/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General:

First for Finity's End.

C.J.Cherryh's merchanter books are underrated.

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Second for Rothfuss is shit Sanderson is anime

>>8859410
I was recommended Ready Player One by a friend, and the guy's other book, Armada. What do you guys think of these books?

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Just acquired 14 Harlan Ellison books, which should I read first?

>Approaching Oblivion
>Children of the Streets
>An Edge in My Voice
>Ellison Wonderland
>From the Land of Fear
>Harlan Ellison's Movie
>Harlan Ellison's Watching
>Memos from Purgatory
>No Doors, No Windows
>Paingod and Other Delusions
>Partners in Wonder
>Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed
>Stalking the Nightmare
>Troublemakers

>>8859452
New one next year too

>>8859486
As an addendum, I also wanna read Dune, and possibly some Arthur C. Clarke/Philip K. Dick.

>>8859486
They're pretty much just a vehicle for Kline to list as many 80s pop-culture references as he can think of. Like that Adam Sandler movie where Pac-Man and Space Invaders attack the city, except in book form.

What are some books like The Traitor Baru Cormorant

>>8859471
Buried Giant is shit kill yourself faggot

>>8859506
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/545wxe/more_books_like_the_traitor_baru_cormorant/

Linking reddit because the first reply is the actual author

>>8859510
What did you dislike about it?

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>>8859487
The ones that include the stories in this book.

Is Wheel of Time sexist considering that both women and men are regularly spanked until their asses are cherry red?

>>8859490
I am excite.
Would love a new Fortress or Chanur book. Dreams I must deny to myself.

what authors would go on a 'Patrician /lit/ scifi' starter pack?

>Wolfe
>Vance
>Lem
>Ballard

>Le Guin?

Who else?

>>8859518
>both women and men

I think you answered your own question

>>8859524
I would say Cherryh, but it depends on what you're looking for.

>>8859531
Imma make one of those compilation images of suggestions for people who want to read scifi but don't want straight genre fiction. I guess I'd include Dhalgren on there too

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>Bakker will never NTR you and impregnate your waifu

why live

>>8859515
It's literary fiction where the author wanted to throw in philosophy about "muh age" and "muh memory" and "muh loss".

He name drops a bunch of magical creatures and only gave you a pittance of a view of them.

"Axl I love you, damn this mist" "muh dead babies"

Fuck you kys fagget.

Is there any good collections of Greek mythology stories that are written in today's common english?

>>8859515
Not them but Buried Giant is just bad Ishiguro

I mean sure not many people try to do literary fiction as fantasy but it isn't a good attempt.

>>8859542
Dhalgren, botns, last unicorn, buried giant.

>>8859563
Percy Jackson

>>8859558
Ah, okay, I guess if you wanted a straight focus on the quest to kill the dragon it would be a bit disappointing - personally I loved the way it took that archetype and used it as a starting point to get into some deeper stuff (in general, I probably read more for muh themes than anything else). Fair play to you.

>>8859570
I have not read Buried Giant, but a lot of people in these threads seem to dislike it, whats the deal my family? I considered Never Let Me Go but most people have read that by now so I don't think it would be a good choice to include

>>8859574
no

>>8859563
Edith Hamilton, I guess - personally I'm hoping Gaiman will do a Greek, Celtic and Egyptian collection after "Norse Mythology" comes out.

>>8859558
seems like you're just mad that it didn't play into genre fiction tropes and actually tried to do something worthwhile. Ishiguro has always been minimalist with high concept shit

>>8859486
http://www.idontevenownatelevision.com/2014/06/19/010-ready-player-one-w-mike-sacco/

>>8859612
I agree that RPO is trash but fucking hell

Like half of the genre books that website shits on are decent, some of them even good

>>8859524
What makes Ballard patrician? I've never read anyhing by him and am curious to know what makes him good.

>>8859651
His books use weird sci-fi shit as a metaphor for the human condition. Basically.

Read Crash. If you like it, read Drowned World.

>>8859651
SEXUAL FANTASIES IN CONNECTION WITH RONALD REAGAN. The genitalia of the Presidential contender exercised a continuing fascination. A series of imaginary genitalia were constructed using (a) the mouth parts of Jacqueline Kennedy, (b) a Cadillac, (c) the assembly kid prepuce of President Johnson…In 89% of cases, the constructed genitalia generated a high incidence of self-induced orgasm. Tests indicate the masturbatory nature of the Presidential contender’s posture. Dolls consisting of plastic models of Reagan’s alternate genitalia were found to have a disturbing effect on deprived children.

More lewd sci fi recommendations like anon asked for in the last thread please

>>8859670
Space Raptor Butt Invasion.

>>8859665
How are his short stories? There seems to be a hefty tome of all his shorter stuff.

>>8859506
George Orwell

>>8859644
bro have you ever considered that maybe... genre fiction is bad?

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>>8859689

>>8859667
fuckin mint

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Is the Imager series worth reading?

I am looking for a fantasy epic that'll keep me entertained for a lot of books, don't mind a bit of cheese as long as it makes sense in context, but it definitely has to be "worth it" like WoT ends up being worth it because it gets there in the end.

Is there something out there like Lies of Locke Lamora except good? I like the idea of historical urban fantasy but it all looks so bad

Anything good for hard sci-fi? I've been reading a lot of Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds lately and while they're awesome, I'd like to try some more authors.

>>8859851
The Name of the Wind, desu.

>>8859851
Rogues of the Republic series by Patrick Weekes maybe?

>>8859876
Have you read Reynolds' RS short stories though?

>>8859914
out of curiosity, what is the setting on that? I have a strong preference for urban stories

At what point should you even create a new fantasy race, seems like all of them can be boiled down to not-Orcs and not-Elves, etc
You all have any examples of Fantasy shit that creates something unique while also being good? I'm curious

>>8859612
RPO is trash, but these guys are also fags.

>>8859978
Dagger and coin's worth a look if you just want an example

Entirely non-tolkien races largely just for the sake of ti

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>>8859978
Mieille does a lot of stuff with lesser-known mythologies in the Bas-Lag books. Where Tolkien's stuff (which is what virtually everyone since has ripped off) was largely Norse/Celtic in origin, Mieville takes khepri from Ancient Egypt, vodyanoi from Slavic folklore, garuda from Indonesia, and so on. There's loads of weird races and creatures out there that JRR never touched.

>>8859410
hey man thanks good shit

Ive been looking for books and I just ordered like 3 off amazon from these lists

Is Age of Myth greek-inspired, or does it just use greek-ish names

>>8860035
>>>/r/eddit

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>>8859410
>Stevian in Selected
Did you think we wouldn't notice??

>>8859471
>Second for Rothfuss is shit Sanderson is anime

Stop talking about things you hate and start talking about things you like. Stop polluting these threads with garbage.

I'm waiting for my library hold of the Difference Engine to show up. I'm pretty excited for it. Anyone here read it?

>>8860050
>nice trol...
>check
Who the fuck put that book in the charts? This is going too far. We don't troll people into buying books to fill one's pockets.
We come here to actually discuss shit and learn from others mistakes.

I swear anytime i see stevian posting in these threads I will report him from now on. This has gone far enough.

How far into a novel should the villain be introduced?

>>8860192
>how long is a piece of string?

They should be introduced precisely when they need to be.

What are some sci Fi books with a heavy focus on war and action?

>>8859732
I don't know but that middle book's cover is beyond amazing.

>>8860212

The Forever War

is GoT's worth reading? my mom is asking me what i want for christmas so i might as well ask for books and shit?

>>8860238
This thread tends to shit on ASoIaF because of the terrible TV show and the dumb stuff that GRRM comes out with regularly, but they're not bad books by any means. The story is entertaining, the locations and history is fun. I personally don't like how deliberately ugly the prose is at times, but lots of people seem to like that and think it's 'mature' or something.

>>8860238
do you already have the classics?
i'd rather go for tolkien than grrm, but to each his own.

>>8860238
Only you can evaluate if something is worth reading. A very simple metric to go by is if it doesn't interest you, don't bother.

>>8860212
David Drake does good stuff. The Hammer's Slammers series is the main draw (mainly about mercenary soldiers in tanks/APCs) but his other stuff is good. Seas of Venus is a short series (two books later collected into one IIRC) about PT boat crews trying to survive the immensely hostile jungle on a terraformed Venus, while his The Reaches series is about some Venusian space pirates in a sort of pseudo revolutionary America setting but in space.

The Lost Fleet series has some of the best fleet action stuff since the early Honor Harrington books. Everything else just sort of exists to provide filler between the battles though.

The Dread Empire's Fall series is good, space empire falls into civil war, focuses both on space combat and ground level guerilla operations.

The Spiral Wars series is about a commander of a starship mutinying and going rogue after his commanding officer is murdered by a conspiracy, I'm two books in and it seems pretty good so far.

Vatta's War is about a woman from a shipping family who gets kicked out of a naval academy in disgrace, so her family gives her a ship and sends her off to stop embarrassing them, but she ends up getting a letter of marque and forming a privateer fleet. Also she's a bit of a psychopath.

If you want something more in the vein of Aliens, I'd suggest the Lazarus War series, which is about soldiers using remote controlled bodies vs biotech aliens, or The IX, which is about groups of soldiers from various timelines (ancient Rome, 1860s US frontier, near future British commandos) getting abducted by aliens to fight demons.

For fantasy, all I can suggest is the Black Company series and the Deed of Paksenarrion. I don't read much fantasy.

>>8859591
>genre fiction tropes
>not worthwhile
And I don't even mean Hero's Journey. There are a million ways to have a fantasy story that isn't generic but isn't boring downer crap.

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>>8859978
Sure, Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword. It's got elves fighting trolls in IRL northern Europe, but the elves are freakishly alien in their psychology and shudder at the sight of the cross, and the trolls are mysterious magical Finnish brutes. He cleaves closer to the sagas than Tolkien did and creates something incredibly refreshing to our jaded modern eyes.

Actually, has anyone done bird-men? I'd love to see that done well.

>>8860131
>anyone going to Amazon, seeing the book, paying 10 United States of America legal tender owl-and-pyramid dollars for it
they deserve it to be quite arch with you family

>>8859732
I've read some of Modesitt's SF and it is some of the driest prose I have ever read, and I liked Dune.

>>8859586
What is his Norse Mythology even?

>>8860530
Basically just stories from the Eddas retold with nicer prose.

>>8860543
Does he discuss the originals? Like a foreword for each story or something like that?

>>8860238
GoT is very boring at least in my opinion. I dropped the series and do not honestly see any merit in the books.

>>8860552
Don't know yet; it was only announced about a month ago. I'd imagine so, though, if the amount of stuff he puts in the intros of his short story collections is anything to go by.

>>8860588
Oh right, I read about it like a month ago and figured it release before christmas.

>>8858147

The face of a man who has grasped the absolute.

>>8859550
I wonder what kind of mind tricks does he use. That's the face of a man who could fuck any chick.

>>8860737
>tall
>big chin/jaw
>probably babbles philosophy to them
>"oh bakker-kun u so smart"

plus, after having read all kellhus's manipulative bullshit, there's no way bakker isn't familiar with the PUA industry

probably visit college campuses and slings his seed like pancake batter

>>8859524
Le Guin is trash
Add Blish and Brent Weeks

>>8860192
5 pages before the start of the novel

>>8859670
Philip Farmer, John Norman

Terry Pratchett is good read rite?

>>8860996
Yes, most of his stuff is good

>>8859684
Pretty good, they're enjoyable little slices of his world

>>8860977
>Add Blish
Who is that?

>>8860996
>>8861001
>reading any author with Terry in their name
>ever
You will learn..

>>8861098
James Blish, classic sci-fi writer.

>>8859524
If you add the Strugatsky brothers, and remove Vance, then it would be a nicely balanced selection of five authors, each of them representing of a distinct area of SF:

Wolfe (fantasy/dying earth/religious subtexts)
Lem (hard SF)
Ballard (British, new wave, psychology)
Le Guin (woman, utopian/political/soft SF)
Strugatsky (Soviet SF)

If a layman read one book by each of these five, he would surely find where his interests lie in literary ('patrician') SF. I would omit Vance because there is a broad overlap with Wolfe.

>>8861146
Half of these are communist propaganda (Lem is only partially).

Any gri book being released in December?

>>8859978
the ant race in Daughter of the Empire trilogy seems a good example.

>>8861167
Lem wasn't actively trying to produce propaganda, but his jaded worldview sort of ended up seeming like it. Same as Strugatskys really.

>reading Salem's LOT
>book is about a successful author who returns to his childhood town and cucks the virginity of a girl one of his childhood acquaintance was chasing
>acquaintance was after the girl for at least a year
>author gets pucci in less than a week, two at the most

Is King even trying with this blatant self insert? Jesus christ my sides need a full brace and plaster, they've been pulverized

>>8861490
There is literally nothing wrong with self inserts.

so i'm reading some arthurian shit in preparation for a screenplay that i am going to write, but i want to know if i've got the right books.

so far i have checked out:
the once and future king
sir gawain and the green knight (norton critical edition)
le morte d'arthur

anything else worth reading?

>>8861586
>it's another fucking Arthur movie

>>8861736
This. Why bother if you're never going to top Excalibur?

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>>8860437
I've wanted to make a race of necromantic vulture people like pic related but never had a story that warranted such a species

>re-reading the story I've been working on for months after a writer I followed started posting tips based on how she fucked up her last webcomic
>it's all garbage

>>8861855
>You will forever keep writing the beginning to your story

>>8861861
no, at least now I realize that there's nothing there to salvage

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>>8861586

>>8861736
>>8861752
it's not an arthur movie. i should have clarified that i'm basically looking for chivalric romance type stuff. i listed a bunch of arthurian stuff because that's all that i know.

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>>8861490
>2016
>not showing up in your childhood town and cucking the guy who used to bully you / cucking your old teacher
Chicks are into the well read nowadays bucko

>>8861586
>in preparation for a screenplay that i am going to write
>>8861921
>it's not an arthur movie

Make up your fucking mind. also read buried giant, shawn speakman Arthur books, etc

>>8859876
Most of Clarke's stuff still holds up well as hard SF.

>>8861949
Man I wanna fuck Jordan's wife so bad...

>>8860271
Can you give an example of good prose vs bad prose? Can you type a sentence(s) in good prose then type the same thing in bad prose?

I'm new to reading and this board in general so I don't see what people mean by this. Is the prose something that is objectively bad or is it mostly opinion based

>>8861962
I'm in the same boat. I can tell extremely well badly written prose like night and day, but mediocre to good is when the lines get blurred.

>>8861961
>google Jordan's wife
>she is the reason we have black company and ender's game
Not bad

>>8859876
If you feel you're ready to have your life changed, Blindsight.

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>>8861962
Good prose - paints beautiful pictures in your head, flows well, you can distinctly hear the authors unique voice with every sentence
Workman prose - basic, gets the job done, doesn't particularly stand out
Bad prose/Purple prose - fails on both ends, slams you on the head with a dictionary, wastes time aimlessly without advancing the plot/themes/characters, pain to read

>>8861962
Prose is writing style
It's how you use your words to get across ideas
Deep prose would have a bunch of meanings and would allow you to experience smells and sights as if you are there
Bad prose is one dimension, things aren't described well and the story doesn't flow off the page

>>8861962
I think each author puts out differing proses during the course of their careers.
Example Sanderson :
>good prose
Emperor's soul

>workman prose
Stormlight

>bad prose
?????

>>8861752
How about a story building off of that where Arthur turns out to be a tyrannical ruler despite being the one who pulled the sword and practically being the chosen one.

The someone of ____ origins stops him for ____ reasons.

I don't know. I'm a sucker for twisted versions of classic stories for some reason

>>8862046
Emperor's Soul is not anywhere close to good prose. Sanderson's stuff is on a line between workman/bad, you could argue for either.

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>>8861798

>>8862054
I never got past Elantris when it comes to Sanderson. I do have a copy of Way of Kings. Is it as bad?

My problem with Elantris was I didn't care much for the characters and the humor was cringe

>>8862069
The humor and dialogue is still cringe but otherwise that and Words of Radiance are his best books. It has an incredibly slow start though.

I think it's time to let go.
>nothing I want to read
>just realizing Im an awful writer even after years of practice
>4 months without a job
>can no loger experience even momentary joy
>even with a dangerously high dose of antidepressants

>>8862133
At least your dick works. I took Ashwagandha and my dick hasn't been working for close to 3 weeks. Getting really worried...

>>8861167

Philip you are dead, go back to the nether realms.

Is CJ Cherryh a good author? Not too big into sci-fi, mostly due to a lack of exposure, but her world seems to fascinate me based on what I've seen.

>>8862150
Im a 23-year-old virgin so the dick doesnt really mean much

>>8862150

>believe in magical plants and "alternative medicine"
>get kicked out of the gene pool

Perfect. It's like poetry, it rhymes. Now you can't pass stupidity to the next generations.

>>8862185
You don't masturbate? Having that once a day joy gone feels bad. Also no longer feeling good looking at hot girls...
>>8862190
There's nothing magical about it, it has studies done on it and is proven to be potent. Hell, it worked for me. Just got a very rare side effect.

Do people actually like Bakker? I only see memes on either side. What are some real arguments for/against The prince of nothing ?

>>8862232
Read it and find out.

>>8862190
Not him, but a non-insignificant number of traditional medicines do have proven medical applications, though they are obviously less effective than the refined active ingredient.

A large number of those traditions come from people noticing patterns in legitimately functional remedies and extrapolating to find a bunch of plants and mushrooms they think will work but dont

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>>8862150
Have you tried getting a qt cosplayer gf?

>>8861549
Have you read rothfuss?

>>8862164
She's good, go for it.

>>8861586
Ivanhoe nigga

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>>8859487

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>>8862164
Cherryh is the best. She's also got some fantasy series if you'd prefer (Fortress series and Russian stories are pretty good).

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I enjoy seeing kaladin suffer and I hope book 3 opens up with his parents being horribly killed.

>>8862416
>>8862333
Where do you guys recommending starting with her sci-fi stuff?

>>8862465

>implying they are even alive

There is a reason they didn't reply to his letter about Tien's death. Roshone probably hanged them the second Amaram left town.

Did I do good by getting the first two Discworld books if I am in mood for comedy and book about wizard?

>>8862497
No since they suck. You skip them and start with one of the good books in the series instead

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>>8862474
Chanur series is a comfy HardSF space opera. Alien merchanters make first contact with humans (whole book is alien pov) and get embroiled in interstellar politics. Skip if you can't handle unpronounceable words (alien proper nouns).
Downbelow Station is another good entry point. Again, heavily political space opera, but mostly based around a single station.
If you find space boring and can't get enough political machinations, read Cyteen.

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What am I in for?

>>8862532

A lot of shitposts by our resident autist, mainly.

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>>8862465
>lash x10 to the tree behind town's lighteye ruler
>appears behind him
>nothing personnel sir

>>8862556

Funnily enough his oaths now prevent him from just up and killing Roshone in cold blood, on pain of losing his powers for good.

>>8862555
>resident autist
Plural

>>8862532
A good nights sleep.

>>8862562
So he can't kill people? Just voidlings?

>>8862572

No, he CAN kill people, but it has to be "right". As in, he can kill in self defense, or to protect someone who can't defend himself, and so on. He can't attack and murder someone who can't even fight back.

>>8862575
>throws a sword
Pick it up
>guy picks up the sword and attacks because obviously kaladin is unarmed
>kaladin makes shardspear
>kills
Found your loop hole

>>8862575
What happens when kaladin fights the lord and he has a dead spren blade? Doesn't it hurt live spren to fight shardblades?

>>8862555
>>8862569
It seems pretty dope do far, though...

>>8862585

wouldn't work because Kaladin's spren has a will of her own and would surely judge an act like that "not right".

Your method could work for a Skybreaker, though. They're autistic like that.

>>8862591

Don't know. So far, Kaladin has used the live shardblade only to fight an Honorblade, which isn't spren-based.

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What do YOU personally prefer,

Dune or Foundation?

>>8862497
The first few books aren't as fleshed out when it comes the worldbuilding and the style of the series. Guards Guards is often recommended.

I love Rothfuss' books, and everyone here is just jealous that he manged to publish his own self-masturbatory fantasies to great success. Y'all like to call them bad books, but they're awesome. I bet none of you will ever make something half as good as The Name of the Wind. I've literally never seen legit criticism of his work; only whining about Rothfuss.

>>8862703
>I've literally never seen legit criticism of his work
The world is highly derivative of Hogwarts and/or Earthsea, without so much as a single original creature or magical element. Kvothe is an insufferable egotist who prances from victory to victory without ever experiencing any sort of inner conflict or failing. Worse, he steals the spotlight in every chapter, detracting from potentially interesting people like Elodin. The sex scenes are lengthy, gratuitous and add nothing to the overall work except another opportunity for Kvothe to be excellent at something. The plot is meandering, often nonexistant, and takes roughly 1000 pages per year of non-events. The prose is easily digestible, but that's about all it has in its favour - there's no nuance or poetry, apart from the times when Rothfuss crams in an actual poem or song, which are uniformly horrible and pretentious. The antagonists, when they actually bother to turn up, are generic beyond belief, fitting neatly into the "shadowy ancient evil with no discernible motive or characterization" mold.

Really, what's GOOD about it?

>>8862806
>What's GOOD about it?

Everything you just said.

>>8862703
Fuck off, Patrick.

>>8862232
>>8862244

Really guys... only memes and no answers ...

>Le gay rape incest
>omg stupid edgy prose

Am i doing this right ? This place is dissapointing sometimes

>>8860050
Scilling???

>>8862826
And you're part of the reason because you make retarded posts instead of just reading it for yourself.

>>8862616
Isn't kaladin a skybreaker? How many of the knights order can fly through the air?

>>8862826
>on lit board
>don't want to read but wants to join innon the memes
>guys tell me what happens in x so I can pretend as if I read it

Wtf are you doing here?

>>8862826
If you really want to have to have a substantive conversation about something, you need to actually read the book

>>8862874
what? no. he's a windrunner.

each of the orders seems to share one thing with another.

windrunners and skybreakers can both fly but skybreakers can set shit on fire like the dustbringers and the dustbringers should be able to slip and slide around like sanderson's favorite character lift, an edgedancer.

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>>8862927
I have no idea what book this is, but from its terminology I can tell that it is extremely juvenile

>>8862945
it's YA fiction written by an autistic Mormon who can write a good fight scene but is afraid of boobies and lady bits.


the wait for book 3 is killing me, that horrible lift short story didn't ease my hunger.

Okay, I noped less than a page into The Name of the Wind. Not going back to that.

I need a slightly obscure fantasy with a good aesthetic

>>8861855
Who were you referring to?

>>8862970
The Mormonism files off any rough edges, but also files off anything that might be overly interesting.

>>8863012
Xamag. The sad thing was, her webcomic wasn't even bad but she cancelled it anyways.

honestly the entire thing came at the worst possible time for me because it hit me right in the middle of doubting my own abilities. Now I'm afraid to even try to salvage my story

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>>8862970
>reading for fight scenes

>>8863051
Wait, the same person who does black brick road of Oz?

>>8863091
did

>>8862028
>you can distinctly hear the authors unique voice with every sentence
This is neutral, it's not inherently good. Or rather, it's only good when also coupled with perfect clarity. Originality in itself is not a virtue. As a writer you eventually come to the crossroads of cliche. In order to avoid cliche there are two main paths you can take: the "safe" path of what you derisively call "workman prose," and the more risky path of contrived originality. Ideally you'd reach a point where your natural writing voice is totally original and free of cliche, but if you're that much of a prodigy the regular rules of writing hardly apply to you.

>>8859452
>>8859531
>>8862333
>>8862416
Alright CherryH fags, which one of her books is the best?

>>8862945
It's just a variation on the time-honored fantasy tradition of having lots of made up words for things. Only without the made up languages to go along with them. Like an manga/anime getting localized and now all the attack names are translated into English, so they sound goofy since you understand what they mean now.

I'm bored out of my mind /sffg/. give me something fantasy to read that isn't generic as shit

>100 pages of world building just to set up the story
How much is too much!?

>>8863304
Name three good fantasy books

>>8863323
The golem and the jinni, the grace of kings, the orphan's tales

>>8863333
Ah, you're that guy looking for modern fairytales.

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>>8863333
Have you read The Thief?

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>>8863340
Or Jonathan Strange?

>>8863336
yeah. I'm that same guy. I keep finding other things to read just barely, but more and more often I find myself finishing things I quit half-way through.

>>8863340
no, I'll check it out

>>8863346
tried it three times. Every time I found it too dry and boring and slow

>>8863350
>liked the shit fest that was grace of kings
>didn't like Jonathan strange and Mr norrell
And you guys call me pleb

Is there any decent epic fantasy series about the Christian Heaven and hell?

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>>8862993
Everworld

>>8863399
what's so bad about The Grace Of Kings?

>>8863433
Paradise Lost :v

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Can I get some fantasy/adventure recommendations from /lit/? Having a hard time finding a title that keeps my interest. Most fantasy titles are simply too interested in individual emotions and microinstances. One of my favorite titles is "The Longships" since it doesn't fuck around with the small shit. Other Also a fan of the Witcher, especially the early short stories. Looking for inspiration for a comic I'm writing.

>>8863433
Try Dante

BEST COMFY FANTASY

GO

>>8863433
Unironically seconding both Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost.

C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy is probably close enough to what you're asking for if you want something modern.

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>>8862993
Lyonesse

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>>8863718
The king of comfiness.

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>>8862591
>live shardblades cut through dead shardblades
>guaranteed replies

>>8862654
Dune. The stakes feel more important, the characters more vibrant, the history better applied, the intrigue more tense, the action more satisfying, and also the phrase "family atomics."

>>8862661
They're great if you've been playing original D&D and reading Fafhrd.

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>>8863347
>>8862993
The High House.

>>8863624
The Broken Sword. It also has longships and vikings but also elf rape and incest, blends a lot of mythologies seamlessly, and has some really good battle scenes.

You also might try The Worm Orobouros, though that's a bit more slow-paced at first.

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You are Nightspore

d...damn...

>>8863433
Lewis' space trilogy
Gene Wofle
Chamiel
To Reign in Hell
Weaveworld
Paradise Lost/Divine Comedy as mentioned
Faust
The Master and Margarita
The Mysterious Stranger

>>8863718
Pratchett, Beagle, and Wynne Jones

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>>8863624
I recommend Michael Moorcock's The History Of The Runestaff. It's an omnibus of four short novels. It is tautly written in small chapters, with no long passages of exposition, with each novel being about 200 pages.

It is a book without pretension, written in the Robert Howard pulp style, following a young German prince's revenge against an evil British empire in a future 'dying earth' low fantasy setting. Sword fights, castles, journeys, and vestiges of advanced technology treated like magic.

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Is this worth a read?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13536811-a-blink-of-the-screen

Just read Nightfall by Asimov. Overall pretty good but a massive fucking plot hole.

Asimov tried to rationalize the fact that everyone tries to find refuge from the stars by burning cities to the ground for the flame, but there's no way every trace of human civilization would be eradicated by bonfires, artifacts must be spread all over creation and in various levels of substrata over 2000 years. It's highly unlikely that a civilization would exist for that period of time without finding documentation or remnants of predecessors

>>8864341
None of Asimov's plots make any sense.

>>8864348
why is he always included on patrician scifi lists? Even the OP has Nightfall on one of the graphics next to Vance, Wolfe, Le Guin, Strugatskies. Like that plot hole quite literally ruined the premise of the story

>>8864354
He's popular and prolific and was writing at a time important to sci-fi history.

It really depends on what you're looking for too. Asimov is basically all about the ideas, his actual writing, characters ect are generally pretty poor.

>>8863865
I remember syl screaming and begging kaladin not to do it again was it when he picked up a blade or when he clashed? I read a lot, and I mean a lot of books since words of radiance

>>8863433
Bakker's Second Apocalypse, although Heaven and Hell are reworked to fit the fantasy world, it works with similar Christian concepts of sin. The whole Aspect Emperor series is about avoiding Hell and interpreting the will of the Gods.

>>8864341
It's an idea piece, take a chill pill. That's why you don't read the Silverberg novelizations.

>>8864341
they're not humans

>>8863304
No because nobody reads them when I recommend them.

>>8859851
New Weird genre is often set in cities

>>8859851
Unironically Ankh-Morpork.

>>8863433
Dante was great.

who should i read if i like le guin, lem and jg ballard, but don't care for tolkien, pratchett, general fantasy 'muh worldbuilding'?

>>8864833
The Buried Giant

>>8864341
Plot sounds so interesting. Damn.

>>8864840
It's a really short story, read it yourself. That other anon's just autistic.

>>8864833
Roadside Picnic, China Mieville, Kefahuchi Tract trilogy.

>>8864833
Hard To Be A God by Strugatsky Brothers. It reads like a medieval/science fiction crossover, because the idea is that spies from Earth are covertly observing a primitive extraterrestrial society who are still in the feudal stage.

>>8864987

mieville is garbage

>>8865018
You are garbage

>>8864745
This

>>8864836
Buried Giant is a shit don't ever read it

>>8864833
>liking LeGuin
pfft. Kys, familam
>Our brown protagonist browned his way down to the brown sea, a brown frown on his brown face. Brown.

>>8865032
It's gonna be so delicious when /pol/lies do dna tests in a few decades and see that they have black or brown blood in them. The one drop rules should then force them to an hero.

>>8865021
I may be garbage but at least I'm not Mieville

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>>8865007
Did someone say medieval/science fiction crossover?

>>8865044
>implying the majority of /pol/ users aren't already Hispanic
but I'm sure they'll go right along with what you imagine they'll do

>>8865032
Pre-1975 Le Guin, I keep telling you. Everything after may as well be Atwood.

>>8865055
>but I'm sure they'll go right along with what you imagine they'll do
Is that sarcasm? Because if you are all "white powah kill blacks" and you find out your greatx4 grandmother was black doesn't that mean you should kill yourself? Or is racism only convenient when it leaves you holding the "power".

>>8865067
>if you disapprove of Le Guin rubbing her characters' brownness in your face to the detriment of any plot, you must be a suicidal maniac
>but don't generalize people because of their race

>>8865044
0.01% nigger does not make one a nigger.

>>8865067

please not this shit again. This will just derail the thread and then after 100 shitposts everyone will still hold the same opinions, it is utterly fucking pointless.

>>8865070

not like it's gonna change anything, but in Earthsea at least the color of Ged's skin is barely even mentioned, let alone "to the detriment of the plot". But of course you'll go on believing whatever.

>>8865067
Do black racists kill themselves when they find out they have white blood?

>>8865075
>in Earthsea at least the color of Ged's skin is barely even mentioned, let alone "to the detriment of the plot"
Yeah, that's pre-1975. Try Four Ways to Forgiveness someday.

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how do i manipulate bitches like kellhus does?

>>8865078

what happened in 75 and why are you so fixated on this particular date

>>8865086
She was raped in 1975

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>>8865086
Whoops, 77.

Unless race or racial conflict is the theme of your book the correct way to approach it is to mention the characters ethnicity once in description and forget about it.

PKD was pretty good about that usually. Except maybe with the blacks, but the they were kind of side-theme of his.

>>8865091

second wave feminism isn't that bad. While I don't agree with her politics, LeGuin has always seemed to me a reasonable person, not at all like the men hating third wavers.

>>8865091
Wow. It's like watching the downfall of woman in just a few sentences.

>>8865102
She's reasonable in a lot of things, and most of her criticism is on point, but it's impossible to stay awake through any of her post-awakening novels.

And I don't even have anything against female protagonists.

>>8865093
You are right about PKD and race. His novel Martian Time-Slip comes to mind. Incidental characters like the contractor's Chinese boss, and the luxury goods salesman who is of latino extraction. There is no laboring the point about race, it is just something that is there in the background to flesh out the cosmopolitan society of Mars, making it feel like the West Coast the author lived in.

>>8865093
Asimov did it ok, merely by calling everyone North/South/Easten/West-eners, of White/black/Asian/Misc respectively

Reynolds does it ok too, with his weird pseudo-races

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>>8863268
Best is subjective. I laid out a quick introduction to a few books here >>8862523 but I love most of her stuff.

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>>8865103
She was pretty bad even before that though.

>>8865047

You may be garbage but you are not me.

>>8865055

atwood has plenty of actually good books though tbqh

>>8865202
>atwood has plenty of actually good books though
She's literally progressive Left Behind.

>>8865206

does that trigger you?

>>8865215
What are you talking about? Does it make me angry? No. It just makes you wrong.

>>8865178
I liked Downbelow Station but hated Cyteen.

If I were going to give her one more shot what should I read?

>>8865190
What are there pics called?

>>8865266
Smugma Princesses

What is something that does POWER LEVELS and lots of different unique abilities well?

I tried Mistborn and thought the "magic system" was pretty lame. If I could use anime as examples, I thought Fate/stay night and Index did that stuff in a pretty entertaining way.

What have you got /sffg/?

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>>8865256
In that case I would suggest either Rimrunners or Finity's End.
Rimrunners is about a female protag that falls in with a rough mercenary crew, shortly after Downbelow Station timeline wise.
Finity's End takes place further along the timeline, but is more closely related to Downbelow Station (shared characters etc.). I would call it a coming of age story, mostly taking place on a merchanter ship.

If those aren't big enough in scope, try the Faded Sun trilogy or the Chanur saga. Faded Sun is an earlier work that doesn't have the easy flow of her post-70s stuff, but has the best sense of wonder and exploration. Chanur is my favorite series, just a super comfy read.

If none of that catches your interest and you prefer fantasy anyway, check out the Fortress series. Protag is a natural straight man (literally being born yesterday) who must weather the imperial court when a power of great evil returns to the land.

...or Hestia for catgirl waifus. Not particularly impressive, but it's short.

>>8865360
The Fifth Season.

Most of the "magic" users are ranked by Rings on their hands. 1 ring means you can move a boulder, 10 means you can quell supervolcanos.

One of the main characters is a 10 ringer who is in his 30s or 40s when most other 10 ringers are usually 70. If the academy could give him more rings they would have, the man is ungodly powerful.

>>8865360
Treason by Orson Scott Card is all about leveling up and gaining new powers. It's on a planet where the descendants of an upper-class revolt are exiled, and they all develop specialties based on what their ancestor did, like the descendants of the genetic researcher develop human regeneration, the descendants of the geologist can speak with the planet, that sort of thing, and the main character travels around the planet picking up new powers. It was pretty satisfying.

>>8863914
How does it feel having gazed upon the face of the absolute

>>8859524

>E.R. Eddison
>Tolkien
>MacDonald
>Lord Dunsany
>Robert E. Howard
>Dick

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>>8865505
>MacDonald

>>8865085
Be a 6'4" blue eyed Norseman with long flowing blond hair

What is the most anime sff novel there is?

>>8865585
Witches of Karres.

>>8864517
That was when he picked up a dead shardblade.

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>>8865554
>tfw only 6.1 brown eyed Caucasian with curly dark hair
"gay barbarian" look is probably best i can get

>>8859410
Are there any good Science Fiction or Fantasy novels with a Rome like setting besides The Shadows of Ararat?

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Classic.

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To the guy that was writing the story about a god using a busting-through-your-chest-like-alien moth plague to drop the number of people in a certain area below some number. Did you get the idea from pic related?

This was at the back of my head when you talked about it.

I take issue with Burroughs because his ultra-chad characters only run into problems because:
A) they are huge man whores that cause every woman to fall in love with them and then go "lol I have Jane/princess/etc,. Get out of here, skank" and then that lady becomes an enemy for the next book
B) they don't kill their enemies

>>8865699
>implying you won't just be a slightly taller Akka

>>8865699
Grow your hair out and you can be my esmy ;)

>>8865733
A Throne of Bones does Fantasy Antiquity surprisingly well if you don't mind giving Vox Day money.

>>8865819
delet this
>>8865830

did u guys like Solaris? what is ur favorite Lem novel?

>>8865767
What books do this I've only read naked lunch and junkie

>>8865973

He was talking about Edgar Rice Burroughs. Creator of Tarzan and John Carter.

You're thinking William Burroughs.

>>8865072
Do you know of the one drop rule?
You just play at being pol right? Your die hard brethren consider one drop to make you tainted.

So i'm trying to find this old Sci-Fi I read in high school years ago. Obviously I can't remember the title or author, but I remember a major plot point being that a super advanced race policed different star systems, instantly killing anyone who tries to bring a non-sentient species across instantly. I also remember a sentient species of crab like aliens with a queen or something.

>>8866027

So dumb, implausible and ridiculous. My money's on Orson Scott Card.

>>8865744
>all that clothing
dropped

>>8865767
They're paragons of manly virtue. They're not going to run into hamartia, Ed's got bills to pay.

>>8866017
oh yeah the one drop rule was in the handbook they gave me when I became a KKK Nazi racist, how could that have slipped my mind, I'd forget my own head if it was fastened on securely with neck tattoos

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>Start reading Deed of Paksenarrion
>within the first 10 chapters there's a investigation into a assault and attempted rape at bootcamp

Elizabeth Moon putting her experience with the USMC to good use I see.

>>8865996
oh shit nig my bad

>>8865766
Isn't it something from Bakker's second apocalypse?

>>8866180
Yea, that's the consults plan, to close the world to heaven and hell

>>8866267

but why? what do they gain by doing this?

>>8866329
They escape eternal damnation, and can enjoy the pleasures of the flesh for eternity

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>>8866344
>consult will never get to tap whale-mothers

200 into Chapterhouse. Already tired of the constant psycho genetic phylosophical babble. Looks like Herbert's wife death affected him too much. Heretics was so much better.

Also, dat ethnic group. GTFO Herbert.

>>8865360
HOUSE OF BLADES aka Traveler's Gate
It is LITERAL anime it has everything you asked for.
They even go away and train and come back stronger.

Why won't anyone read??

>>8866473

Get ready for Miles "Man of Steel" Teg.

>>8866397
>wanting to fuck fat wombs with appendages

Just as bad as any consult science project.

>>8866488
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/827545153

Can you defend this?

>>8866496
>doesn't understand resentment for taking care of a dying person
>doesn't understand why a parent would spook their kid to keep them from going somewhere
>calls a rival character an anti hero when he's literally just a rival, probably more of a moralfag than the protag


Does this person have autism or do they not understand what words mean?

>>8866496
>walls of text

I read like 6 paragraphs then went to her comments. Why should I defend it?
The guy wanted anime, House of Blades is Anime in Prose.
>What in the ever living fuck is that about? What mother would tell their child these horror stories.
>parents never told their children bad shit to encourage them to stay away from something.

These stupid cunts who believe all books are based in reality really piss me off. She sounds like some of the sffg users tbqhmf

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>>8866496
I know she got btfg

>>8866609
>posts a bunch of incoherent shit
>that sure showed her!

also the cubs suck.

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About to start this.

>>8866609
Wut...nothing that autistic piece of shit wrote makes any sense as a response. I'm with the reviewer.

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This book is fucking amazing. is the Understand short story source material for the movie Limitless starring Bradley Cooper?

>>8866496
>>8866609
>>8866579
Jesus christ. This is a guy book. All the 1 stars are from girls. All the boys have 3 or more stars.

new thread

>>8866663
>>8866663
>>8866663

My friends and Inwere debating about a fantasy world earlier and how I said that if we lived in one most of the stuff we (in our world) would find fantastical they would find mundane.

Are there any books like that? Something like where people find monsters boring because they're a normal part of life and it's just like, "oh wow another ghoul."

>>8866644
Limitless is based on The Dark Fields

It's a pretty decent novel

>>8866678
>>8866719

Any good sci fi about colonization? Preferably without FTL. I'll post a couple I've read

Crossfire by Nancy Kress has bland characters but has a nice first contact plot line. It isn't much of a colonization novel, since most of the time the point of view is away from the colony. The sequel is horseshit, like a big fuck you readers. "Look at this nice world I've built here. Are you looking? Now watch as I set it all on fire! Just making a point..."

Coyote by someguy. Bland characters, blander world. Nothing happens except for a guy who is awoken midtravel in the ship and can't sleep anymore. Worse sequel.

>>8866863
The book of the long sun and short sun

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>>8865431
I honestly cannot wait for broken earth 3.
Pic only vaguely related.

>>8867100
Shadow eats gemstones?

>>8867110
Sonic X in a nutshell:

Cute plant like girl - turns out there's a device in her head that transmits sight and hearing to the 'enemy' (which turns out to be other members of her race who have turned themselves into literal weapons) and then she literally kills herself to save the universe. The guy who falls in love with her is distraught.

Shadow the Hedgehog never recovers his memories. So essentially after his sister 'Maria' dies 'Molly' who reminds him of his sister sacrifices herself to kill the enemy.

Babby's first tragedy.

Why are Illium and the Hyperion Cantos SO FUCKING GOOD?