . " The words would not come out.
>A yellow sun? she asked herself. Then: Filter glass!
>The man stared at the Duke, then: "No, Sire. You couldn’t turn and I could do nought but follow you


Everything above was taken from the first 15% of the book.

>>8560295
Im trying to match Herbert's prose.

>>8560296
Reads like someone not steeped in Hemingway imitators. It's fine.

>>8558588
That sounds fun. I'd try that out.

>>8561083
This. We're the heretical thread anyway.

File: 1360800407659.jpg (27KB, 300x300px) Image search: [Google]

27KB, 300x300px

>mfw the world building in Way of Kings finally kicks in and gets super interesting
Haven't read continuously for hours like that since I was in college. Thanks for memeing Sanderson into my life /sffg/ even though you probably didn't mean to contribute positively to anyone's existence.

>>8560260

>Prose

lol

go read joyce if you want good sentences

>>8561423
Shallan was so bad that I couldn't get through WoR. Sanderson also was stumped on how to continue Kaladin's character so he repeated his arc from WoK

>>8561770
I'd love to see story where the author deals with that by having the character just get abducted by a flying saucer and disappear for a few books.

>>8561770
I ended up skimming a lot of Shallan's chapters after it became clear what direction she was going. Disappointing to see that Kaladin has to go through all this angst again but not really surprising. As far as I am into WoK I've got him pegged as a manic depressive type. He alternates between strong highs and despondent lows, seems like he has done that since his childhood. Found most of his flashback chapters tedious to read through cause I really just wanted the details of how he got enslaved, took 90% of the book to get that tidbit. Guess it kept me reading though so good on Sanderson for dangling that carrot in front of me I guess, and now I'm sufficiently hooked on all this Radiants and Heralds stuff from being teased with it via Shallan and Dalinar that I want to continue for reasons aside from character arcs.

>>8561886
Dalinar is the only good POV in WoR. What really sucks is that Sanderson is shilling his awful child edgedancer who says awesomeness way to much. She has her own novella and is confirmed to be one of the ten flashback characters

Any scifi fan who hasn't read blindsight is a fucking stupid pussy cunt and I will punch your mother in the throat until she can't pronounced your name due to tharanyx and Laranyx damage

>>8561898
A lot of that went over my head, I've still got like 100 pages of WoK to finish and it's literally my first Sanderson book. I've also got Warbreaker lined up to read after this, and I got warned off from jumping straight into Mistborn so I think I might move to WoR after Warbreaker.

>>8561902
Word

As bad as this sounds I loved how he referenced real scientific articles at the end. How many books do that? It's nuts

>>8561913
That was bad advice. Sanderson was at his best when he wrote WoK so his characters in his older works are really bad. Mistborn has like 6 more books planned too

>>8561902

Echophraxia is even better.

Rifters is also really fucking good.

>>8561931
Not him but Ive heard echopraxia was lacking a bit. I really enjoyed the scientific ideas and theories stipulated in blindsight, as well as the more philosophical sections. Are these condition in the sequel?

>>8561946
Continued, rather

>>8561931
>>8561946
Blindsight was perfectly structured, just as long as it needed to be, nothing out of place. I'm a little leery of Echopraxia because it doesn't seem like it could be as good. Bad reason I know.

File: Modern Fantasy Recs V2.jpg (2MB, 2000x3000px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2000x3000px

>>8561902
I never read it, come at me.

When will this trend of
>character is investigating [x] murders/deaths and gets tangled in something much bigger
end?

>>8557907
http://audiobookbay.me

>>8562396
>gritty city
>morally grey characters
>the words "spiraling" or "descent" are used to refer to the main character's progress through the story
>it's all based on half-remembered noir plots from movies the author hasn't actually seen

>>8562438
>character's girlfriend/boyfriend is constantly getting kidnapped/or gets killed (possibly in the MC's tortured past?)
>if they get killed or leave the plot, there's a constant stream of babes/hunks flocking to the MC to ~teach them to love again~ and they probably get killed to advance the plot

>>8562524
>MC abuses substances and sleeps in office
>narrates

>>8562528
>a reference to the lack of quality of a cup of coffee is made

>>8562528
>magic use as substance abuse

>>8562396
Whodunnit murder mysteries are some of the easiest plots to setup and you can basically just make shit up as you go from there. I mean even with real life murder cases you have people making up wild stories about what "really happened" so just imagine what it's like when you have free reign to do whatever.

>>8555870
I have a question dealing with fantasy

>>8557965
I did not like it. The writing was a little bit too obvious, and Shadow was far too passive as a protagonist to hold my interest. The set-dressing was nice enough, though.

>>8562714
Took getting cucked with a straight face.

>>8562669
>BRACKETT: The whole thing is confusing; the novel is confusing. I was down at the set one day and Bogart asked me who killed Owen Taylor, the chauffeur, and I said I didn't know, and they asked Bogart and he didn't know, and Hawks said let's send Chandler a wire and find out, and his answer came back, “I don't know.” It's a very confusing plot and one of my favorite novels because the forward momentum is so tremendous and the characters are so interesting that you really don't care.

>>8561991
I just finished Toro's and Hogan's The Strain. Really good thriller with mixed fantasy-science elements thrown in.

Too bad Hogan mainly writes crime novells and not sffg.

>>8563711
Did you like the ending?

>>8555870
So I just finished the first 2 books in the mistborn series and have lost all drive to even start the third, so is it just me?

>>8563711

The tv show is not bad. The German guy, Van Pelt from Jumanji, the Ukrainian guy and David Bradley are all three kinds of based.

Are there any good science fantasy stories out there like Flash Gordon and Barsoom?

File: Astounding_Grey_Lensman.jpg (61KB, 345x490px) Image search: [Google]

61KB, 345x490px

>>8563848
Doc Smith Lensman series

>>8562706
Yes?

>>8563817
No mistborn is shit

>>8560296
It's so god damn passable, just talking with conviction doesn't make an argument.

Just got in the mail Niven's "The Magic Goes Away" but I didn't realize it was an illustrated edition. Will this be missing anything from the original publication? What I mean is are the illustrations substituting any of the text?

>>8559916
Fuck. This is literally how Bakker writes. The style is exactly the same. I knew that his books were heavily inspired by Dune, but I never thought Bakker was aping Herbert's prose as well as plot elements.

>>8564157

I'd argue that Bakker is worse because Herbert had at least something to say thematically that wasn't just Philosophy 101.

>>8559916

I never realized how much Jordan drew from the Bene Gesserit when he characterized the Aes Sedai, but once you see it...

I just started reading Dune and this sand-language is tripping me up. Do I have to read the little dictionary at the end of the book, first?

>>8564185
Dune is dry, but it isn't actively trying to make itself into a joke.

>>8563848
This man needs Eric John Stark in his life.

>>8564187
Everyone rips off the Bene Gesserit at least once.

>>8555870
>in a work of Science Fiction? In a work of Fantasy?
Respectively the Dune sequels, and the Borges re-translations.

I know Rothfuss isn't well liked here but I'm 2/3rds of the way through TNOTW, what the hell do you think is behind the door Kvothe explored in the library when he entered with a candle? Also a little theory on Abenthy, what if he isn't even real? Everyone who knew him or of his existence is basically dead ,except for Kvothe, he could've been a charade concocted by the Chandrian or one of their personas to infiltrate traveling groups who make up songs to stop them from writing songs about them?

Also thoughts on the The Bartimaeus Sequence? I never read them as teenager but it seems like a nice little trilogy. Where does /sffg/ hold it, YA garbage or on the same levels as His Dark Materials?

Reminder Fela best girl.

>>8563867
At what point does fantasy stop being fantasy

REMOVE DUNYAN REMOV DUNIYAN YOU ARE WORST HAHA NO EMOTION FUCKING FRAUD

DUNYAN GENOCIDE BEST DAY OF MY LIFGE

t. not akka

Anyone read the Manifold series? I'd order it but I don't know how good it is and I can't seem to find it in my local store

File: hqdefault.jpg (11KB, 480x360px) Image search: [Google]

11KB, 480x360px

>>8564185
>>8564157
>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

>>8563854
>>8564348
moar please.

>>8565576
https://archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchive
Knock yourself out f a m.

Reading through the Hitchhiker's Guide books. Why is "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" so fucking terrible? Was Adams forced to write it at gunpoint?

>>8565735
I think Hitchhiker's Guide is generally held in extremely low esteem around here. It's regarded as "reddit-like" in a way. I think British humor can be funny, but it can also just be terrible.

>>8565747
>It's regarded as "reddit-like" in a way
>was written in the fucking 70s
Why would I consider the opinion of someone so fucking stupid?

>>8565754
Sorry? Not sure what you are getting at. I mean the humor is regarded as similar to the kind of humor that is associated with reddit, such as exhibited on "r/funny."

>>8564386
Ooh good picks.

>>8565754
He means it's twee shit for nerds.

>>8565735
To be honest I didn't even like the first book. My dad has been on me for years to read it and it was mostly just trying too hard to be funny.

>>8563742
Not really.

The story begins as a completely scientific way to the vampire mythology. No god involved whatsoever. This is basically the first book.

Second and third books blend archangels into the mythology. The story is still fun and keeps you on edge but now there is a god that silently watches the world burn.

The finalle is not a big surprise.

>>8564282
cross reference it

Hey cosmerefag
Why can harmony only control if they have 2 spikes when he can talk to people who only have 1 earring?
And why is he so adamant about only having twinborns not mistborn, the god metal is of preservation so he could make them, if he wanted to right?

>>8566125

And

Considering the new unknown metal used by the creature, wouldn't he WANT mistborns to fight back?

>>8564830
Dunyain genocide best day of my life

t. Cnaiur

Anyone read the Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu? It sounds interesting but I kinda take it as a given that anything translated Chinese to English is going to be butchered, the languages are oil and water.

>>8567154
>Three Body Problem

What's the hypotheses?

>>8565747
You're not wrong. Hitchhiker's humor is extremely cheesy.

>>8565759
This. It's Redditesque because it's the kind of humor that people from Reddit love. Think of the high-estrogen guy in your chem lab who makes Monty Python references - that's the kind of guy who loves Douglas Adams.

>>8567200

I only found it funny because I was listening to it as an audiobook and the narrator was extremely good.

>>8557980
I'll give it a listen when I have time, I've listened to some of his songs here and there and they're great. A friend of mine played it on a car ride and I've been interested since.

File: The_Fifth_Season_(novel)[1].jpg (1MB, 1706x2560px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1706x2560px

Is The Fifth Season actually a good book or just thinly disguised feminist ramblings?

>>8567154
Well, it met extremely favorable reviews, and sci-fi isn't exactly known for its beautiful prose in general.

Three Body Problem was translated by a Chinese-speaking author of English-language sci-fi novels (Ken Liu), though. Hence I think we can imagine that the translator had a good understanding of both the original intent of the text and of how to communicate that in the form of English sci-fi writing.

I'll pick it up as soon as I finish the book I am currently reading, and speak to the quality of its prose then.

File: babby copy.jpg (19KB, 385x383px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 385x383px

hey guys guys hey guys
guys
guys
hey

Can you spoonfeed a babby some short online fantasy available in blog form? Like Ted the Caver or, well, boatmurdered.

>>8567428
The feminist ramblings aren't even thinly veiled. It's like you're forced into sniffing her yeast-infected cunt while being doused in period blood.

>>8567428
Read Orphans of Chaos instead

>>8567581
Looks like YA garbage

>>8567154
I liked it and the second book even more.
Although I have no idea about the original I thought the translation was decent, the language never felt out of touch with what was happening and it surprised me how natural it felt.

>>8567189
You mean the hypothesis of the book series?
This is spoiler for a more or less obvious twist in the first book.
The hypothesis of the series is basically that the only survival strategy for a civilization in the universe is to never contact any other civilization and to keep as hidden as possible.
It resolves the Fermi paradox with the explanation that any intelligent life form will eventually conclude that contacting another species in the universe is suicidal.

>>8567621
>You mean the hypothesis of the book series?

Does it provide any analytical solutions? Ones that don't take long to converge that is

>>8567630
No, it is in fact not a textbook about the mathematical problem itself but science fiction.

The title of the book originates from the game the main character is playing in which a civilization has to deal with living in a three body constellation in which predictions about seasons, unlike to earth, are very complicated and are threatening the civilizations survival.

>>8567650

How disappointing yet very interesting, I'll have to add that to my log

>>8566125
humans (and kandra) have innate investiture. since influencing anything already Invested is harder, you need to rip holes in spiritwebs for true mind control (soothers are more effective on spiked people/beings). More control takes more power and more holes; just talking only takes one, and control takes two. Sazed could totally make more Mistborn, he made Spook one but maybe he doesn't want people drawing Preservation's power out since it'd leave him suceptible to Ruin's influence.

fielding more Mistborn makes it more likely that a Mistborn, somebody with an "open conduit" to Preservation, gets spiked. Idk about you but I can see why Preservation's holder wouldn't want that to happen

File: 6360169892509933341789673027_jim_butcher_dresden_files_harry.jpg (48KB, 512x384px) Image search: [Google]

48KB, 512x384px

I'm rereading the Dresden Files and something has me confused: Who the hell was the fallen angel who was whispering in Dresden's ear in Ghost Story?

I thought it was "Ashley" (or whatever we're calling the Parasite) but she's a spirit of intellect rather than a Fallen, and Lash is supposed to be dead

>>8568283
Didn't he bury a coin in his basement? I thought it was related to that.

>>8568293
He dug it up and returned gave it to the church after Lash got obliterated. Lash herself was probably reconstituted into "Ashley" so it could still be her prenatal influence on his brain.

>>8568293
It's been years but IIRC it was a different fallen angel that was fucking with him.

File: calibre.png (724KB, 1158x307px) Image search: [Google]

724KB, 1158x307px

Just downloaded the next batch in my backlog to read.

How is it /lit/? Which shall I dive into first?

>>8568329
but who? Honestly, dresden has a lot of plot stuff going on that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, the multiverse especially. I'm pretty sure the same book mentions that the Outsiders aren't from the nevernever and shows Winter holding back an army of them at the Outer Gate. Supposedly nobody knows what comes after death, but all the afterlives are supposed to be in the nevernever

File: download.jpg (8KB, 179x282px) Image search: [Google]

8KB, 179x282px

I skipped Use of Weapons and went to Excession instead.

I heard UoW was a timeline mind-fuck which i'm not too big on. Is it a headache to read or is still relaxing and comfy?

>>8567428
It's thinly disguised BLM ramblings. But yes, it's great.

>>8568550
It was really comfy to listen to.

>>8568550
Half the chapters in Use are in a forward moving present, half are backwards moving, alternating, so the final chapter is chronologically last, the second last chapter is chronologically first, and the second chapter takes place just before the first chapter, both first and second being about midway through the story.

>>8567544
http://stefangagne.com/twoflower/fwls/

>>8568381
Make sure your Solaris version is from after the 2002 movie was released, the one from before it was a terrible Polish > French > English translation.

Anyone here read the Memory, Sorrow, Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams? Never seen it mentioned here but Williams seems to be a big enough name in fantasy.

File: lem.jpg (41KB, 333x499px) Image search: [Google]

41KB, 333x499px

>>8568683
Yeah I actually have the newer translation. I'm happy it exists because bad translations of Slavic books completely contaminate the entire novel.
Word-play in Polish and Russian is HUGE, and not easily understood by any English speakers.

It's done best in The Cyberiad. The translator is some kind of fucking genius for making a translation this authentic and fluid.

Magic system do's and do not's?

File: in_bellairs.jpg (8KB, 200x200px) Image search: [Google]

8KB, 200x200px

>>8568943
>magic
>system

Is there a point to writing a beastiary if I can't draw for shit?

>>8568943
>don't give scientific explanations. It can be done, but it's rarely done well, even by great writers.
>do try to be original. Fireballs and bolts of lighting are spectacular, but rather cliche, and cliche is the enemy

>>8569097
Have you considered a collaboration?

>>8569191
The only person I know who can art is my mom...

>>8569207
That's perfect. There might even be some niche of buyers- other moms with kids- who would find the idea cute and buy it for their own kids. assuming this is something you would be trying to market. Writing a bestiary itself is a very cool idea. Good luck if you do it.

Just randomly read Poul and Kornbluth "Wolfbane"

What an oddly put together novel. It reads like a plot summary. I kept thinking "wow, this would be a great story if they actually wrote it".

Just had to post that somewhere.

Is the "Shadow & Claw" version of the Book of the New Sun supposed to have so many typos/transcription errors? Shit is a riling up my 'tisms.

>>8569339
Stop reading poorly ocr'd scan rips then, you filthy pirate.

>>8569339

I've noticed that in mine, too.

>>8569349

>Stop reading poorly ocr'd scan rips then, you filthy pirate.

Guilty as charged. I'll have to pick up a legit copy soon.

>>8569349
I have the physical copy right beside me, m8. The errors aren't as obvious as with an OCR scan, but they're small and consistent enough to mess up your flow.

>>8569365
I suppose it could be atrocious editing, but I've read many a terrible pulp and never had one with consistent errors.

>>8568839
Yes. I've read a lot of Tad Williams stuff and he does seem very under-read in this general considering how prolific he is. As for Memory Sorrow and Thorn, I read it years ago so my memory on it isn't that good, but I remember it being weaker than his newer stuff. TW seems like he just gets better and better with everything he writes. Shadowmarch was my favorite series by him.

One of the hard parts about getting into his books I think is his slow build style of writing. I don't know if I ever would have gotten into him if I hadn't picked him up in college when I had a lot of free time.

File: 1454425214692.png (37KB, 416x454px) Image search: [Google]

37KB, 416x454px

>>8569339
>>8569358
Sigh.
Shadow and Claw
Sword and Citadel
Urth of the New Sun
These all have the NO PIRACY notice in them so they should be retail rips if not post here and I'll retrieve the retail copies off Bibliotik for you.
https://mega.nz/#!AhF0gTSL!tvm9dnRNh8Q1W9GAmT8hIQnis8Rduo4h8FLsXayQI9A

File: ClIeUvkUsAA16mY.jpg large.jpg (9KB, 209x297px) Image search: [Google]

9KB, 209x297px

>>8567428
>feminist ramblings

>>8568943
Good things
>one single magic system per setting
>if this system has limitations or rules that are important they should be made clear at an early point in the story, before they become crucial plot points
>rules should ideally be broad, concise, and simple
>internal consistency, this should go without saying though

Bad things
>extremely specific and arbitrary rules that ultimately just serve as plot devices
>4 classical elements (extra demerits if "shadow" or "darkness" etc is thrown in the mix)
>concepts which are crucial to the system are never defined or explained and remain vague

I can think of specific examples for all of these too.

>>8567428
Fifth Season has lots of cute lolis in it and it's great to read.

>>8569447
I'm totally fine with slow writing, readint the premise of The Dragonbone Chair it almost seems like the Farseer Trilogy, which I quite enjoyed.

I'll check out Shadowmarch though, thanks

>>8569508

Much obliged.

>>8569447
I read all of Neverwhere and it just didn't stick. I hardly ever think about it. A bunch of things happened, some main characters died, there was some grotesque imagery and the world was saved. Buffalo spiders I guess, there was this neat big house world but I guess The High House did that too, that stupid Oz world, that stupid bug world, the WWI soldier's plot never really turned into anything. Should have just stuck to the sick kid's viewpoint, honestly, and dropped half the plot threads.

Around the same time I read Cryptonomicon and it rocked my socks. Even little throwaway moments like Waterhouse's relatives using math to divvy up his grandfather's stuff, when he writes a little program to take webcam shots of people using his laptop, the WWII Handbook of Tactical Negro Impersonation, all of that comes to mind fairly often and makes life a little more fun. And it didn't even end properly!

File: precures having a quarrel.webm (3MB, 320x180px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 320x180px

>mfw nobody in English writes magical girls
>mfw if they did they'd sabotage themselves with idiot deconstructions
>mfw I can be the first
Unclaimed territory, gents. This is the new frontier.

Hello. I'm a /v/ user who wants to get into literature, preferably in the sci-fi / fantasy genre as that is what I prefer.

So many suggestions in the OP. Any starter friendly ones you guys recommend? I feel like some books throw you into 2deep4u lore and you have no idea what the hell is going on.

>>8569515
>one single magic system per setting

I think it's okay to have "natural" magic vs "created" magic. A example would be how in Shadowrun you've got hermetic mages who use science and ritual to tap into magic, and shamans who call up natural magic and spirits to aid them.

>>8569611
>Neverwhere
Did you mean Otherland? Yeah the payoff to that series wasn't worth everything you had to go through I felt like. It had a lot of interesting concepts and I really liked a lot of the characters, but holy hell he just took so long to get to the good parts. That's what I mean about him getting better with each new series, cause it feels like he keeps getting better about getting to the point and not wasting so much time.

>>8569579
Tad Williams' strong suit is mythology. His mythology in MSaT is solid, but Shadowmarch is just fantastic. I've read a lot of fantasies with gods as characters, but TW's take on it is one of my favorites.

>>8569864
What that in mind, I'm thinking of going to B&N tomorrow and getting maybe Dune, Neuromancer, or Stranger in a Strange Land.

Thoughts?

>>8568943
do not

>>8569882
Yeah! I meant Otherland, sorry. Neverwhere had its own issues.

>>8569887
Brick-and-mortar are cancer. You can find all of those at used book stores. Dune>>>>Neuromancer=SiaSL, but for getting thrown into deep lore nothing's better than Lord of Light.

>>8569633
Magical girls are fucking fantastic, and precisely because the follow all of the 'bad' rules here >>8569515 and focus on characterization and operatic drama over fucking around with caring how anything works

>mfw I can be the first

I assume you're not counting the WITCH comics then?

>>8569896
Maybe I'll get all three.

Also, I don't get out much. Don't know any used bookstores. Figure I'll visit B&N to see people in an attempt to be normal.

File: tmp_4571-IBs9KE8h1521825846.jpg (214KB, 899x1024px) Image search: [Google]

214KB, 899x1024px

>>8569912

Half Price Books is a used bookstore chain. Perhaps you have one nearby.

https://m.imgur.com/a/90laS

This chart from the OP is pretty good. The lefthand books are pretty much slamdunks, in terms of representing their subgenres. It's hard to suggest specific works until you've identified a subgenre preference so you're probably best off reading a selection across subgenres.

>>8569864
Dying earth

>>8569864
Well it kinda depends on what stories you're looking for.

The Expanse is the current pulp scifi darling and is really readable and entertaining.

On Basilisk Station is a great Hornblower style story about a captain getting forced into a tough situation and having to use all their wits and skill to survive. The rest of the series is okay but the quality starts to drop off.

Timothy Zahn's Icarus Hunt is a pretty good standalone scifi novel, apparently his Thrawn books are some of the only good Star Wars EU ones but I haven't read them myself.

For Terry Pratchett I'd suggest starting with one of the Sam Vimes books like Guards! Guards!

The Black Company is a classic military fantasy story about the bad guys. Writing style isn't for everybody though.

The Powder Mage trilogy and the Shadow Campaigns series are fairly recent and take a more Napoleonic-era bent on "generic European fantasy." There's also the Temeraire series which is basically "what if dragons existed and were used for air combat in the Napoleonic wars?" and actually considers how this would have changed the world.

>>8569887
I'd probably go with Neuromancer or Dune. Heinlein is famous but he isn't that great.

>>8569900
I would have brought up comic books if this were /co/.

>>8569942
I can definitely get behind Timothy Zahn, as I did read this Thrawn books. It was as good as the movies.

>>8569942
Also, The Expanse seems like it might be a good read. Might get the first book then.

File: hug.gif (999KB, 495x367px) Image search: [Google]

999KB, 495x367px

>>8569957
What, honestly, is the point of creating a magical girl story in prose? That would be stupid levels of awkward, since the whole point is being able to use dialog/acting, illustration/scene direction, animation effects, etc. and all the conventions that go along with that to present character interaction.

>>8569963
His first series, The Blackcollars, is a good pulp adventure series. Humanity gets conquered by aliens and a agent from the last resistance group on Earth gets sent to find a group of ninja commandos to resume the fight against the aliens. They're pursued by a human police investigator who wants to stop the ninjas because otherwise the aliens will carry out reprisals against the people on his planet.

>>8569942
>Heinlein is famous but he isn't that great.
Not if you're reading his senilia. His earlier novels are fantastic. Door Into Summer especially is this comfy time travel loli romance that really should be more popular here. Citizen of the Galaxy, Double Star, Tunnel in the Sky, and Have Space Suit Will Travel are fantastic. Starship Troopers is decent but it's not really representative of Heinlein at his best, and SiaSL/Glory Road/that stupid multiverse crap are all trash.

Anyone notice how all autistic plebs posted in the named general and how discussion with quoting textual examples went on in the wolfeellison thread? The split people talked about needs to happen, tripson, make the science fiction general.

>>8570018
But we talked about fantasy there too. The split needs to be between autistic plebs and refined patricians.

>>8570037
We'd still talk about fantasy, but this made the purge effective two times already.

File: 1443812063233.png (55KB, 163x405px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 163x405px

>>8570018
>how discussion with quoting textual example
Image dump: the thread

File: 2011-01-13-beartato-badmemories.png (73KB, 800x1009px) Image search: [Google]

73KB, 800x1009px

>>8569633
I'm picturing "oh my god I was a idiot teenager" embarrassment applied to urban fantasy.

File: 1402975917969.webm (975KB, 640x360px) Image search: [Google]

975KB, 640x360px

>>8570059
We need more cute girls being retarded.

>>8570018

I changed my mind about the thread split after those guys started insulting each other about Wright for half of the thread. They were worse than Sanderson-related posts.

Que sera, sera because I'm sure as hell not going to Reddit.

File: img000018.png (514KB, 908x1400px) Image search: [Google]

514KB, 908x1400px

>>8570059
>>8570064

>>8570077
Best storyline.

I want to write grimdark sword-and-sorcery fiction with a villainous protagonist. Do publishers consider premises like that? I don't imagine that selling as well as something lighter like LotR or Harry Potter, and I've never had anything published before.

>>8570096
You'd be better off writing a parody of that type of book, because grimderp is the current fad. Prince of Thorns, Joe Abercrombie, Bakker, etc.

They're not the Black Company, they're the /Very Bad Company/, the rudest tudest mercenary company in the empire. They stay up late gambling, steal pies, set villages on fire so they can fight at night, and don't write home to their mothers.

>>8570096
If you pointlessly try to make it at least 1500 pages long by drawing it out, you have a shot. As >>8570109 mentioned, it's the current fad.
Sword and Sorcery is dead.

>>8570117
>Sword and Sorcery is dead.
Is High Fantasy still in? I actually meant High Fantasy, but I had a brainfart and said Sword and Sorcery instead.

>>8570124
It's alive, The Wizard Knight was excellent.

File: Theseus.jpg (172KB, 1096x1400px) Image search: [Google]

172KB, 1096x1400px

I really enjoyed Blindsight by Watts, whats similar?

>>8570018
Interesting observation, however, true patricians posted in both

>>8570018
There was another thread? I thought it was so odd that this general was friendly and helpful, the other one must have gotten all the pretentious dipshits.

>>8570096
That's actually what's in vogue right now. Sure you won't be a national sensation or anything but your books will probably sell. Until the fad moves on and it's all about something else.

>>8570124
High Fantasy is booming. Possibly the best time to be a high fantasy author in the last 100 years.

>>8570205
It's the perfect solution. Cretins stay in the containment, others get to discuss literature without autism spam.

>check out City of Saints and Madmen because it was on a supposedly good chart on here
>first page
>super pretentious tryhard writing
Urgh.

>>8570247
Which chart?

>>8570162
Echopraxia (for obvious reasons) or even the Rifters triology.

You could try Solaris by Lem, although it is a lot older and in many ways different they have many common themes ( incomprehensible Aliens among them) and I am pretty sure that Solaris was at least to some extent an inspiration for Blindsight.

>>8570162
Solaris by Lem
The Evangelion anime.

Dunno if the Dark Tower series can be discussed here but I see it as fantasy so why not. Anyways I just finished The Wastelands and I'm not really that keen to carry on, especially as I've heard they get worse from that volume.

The Gunslinger was tight and well-paced, with some decent (if clunky) prose and rather dry tone; I liked The Drawing of the Three but it what it started was something I knew would be carried on through the rest of the series, which I confirmed with The Wasteland, which felt very bloated.

Is it REALLY worth finishing the series?

>>8570247
>Check out the Inheritance Trilogy on recommendations from /sffg/
>It's full to the brim with anime tropes
>Main character is literally Jupiter Jones
>r/fantasy masturbatory trans* characters
You shouldn't pay attention to those charts.

>>8567220
Same here, I thought it was one of the few instances were "lolsorandumb" actually worked.

>>8565735
Was that the last book? I think it had something to do with only the first two or three books being made for radio play only, while the latter ones were given full on book treatment. It either had something to do with Adams not being able to write an actual book, or just him not knowing what to do with the story. The ending sucks massive dick.

>>8570540
>Is it REALLY worth finishing the series?
Go as far as Wolves of Calla, then make the call. King got a bit left-of-center after he got vanned, and the Dark Tower is the primary vessel through which he works out his undischarged tension about it all. I honestly don't remember the last two books, all I remember is the final scene.

Wolves of Calla is tight, though. I remember it entirely making up for IV. However, this is a real spoiler, not a joke I was a big fan of Salem's Lot and reintroducing the Priest from that series made my week. It's pretty self-contained as well.

File: 1452912124800.png (478KB, 617x621px) Image search: [Google]

478KB, 617x621px

>>8570550
>actually reading Inheritance Trilogy
Did you miss that part where I told everyone that Inheritance Trilogy was essentially (futa), (trap), /ss/, femdom, yaoi, shota and the fact that NK Jemisin is a literal weeb? Broken Earth even got lolicon undertones past the radar.

>>8570671

why is this allowed

how do books like those become notable

>>8570540
No Scott, it is not.
>>8570550
It's important to know who made the chart. It's easy to spot shit charts by 2-3 works placed in them.

>>8570615
>King got a bit left-of-center after he got vanned
I am now going to refer to anyone who has been hit by a vehicle and is salty about it as getting 'King-vanned.'

>>8570615
Ay well I may as well, might take a break from it for now though.

>>8570781
kek you got methat you Pinky?

>>8570804
Yea it's me lad. It's always me.

>>8570813
this dude man inky fuked a dog and upload on website 4chan behanchod disgusting

>>8570819
What

File: 3215126327.jpg (15KB, 226x199px) Image search: [Google]

15KB, 226x199px

>>8570819

>>8570755
Uprooted the second place novel had an extremely tsundere wizard who kept calling the main girl idiot (it's funny because most anime tsunderes call people baka which means the same thing as idiot).

>>8570755
Because Jemisen made a career about being a minority writer who sticks it to the white man

File: written-in-red.jpg (10KB, 176x287px) Image search: [Google]

10KB, 176x287px

Just read this.

Novel mythology where werewolves-vampires-etc-fantasy-creatures are not changed/cursed humans but another species altogether that predated the appearance of man on earth.

Calm storytelling with intense spikes carefully placed.

>>8571043
Aren't you ashamed of yourself for even picking that book up? Are you a 40 year old disappointed woman or a 15 year old horny teenager?

>>8571043
>Novel mythology where werewolves-vampires-etc-fantasy-creatures are not changed/cursed humans but another species altogether that predated the appearance of man on earth.
Unless you are using "novel" to mean "contained in a novel" you're using it wrong.

Anon is doing a top 100 /lit 2016 poll, presumably to be compiled into a visual chart. Promote literary SF and fantasy so future anons have an alternative to the post-modernists and meme trilogy. Philip K Dick, Gene Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Theodore Sturgeon, Ursula Le Guin, Robert Silverberg, Aldous Huxley, Roger Zelazny, George Orwell, etc, etc.

>>8568820

>>8571165
If anything by Silverberg or Zelazny is in your top 5 books of all time, you need to read more.

File: 23675858.jpg (36KB, 309x475px) Image search: [Google]

36KB, 309x475px

Been reading pic related, pretty good if you like time travel sci-fi.

At first you will think you are reading a rip off of LOST, but things move quickly and everything you think is going to happen doesn't.

The author has a really good writing style, lost of miss-direction whilst keeping things constantly moving.

>>8571165
Just make sure you are voting for sff that is "literary" enough to get other votes.

And someone else vote for Hyperion so I don't look like an idiot.

>>8571331
On it!

>>8571331
Hyperion was cool when I was 15, but even judging on that impression, I could never think of it as a novel deserving a top place on a list, even if we are talking only sff.
>>8571165
I'll vote the same authors I'd normally vote, Wolfe is amongst them tho. Bradbury, Vonnegut, Orwell and Huley are mediocre, I wouldn't place them on a top sff chart either, unless we were doing 30+ votes per person.

>>8571358
I swear, if you're the fag who just voted in fucking Flannery O'Connor to a top 100 list... talk about a mediocre writer!

The point isn't to shit all over each other, though. Everyone over in that thread is doing enough of that already. It's gonna be a big enough list that a lot of different tastes and viewpoints can be represented!

>>8571358
Have you read it recently? There's a wealth of intertextual value to be had with Hyperion, and a lot of analysis that 15 year old you probably weren't capable of (if you were a normal teen). You get diminishing returns with Fall of Hyperion, but the original is a top literature worthy of study and accolades.

>>8571380
She, unlike Vonnegut, Bradbury, Orwell and Huxley could write a human being. In fact she did it incredibly well, the amount of depth she gives to her characters is something only a few author could do, like Chekov and Tolstoy.
>>8571384
It's been 7 years, but I read it twice. It's hard to see it as a seperate work from Fall of Hyperion, considering they tell one story.
But I remember it very well, which is good. It liked it, but it's just a kind of work I cannot value as highly as some other works.

File: speaker.jpg (131KB, 325x500px) Image search: [Google]

131KB, 325x500px

Speaker for the Dead is p good desu

>>8571401
>She, unlike Vonnegut, Bradbury, Orwell and Huxley could write a human being.
but muh prophecy

>>8571439
>that creeping anthropological horror
>that twist
>that unsettlingly ordinary abusive dad
>that pain fence
Did you like the sequels, too? Lots of people didn't but I thought they were fine.

File: vividreds and f-22s.webm (3MB, 720x400px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 720x400px

>>8569986
The point of magical girls is for cute girls to be magical operators. Character interaction is a fringe benefit.

>>8571165
I'm a pleb and voted for pleb books, sorry desu senpai

>>8571439
I read it when I was only 14 and it freaked me out. I should probably revisit it.

>>8571165
Time to vote for pulp fantasy novels with my 7 different google accounts.

>Wheel of Time feels like obligatory reading and I'm out of the loop
>Remember it's 15 books long and each book is 600+ pages

>>8572232
I'm honestly shocked where people like you come from with statements like that. If you'd been here for longer than 10 seconds you'd know it's not. Rather it is generally considered pretty awful and not worth the time.

>>8572240
What? People say it's filled with great characters and a very engaging plot.

>>8572266
u got meme'd

File: IMG_789865622933732.jpg (42KB, 649x663px) Image search: [Google]

42KB, 649x663px

>>8572266
Who said that?

>>8572240
WoT is widely read and generally well liked by those who have read it. It's just /sffg/ is full of contrarian types because this is /lit/.

>>8572266
>great characters and a very engaging plot
By that they mean it's fun. And fun is an alien concept to people here. You won't impress anyone by saying "I had fun reading this book." WoT isn't a historically important series, it's not written in an impressive or complicated way, nor does it perform any sort of commentary on society or philosophy. Essentially, if you read books as a means to an end then WoT is a huge waste of time. That's not to say everybody who reads books for fun will enjoy it, but that's definitely a requirement to enjoy it since WoT has nothing to offer except entertainment.

>>8569942
>>8569963
Ah! Another Icarus Hunt fan. Something so comfy about that one. I even like re-reading it despite the twist ending. Good, simple fun. Not too ambitious, but hits all its marks.

>>8567220
Who was it? I have the read-by-the-author ones and love them. I had read it on the page before and didn't really respond.

File: TheSecretOfTerrorCastle.jpg (18KB, 220x329px) Image search: [Google]

18KB, 220x329px

>>8570550
Jupiter Jones?

File: 1470327924846.jpg (338KB, 1096x731px) Image search: [Google]

338KB, 1096x731px

>>8570671
>criticizing a novel for having that stuff, on 4chan

>>8572941
Heh, I used to read those. Probably because their sekrit base was in a junkyard.

File: 1472487585731.jpg (27KB, 268x268px) Image search: [Google]

27KB, 268x268px

>>8573015
Well I liked the books. Not Inheritance, but Broken Earth.

And after all, we are literally on a board created to discuss anime owned by an actually nippon.

The Hugos are introducing a "Best series" award category next year.

>Nicholas Whyte, Worldcon 75 Hugo administrator, said, “The proposed Hugo for “Best Series” is a big change, the first time that a new category may be added to the written fiction Hugo categories in fifty years. There is clearly a great deal of interest in how this new award will work, and what might be nominated.”

>An eligible work for this special award is a multi-volume science fiction or fantasy story, unified by elements such as plot, characters, setting, and presentation, which has appeared in at least three volumes consisting of a total of at least 240,000 words by the close of the calendar year 2016, at least one volume of which was published in 2016.

So I guess Wheel of Time can't get nominated due to that last stipulation.

File: Chuck-Tingle-photo.jpg (11KB, 250x250px) Image search: [Google]

11KB, 250x250px

>>8573106
What's the definition of "series"? Will the "Pounded in the Butt" mythos count?

>>8573143
It says right there.

>>An eligible work for this special award is a multi-volume science fiction or fantasy story, unified by elements such as plot, characters, setting, and presentation, which has appeared in at least three volumes consisting of a total of at least 240,000 words by the close of the calendar year 2016, at least one volume of which was published in 2016.

Bakker time!

File: 1461366754786.jpg (368KB, 840x700px) Image search: [Google]

368KB, 840x700px

>>8567579
Thanks for the image.

File: horus-rising.jpg (57KB, 402x510px) Image search: [Google]

57KB, 402x510px

>>8555870
Anyone read The Horus Heresy series in the Warhammer 40,000k universe. Read a lot of background info on the history of the universe and it seems interesting enough for me to pick up the first few books to delve deeper into The Great Crusade. Just wanted to know if anyone has read them and what their opinion is.

Hey /sffg/, how many words per creature is appropriate in a beastiary?

>>8555870
Is there any book where the protagonist is a god just wandering around, maybe with a main cast? I feel like that'd be the comfiest thing, just doing standard fantasy stuff at their leisure.

>>8573106

"Award for science fiction book of the year" totally needs a twenty-fifth category.

Gold stars for everyone!

>>8574082
Yeah it could easily just turn into a second Best Novel award if they award it yearly, because it'll just get awarded to whatever favorite series got it's latest installment that year.

John Scalzi proposed making it a one-time award, that they only award it every five years with a larger number of nominees and a five year qualification window, with a additional definition of "volume" as being over 25,000 words and not a anthology to prevent people from gaming the system.

>>8574082
What they really need to do is remove the movie/tv awards

File: correct.gif (641KB, 250x126px) Image search: [Google]

641KB, 250x126px

>>8574135
Yeah, but then nerds wouldn't get their sphincter pleasured by knowing that Michel Cameronbay got another award for making explosions in space.

>>8573754
Fuck off with your 40k bullshit universe. It's glorified powertrip bukkake, and one of the worst fandoms imaginable.

>>8574166
Actually Gaunts Ghosts, Eisenhorn/Ravenor and Caiaphas Cain are good.

Which is offset by stuff like Ian Watson writing three pages about a genestealer pooping.

>>8573754
Yes. It's dumb as fuck and the sense of scale you get from the lore is lost when you follow dumb, bland and boring characters.
Just like many world building works, the wiki is better.

>>8555870
Decided to read more Vance. Started The Jack Vane Treasury. I'm expecting it to be as good as The Dying Earth vol 1 or better.

I'm always a little bit leery doing this on /lit/, you guys are a tough crowd to please, but I'll give it one attempt anyway. You guys like sci-fi and fantasy, you guys probably like writing, combine the two and you get:

I'm here representing a microfiction magazine called The Bard Quarterly. We do sci-fi, fantasy, some horror and other left-of-field genres with a bias towards talented amateurs.

We pay you money upon acceptance (though not a lot) and we respond to every submission, successful or unsuccessful, with feedback from two unbiased slush readers. If you want some feedback on your writing it's worthwhile penning something for the magazine, just to see what two people think of your work.

My image macro is over yonder >>>/tg/49604950, and it answers all the little questions. We've had a few submissions already, but I'd like to see that inbox stuffed fuller than an analogy I can't make on a worksafe board.

Thanks for tolerating my little interruption.

>>8570540
Personally I thought it was worth finishing but it definitely gets worse as it goes on. A lot of people hated the ending.

>>8569931
>This chart from the OP is pretty good.
Who gave that fucker permission to upload his shit tastes to the OP?

I like fantasy/sci-fi settings, but I'm kind of tired of their stories, so to speak. Anything with a more low-key plot and cast, not necessarily about princes and chosen-ones saving the galaxy or the king or preventing an apocalypse? Maybe even sorta slice-of-life-y?

I'd google it myself instead of bothering you guys but it's too vague to search for.

>>8575161
The Buried Giant is exactly what you want.

>>8575161
Haven't read much Heinlein I suspect?

>>8575161
Where do you retards even find this repetitive fantasy? Just about every commonly recommend fantasy that isn't pulp (which is also quite diverse) is like that.

>>8575196
Recommend some, then. Because from what I've seen it's all The Tale of Super Important and Competent Person/People and The Big Important Bad Thing That Needs To Be Stopped ft. Political Intrigue.

>>8575260
Did you try looking the OP recommendations, because half of the novels there would fit your description.

File: tmp_8991-The Jack Vance Treasury - Jack Vance-582166991.jpg (51KB, 286x432px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 286x432px

>>8574773

There are more than a few Dying Earth stories in the collection.

>Dragon Masters
>The Last Castle
>Sail 25
>The Moon Moth
>The Miracle Workers
>The Bagful of Dreams
>The Overworld

These are some of my favorites of his short stories in the collection. "Chateau d'If” sticks out to me as another really good story of his that isn't in the "Treasury".

>>8575161

Try "Araminta Station" by Jack Vance.

File: jemisincore.jpg (1MB, 2088x2328px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2088x2328px

>>8570550
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms came out five years before Jupiter Ascending. The trilogy is a weeb mess though.

>>8570671
Nahadoth isn't futa.

>>8573754
Read first 3 books. They all follow same story and characters. Enjoyed reading homo erotic space marine broship and horus being charismatic fatherly figure.
sadly after that series become a fucking mess.
You'll get some idea about lore and whats gonna happen next from 3 books.

I'm at the store right now and debating between Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse) and Dune .

I'm a /v/ user and looking to get into SciFi.

Opinions?

>>8575640
I haven't read Leviathan but Dune is really bad and doesn't hold up at all. So go with the other one I guess.

>>8575642
You sure that's not just your opinion?

People seem to recommend it a lot.

>>8575640
>>8575642
I agree with the other guy, Dune will not get you into scifi. It has interesting ideas, but that's burried between mediocre politics and dialogue, and the narrative moves very slowly.

>>8575640
Dune is good, but it requires a certain level of literary knowledge and learnedness to appreciate (see how I just slighted the other guys? Classic lit)

Leviathan Wakes is balls-to-the-wall popcorn fun. Everyone can enjoy it! Go for that one.

>>8575640
>I'm a /v/ user and looking to get into SciFi.
Dune is a wonderful book (and part of a wonderful series), but given your self-description, what this guy said: >>8575766

So I was thinking of how post-modernism and fantasy never really work as a theme or setting together and it got me thinking. Would you describe Book of the New Sun as the first post-modern fantasy? I think it fits all the criteria to be labeled as one.

File: 1461953856913.png (394KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

394KB, 500x500px

>>8575379
It's pretty much the same, the japanese love characters that can turn into both cute girls and cute boys or look extremely gender ambiguous: all of them pander to the same audience.

>>8576766
I think you are describing something that is more like "SF/F with post-modern elements" than "Postmodernism with sff elements." Wolfe might be the former, but the latter is probably a better fit for say, Ada or Ardor by Nabokov.

Dune can be kind of slow and seem one dimensional, but that's only if you do not read the sequel.

I have two books in front of me- The Lies of Locke Lamora and Tigana. Which, in your opinion, is better and worth reading first? Locke Lamora is the first in a trilogy (so far) so it'd be a bigger time investment but I've also heard it's a solid series.

>>8577306
Is this even a question both of them.
You might want to read Tigana first to get depressed and then Locke Lamora to cheer up.

>>8577387
I'll be reading both of course, just don't get as much time to read as I used to so I like to prioritise the "better" book first. I don't hear much about Tigana but those who've read it say it's phenomenal. Seems like everyone knows about Gentleman Bastard series though

>>8577574
Tigana is fantastic because Kay is great at characterisation and making you feel for the characters. It's a slower book but ultimately very rewarding. It's of a more literary bent then Locke Lamora but it is also less lighthearted although there is one very memorable moment of pure snark.

Locke Lamora is a series of incredible heists with plenty of plot twists and turns and less focus on the prose (but the prose is also comparatively good when placed next to a lot of modern authors) and fun worldbuilding. It's a bit like Code Geass in terms of how fast plot twists are pulled (and the MC is quite similar.)

However Tigana is a standalone novel while Locke Lamora seems to be hiatusing (Lynch already pushed back the date once.)

Why is there so little good fantasy noir?

The only three good ones I've read are Dresden, Something More Than Night, and Problem Sleuth and the last one is a fucking stick figure webcomic

>>8561991
Funny how shit The Iron Druid turns to after book 3. Book 1 is in my top 10 most-fun-to-read books though.

>>8577717
Felix Castor.

File: 1475479210384.jpg (20KB, 552x378px) Image search: [Google]

20KB, 552x378px

anyone know the context of this pic? Were they at a recent convention?

File: 473575.jpg (281KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

281KB, 1920x1080px

Why are there no exploration and adventure books in sci-fi? Everything is about philosophy or military porn.
I remember reading 20000 leagues as a child and beeing fascinated it.
I really liked all the detailed descriptions of alien life and trying to categorize them.
Or is this because I take my recommendations from /lit/?

>>8578068
If I wanted an adventure, I'd be playing video games faggot.

>>8577998
I just got it in my facebook feed from Gene, it was a convention from a few years ago.

>>8578116
Sweet

Hello yes who can tell me a good book to read that is like Blindsight or Accelerando Thank you

>>8578068
The first book of VanderMeer's Annihilation trilogy fits that somewhat. I really liked it, but the exploration is a bit obfuscated and hidden behind the mystery, so ymmv.

Is The Library at Mount Char a good book?

>>8578177
Yes. Unique, refreshing and good. It has a few utterly ludicrous scenes that made me want to punch the author, but overall I'd recommend it to basically every fantasy reader. The writing itself is functional and it mostly succeeds due to how much it differs from the usual fantasy stuff.

3.5/5, personally. And man, that one retarded scene still makes me fucking rage.

>>8578362
>and it mostly succeeds due to how much it differs from the usual fantasy stuff.
I don't know if that's a compliment.. sounds like you're saying it's good solely for trying something new, rather than actually executing it well.

>>8578364
The writing is solid, the story itself is good and very interesting and unique. I don't know what else you want me to say.
It's not going to blow your mind, but it's good. Especially if you're tired of the medieval Europe setting. I'd recommend it.
It's biggest positive is the unique setting/story/lore, which is why I mentioned it specifically.

I'm not going to chew your food for you, either you're interested or you're not. Do you want people to artificially 'hype' the book for you so that you can complain afterwards? Or do you want us to talk you out of it?
Just be an adult and make a decision on your own for once, instead of looking at other people for direction.

>>8578375
I'm not sure why you're getting so triggered / defensive. I just pointed out the "positive" you made wasn't really one.

>>8578377
>I just pointed out the "positive" you made wasn't really one.
Read:
>>8578375
>Its biggest positive is the unique setting/story/lore, which is why I mentioned it specifically.

>>8578148
I have never read Accelerando but,
Rifters trilogy / Echopraxia for obvious reasons.
Or Solaris by Lem, it has a lot of similarity to Blindsight.

>>8572935

I don't remember

>>8578552
You just started us auto saging.

>>8578560

What can I say, I'm a man of many talents

Dragon Masters is one of the most interesting stories I've ever read, Vance is really great.

>>8556532
KEK. My exact issue with Fitz in Robin Hobb's books.

Books that might fit your bill (some of them are pleb tier):
Golem and the Genie
The Goblin Emperor
Scourge of the Betrayer
Gentleman Bastards
Sanderon's Elantris
Pratchett's books are mostly light on the fighters
Johnatan Strange & Mr Norrell
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
The Black Company... kind off

Why the fuck cant I come up with settings that arent miserable and depressing? Like, I can write puckish rogues, shy anime girl types, laughing joker bards who can bring levity to any situation. I can write dumb brutes - look its easier to say that I can write(and with great feedback from people) the guardians of the galaxy fairly well.

But then every setting I write is a miserable fucking wretch. Every. Single. One.

Like I'm getting to the point where I want to fucking scream, because every setting is just miserable.

>>8578837
>Why the fuck cant I come up with settings that arent miserable and depressing?
Because you are an immature teenager who has spent most of his time consuming garbage and has no skill whatsoever when it comes to writing.

>>8578837
Generally, read more fairy tales and portal fantasy. Take a look at real life, and give something a completely fantastical explanation. Make it weird. Make it quirky. Ditch the character tropes, come up with a single, well-rounded character that gets to know and experience a completely new and mesmerizing word.

Go back to the roots of fantasy, basically: Making people dream.

File: fin.jpg (170KB, 1280x734px) Image search: [Google]

170KB, 1280x734px

New thread >>8579022