Fantasy
>Selected:
>https://i.imgur.com/qkz73sR.jpg
>General:
>https://i.imgur.com/igBYngL.jpg
>Flowchart:
>https://i.imgur.com/uykqKJn.jpg
Science Fiction
>Selected:
>https://i.imgur.com/A96mTQX.jpg
>https://i.imgur.com/IBs9KE8.jpg
>General:
>https://i.imgur.com/r55ODlL.jpg
>https://i.imgur.com/gNTrDmc.jpg
>NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:
>https://i.imgur.com/IJxTQBL.jpg
Previous Thread: >>8844105
>>8849931
First for Wheel of Time, greatest fantasy ever written.
>>8849948
This really tugs my braid
>>8849931
Goodreads Choice Awards time faggots
https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-science-fiction-books-2016
https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-fantasy-books-2016
TELL ME!
>>8849968
WHAT DO YOU SEE
>>8849964
>RETCON - THE PLAY winning
>tfw it triggers me more than it should
>>8849979
I MUST KNOW WHAT YOU SEE
How many of you here read novels based in RPG settings?
Specifically, I'm asking if any of you here read Ravenloft novels and if they're any good.
If Focus had a cross-media sibling within the sff genres, which book/series would it be?
>>8849964
>Fire Touched
>Tensions between the fae and humans are coming to a head. And when coyote shapeshifter Mercy and her Alpha werewolf mate, Adam, are called upon to stop a rampaging troll, they find themselves with something that could be used to make the fae back down and forestall out-and-out war: a human child stolen long ago by the fae.
Good Lord.
>>8850100
>alien spaceship from outer space
>aliens
>changing species biology with technology
>fucking nukes
why is this considered fantasy again?
>>8850125
That sounds like fanfiction.
Also, I never really understood the appeal of making werewolves act like wolves.
Werewolves were always meant to be monsters, solitary creatures.
Them having packs, the whole "alpha" and "beta" thing - it just didn't make sense.
>>8849964
Ninefox Gambit is one of the best scifi stories I've read in years and it's a fucking travesty it didn't get more votes.
What's the best place to start with LeGuin? I'm thinking either A Wizard of Earthsea or The Dispossessed.
>>8850243
From what I remember of that series, it's just basically the same chick over and over being chased by all sorts of dashing and rugged men and gods/demi-gods. Sure, there's a main plot, but it always seems like a side thing rather than the main issue when the personal life drama comes up.
>>8850228
>WE WUZ NO-GOD N SHIT
Recommendations for things without tiring/dense prose? Both scifi and fantasy
>>8850228it gets revealed in the Great Ordeal
>>8850174
Because magic n rape orcs n shieet
Someone told me pic related is good; i read the first 10 pages and find it unreadable drivel does it actually get good /lit/? Help
>>8850514
No, it's terrible.
>>8850514
I'm about a third into it. It doesn't get better. It's anime tier, but I'll finish it. Won't be reading the others in the series though
>>8850520
That's what i thought thanks anon
It's snowy out. What are some good books that pair with this weather?
>>8850541
>>8850541Song of Ice and Fire
>>8850564
>winter is coming
WHEN?
>>8850570
>a year ago Martin said he would do nothing but write Winds of Winter
>still no known release date
NEVER
Someone hit me up with some good fantasy anime for me to read please.
>>8850580
I bet he still blogs about sports and politics and other shit
>>8850541
>>8850584
Powder mage
Locke Lamora
Lightbringer
Shadow campaigns
Daniel Faust series
>>8850597
Was actually thinking of this. Last book I read was Summer of Night.
>>8850584
Shingeki no Kyojin
>>8850625
>SnK
>Good
How's it being pleb?
>>8849156
>"male:tomgirl"
CEASE!
>>8850641
Don't worry, once my 600+ page post industrial high fantasy epic (along with deep themes and philosophical discussions) it'll exist. /lit/ will be put on the map.
Should I?
>>8850652
Don't try and fight it
Just embrace your desire
Are there any scifi stories about a man fucking his robot waifu?
>>8850699
Might as well.
>>8850699
No, read something good instead.
What's the most christmasy fantasy novel?
>>8850699
If you want to go ahead. Don't seek approval for everything little thing you want to do.
>>8850765
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
The only thing I liked about the Rothfuss books is when Kvothe and his friends are hanging out at school or at the tavern. I use the books as a comfy friend simulator for this, but hate all other aspects of the books
Are there any books that excel in camaraderie and make you as the reader feel like you're "part of the gang?"
>>8850791
Malazan
Book
of
the
Fallen
>>8850790
Good choice.
>tfw you go to hell for being too lewd
>>8850699
I assume you've read Name of the Wind so you know what you're in for. Don't depend to much on memes.
>>8850806
>not synthesizing your own race of shape shifting dick girls who orgasm just by pleasing you
Consult did nothing wrong
>>8850705
C E A S E
E
A
S
E
god, the words are just not coming to me tonight. You writing anything /sffg/?
>>8850929
You are an /a/utist aren't you?
I went there sometime during the year and they went ballistic in teh sad panda thread when I said tomgirl.
Can TKaG be added to the charts?
Whats a good book/series for political intrigue or revolts and that sort of thing. Preferably Sci Fi but im alright with fantasy ones too
Your thoughts on songs/poetry in fantasy books?
>>8850121
Valis
>>8851393
I find it difficult to find the flow in many songs and poetry within books because of how non auditory books are
Unless it's like a really simple rhyme scheme, I find it difficult to imagine the pace and inflections someone reading it might carry.
That being said the few ones I've liked purely from being able to imagine it are 2 Tolkein songs, Far Over Misty Mountains and A Walking Song, and the Rains of Castamere from assoff
I find it personally better for characters to use poetry and song within their universe as quotations or little snippets of it, rather than reciting the entire thing
Anyone else find Citadel of the Autarch really depressing? There's something so soul-crushing about Severian's arc, and how basically nothing works out for anyone.
>>8851373
Expanse is the blindingly obvious scifi rec
Some Culture books too
Traitor Baru Cormorant, Empire Trilogy, Song of Ice and Fire and Long Price/Dagger and Coin are the fantasy recs I can immediately think of
Are there any fantasy series/books where the stakes are extremely small-scale?
One thing I think this genre struggles with, like Hollywood, is blowing things up to such massive proportions that the emotional weight is lost in spectacle
>>8851373
Dandelion Dynasty for fantasy revolution, Alchemy Wars for Clockpunk robot uprising
>>8851515
The Buried Giant
>>8851515
Golem and the Jinni. It's literally just an evil Rabbi trying to become immortal. No world domination, he just doesn't want to end up in Gehenna
>>8851174
I have an idea for anurban fantasybut it doesn't take place on Earth so I don't think I can call it thatstory where a guy and his sister are tricked by their town into living in their world's version of purgatory. Instead of trying to support their community by spreading the influence of their world's equivalent to a god they renounce their past ties and strive to attempt a comfortable life.
It's pretty rough and I'm still figuring things out. I'll probably drop it after getting too worked up over every little thing. Pretty sure someone did something like this too.
>>8851515
To Kill a God.
>>8851565
I thought I would have dropped this story too. I've never gotten further than the 5k word mark but now I'm sitting at over 10k words and I keep re-writing the entire beginning because it moves too fast and doesn't introduce her character properly. I'm betting I'm going to have to do it all over again too
Beginnings are hard, harder than almost anything else. You don't have strings to build off of, you have to have everything right to hook people right away and even if you go back to it you can't really work backwards
My story is noir fairy tale about a mafia don's daughter who can see the future. For seven years he relied on her powers to solidify his rule over the unsleeping city, but when a prediction goes impossibly wrong he winds up dead. Now the daughter is on the run, sheltered by a circus magician who seems a to know a bit more than just smoke and mirrors
>>8851640
Thanks for the rec.
Deeply appreciate it, I'll be sure to read it soon
>>8850584
House of blades
It is LITERALLY anime in prose.
It even has nothing personnel
>>8850713
There is a scene with someone fucking an ai android in Neal Asher's agent cormac series.she dies
>>8851526
I finally caught you fagget.
You made me read that shit book. It's literary fiction, not fantasy you fucking cunt.
Need more catgirls in fantasy nyaa.
>>8851614
Wait she is a don's daughter now?
I thought the magician orchestrated everything?
>>8851640
You linked your own post.
>>8851691
I remembered a book I wanted to read and thanked myself for it
>>8850641
Second Mistborn trilogy (quadrilogy). 1900 + magic.
>>8851373
Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
>>8851642
Wight's newest series (Unsouled) is also basically just a shonen repurposed into a fantasy book.
His other series outside of that and House of Blades is awful though, even for fun trash
>>8851614
Beginnings are hard for me too since I need everything to click. It's like my mind goes, "If it's not right not everything falls apart later." Right now I try not to get to focused on making one way the story begins work, just analyzing what does and doesn't work. Which is pretty hard to determine from one pair of eyes.
Any novels about space privateers/pirates (I'd ask for fantasy but I've already read Inda?
Ideally nothing with multiple ships on each side in battles as that isn't very interesting to me
>>8851702
What was it?
Foundation or Downbellow Station?
>>8851515
Kino's Journey.
>>8851744
Citizen of the Galaxy has space pirates in it. The Lensman series.
>>8850605
>Lightbringer
>good
>>8851811
Itsfun
>>8851373
The Shadow Campaigns series has a French revolution in the second book.
The second or third Dread Empire's Fall book has one of the characters leading guerilla attacks and starting a popular uprising during a civil war after a planet gets taken over.
The Blackcollar series by Timothy Zahn is about genetically enhanced human ninjas fighting against aliens after humanity gets conquered. It's pretty pulpy but is entertaining.
>>8851744
The Vatta's War series might be what you want. Woman from a merchant family gets kicked out of her planet's space navy in disgrace, so her family gives her a old space ship to get her out of the limelight. Eventually she ends up with a letter of marque.
Looking for a new book to read.
I liked the tower of the elephant and the dying earth.
Preferably something beautifully written, a little bizzare, testosterone soaked and **a little lewd**
No urban fantasy or sjw shit pls
>>8852040
Forgot another space pirate one: David Drake's Igniting the Reaches series is about Venusian pirates/privateers going after Earth-owned planets and so on.
>>8852041
Literally BotNS
>>8852041
You're describing Book of the New Sun.
>that scene where they're riding a dinosaur and he beheads the guy right as it walks into Vodalus' clearing
>>8851174
Just a Nanowrimo project.
I need to fix some finer parts with it and write the damn ending, but it's going okay.
>>8852041
What's the lewdest (not fanfic) sci fi/fantasy youve read?
I thought some of heinleins stories were pretty bawdy at points
>>8852083
Probably ASoIaF, but it tends to straddle the line between erotic and grotesque in a way that resonates with my own psychosexual morphology
So I finished Echopraxia last night and it was okay. it seemed too wrapped up in trying to sound smart to actually be particularly interesting though.
>>8851395
So I read book one and part of two. Are we done with Phil's pseudo-autobiographical story or will he come back to it? It seems like I just jumped from the schizophrenic, drug-fueled religious ramblings of the PKDongman himself to a completely different story about sci fi stuff.
>>8852083
I'd be interested as well.
Why isn't sf/f ever HOT?
>>8851275
STOP MAKING UP NEW WORDS FOR FAGS
>>8852173
>doesn't want to impregnate some cute boipucci
>>8850189
It makes sense if your target audience is women who get wet imagining themselves being ravaged by the ALPHA DOG.
>>8852187
Are gyarus /lit/?
>>8851785
No reason not to read both, but if I had to pick it'd be Foundation. I dont even know if I'd call it objectively better but it's more influential and you're probably more likely to like it.
>>8852083
Fantasy would be Kushiel's Dart. Main character is a courtesan/spy and sadomasochist.
SF would be The Girls from Alcyone. Decent YA scifi story about (IIRC) some girls who get abducted by a megacorporation and turned into cyborg supersoldiers, Main character fucks her girlfriend a few times. IIRC it was explicit enough that I remember going "wow this is a bit explicit for something targeted at teenagers."
>read Gardens of the Moon a year ago
>barely remember any of the finer details
>start second book anyway
>so far has barely anything to do with the first
On the one hand I'm relieved, on the other hand I'm still just as lost. Going to have to pay closer attention to this book I guess if I want to keep track of everything going on.
>>8849948
Is it really worth the time investment? Didn't the ending suck because Sanderson did his own thing?
>>8852264
Gardens of the Moon was written 11 years before the second book, so they very loosely connected.
>>8852268
Sanderson did okay, but he fumbled or even completely missed a bunch of the subtler plot threads (the Alliance between Graendal and Demandred for example) and completely butchered a few of the minor characters (Berelaine in particular).
It's worth reading once so long as you aren't going to get offended by a lack of philosophical depth, it's a hugely influential classic and a legitimately fun adventure series that didn't fall in line with the typical Tolkien fantasy cliches.
>>8852280
I just really hate getting invested in something only to have it end incredibly disappointing or not at all. It's why I won't even consider looking at Song of Ice and Fire untilifMartin finishes
I wish I could be as good a fantasy writer as the people I read every day. I know i'm not good enough, these people work their asses off and are quickly forgotten, but they do well enough to make a living and meanwhile I'm sitting here being panned by my own parents becuase my story is too hard to follow. I've re-written this passion project so many goddamn times it's become an inconsistent and frankenstinan mess of immiscible styles, aborted ideas and unnecessary repetitions.
pull the trigger piglet
>>8852385
KISS principle.
Keep it Simple, Stupid.
>>8852385
>an inconsistent and frankenstinan mess of immiscible styles, aborted ideas and unnecessary repetitions.
Hello Bakker, how are you this fine day?
>>8852385
I'm stuck in a rut and need to get some critique, but I don't have the balls to post it anywhere and I don't have any /lit/ friends. Save a bullet for me
>>8852389
how do you propose I do that? Just stick to the idea I had at the beginning?
tempting, but what do I do when I realize a plot hole, or need to amputate a segment that can't be salvaged? You can always see the weld lines, the skin graft is always slightly paler than the original
>>8852407
Take the story, strip it down to its fundamentals, and start over. Cut the fat. Don't amputate, re-write the entire story with the changes in mind. The biggest problem with most modern fantasy is the story keeps going much longer than it should have.
>>8852416
>start over
I'm almost 10k words in, and if there's one thing I've realized it's I'm lucky to get passed the opening. If I start over now this is never getting made.
I don't think I can do that
>>8852429
Re-writing your manuscript is an entirely normal process. It's called a Draft.
>>8852438
Wait, I may have misunderstood. Did you mean I should re-write the entire thing from scratch keeping only the modified outline?
>>8852444
Try making a reverse outline.
Break it down point by point what you're trying to show in each chapter, and see if there's areas that don't fit the goat, or wander offtopic
>>8851670
>Fantasy nerd mad that he was tricked into reading real literature for once
>>8852041
>**
Brother!
>>8852199
I wish. Science fiction needs that stuff.
>>8852290
As the other anon said, Sanderson did ok. While the ending could have been better, it is satisfying.
>>8850228
learn spoiler tags
Opinions on Brandon Sanderson? I read the first Mistborn trilogy and I enjoyed it, though the ending was pretty neat. Are his other works worth reading?
Also, I'm surprised no one mentioned The Witcher Saga by Sapkowski and The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I really liked both, had a few asspulls/ inconsistencies (especially the dark tower) but overall were great.
>>8852812
Sanderson is often derided here but it's telling that nearly everyone has an opinion on his work, i.e. most people here have read some of his stuff and it is very readable.
Mistborn is typical Sanderson, if you like that you'll probably like the rest of his novels especially those set in the same universe (Cosmere). I'd recommend the later Mistborn books, Stormlight Archive and Elantris (although that is the first of his published works and it is noticeable).
>>8852812
Witcher gets worse near the ending because Sapkowski was getting sick and tired of writing about it, so he was just rushing things off to some inevitable ending where they couldn't make him write any more about Geralt.
Basically, he was pissed off because they refused to look at his other works and publish them or market them.
>>8852812
Absolute trash, rivalled by the worst young adult stuff out there.
>>8852976
you forgot to mention how it's literally anime
>>8853036
anime written by a teenager on livejournal
Probably wasn't worth its own thread, here goes:
Greetings, denizens of /lit/
I've come from a Russian imageboard called 2ch.hk. A group of anons there, myself included, are interested in the shittiest literature possibly found in genres of sci-fi and fantasy, classifying it, reviewing it, and investigating why the fuck people write or read that.
We've, of course, so far had info only about our home market, which is currently dominated by a shitstream of trapped-in-another-world novels with Mary Sue protagonists, uninspired post-apoc stuff and awful RPG novelizations.
Now, we've become interested into what are the plague and cancer that ruin YOUR (US, presumably, but we welcome feedback from any corner of the world) fantasy and sci-fi.
(We know a couple years ago it used to be awful YA Twilight copycats, followed by equally awful YA revolutionary-dystopian Hunger Games copycats, but that's the most current info we have)
>>8853062
why
>>8853062
There's honestly not that much stuff that's truly, disastrously horrible that gets published now, unless you look at digital-only releases. Anything that gets a paper release is usually going to be bland and boring at worst.
That said the digital stuff is hilariously bad, there's actually an entire genre abut women having sex with dinosaurs bizarrely enough.
>>8853062
Look up Mercy Thompson series.
>>8853062
female protagonist urban fantasy, anything that has 'fay/fey/fae' in the blurb
>>8853062
Check out the phenomenon of 'Light Novels' in Asia, if you havnt already.
>>8852223
>>8852385
Taking recommendations on what the writing suggestions meme should look like.
>>8852723
Dhalgren, lolita, etc are considered "real" literature I read those and many more. Stop trying to trick people into reading shit.
>>8852723
>if it's boring and longwinded and uses the big words then it's TVUE LITERATURE
Ever wonder why literature is dying? It's because of people like you. People who memed McCarthy, Pynchon and their ilk into being considered Great Writers instead of pretentious hacks.
Hemingway was right all along. We didn't listen.
>>8852812
Read emperor's soul and then get back to us. It's super short(compared to hos other works) you can get back and discuss it before the day is out.
>>8853062
There are some truly bad novels in this list(books I read as of 2013) you can search their names.
>>8853062
As far as fantasy goes I'd say the shittiest there is must be Eragon.
>>8853069
We've tried answering that question. We've failed.
>>8853072
>Anything that gets a paper release is usually going to be bland and boring at worst.
Is there a pattern to blandness? As in, is there a trope/setting/plot device that occurs more often than other?
Do you think paper stuff is generally better because of low demand for shit books?
>That said the digital stuff is hilariously bad, there's actually an entire genre abut women having sex with dinosaurs bizarrely enough.
Do elaborate. I'm interested in as much details as you can give, this genre and others of this level of shit
>>8853075
>>8853076
You guys seem to be referring to the same thing. Do tell me about the spread of this genre. When did it start? Following whose success? Which recurring tropes (except already mentioned fae/fay/fey) are there?
>>8853131
We briefly have. Do you mean endless battle schools with unpopular kid protagonists. princesses, walk-ins into these princesses as they undress, and that type of stuff?
>>8853254
https://www.amazon.com/Taken-T-Rex-Dinosaur-Erotica-Christie-ebook/dp/B00FI9JFFO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481988307&sr=8-1&keywords=taken+by+a+t-rex
>>8853245
Why do you keep posting this humiliatingly shit list of books?
Have you expanded your reading tastes outside of lowest common denominator trash yet?
>There is a secret cabal of Russians specifically dedicated to finding and reviewing shit SFF
And now I have truly seen everything.
>>8853062
Worst fantasy books I've read:
The Dark Griffin by KJ Taylor
Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
God of War by Matthew Stover (video game tie-in)
>>8853261
>Trust me, if that is the worst you've seen in print, you guys are truly blessed.
It's the worst international fantasy I know of, yes. But there is something even worse in my own country. Not sure if you would know or care about Italian fantasy writers, however.
>>8853279
Know of? Likely not. Care about? Yes, very much.
I'd like to hear anything and everything that is worse than Eragon in your home market.
>>8853273
>The Dark Griffin by KJ Taylor
Unheard of, noted.
>Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
Again, a Russian holy grail. Maybe because author is a slav, maybe because it was one of the first SFF books to penetrate the market.
>God of War by Matthew Stover (video game tie-in)
Oh gosh, I feel your pain. We've seen a whole lot of video game tie-ins and rip-offs. Never seen a good one. Ever.
>>8853291
>I'd like to hear anything and everything that is worse than Eragon in your home market.
I have done some research and it's actually been translated into Russian, unlikely as it sounds. The title is "Хpoники вcплывшeгo миpa", I assume you can read this? Should be something like "Chronicles of The Emerged World".
Well anyway, THIS is the single worst fantasy that I know of, bar absolutely none.
>>8853304
forgot pic
>>8853304
Surprisingly, it has, and yes, it translates to exactly that. We've admittedly not heard of it before, but now I can assure you we will look into it.
Is it an isolated case of absolute shit though? Or is there a general trend in Italian fantasy towards this sort of books?
>People actually waste their time reading shitty books
The worst I had to deal with is Sanderson, his unintentionally hilarious dialogue and actually decent fight scenes managed to keep me going.
>>8853460
>an American can into violence but absolutely can't into personal interaction because smashing faces in is A-OK but sex is bad
Color me surprised.
>retarded americans hating on The Witcher books
Fuckers.
>>8853256
> Taken by the T-Rex (Dinosaur Erotica)
> In the Velociraptor's Nest (Dinosaur Erotica)
> Ravished by the Triceratops (Dinosaur Erotica)
> Taken by the Pterodactyl (Dinosaur Erotica)
I... I don't know what to say.
sup /sffg/?
is there a book like Enders Game, in the sense that it describes intricately a sort of space military training, only for adults? an inclination towards more realistic sci-fi would be a plus
>>8853273
The Acts of Caine guy also does shitty vidya novels?
>>8853597
That's actually pretty tame compared to Chuck Tingle.
>>8853693
Don't post Tingle here, you'll trigger the puppy autists
>>8851174
I just wrote the ending to my first novel. I'm so glad to finally have finished it, it's grown into a 101k word monster and I worry it's a little drawn out.
Now I need to start on the damned sequel.now if I could just get a fucking cover made
>>8853826
>now if I could just get a fucking cover made
Just hire someone with a modicum of actual talent off DeviantArt, a lot of them will whip you up something for five or ten quid.
GAS THE _____
_____ WAR NOW
>>8852812
He's hit and miss. I'm not a fan of Stormlight or his ending of wheel of time. Warbreaker and Emperor's Soul on the other hand are great. Just started reading Elantris a couple of minutes ago.
>Ineluctable
>Quotidian
>Benthos
>Quadrille
>Mutarch
>Oneiric
>Alterity
>Shadchan
>Sclerotic
Can any writer give me a bigger vocabulary boner than China M.?
>>8853261
There are a lot of good books inbetween(what's listed is my digital library, all the digital books I read), it's just that a lot are shit. Example rogue angel series, asylum tales, millenium's rule, annwm cycle, etc etc.
>>8853527
I'm American_____the southern variety___and I love the witcher books.
>>8853685
Red rising, undying mercenaries, books by BV Larson.
>>8853868
>wanted to fuck cosmerefag
>he is pol therefore not a degenerate
>>8851684
Indeed nyaa.
Know any good ones?
>>8853062
This book is terrible desu.
I would liken the writing style to verbal diarrhea. Bizarre plot, consists mostly of wandering around New York looking for protag's gay lover and meeting the people he was associated with.
Speaking of shit books
>>8853062
Confederates in space.
Confederate PoVs written in strange stream of consciousness, heavily accented Suhthunah. Almost unreadable.
>>8853900
Probably Wolfe, he loves a pseudo-Greek compound word.
>>8853062
I have no words to describe this.
>>8853954
thanks brev, appreciate it
>>8853685
Black Fleet Trilogy by Joshua Dalzelle
>>8853062
The west has lot of YA trash and enough self-published garbage on Amazon to fill a modern server.
Outside of SF/F you'll find that 1/3 of all western women write some shitty, touchy-feely book about their life and "travails" at some point in there life. We're literally drowning in copies of them.
>Centuries after the collision of dozens of fantastical worlds, order is maintained in the City at the Crossroads by Black Powder Knights. These individuals are anomalous dead zones for magical energy capable of operating old world technology rendered inoperable by the merging of worlds.
>The story follows Riger, a covert Black Powder Knight, as he infiltrates dragon cults, works to save a prophet's casino, and tries to prove the innocence of a pagan death god
Would you read this pulpy trash, lads?
>>8849931
What does /sffg/ think of this Steinbeck? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4097025-the-acts-of-king-arthur-and-his-noble-knights
>>8849931
Why is To Kill a God being pushed so hard by this board?
I haven't read it but I'm curious what is appealing about the book
>>8854124
It's the author spamming, no one else.
>>8854127
Why would an author shill on this site?
I would think there to be better places
>>8853685
Empire From the Ashes by David Weber
>>8854179
Because you can shill for a day or 2 here and anons will turn it into a meme.
>>8849931
Just gone through the Foundation and Culture series, quite enjoyed them.
What shall i read next, prefer several books in the series not too outlandish in terms of fiction.
>>8854105
Sounds like powder mage in vegas.
>>8854269
Kosher beef?
>>8851393
pretentious waste of time only used to bulk up the word countI'm looking at you Rothfuss
>>8854528
Pretentious waste of time describes Rothfuss well in general.
What is some /lit/ approved cyberpunk? I am totally new to this genre, but intrigued by the aesthetic.
>>8853226
>Hemingway was right all along.
Is there a quote that goes with this statement or something?
>>8854614
Altered Carbon
Probably going to sound like an autist asking for this but here it goes
Are there decent any books with political intrigue that revolve around that stereotypical "big things happening at a masquerade ball" sort of feel. Not set during modern times though.
Kind of in the mood for a fantasy series, should I go with wheel of time or malazan?
>>8854775
*tugs braid*
Is there any scifi that's almost exclusively about trading
Ideally with something like a protagonist starting from nothing and building up an empire.
The crucial thing is the focus on the trading, so Vatta's War for instance, where the protagonist is from a trading family, doesn't fit because the focus of those books is all about fighting.
>>8854102
>Outside of SF/F you'll find that 1/3 of all western women write some shitty, touchy-feely book about their life and "travails" at some point in there life. We're literally drowning in copies of them.
I've heard some stories about how Eat, Pray, Love has "singlehandedly ruined Bali". Like how food prices have gone up due to tourism so now the poorer locals can hardly afford food, and one from some Australian NGO doctor in the city who noticed that if his wife wasn't with him when he was out doing stuff, all the tourist-husbands would get all defensive because they thought he was out to steal their wives.
do I need to read beyond redemption to enjoy the mirrors truth? I read about 60% of beyond redemption
>>8854775
Wheel of Time for comfy, Malazan for world-building so thick you need a shovel to dig into it.
>>8854787
From what I glimpsed from Coin and dagger by Daniel Abraham it matches your request.
>>8854813
Funny stuff anon. Never read eat, blech, shit but that is funny.
>>8853900
Quotidian is a fairly standard word
And maybe Vance, a lot of his nonsense words are now real words
>>8853245
>Magicians
>Bad
you wot?
>>8854179
It worked for Tao Lin and Abercrombie
>>8854905
>can't read and comprehend
>on lit
I'm not even surprised
>>8854787
C.J Cherryh's Merchanter series. I think the Chanur books also have space traders as characters.
The Quarter Share series is really bad, avoid it.
It's not scifi but Spice and Wolf.
>>8854868
Yeah the stuff with Cithrin definitely qualifies. However the problem is it's only 1/3rd of the series. Another third is okay adventure stuff with Wester (who works for Cithrin for a while) and then some terrible shit with nobles and a autistic fat man in a leather cape who the author is trying to make into a ~complex~ villain.
Would you drop an author because you dislike their politics? Should authors stop being openly political?
>>8854974
No, I don't follow or care about any authors personal life. If I like the book I read it, if I don't I don't.
>>8854974
>Would you drop an author because you dislike their politics? Should authors stop being openly political?
No and no. Art is inherently political anyway, just like almost everything in life. The only thing that matters is if the work itself is good or not. For instance, I think JCW is a pompous blowhard, but apparently some of his stuff is worth reading.
>>8854974
1. Authors have literally never been apolitical
2. No because I'm not a baby
Politics affecting writing can be band, to pick the obvious example Ayn Rand was so concerned with political philosophy that she couldn't create a competent novel.
Within fantasy you see this with Goodkind who went from a subpar epic fantasy author to a mentalist whose books were just belief masturbation.
That's what's retarded about the guy trying to fuck up the Hugos, genre fantasy has always been full of politics and nobody has ever cared. Crying for a safespace without leftist authors isn't a positive move.
>>8854974
>care about me!
>why don't you care?
>REEEEEEEEEE
I don't like Scalzi but the other guy here is even more obnoxious, christ what an autist.
Any recommendations for sf authors like Alastair Reynolds?
I just finished Revenger so I'm out of Reynolds to read again.
>>8854932
>I think the Chanur books also have space traders as characters.
Yeah, they are traders, and a lot of space trading happens, but the focus is more on space politics. I dunno, it's pretty good.
The same could probably be said for her Merchanter books.
Anon would probably like Merchanter's Luck though. It's short, but has a start from almost nothing (down on his luck) protag.
>>8855003
Well, what did you think of it? Come on anon, contribute some good to the thread once in a while instead of only asking for things. People just moving on to their next read without at least dropping a mini review make me sad. Especially when said person actually read something that isn't commonly talked about here...
>>8855026
>>8855031
I'm a lazy sack of shit and this is my first time on /lit/ in months.
I thought it was good and definitely worth a read if you're a fan of his books. The easiest way to describe it was it's about pirates in space, but it's not an edgy cringefest like that would imply.
>>8851393
>songs
Pretty much universally awful
>poetry
Can be good.
What are some good pagan/norse/viking/european folk lore-esque fantasy novels?
>>8854974
As long as they don't try to push a real life agenda in to their works, I couldn't care less.
All I ask for is a little fucking professionalism from them. Telling someone who disagrees with you to fuck off? Not professional. See also the Rogue One writer tweets.
People should follow Notch's example and troll gracefully.
Are there any decent youtube book reviewers who focus on SF/F or just do a lot of it?(qt grills in particular, but not necessarily)
>>8855031
Not him but i drop my reviews in goodreads
>>8855103
Rick Riordan all covered
>>8855003
I read Chasm City and Rev Space, I found they readable but nothing special (7/10 maybe). Should I bother with Redemption Ark? Is it better/worse than the two I mentioned?
You'll just have to imagine you're Siri Keeton.
>>8854994
>Art is inherently political anyway
Hell we can look at most early works of scifi/fantasy and it's all allegories for popular social issues of the time. All those various Utopian novels from the 1600-1800s are just blatant "here's how society should work" stuff. Frankenstein can be read as a commentary on discrimination and (now) terrorist radicalization. The Isle of Doctor Morau was about the hot-button topic of vivisection in 1895. Bram Stoker's Dracula is explicitly a "oogabooga! the forigens!" story.
>>8853062
Everything by Brent Weeks is 2edgy anime trash
>>8855003
I think I've read most of his stuff. He's distinctive, don't know who's similar. Maybe some of the books by China Mieville, like Perdido Street Station.
You've even read all Reynolds' short stories? Those published in anthologies and stuff? I haven't tracked down all of those yet.Did you even read his Doctor Who novel? How was it? I haven't.
Is Ryk Spoor's stuff any good? Looking for some new stuff to read and both his Grand Central Arena and Balanced Sword stuff sounds good.
Also most "tryhard toughguy" author name I've heard since Myke Cole.
Any SF or Fantasy that is about fights to the death, gladiator style?
I know it's a setpiece in a few books but I've never seen it as a focus beyond the hunger games style ya stuff
>>8855031
I also read Revenger this fall. It was interesting, because he was going for a different approach to space sci-fi. It takes place in a solar system populated by a huge number of space-habitats and small planetoids. But most of them are uninhabitable, old or unreachable because of automated defenses or some stuff. Currently the system is inhabited by a loose civilization of humans who arrived there some time ago, but there is evidence of past civilizations of humans living there thousands of years ago. Because of the regression of technology people go on dangerous trips to these derelict stations, or baubles, to bring up loot. And it is on that kind of ship that the main character and her sisters soon arrive.
The world was interesting and there was almost no physics jargon - only explained what a G is once and for instance air is replaced with the word lungstuff.
The book was more YA than his other works, but only because of the youth of the main character and the more accessible nature of the sci-fi. There's no teen romance subplot or anything.
Overall entertaining with interesting ideas and gimmicks. Refreshing to see Reynolds write a smaller scale story that doesn't have the fate of humanity hanging in the balance.
>>8855523It's decent, not great exactly, but some nice little time travel bits and a very faithful addition to the 70s Pertwee series. Stephen Baxter's was better.
What are the best extremely long /comfy/ books or series?
What are some good, modern, non-traditional (i.e not medeival europe) fairy tales?
>tfw thunderstorm
Who /comfy/ hereabouts?
>>8855619
Berserker's Planet
From an Amazon review:
>When a group of decadent Earth people set out for Hunter’s World, they hope to find some sort of dangerous entertainment that will break the boredom of their spoiled lives. They hear that there is a special tournament being held in the honor of the war god Thorun, a tournament where 64 of the planet’s greatest warriors will fight to the death, until one man stands supreme. However, there’s an evil lurking on Hunter’s World, and the jaded young Earthlings are walking into more excitement then they could have imagined!
I read it years ago. A flawed book, but a residue has always stuck with me. Maybe the heated bravado of the warriors mixing with cold, remote prose. I think I'm going to reread it soon.
>>8855825
The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle
Maybe Cathrynne M. Valente's Fairyland books (I haven't read them)
>>8855825
Could you give a concrete example or two of what you're talking about?
>>8855589
>Myke Cole
kek a fellow reader.
Did you think the books should have been about bookbinder(unironically a paper pusher) and not the portal guy?
>>8853688
Yep. I only got it because it was by Stover but it was so fucking bad.
He also does Star Wars books.
>>8855852
>last unicorn
>buried giant
>dhalgrenget the fuck out
>>8855619
Gemmell loves pit fights but they're in the second book, both for Druss and Rigante
also Twelve Kings in Sharakhai covers it I think and that got some praise last year
>>8855871
>shit taste
no u
>>8855871
Dhalgren I can understand hating if it's anything like Hogg, but what's wrong with the other two?
Which series have the best waifus?
>>8855963
all the good waifus are on /co/ and /a/. books, even series, usually only have two-three types of female character and most of them are unlikable.
I guess Harry Potter is as good as you get when it comes to quality and variety, though most are underaged
you've got the brainiac, the girl next door, the manic pixie dream girl, the bitch (pansy parkinson), the popular girl (cho chang), the yandere (lavender brown), and Hellena Bonham Carter
>>8854322
No, the "knights" are associated with power because they can only get little mechanisms to work in their presence - guns being the most popular one.
In a world full of magic, being the only things capable of rendering it useless makes them extraordinary. They wiped out dragons with a touch - because it's easy to square-cube law something so massive with a bit of reality applied to it, and they made sorcerers and the like play fair, since it's hard to blast someone with a fireball when it goes right through them.
Vegas part is spot-on, though.
>most fantasy novelists these days are failed movie directors / comic artists
If you aren't going to play to the strengths of the novel, why the FUCK write in the first place?
>>8856326
>People trying to write as if their shit is a movie
I stole a criminally underused character in a comic for one of my stories because she was my waifu and now that I've been working for a year I realize why she was so underused.There is literally nothing interesting I can do with her, but at the same time I can't get rid of her because she'd leave a gap in the cast motifs
>>8856444
It's alright sometimes. I remember reading Pratchett saying that he wrote in a cinematic style, and it works very well for him. This is highly ironic considering how bad the actual film adaptations of his stuff were.
Is the lightbringer any good?
>>8856508
What do you define as a cinematic writing style? A focus on evocative imagery and accessibility over quality of prose and narration?
If that's the case, Douglass Adams is probably the ascended demigod of noncinematic writing
>>8856537
God no
>>8856562
I'd struggle to provide a neat definition like that. When reading Discworld I always had a clear idea of what the 'camera' of my mind's eye was doing. They always felt filmlike, in much the same way that ASoIaF reads like a TV show, even if you haven't watched the adaptation.
>>8856041
I bet you are a gay pedophile
>>8856537
>>8856537
Its fun, but isn't really memorable
What are fantasy (or scifi) books that inspire a childlike sense of wonder?
I haven't had much of that since Harry Potter all those years ago. Orphans Tales had a few ounces, and Dennou Coil made me depressed that Google Glass failed, but otherwise I've got nada
>>8855280
listen here you little shit. Don't recommend me that middle school tier author. That shit was good to me years ago but no longer
So are the Shannara books really that blatant a ripoff of LotR?
Got this lined up to read next. Sounds like the second Locke Lamora book but honestly I only bought it because I thought the title was pretty cool.
>>8854105
I would read it if you called them something other than Black Powder Knights.
Shit, just calling them Knights would work for me.
Is Bartimaeus the GOAT children's fantasy?
>>8855770
Whel of Time is unironically the comfiest SFF in existence, especially the early books.
It's also fun when you realize that the setting is NOT medieval at all but more like the Renaissance, plusit was once high-tech and almost sci fi but then civilization collapsed.
>>8853490
>muh sex and violence are equal
Door's that way.
>>8856699
Yes, they kind of are.
I liked the Voyage Of The Jerle Shannara series though, mostly because Brooks stopped aping Tolkien and did his own thing. Felt like an early Final Fantasy. Or maybe I was just younger and more naive.
So what's in your opinion the best order of the Knights Radiant?
My vote goes to the Dustbringers. Being able to Slick across battlefields and also light shit on fire sounds like a ton of fun.
>>8856947
>Sandershit
>>8857007
>stop liking what I don't like!
Not reading Sanderson doesn't seem to have made you into an adult. What a surprise.
>>8857011
I didn't say you couldn't like it. I'll just think less of you for it
>>8854671
I can't speak for the anon you're asking but as he hasn't responded, here goes:
"Ernest Hemingway: he has no courage, has never crawled out on a limb. He has never been known to use a word that might cause the reader to check with a dictionary to see if it is properly used."
-William Faulkner
“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”
-Ernest Hemingway
Another way to interpret what anon might have been alluding to is that Hemingway's writing is concise and compact, due to his experience as a reporter and correspondent.
>>8857026
Yes, that is exactly what I was referring to.
A truly great writer is one that manages to write in a clear and simple style without making it sound pedestrian, not one who shows off his expensive liberal arts education by using needlessly complex prose just because he can and not because it serves an actual purpose.
>>8857026
hemingway bores me to death tbqh
>>8857048
>A truly great writer is one that manages to write in a clear and simple style without making it sound pedestrian, not one who shows off his expensive liberal arts education by using needlessly complex prose just because he can and not because it serves an actual purpose.
I wouldn't argue that Hemingway wasn't a great writer yet there is something to be said for the more esoteric uses of the language. Hemingway's approach guaranteed him the widest possible audience; I suspect only a subnormal IQ English speaker would get nothing at all from his writing. I suppose this effect is a factor to consider when trying to find a market as a writer.
>>8857062
>there is something to be said for the more esoteric uses of the language.
I agree, that is why I specified that complex prose needs to be there for a purpose. Take Gene Wolfe. Book of The New Sun wouldn't work at all if it was written Hemingway-style. It needed to be written just like it was, because the oniric quality of the prose is an integral part of what makes it work.
>>8853317
Hey, I've read all of those in pic. They are mostly edgy fantasy for teenagers, but surprisingly have some no bad at all "dark", horrorish fragments.I also fapped to the first cover in second row.
Is there any site where I can post /sff/ short stories?
>>8857105
Are you Italian? If not then maybe the translation made actually LESS shit, because let me tell you, the original prose makes Paolini look like fucking Faulkner.
>>8854821
bump
>>8857022
>your opinion of me matters
No wonder people read some shit boring books even though they hate it. They want to be accepted by you cunts, how sad.
>>8857182
Not Italian, but Polish, so, yeah, I guess the translation might have improved writing by some margin. It's a really nice series for teenagers, less so for adults. I remember I really liked it when I was like 15.
When does Long Sun get good?
>>8857525
>long sun
>gud
>>8850560
Can confirm. These are great and harrison is one of my favorite authors.
>tfw Chad starts taking over your genre
>>8850514
it is shit because you want the main characters to be killed
>>8850791
stephen king it
>>8854614
I liked snow crash and neuromancer is considered the birth of the genre.
>>8857525
Only near the end, unfortunately. It's a necessary step to get to Short Sun though, which is excellent and well worth it.
>>8858003
I'm also wonderingexactly how fuckhuge this ship must be if they have whole cities and ecosystems in there and most people don't even fucking realize they are in fact on a ship?
Actually if /sffg/ hadn't spoilered it for me I wouldn't even have known myself.
>>8857934
ikr
>>8857934
>>8858054
And then there's Dr. Robotnik.
>>8857934
>>8858054
>>8858063
>tall
>good hair
>9 inch cock
>master of rape techniques
>>8858147
>oh Scott~, use me like a whale-mother
>>8858147
>can't defend his thesis
Just read this, and I gotta say that I'm a bit disappointed. I know Sanderson's not perfect, but I expected more from him. I liked the original Mistborn trilogy and The Stormlight Archives, despite the characters being somewhat standard/cheesy. They had energy behind them, and the climaxes always delivered.
This book though, it just felt completely sterile. It didn't hit any emotional beats for me, I never felt any tension, and I never gave a crap about the plot. Events just happened one after another without leaving room for surprises. Sure, there were some cool things in it, like Wax using shotgun blasts to alter his trajectory while pushing, but they weren't really worth it. I actually enjoyed Wayne's character, even if his levity felt a bit forced at times. Everyone else was crap.
Whatever happened to the "Sanderson Avalanche"? I kept reading because he always has awesome payoffs in his third acts, but it never went anywhere here. The epilogue plot twist did pique my curiosity again, but it was quite literally the only interesting thing about this story.
I gotta know, are the next two books worth the read? I'm tempted to give them a chance, but this one makes me a bit wary of them.
>>8856947
I like the Skybreakers.
>>8856699
The one where Walker Boh fights the Four Horsemen was neat.
>>8856942
Those too.
>finding out that they're fighting againstan A.I.
Is The Name Of The Wind readable if you love clever protagonists but hate medieval european fantasy?
>>8858713
>the /pol/tard loves the one order of Knights that autistically follows the letter of the law, even when doing so is obviously evil
No surprise here
>>8858907
No, there is not even a hint of cleverness in that.
>>8858907
>if you love clever protagonists but hate medieval european fantasy?
Oh yes. If that is all you want.
>>8858922
so it's not medeival europe?
>>8858927
Not that I recall. But the second book goes to shit.
He doesn't keep the story coherent and it's all over teh place.
Is there any urban fantasy that actually appreciates the urban setting rather than depicting it as a scummy, slimy stone ocean
>>8859025
Dresden Files
Felix Castor
>>8859040
Dresden does not appreciate the urban setting. Butcher doesn't even live in Chicago. Granted, the idea of Undertown was more interesting than the anything that actually exists in that New York knock-off, but a huge potion of urban appreciation is loving the city as a city and not a collection of suburbs
>>8859079
Then what you want is feelsie urban fantasy.
Try the Hollows by Kim Harrison, she likes to take pride in the city it takes place. It's a great series, but the author did the worst thing possible and listened to her fans.She changed the ending of the ending of the book to match what the vocal minority of your fans wanted. Series turned to shit.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Is it worthwhile?
>>8859136
Why?
>>8858673
They're pretty similar from memory, don't get worse but don't get better either.
>>8858915
I prefer vigilantism when its done well. I don't think Nalan has been doing it well.
New bread when?
>>8859250
>if you only want to read one book to form your own opinion of Sanderson, read Warbreaker.
I'd say if you want to form an opinion on Sanderson read Emperor's soul for a short story and Warbreaker for a full blown standalone novel.
>>8859282
When you bake it. Don't forget /sffg/ goes in subject and not name.
>>8859283
Emperor's Soul is godawful though. You can't really read anything of Sanderson except Stormlight Archive.
>>8859190
Where is the soul stamp mark?
>>8859289
*tips*Let me guess you like anime.
>>8859283
Agreed. Even though reading a short story to form an opinion on a writer is a little on the meager side.
>>8854787
the merchant princes series