/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

1st for bakka

So I'm about halfway through Tigana and so far it's pretty great. The prose takes a little while to get used to, and some of the subplots seem a little superfluous, but judging by the first half, I expect that they're going to be relevant later.
/blog

Bakker is just GRRM for people who are too pretentious to read actual GRRM while also having a cuckold fetish.

Is there any decent about vampires and a girl protag?

>>9030787
When is the next book out?

>>9030932

August this year

>>9030947
Noice. Hopefully shit actually happens this time, the last book felt like 90% filler.

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>Only now was it dawning on the fool, the intimacy of their pact, the truth of their Holy Consult. Only now, Shaeönanra realized, could he see how profoundly Damnation had conjoined them.

Shaeönanra did nothing wrong.

>>9031037

I don't know who this guy but if people are saying he did nothing wrong on 4chan he must be a real piece of shit.

>>9030669
Ubik for dick
Stranger in a strange land for heinlein

>>9030978
>felt like
It was filler. Just like blood mirror was filler.

>>9031079
Akka also did nothing wrong and he wasn't a piece of shit.

>>9030872
Got it on my shelf but havent read it yet. Currently reading Al-Rassan which has just gotten very very good.

What is the entry level book for the Arthurian sagas?
I know that the King is Arthur, Lancelot is his best knight and will cuck him. I know that Avalon is an island where a sword is. And I have watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This is my knowledge of King Arthur.

>>9031205

I recommend The Once And Future King.

Also for a more "realistic" outlook at the Arthurian legend I always recommend Cornwell's Warlord trilogy.

>>9031160
That's the alternate history Spain one right? I've heard it was good, but then I also saw that Felicia Day did an episode about it on her bookclub and any enthusiasm I had to read it just evaporated.

>>9031261

>Felicia Day's Goodreads review of Gene Wolfe's "The Wizard Knight" consists of two words : I TRIED.

I guess BOTNS would have fried her brain like an egg if TWK was so amazingly difficult.

>>9031261
Yeah that's the one. Yikes, that probably would have put me off of it too. She probably likes it because one of the main characters is a (((Kindath))) female.

So far its great, I'd recommend it.

>>9030669

Not read everything by all three but i think a fair set is

>Asimov

Foundation (you should read the series though)

>Dick

Do Androids dream of Electric sheep

>Heinlein

Starship Troopers - though ill admit its the only Heinlein ive read. When i was young it turned me from being a bit Anti-military to seeing the potential value of military service

>>9031340
>When i was young it turned me from being a bit Anti-military to seeing the potential value of military service

IIRC it didn't even have to be military service, but just service in general. As in, you put in two years for the state doing whatever and you get voting/getting elected rights.

>>9030787
>Selected:
>https://i.imgur.com/qkz73sR.jpg
Fucking stop you retarded shill. This isn't funny anymore

>>9031467
I didn't even notice this time.

Imma go to qa and report him to the mods. I'll ask them to ban the OP who made this thread. It's getting annoying, disruptive and he is fucking with our general(and the outer elitist won't want us filling the catalog out of our containment thread).

>>9031467
Can anybody fill me in? Is the TKaG meme again?

>>9031503
He keeps trying to trick people into buying his books. I hope the mods ban him like that other 'author' who came here and tried to shill his book(pretending as if he was a reader wnd not a writer).

>>9031538
these images linked in the OP are shit anyways.

For example: Why in heavens fuck is shit like "The Dragon Prince" by Melanie Rawn in there? I don't think I've stumbeled upon something worse in any of these lists. For fucks sake, it's as Housewifey a Fantasybook as possible.
And it's even written like that, as for a housewive. Short attentionspan, picks it up, reads ten pages, puts it down, picks it up the next day again.

This is exactly for whom this is written, as every plotpoint, emotion and thought is mulled over and over and over again, every couple of pages, and NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS!

Seriously, I have not deleted epubs from my phone ever before, but this shit. I had to get rid of it.

WHO PUTS SHIT LIKE THIS IN THE CHARTS?!

>>9031553
People who feel the need to include diversity in their charts but haven't read enough diverse authors to know the good from bad.

>>9031576
agreed. And I'm the kind of guy who can enjoy Naomi Noviks "Uprooted" for its fairytale beauty and decent storytelling. I really enjoyed that one. There ARE good female authors out there - it's a shame that people will look at the OP, scroll through, see " THE DRAGON KNIGHT " in the /lit/ Fantasy General Chart and go "fuck yeah, a DRAGON KNIGHT man, and it must be halfway decent since it's in there!"

Then they open up the book, and from the first chapter on I fear they'll be like me: Hoping... Hoping... in vain.
"NOPE; It's a shit book, sorry!"

>>9031553
Melanie Rawn really triggers you huh anon?

Well it's the same with this Stevian guy for us. He did it a few times before and got caught out. You thought he would stop right? No. He keeps coming back in when he feels enough time has passed. It's rage inducing.

Let him go to redshit to shill his book and stop forcing it here. I really hope the mod acts soon.

Once I tell them he tries to trick people into buying his book instead of buying a 4chan ad, the mods will go crazy.

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>>9031590
Rage anon, how does my chart make you feel?

>>9031602
WHY THE FUCK
is this not linked in the fucking OP?!
with a couple of exceptions ( my personal taste doesn't agree with any "modern" Fantasy, i.e. Nightwatch for example ), and being agreed upon that /sffg/ is the guilty junkfood pleasure of /lit/, you sire have a patrician taste as far as junkfood is concerned.

Some things I'd like to note:
Greg Bear is fucking shit,
I personally loved and devoured Black Company and Mark Lawrences Books - but with both Series I am deeply dis-satisfied. ( Especially Black Company. Did you notice in the second Glittering Stone Book where they raid the strangler holy site, and in the end, basically the last sentence of the chapter concerns the baby of that one woman, and the baby is sucking on a silken red scarf? I READ THAT and I went: He's gonna grow up to be a strangler. And he is the guy who eventually frees Booboo from her apathic captivity. But we don't get the payoff of him being the baby, sucking on a stranglerscarf in the strangler holiest of holys - no! He was simply manipulated by Kina / Booboo. SHIT! SAD!
Also: Stupidity allaround, Opsec Fails and Logic Fails. People don't stay fucking dead even though they should be dead, and people don't do what is necessary even though they really fucking ought to know what to do. )

SciFi is missing M John Harrisson (spelling?) LIGHT, though there ought to be a disclaimer that the trilogy doesn't stay as strong.

Nice chart.
I saved it.
I'ma work though what I haven't read yet from there :) Thanks anon!

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>>9031669
>WHY THE FUCK
>is this not linked in the fucking OP?!
Because my first chart was pic related V0.5.

I could have slipped it into the OP years ago seeing as I used to make the general the most back then but I left it out didn't want to start shit. Fun fact other people's chart I upped to imgur and posted in the OP but not my own.

Also
>SciFi is missing M John Harrisson
All the books in my charts I personally read and can vouch for. I never Harrison so you won't see him in my charts.
The shills never convinced me to read his books.

>>9031602
When does City of Stairs get good? I'm only like 30 pages in but everyones names sounds like they're from Jewish origin or some shit and nothing interesting happened yet.

>>9031729
just read LIGHT. Don't worry about NOVA SWING or EMPTY SPACE. Read Light. You'll most likely enjoy it, I think.

I do believe you should include your charts whence you come upon the chance to be the OP :)

>>9031467
>https://i.imgur.com/qkz73sR.jpg
At first I was, this is actually all right, why or why are anons freaking out, ....and then i came to the bottom two lines and threw up.

>>9031756
Is this the military spacefag Harrison you are talking about?

>>9031602
>the painted man and dresden files sitting next to Sapkowski
Are you fucking retarded or what?! The Pole is an absolute genius, deserving of his very own tier on any fantasy list ever made, and not only do you dare associate him with the plebians and no-names on this list but you actually have the gut to stain his name with such utter garbage as the above-mentioned two series? I can't figure out if you're trolling or just genuinely retarded.
Let me break it into several parts so that your underdeveloped brain may have a hope of comprehending my arguments.
First, the Painted Man by Peter Brett. It starts with a really fucking terrible premise, but the story telling for the first character is gritty and compelling. Then you get two other random main characters that take equal shares of the narrative focus, two irrelevant dipshits that are unable of doing anything worthwhile. Cue into the one interesting character, his emotional development and growth as a person in such a harsh world, his betrayal and the symbolic ritual that kills him and creates a different person in his stead. That's where book one ends and it was fucking great. Then book 2 is literally "Islam: the city-state, how it's run and how a Jihadi faggot rose to power" for HALF THE BOOK and then the rest is some brief cool battles with the demons and more random bullshit with the other characters. And then it just starts going downhill: the plot barely even advances and the author wrote himself into an overly-complex political game with ridiculous intrigue about the ruler of the sandniggers and his faggot sons (one of them a literal faggot, the other a braindead, bland stand-in character that exists for no purpose at all other than further increasing the number of characters in hopes of comparing to massive sagas such as The Wheel of Time, with sprawling casts). Then a random fucking whore gets pregnant and hundreds of pages are dedicated to "oh noes I must protect my unborn baby!" and "oh noes who is my baby's father?". Then the sandnigger king and the cool character (that was also reduced to a pitiful faggot that HAS A WIFE AND ACCEPTED BEING LITERAL JESUS TO HIS NEWFOUND PEOPLE) prepare to fight some big bad demons and then we hear nothing about them for a few more hundred pages. And don't get me started on the random singer with magical powers and his two (three? or was it four?) whore WIVES (yes, WIVES) that do shit-all but still get screen time. Did I mention some ruler literally mentioned a handful of time in the first book and not even once in the others suddenly having access to GUNS without any foreshadowing and just popping up and slaughtering some strong army? I seriously consider not even reading the final book when it finally comes out.
(cont.)

>>9031739
It's more of a detective thriller with a big payoff/creampie at the end.

The books have GRI, though it's not delved into too deeply it's what shapes the current events.

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>>9031837
>position has any relevance to quality
Here have my latest chart.

>>9031822
Look at this https://i.imgur.com/r688cPe.jpg and compare it to this >>9031467 what is the difference?

You are new so I will tell you. Last year a guy named stevian heartbound kept shilling us to put his book in the OP(or anyones chart) we told him no and to fuck off.

He quieted down so we thought he left, little did we know that he substituted a chart with one of his making that included his recently published book.

For one month+ it was up until a newfag asked why we had this in the chart. When we looked we found the switch and fixed it... stevian started again to ask us if we would put his book in the OP.. then he again made the switch again a few threads later.

We changed it back, now he is at it again. The mods will be contacted because this is getting ridiculous.

>>9030883
Dang

Bakker readers absolutely btfo

>>9031837
And then we have the Dresden Files. Been a while since I last read one of the books in this series but I still remember how shit it is. Let's just take this cool dude and put him in a nice setting and have him solve random detective cases throughout 15 books (with many more planned to come) that have no. related. plot. whatsoever. The literal biggest, baddest demon that the protagonist HAS NIGHTMARES OF gets summoned back into the world at the end of one book and just runs away and isn't mentioned in the next ones. The hero becomes the champion of some great magical rulers, makes terrible foes and obtains great artifacts only to have those briefly mentioned in offhand remarks in the next books. The author just keeps throwing more poorly written detective cases at the dude without slowing down and tying everything together properly. There's some serious romance developing suddenly, and then the grill in case doesn't even appear AT ALL in the next book, and when she does several volumes later there's no mention of their previous development. It's just an uncohesive mess of poor attempts at agatha christie-meets-batman-meets-magic without the depth and complexity, Moriarty and the proper explanations for the magical system.
And then we have Sapkowski. The man, the genius, the greatest writer to have ever lived. You correctly chose the cover of The Last Wish instead of one of the books of the main saga, at least. Now let me explain why he is such a genius. He has depth, complexity, his world is gritty and dark, but also fair and captivating. He wrote a mutant superhuman monster-killer that's more humane than the humans he encounters, and then the absolute madman decided to write monsters that are even more humane than that. Not once do you feel the awkwardness on cringyness of the harry potter and twilight-style bullshit that pollutes today's "bestsellers". He makes lovable characters, he makes characters you hate, ones you aren't sure about and not one of them do you wish to read less of. He blends the whole world together perfectly, writing the political intrigue correctly (hell, I felt genuinely sorry for the EVIL INVADING EMPEROR when he was forced to abduct a fake princess to marry, and how he was always obsessed with finding and marrying his own daughter in order to cement his dynasty and provide a proper heir, only to let her go after so many years, when he finally has her but sees her crying over the loss of her foster parents). Don't get me started on The Sword of Destiny, the other book ever written that is on the same level as The Last Wish. Geralt meets his fucking mother after being abandoned as a child and they just sit there, looking at each other, and it brings me to tears just thinking about it. And then Geralt meets DEATH ITSELF and they just sit there and chat and it's mindblowing. Words cannot even begin to describe the greatness, the genius of this man we call Andrzej Sapkowski.
Don't you ever dare post that pic again.

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>>9031837
>suddenly having access to GUNS without any foreshadowing and just popping up and slaughtering some strong army?
Pol-kun your review was funny, but your jaded, racist, moonman-ass worldview has blinded you to some key points. Its a post apocalyptic world, it was mentioned that weapons of mass destruction fighting the demons has lead the world to what it is today

This is what happens when you fags want to skip pages or characters pov because they are boring or in your case pol/r9k-kun, they are female. You then have the gall to say that the novels are shit and don't make any sense WHEN YOU COLLECTIVELY SKIPPED HALF THE BOOK.

>>9031884
This just shows that you have no mind for intrigue. Dresden Files is full of it and they all have double entendre and subtlety tying everything together.

It's sad that you can feel so much for the witcher (surface machinations) and yet you can't comprehend the deeper things.

>>9031903
Why does it matter that I browse /pol/ and /r9k/? You're just a faggot defending this shit writer. I'll let you know I have not skipped a single page, or even a single paragraph, of the whole series. What I meant by saying that there's no foreshadowing is that there's this king that sits on his ass not caring about anything and then suddenly pulling some guns out of his ass and giving them to his soldiers. It was mentioned that the world is post-apocalyptic world but there was no way to expect the guns there. It's so sudden and unfair, it comes out of nowhere and feels like bullshit to the reader. And if you honestly believe the main female character has any value whatsoever in this series and isn't just a whore that sleeps with men and throws some potions around to impress her worshipers you are delusional. The moment the books turned from a fight for survival in a gritty dark world and eventually hoping to unite the city-states against the demons into "we're gonna build our own city, and it's gonna be better than the other ones because we are smart enough to write huge defensive runes on the pavement and aren't some lazy pieces of shit" the whole ordeal became unredeemable. Kill yourself you pathetic cock-lover, worshiping this trash for the diversity and the fact that it has female characters it tries so, so hard to make relevant and fails miserably, only shoving them down our throat instead.

>>9031942
I'm not even going to bother defending my points against you. This is obvious bait. Try harder next time :^)

Anyone read Eternal? http://chooseyourstory.com/story/eternal

>>9031958
I can think of at least three occasions where they mention he is sitting on a repository of old world knowledge.

Of all the things you can complain about of in this series, this is by far the dumbest

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>>9030883
>>9031882
>tfw started reading Bakker because we all know GRRM is going to choke to death on a hoagie before finishing ASOIAF

Books featuring druids/nature magic?

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セヴェリアンです。

>>9032033
This. It was mentioned a bunch of times. This is why I know he skipped pages and this is why I called him out on it.

And yes the female "I would rather be raped than kill someone" was annoying, but I'm not paying attention to her when I read now am I?

>>9032116
Iron druid chronicles.

>>9032099
you got memed. bakker will most likely finish the aspect emperor on a cliffhanger so he can continue making money with his rape fantasies

>>9030747
The screeching autists throw a tantrum whenever those authors get mentioned. We just sit here and marinate in whatever filth is currently stimulating their lizardbrain.

>>9032175

>whatever filth is currently stimulating their lizardbrain.

Which at the moment just happens to be a Canadian cuck who looks like if the guy from Nickelback was an unwashed stoner instead of a jock.

>>9032169
>started almost 10 years later than GRRM
>still has written more books than him while not being a fat old piece of shit

Somehow I'm not worried

>>9030669
> What's the one book everyone should read by Asimov, Dick and Heinlein?

I would recommend The Moon is a Harsh Mistress for Heinlein if you want to pick just one, or:

>>9031116
> Stranger in a Strange Land.

Both these works are from his middle period, and are considered some of his best.

Heinlein's earlier works (the juvenile novels) are also nice in a space adventure cum bildungsroman kind of way, and are typical of sci-fi in the forties and fifties. His later works (sometimes categorized as the world as myth series) can be interesting, but because of their philosophical leanings and often confusing cast of characters they are definitely not as accessible as his earlier and middle period works.

For Asimov the Foundation series is good, although a lot of people prefer to stick with just the trilogy written first, and not the prequels and sequels written afterwards. Personally I think Asimov's Robot story collections (e.g., I, Robot) are a better candidate if you are looking for just one work.

How do you tell whether something you're reading is a non-traditional fairy tale or just a fantasy story?

I'm worried about the story I'm writing being treated as urban fantasy instead of what it's supposed to be

>>9031903
>>9032033
>>9032142
While the /pol/ack is a clear "IAMSILLY.jpg" to divert criticism, having read all four painted man books over the past couple of weeks I must sadly say that it falls into the 'just an other failed TV series script released as a book' written to try to appeal to as broad a demographic as possible. Would probably work better as a comic.

Entertaining and I'll likely read the final book when it's out, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel after 20 years of reading SF/Fantasy. There is plenty of better written pulp out there.

>>9032332
I guess that depends on how the fantastical elements of the story are used. For example Dunsany's Hoard of the Gibbelins and GRRM's ASOIAF both have gallant knights and dragons yet they tell different stories in widely different voices. The former tells a parable of human greed and is written with a tinge of sarcasm and contempt for the human failings of the characters and attempts to leave a lesson for the reader. The other one is more focused on character development, political intrigue, epic fights and things that I feel are there for the sake of the story and not for the reader to extrapolate into our world.

This may not always be the case but I feel that more often than not the fairy tale has some philosophical implications. In anyway I kinda just felt like gushing about Dunsany cause I've recently read The Gods of Pegana and enjoyed it immensely.

>>9032175
So like I said, reddit's fantasy board doesn't sound all that different from here. We're just smaller so the popular stuff doesn't completely push everything to the margins. The downside to being smaller is there's less chance of finding people who've read less popular books, so the only real common ground people have are the popular books that everybody has read or at least heard of, so that's what gets talked about.

>>9031340
I read Foundation and hated it. First book was ok though. Am I a bad person?

Depends.
What precisely didn't you like?

>>9032480
I would agree with that. It started promising, but has taken a noticeable quality dive in each successive book as the author keeps replacing likable POVs with unlikeable cunts

>>9032876
This. Just let Arlon fuck Inevera already and make her cum and end the blood fued.
Arlon will be her greenland husband. She can still bare him many sons even though she an old crone.

>>9032876
The guy really loves his training montages too.

is GGK good or just hyped? Heard there was los of romance in his stories and I'm not really into that.

>>9032993
Why don't you just read and find out

>>9032998
cause I don't want to read something with romance

>>9032993
Overwrought emotionalism a bit of a feature in my limited experience.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/5qox1i/the_2017_rfantasy_favorite_standalones_poll/

Man the top of this list is so bad. Maybe there's some actual good titles on the bottom

>>9031205
The Once and Future King
The Crystal Cave
The Winter King

>>9032991
Got to get your magic gaijin arab samurai ninja somehow.

>>9033002
kek this is extreme autism in practice. Go read Great Expectations, you'll love it.

>>9033058
and dice rolling pillow dancers

>>9033062
it's not autism. It's just not something I'm interested in reading.

Can any of you nigs help me find a short story?

It's told from the perspective of a bunch of aliens meeting a human diplomat like 500,000 years into the future. One of their planets accidentally gets terraformed by human ships, and they're debating whether or not to go to war.

It was really fucking unnerving.

Who is the best alternative to George R.R. Martin and his ASOIAF? Now that it's all but certain that he'll never finish it, what's the closest alternative. Something similar but is actually completed or guaranteed to be complete within the next 4 or 5 years.

>>9033100

Malazan.

>>9033100
Traitor Son Cycle

>>9033100
>Now that it's all but certain that he'll never finish it

did something happen recently that assured this? I've seen this stated in several places recently

>>9033119
Likely the TV fans finally realized what us readers knew years ago.
That he is a lazy fuck.

>>9033129
>That he is a lazy fuck.

He also doesn't know how to type properly and uses a computer and word processor from the 1980s.

>>9033129
I used to think writers would have to work a shit ton for a long time to release a book but then I encountered ones that could reliably come up with a new book of at least good quality once every 2 years or somewhere around that time, certainly not half a decade per book or more. Then it hit me the difference in creativity levels between actual writers and regular people. In conclusion I think GRRM just doesn't have more stories to tell in his world or what he has left to tell is boring even for him.

>>9033119
>He's 68 years old
>Fat as fuck
>Extremely slow writer by his own admission
>Doesn't give a fuck about his own diet (People roast him for being unhealthy and fat, yet he couldn't refrain himself from ordering an ENTIRE CAKE and a bottle of Coca Cola for HIMSELF ONLY the night of the Grammys 2016. That's less than 4 months ago.)
>TWOW probably won't come out until early 2018 by his own admission in his Not A Blog


Hardcore fans did some mathematics on his writing speed in the past and the estimates for TWOW and they found out that ADOS won't be out before 2021 and even then he might need an eight book.

Will he make it with his current age and health? Even if he does, will he still be healthy and capable enough to finish arguably one the biggest sagas ever written? I think not.

>>9033142
Gardens of the Moon published 3 years after Game of Thrones.

>>9033142
Or more than likely like a lot of modern fantasy authors the guy doesn't actually like writing but loves the fame.

>>9033145
he's gonna have to get Sanderson'd

>>9033151
I reckon he's a long time nerd and started what was at the time a series completely on the opposite spectrum of what was successful in the fantasy world. So I think he started with the intention of telling a story but got corrupted along the way. Stuff like actually not liking writing and doing it for the fame seems to me more suitable for authors like Paolini, Gaiman and recently Rowling

>>9033159
Sanderson finishing it with his PG sensibilities. Now that would be interesting to read.

>>9033167
is there any author which GRRM has shown any approval or predilection to? Seems like he never talks about anything but his own works

>>9033170
Beyond the occasional publisher approved comment on other author's covers I dunno

>>9033167
Call me a retard, but was does PG stand for?

GRRM won't finish the books before the series is spoiled by the TV show, his original fans will be furious because the ending will be the most spoiled event in recent memory and his sales for the last books will tank. Finally his series will be remembered as the biggest failure a writer has brought upon himself by horrible work ethic.

>>9033196
Parental guidance. It's a film classification for well, family friendly maybe a tame swear word. I dunno the exact specification.

>>9033203
>Just for starts, check out Daniel Abraham (THE LONG PRICE QUARTET, THE DAGGER AND THE COIN, Scott Lynch (the Locke Lamora series), Patrick Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie (especially BEST SERVED COLD and THE HEROES)... they will keep you turning pages for a good long while, I promise...

lel

http://www.blastr.com/2013-3-26/george-rr-martin-recommends-books-youll-if-you-thrones

>>9033208
mean >>9033170

>>9033136
That's not really a huge issue though. For the most part a word processor is a word processor, with newer ones just adding more formatting and GUI features.

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Has YA fiction gone too far?

>>9033275
>privy

>>9033275
This can't be real

>>9033275
Someone needed an original plot so badly.

>>9033275
B-But that isn't how biology works.

>>9033275
>dude like, eliminating human suffering is bad b/c starvin' an' shit is like what makes all the good things in life worthwhile like holding a cute boy's hand xD

Were morals aimed at children always some version of this? Were they ever interesting?

>>9033289
I would not be surprised if the author doesn't actually know people eat for nutrition instead of "OMG CRAVE FOR PICKLES."

>>9033275
this took the author about 5 mins to come up with, 10 to think up the name of the protag

>>9033275
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18525734-hungry

>1. The main character’s name is Thalia Apple. She meets a boy named Basil. Is the author trying to be funny or ironic or symbolic? Who knows, but it’s annoying either way. Basil later ends up explaining that Ana, who is the leader of on underground resistance movement called the Analogs, gave the group members their names, so other members include Spinach, Strawberry, and some unfortunate fellow got stuck with Kumquat. Okay, now my problem here is why isn’t Ana named after food? And that still doesn’t answer the question of the author made the main character’s name Apple.

oh my god

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>>9033344
>1. The main character’s name is Thalia Apple. She meets a boy named Basil. Is the author trying to be funny or ironic or symbolic? Who knows, but it’s annoying either way. Basil later ends up explaining that Ana, who is the leader of on underground resistance movement called the Analogs, gave the group members their names, so other members include Spinach, Strawberry, and some unfortunate fellow got stuck with Kumquat. Okay, now my problem here is why isn’t Ana named after food? And that still doesn’t answer the question of the author made the main character’s name Apple.
Is cannibalism illegal?

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>>9033098
Is it unnerving because aliens dare have the audacity to go to war with their betters?

>>9033159
>>9033167
>>9033170
>>9033180
>he's gonna have to get Sanderson'd
GURM already said that the book dies with him. If the book is not written by him it won't be written at all.

Fans will have to make do with the tv ending. Which I heard is sanctioned from GURM'S very lips.

>>9033433
>If the book is not written by him it won't be written at all.

And one final fuck you to everybody who waited on his lazy ass.

>>9033436
t. Stevian

>>9033445

Not even

>reading Memories of Ice
Can somebody explain to me what the Master of the Deck is and why/how Paran was chosen to be it? The whole thing sort of went over my head.

>>9033514
Read the rest of the books to find out.

Anyone know any Sci fi books that involve Humans arriving to a planet and making first contact (i think the aliens on the planet were Bird people). Think i asked about his months ago but i never found the book. Open to any similar books since the concept seems interesting

>>9033534
The Sparrow, but it's kind of religious

>>9033534
Dunno about the specific one you're asking for but you might want to try Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. The basic story is that a colony is being abandoned and a older woman decides to stay behind because "screw you assholes maybe now I'll get some peace and quiet", but suddenly: Aliens.

>>9033344
>>9033275
at least it's good to see at least the tumblr tier crowd thinks its retarded as well.

Post pretty prose

From Dunsany's "Of the calamity that befell Yun-Ilara by the sea"

>"Ah, now for the hour of the mourning of many, and the pleasant garlands of flowers and the tears, and the moist, dark earth. Ah, for repose down underneath the grass, where the firm feet of the trees grip hold upon the world, where never shall come the wind that now blows through my bones, and the rain shall come warm and trickling, not driven by storm, where is the easeful falling asunder of bone from bone in the dark"

Fantastic description of death

>another random story in the middle of the book
Dommine & Thecla's story was better even if I did feel uncomfortable reading it

>>9033413
What are you posting that image in response to?

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>>9033098
>>9033413

No, I'm serious, I really need help finding this story. What I remember:

>humans were all fucked up from millenia of evolution, evolved into diplomatic, worker, warrior castes
>the human diplomat had some sort of pleasure beast in his ship that was basically just a pile of boobs and cocks
>humanity had zero concept of good or evil anymore, all moral judgements were handled by computers

>>9033698
>humanity had zero concept of good or evil anymore, all moral judgements were handled by computers
this is a fiction thread

>>9033514
not having a clue what's going on half the time is a large part of why it's good

>>9033151
I doubt it. He was a solid author with Recognized Good Writing for almost twenty years before he really hit it big with A Game of Thrones. I think he basically just lost control/stopped caring about ASOIAF but that's his magnum opus so he can't work on anything else.

>>9033287
>>9033289
Ctrl-R "sex" "food". That's how the author wrote it.

>>9033534
The Mote in God's Eye
Solaris

>>9033544

Ive been told to read the Sparrow before and it came to mind as a typed the question so i suppose i should read it

>>9033579

Sounds good ive never seen any books with old women as the protag desu

>>9033785

Never really read any Niven since people said his Character work was shitty. Is it actually bad or is it alright


And i swear that book involving bird aliens exists unless it came to me in a fever dream.

>But Covenant did not feel like a taker.

Boy this makes me want to die

>>9033607
>the moist, dark earth. Ah, for repose down underneath the grass, where the firm feet of the trees grip hold upon the world
It's clear he is talking about crude oil. You dinosaurs always want affirmation from each other.

I think I just wrote the best fight scene I've ever done. I feel like jim butcher even though I know it's nowhere near that level

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Just finished The Left Hand of Darkness.

I feel like I was fucked about for 300 pages looking for answers to the book's questions and then told "there's still no answer, loser, just an innocent dead man."

>>9033698
Dinosaurs, by Walter Jon Williams. It was in Card's Future on Ice anthology.

>>9034322
I liked Left Hand. I think it just got a bit muddled in itself. Le Guin couldn't seem to figure out what angle she wanted to tackle so she just went with all of them.

Religion, gender, individuality vs. collectivism, friendship, loyalty, and I'm sure other things I'm forgetting all get thrown in.
I still think it's done well but by the end I wasn't sure if I was purposely being given no answers, as if to say things are more complicated than that, or just because she didn't have the time.

Doesn't stop everyone I talk to about it from insisting the book is all 100% about how le gender doesn't real.

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Has there ever been an SFF novel that made a better case for genocide?
>colony planet with a bunch of different communities that pooled their resources to get there
>one of them's a total anarchist society, zero laws, people only work because strangers might beat them up
>they just smoke space weed and screw all day, rape is an inconvenience at worst
>come to blows with this corporate space fascist society, gets BTFO in open battle but does guerrilla war forever
>no concept of war declarations, if some of these people don't like you they'll hide out in the desert and bushwhack your people for decades
>space fascists meant to provide an equal and opposite counterbalance but it ends up just making fascism look good
gas the alsians space war now

>>9034333
>I was purposely being given no answers, as if to say things are more complicated than that
That's the goal, but it doesn't stop Left Hand from being incredibly unsatisfying, while Lathe gave very few answers and was very fulfilling. It was a lot more focused, though.

>>9034322

>If not it might have been Overlords of War by Gerard Klein, that had bird aliens, or even Brin's The Uplift War, but that wasn't first contact.

I just did some more digging and its probably Learning the World by Ken Macleod. Birds dont seem as central as i originally thought but the aliens can apparently fly

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>>9034345
>Learning the World
Synopsis of crowded human space looks really cool.

>The characterization is stunningly flat: only the aliens have much personality, and even then, not much: they seem like fictional versions of MacLeod and his pub-frequenting Scottish political chit-chat buddies (the same set that appear in every single novel MacLeod has ever written) - the only difference is these guys have wings, and don't actually live in Scotland, just a place that resembles it.
>One ends up convinced that MacLeod pushed his characters into a political crisis not so much because the plot and the characters demanded it, but because that's the only way that MacLeod knows how to end a story: bad thing happens, then Our Heroic Pub Dwelling Street Politicos Race to the Barricades (tm), and using a combination of positive-sum-game thinking, samizdat distribution and organization, and a good close reading of a Manifesto and/or Constitution, defeat the shortsighted zero-sum-game folks.
WRECKED

>>9034342
It did irritate me somewhat looking into what Le Guin has said about the book. She backtracked on some of the parts I thought were more interesting and seems to have given in to peer pressure.
It makes me feel as though she was trying to cater her book to the academic crowd rather than just focusing on one thing, so of course we get a literal Nazi labor camp.

Orgoreyn altogether felt like a poorly-thought-out, on-the-nose idea.

>>9033514
It'll become clear in a few more books. In fact you do not even really understand the magic system or cosmos yet, and you won't until about book 7 which puts a lot of the shit that's happening right now into perspective. Every book reveals new information and gives a more definite shape to the chaos you see.

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I don't know what to pick up guys. This is what I have at my disposal right now, but I'm still undecided. What do I read?

>>9034466
Just read the 66th novel in that list.

Or Bradbury

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>>9030907
Carpe Jugulum

Recommend good science fiction that isn't space opera or space fantasy and doesn't involve superweapons at all.

>>9034639
A Scanner Darkly

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REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>9034676

>plebs being plebs
>somehow this makes me mad

I don't understand.

Though I must say, Cursed Child was shit even by HP standards.

>>9034676
Genre fiction fags btfo

I need East Asian cyberpunk, preferable Japanese.

>>9034363
This pic better not be the girl who leapt through space because that anime is fanservice shit.

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>>9034466
>moorecock-plz
>delany
>fag mouser
Are you trying to trigger me? Delet dis

Spoonfeed me some sci-fi short stories.
I just plowed through most of Ted Chiangs sci-fi novelettes this week, and I highly recommend them.

>>9034676
Were you mad that Hermione was blacked and then constantly bleached in one go?

>>9034684
Altered Carbon.
Wind up girl for biopunk.
Read both.

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>>9034790
>not recognizing the Nep
it's cool though, always nice to see someone who remembers Space Cake Girl

>>9034812
Nightfall and Other Stories.

>>9034826
Are impotent threats about the wrath of the mods the new hot meme?

>>9034810
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two of the greatest fantasy characters ever, and Lankhmar is a more interesting, strange, mysterious world than most any other fantasy world. I personally think the Swords series is better than LOTR by far.

Grow some better taste.

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How far into the scifi novel do you need to go till you know it's trash?

This one for example:
>ancient obelisk... ok, could be a nice homage
>giant space ships and halfdead captains... ok, i'm persevering
>chick assassin... into the bin it goes

>>9034849
I see nothing inherently wrong with any of those things.

>>9034827
It was you.... you memed me into watching that fanservice pos.. you post that webm to lure ppl in.
Don't watch it guys. It's all leopard and how some bald head potato with a wig looks cool in it's space suit.

>>9034849
Why is the "women can't do anything" autist still here?

>>9034919
Her gender isnt the issue. Its that the writer makes a point of her gender thats the issue. A female assassin is different from an assassin who happens to be female.

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>>9035022
>tfw xhe didn't have a xir gender of an attack helicopter to make the book more intellectually stimulating and screen out all the dumb readers
>tfw too intelligent for books

>>9035022
What should the writer do, not point out that the character is female? Is a male assassin also different from an assassin who happens to be male? How about a dwarven milkman?
Anyway I didn't get any feminist empowerment vibes from that book. Maybe you should learn a language with only gender-neutral pronouns and read in that, as you seem to be so sensitive on the matter.

>reading the judging eye
>old granny is naked with pussy exposed and flabby breasts
>still has her period
>mounts a young cock
>I get hard and have to fap
How does bakker do it? How does he make me react positively and want to take part in these perverse acts?

With GURM it was just viewing, but bakker makes me want to fuck, get cucked, cuck someone, fuck a female relative, fuck some flabby granny drill cute girly boipucci.

This is not right.

>>9035022
What is the difference?
One uses her pussy and looks to get into places a man would never be allowed and does the deed?
The other uses her pussy and looks to...

>>9035141

Bakker's writing in its inherent cuckness emits what I call an Entartetron, or a "degenerate particle" which resonates in people who are cuckminded like himself, thus activating their own dormant degeneracy.

>>9034315
>Dinosaurs, by Walter Jon Williams. It was in Card's Future on Ice anthology.

Thanks m8.

Couldn't find it for the life of me.

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any recommendations for pic related?

simply fantastic stuff

>>9035452
Battlefield Earth

Gonna be reading The Gods Themselves soon, did you like it?

>>9035503
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/769658.Battlefield_Earth

this one?

>>9035503
I always meant to read some of Scientology-guy's fiction just to see how weird it is.

Similarly, did Card or Sanderson or anyone like that ever write SFF based around Mormon lore?

>halfway through The Dragon Masters

>I somehow completely fucking miss the fact that the "dragons" are actually devolved descendants of the alien invaders

Other than that, pretty good. I can see why this guy heavily influenced Wolfe.

Fairly new to the world of fantasy. Do the Hobbit/LotR work as a good introduction to the genre?

>>9035846

The Hobbit, yes absolutely. LOTR, in my opinion not so much. It's slow and heavy reading, and it can scare a new reader away from the genre.

>>9035856
So what should I pick up after the Hobbit?

>>9035873

I guess it depends on your taste. You say you're new to the world of fantasy, what about sci fi? If you can name a few books you've liked, that could give us a frame of reference to recomment something.

I haven't read much sci-fi.

My interests are mostly in world-building. I love races, human-only stuff like ASOIAF doesn't really appeal to me. An idea fantasy story would explore cultures, cities, etc. and not just castles and monsters.

With Star Wars, or Mass Effect, for example - I'm much more interested in the night club scenes than in the old temples or what have you.

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>>9035899
Go read Iain M. Banks's Culture series. I'd recommend you skip Consider Phlebas at first as it lacks momentum and start with The Player of Games or Use of Weapons.

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>>9035899
Perdido Street Station is pretty much Weird Creatures: The Book - you've got nomadic bird-men, women with scarabs for heads, a ghetto of cactus people, things from Polish mythology that live in the river, clockwork robots, giant hallucinogenic moths, etc.

>>9035915

I second this rec, even though the prose isn't really anything to write home about.

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>>9035913
>not posting this based cover

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>>9034827

>>9035920
>Sluice, press gang, stichling, bacillus
Perdido Street Station doesn't have anything going for it other than the world-building. Pretty much everything he has written somehow manages to derail itself onto another track, enjoying a steampunk detective story? watch this! now your reading a shitty cyberpunk action thriller that would make Clancy wince.

>>9036007

Mieville strikes me as the type of guy who's so overflowing with ideas he can't keep them in check and so his novels derail into (sometimes enjoyable) clusterfucks.

PST had what, a dozen different plotlines all going on at once? And how many of those were actually resolved in the end?

>>9036023
>Mieville strikes me as the type of guy who's so overflowing with ideas he can't keep them in check and so his novels derail into (sometimes enjoyable) clusterfucks.

People say this about literally every author ever.

Perhaps the guy is just a shit fiction writer and should stick to writing Marxist tracts?

>>9036050
/pol/ pls go

>>9036053
What? the guy literally writes Marxist tacts.

>>9036050
>>9036062
>literally writing Marxist tracts
I'm curious about that. Which of his books made you want to start a proletariat uprising to seize the means of production and stuff exactly? I haven't gotten that notion from any of his books, but maybe I'm just too dumb to read between the lines, unlike you evidently.

>>9036073
You actually have to read his books before you get any notion from them Anon, have you tried that?

>>9036062

Not the guy you're replying to, but how is this relevant in any way? We were discussing whether or not he's a capable author, i couldn't give less of a fuck about his politics.

>>9036073

That anon wasn't saying that his books are secretly Marxist propaganda. He was saying that Mieville writes literal Marxist stuff, in addition to writing SFF. Which is true.

>Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law (2004)

>>9034910
I recall telling you that only the first eight episodes were good. You only have yourself to blame.

>>9036095
I'm confused by the people getting upset, because Iron Council is literally about "seizing the means of production", Embassytown is a warning against populism, The City & the City is a very obvious critique of capitalism and wealth inequality etc.

It makes me think people who recommend Mieville haven't actually read anything by him.

>>9035774
>Similarly, did Card or Sanderson or anyone like that ever write SFF based around Mormon lore?
Sanderson, no, but Card did tons. The Memory of Earth series was based on stories from the first part of the Book of Mormon except with space Russians, the Alvin Journeyman series was the life of Joseph Smith in an AU fantasy America, and Folk of the Fringe was straight-up post-apocalyptic Mormons.

That's leaving aside the Mormon themes, which are everywhere without anyone noticing (e.g. Jane not being complete until she's been embodied).

Hi guys, I'm reviewing a book a friend wrote.

Problem is, most of my comments ends up being things like :
>Another word would be better
>That's the wrong tense
>That's grammatically incorrect
>Show, don't tell
for style, and for plot, it's even worse, he casually describes important exposition but spends time on useless dialogue that sounds horribly artificial.

Basically I really, really don't like his style of writing at all, mostly because he uses the first person at all times, and his character talk like a teenager from today instead of a fantasy character. How would you try to reason him ? I don't want to sound like an ass since he's a good friend and genuinely love what he has done, and it's not that bad, but to me he should basically rewrite the entire thing.

>>9036081
I've read his books, enjoyed them.
>>9036095
Not this one though.

>>9035846
Read whatever you think looks interesting. Reading Tolkien will not somehow make you better able to appreciate the rest of the genre since most of the genre has nothing to do with him, especially these days.

>>9036128
Does this look like the writing critique thread to you?

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>>9036148
He writes fantasy so I thought it was appropriate

>>9036140
>most of the genre has nothing to do with him
A huge amount of the genre is either thinly-veiled knockoffs of his world (elves, dwarves, dragons, Dark Lord, etc) or GRRM-esque reactions against it

>>9034812
stories of your life? i thought the only good ones were story of your life and tower of babylon.

>>9035873
and there's always lovecraft.

>>9036152
>especially these days.
>A huge amount of the genre is either thinly-veiled knockoffs of his world (elves, dwarves, dragons, Dark Lord, etc) or GRRM-esque reactions against it
>most of the genre has nothing to do with him, especially these days.

This just shows that you only read old books, thus you didn't see people have moved away from tolkien years ago.

Reading about faggots travelling for no reason to do something that someone else could have done in half the time is boring (Glokta was the only interesting person in the First Law Series). We don't do it anymore.

>>9035371
d-do you also get off on the idea of fucking your boss's wife and him coming home and kissing her on the mouth after she cleaned off your dick with her mouth?
d-do you want to fuck your friends mom when he isn't home?
ple-please tell me I'm not the only one

>>9036220

My boss' wife would be my mother since I'm the boss's son. So no.

As for my friends' mothers, they are all over 60 and therefore fucking disgusting from a sexual point of view.

All of which doesn't change the fact that Bakker manages to be both a cuck AND a hack. At least GRRM is only one of those.

>>9036186
There are people in the First Law series? All I saw was weapon sets spouting cliche'd catchphrases.

>>9035841
Isnt that fact explicitly stated?
the invaders use mutated humans

>>9030787
>https://i.imgur.com/uykqKJn.jpg
Hi, /lit/ elite. I'm training my english skills and want to improve my reading and spelling. Can you help me with choosing fun, thought-provoking and not super difficult book? It's b2 just in case

>>9036330
The Chronicles of Amber

>>9036340
Seems like it will be fun. Thanks a lot!

half way through subtle knife.

Lyra is a nephilim, isn't she. Thats why she can commune with the alethiometer and why her dad was named after the angel of death.

>>9036261
>the entire plot of ASOIAF is due to a king getting cucked by his wife's brother

>you will never read something as good as wizard knight or botns ever again

give me them recs

I want some knightly shit

>>9036373

Not really? In the grand scheme of things, Cersei and Jaime fucking didn't really change a thing. Robert would still have died. Somebody would still have questioned the legitimacy of his heirs as a way of getting the throne.

>>9036439
Read the Viriconium cycle by M. John Harrison

>>9036481
Them not being Roberts kids is what makes Ned rebel, which made the north rise, and then Ned passed the message to Stannis which led to him declaring.

The entire plot of the first book revolves around it

>>9036502

Yes, but then again it was Littlefinger's scheme to engineer the War of The Five Kings in the first place.

So even if Cersei never cucked Robert, it would have been easy for Baelish to fabricate false evidence for Ned to find, leading to the exact same results.

>>9036355
>expecting any of the plot threads to come together
pullman's disappointing you on purpose because life disappoints you maaaan it's totally on purpose

>>9036439
The Red Knight

>>9036515
Why do authors do that? Even if the stop giving a fuck they must have something planned before they get to that point.

At least a Series of Unfortunate Events had the justification from the very beginning that snicket said the story was going to suck again and again

>>9036152
>A huge amount of the genre is either thinly-veiled knockoffs of his world
30 years ago you'd be more or less right. The genre moved on from Middle Earth rip-offs a long time ago. Tolkienism is now a niche unto itself.

What is some sff with great pay off / catharsis?

>>9036667
Liu Cixin, three body problem trilogy
You'll be exhausted, disappointed, hating the main heroine at the end of those three books,

but you'll be having dem feels in the best possible way

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>>9036667
The novel I'm writing.

Also, how big of a turnoff is it if the protagonist is a fag, /lit/?

>>9036439
The Once and Future King

Also give Jack Vance a shot if you like Wolfe that much. Not much knightly stuff, but Vance was a huge influence on Wolfe.

>>9036697
100% turnoff for me.

>>9036693
Are Ken Liu and Cixin Liu related?

>>9036697
Going to fap to it.

>>9036748
"Liu" is a really common surname, so probably not.

>>9036697
It's fine as long as it's not the only notable thing about them.

>>9036769
still a weird coincidence considering Ken was the one who translated Cixin's trilogy into english

>>9036439

Poul Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions" is clearly both an influence on "The Knight" and also explicitly referenced in the text multiple times.

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>be a colossal fantasyfag
>used to write all the time
>now have a full-time job in a soul-sucking copywriter sweatshop
>channeling my creative energy into socks and coats instead of something I care about
Give me some good audiobooks for work, /lit/. I can only take so much.

>>9036868
I've heard good things about the Dresden Files audiobooks, though the series itself is pretty trashy.
If you're after podcasts as well then I'd recommend Chapo Trap House and Harmontown

>>9036868
Guy who narrated Acts of Caine did a great job imo.

>>9036868
I recommend books narrated by John Lee, who's great in my opinion. He's narrated books by Alastair Reynolds, China Mieville, and the fun dystopia Shades of Grey. So I suggest you read something out of those.

>>9036697
If the protagonist has an internal monologue over how cute a boy looks I put the book down without any regrets, regardless of the protagonist's sex.

Just got done reading the Black Company, was wondering if there are any books that follow a group like how they did in the series as
I thought it was really neat seeing how the company changed so much since the first book.

>>9033534
Bowl of Heaven by Benford and Niven
Fits your description.

what's wrong with severian? did he rape jolenta?
poor dorcas

did herbert really want to continue dune past book 1 or did he just do it for the cash?

did gene wolfe want to write book of the long sun or he only did it for the cash?

>>9037386
Glen Cook's has two other series that are similar. Dread Empire is a bit more fantastical and raw (he wrote it earlier) while Instrumentalities of the Night takes place in a fantasy version of the Mediterranean circa 1300 or so and primarily follows a guy who gets sent to not-Italy to spy for not-Saladin and goes from mercenary to general to teaming up with not-Catholic wizards.

The Hammer's Slammers has a similar arc. It follows several characters in a mercenary company. They're mostly disconnected but there's a general arc that ends with Colonel Hammer going back to the planet that founded the company and overthrowing the government. (ruled, presciently, by one Secretary Tromp)

Malazan gets recommended a lot when people ask for stuff like the Black Company but I haven't read it myself.

You might also like David Gemmell.

>>9037385
>>9036772
He's reminiscent of Bilbo Baggins.

Except he wanted to bone his dead best friend.

>>9036261
Don't you want to cuck your father and be a modern day Oedipus? Return to the womb that expelled you.

>>9037461
He raped everyone. even his grandmother.

He created himself

>>9037821
alright i'm gonna write down questions in notepad to ask here _after_ i've finished the book

>>9031116
I found Stranger In a Strange Land incredibly boring, and the exact opposite of what it's always been hyped up to be. IMO The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a far better Heinlein novel and my personal favorite of his.
As for Asimov, the Foundation series goes without question, but I'd advise anyone going into it blind to be aware that it's essentially written like a history book, so it's more concerned with events and ideas than character and emotion; that's something a lot of people get thrown off by. A personal choice would be The Gods Themselves, from my point of view his most adventurous and underrated book, and proof that Asimov could formidably reinvent himself for the new wave sci-fi era. Murder at the ABA is also a highly underrated non-sci-fi work of his.

>>9038067

I didn't understand what A Stranger ina Stranger Landeds was supposed ot be tor waor ojofejfoe ro wrohwat what point it was trying to get across rose to me

>>9038134
It think it was trying to be about transcendental love and shit like that. T/b/h I think it's completely irrelevant in the post-sexual revolution age. It's entire impact depended on existing in a conservative society.

>>9038236
> It's entire impact depended on existing in a conservative society.

You mean the society we're going into now that drumpf the orange piece of shit with small dick is president?

>>9038281

I'm no Trump supporter but one thing he is not is a prude. The very idea is kekworthy.

>>9038404
He is, however, surrounding himself with Jihadists like Mike Pence and Kellyanne Conway.

>>9038417

Whatever man. No one can turn back time, not even the potus. He may enforce some conservative policies, but that alone won't bring back Heinlein's 50s in the USA let alone the rest of the world. Your claim that he will usher a new conservative society is wildly exaggerated. He's just a republican president, not Satan.

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>>9038419
Have you even read the news over the past week?

Prince of Nothing best fantasy epic

>>9038568
>prince of nothing
>not aspect emperor
worldborn detected

Do i finally begin reading Bakker to see what all the fuss is about or do I read Short Sun to complete the Solar Cycle?

>>9038596
Low iq anon that you?

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>>9036439
The Gormenghast trilogy

>>9038635

Low IQ anon here, I would never read bakker

>>9036868
MacDonald and Morris on Librivox.

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>>9038463
>still getting worked up about headlines
>Year of Our Trump 0001.01.30

>>9038463
>still listening to CNN "anonymous sources"

It's like you've learned nothing over the past two years

>>9038596
Short Sun is fantastic.

On the other hand, by reading Bakker you get access to the freshest cuck memes, and the next book is coming out this summer.

>>9036116
Must note that Card has absolutely none of the compunctions Sanderson has to keep things clean. His post-apoc Mormons short stories have attempted rape and successful /ss/, Treason had Polynesian time travel sluts and regenerating hermaphrodites, and Wyrms had, well, guess.

>>9039192

So it's not actually Mormons who ban foul language, it's Sanderson's own idea?

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Reccomend fantasy novels (besides Tolkien) that could be considered "reactionary".

>>9039203

Book Of The New Sun is pretty authoritarian.

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>>9038872
>turn on the internet
>Trump has apparently put his entire beloved family in office to maximise his nepotism/business, raped a lady, put a pajeet in charge of destroying Net Neutrality, tried to literally waste money on a literal fucking wall, stopped Australia from buying planes, insulted China, had lewd sex and cuddling with Putin and banned Muslims from travelling into America

I feel like I'm watching an anime or reading a book inspired by a drug induced haze. I'm beginning to think that he isn't capable of making normal non meme decisions.

How can a person this fictional be real?

>>9039208
Go away.

>>9039208
nobody here wants to read that shit go sound off someplace else

>>9039208

Look here mate, I don't like Trump at all but do you know what I like even less? Off topic posts in my general.

Take your crusade to >>>/pol/, you can fight them to your heart's content. We want to talk SFF in here.

>>9039209
Literally babby's first presidential caricature from one of those scifi pulps: 'Mr President sir, the aliens are invading'. You know how the story goes.

>>9039208
>CNN """news"""

>>9039198
Oh, no, Card's really clean in his personal life, he just separates it from his writing. I get the idea Card just wouldn't care if his mother read his books, but Sanderson does.

>>9039203
The High House.

>>9039250

There's also the fact that Card hates the gays while Sanderson is more open to the idea of them getting married (just not in church, which seems reasonable enough).

So maybe individual Mormons have more wiggling room than I thought and their ideology isn't that strict.

what Wolfe book should I read?

I've read BotNS and WK

>>9039295
Peace

>>9039295

Long Sun.

>>9033514
RAFO.
And read TOR's Malazan Reread of the Fallen to see if you've missed something or if it's coming.

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>>9038692
>trying to draw the unsuspecting into your trap once again

>>9038854
Did you make that for the penguin classics OC thread, or did you just save it?
hi /pol/

>>9039295
Cerberus and his three heads.

>>9039262
wtf I love OSC now. what should I read first?

Please help me decide, next on my reading list is either Bakker or Wolfe.

Which is better, and why?

>>9039603
Saved it, I made a Moldbug one but it was too obscure for them.

>>9039644
Ender's Game/Speaker for the Dead for top-tier 80s SF, Seventh Son for Americana, Treason if you like RPGs. Really you can start anywhere, he wrote a lot of short stories that show his range.

>>9039702
Why not both?

>>9039702
So we have to write an essay for your entitled ass, so you can choose what to read next?
Fuck off

>>9039208
Don't forget how if you're a terrorist from a country where Donny has a hotel, like say, Turkey or Saudi Arabia (you know, where most of the 9/11 hijackers came from), you can still get into the country.

>>9039262
>So maybe individual Mormons have more wiggling room than I thought and their ideology isn't that strict.

They do. My mom answered phones for a legal firm run by Mormons for a while. You know that thing about how they can't drink hot drinks like coffee because they're "too stimulating"? This means energy drinks are fine.

It's very much a "well if we eat pork inside it's okay, because that way allah can't see us doing it" thing.

Has anyone a recommendation for me?

Want a (dark) fantasy book with a men as a protagonist and no cuckolding in the story.
Would be very nice.

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>>9040010
I think this fits your parameters.

>>9040010
>and no cuckolding in the story.

I recommend Prince Of Nothing.

>>9040113
Thanks. It sounds good.

>>9040088
Thanks but i think this is not my liking but thanks though!

>>9040124
>It sounds good.
JUST KEK MY SHIT UP

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>>9040088
D.. do they fuck the ghost?

>>9040316
>ghost
The titular rusalka.
>D.. do they fuck the ghost?
Cherryh tends to be fairly sparing with the sex scenes, but I don't remember how she handled that in this book.

>>9040124
>Thanks but i think this is not my liking but thanks though!
No worries :3

The guy that shilled me library at mount char , you got anything else for me?

>>9036748
They're brothers.

on the sliding scale of bad villain names, how bad is Neil R. Larthotep

>>9040634

>my mother was from Vermont.

>and your father?

>Oh, he was an ancient Egyptian High Priest who got mummified and resurrected two thousand years later by an unholy Necronomicon ritual. They met at a pilates lesson.

>>9040645
kek'd

>He was the last P.I. on the planet, but could he save the world from a nuclear-powered, genocidal, exotic-dancing fembot?

>>9040740
H-how did you find my goodreads account.. who are you.. why are you stalking my reads?

Why is isekai stuff almost entirely garbage?

>>9040753
I just started reading that book this afternoon.

>>9037191
Speaking of Acts of Caine, are they a single, continuous story, or are they self-contained? Not sure if I wanna jump into a series right now.

>>9040767
Low editorial standards, democratic influence on larval web novels, lack of differentiation pressure from consumer base.

>>9040797
You can read the first book without feeling like you need to continue.

>>9040810
Great, that's what I was hoping for. Thanks Anon.

Just finished the first Hammer's Slammers book, it was everything I wanted and more. Looking forward to getting the rest. Anyone else like them?

can I get a stupidity check on something?

it's established early on the town's water is polluted. Later on, the main character realizes that his goals revolve around chrysopoeia, the alchemical practice of turning lead into gold. he finally finds out how to do it at the end and uses it to turn the lead in the drinking water into gold, basically transmuting the water supply into alcohol-free goldschlagger

Is being able to understand a story something innate, or do I actually need to read to become better?

I don't think I understand the Iron Dragon's Daughter, though if I look up it all falls into place.
But it's probably the first book I've read in 3 years besides the first 2 Malazan ones.

Nor am I able to concentrate anymore.

>>9040965
How did you do with Malazan? The books you picked were just on the denser side I'd say. Reading slower, and summarizing each chapter on paper afterwards to reconfirm whether you understood it is a thing you can do.

>>9040997
Malazan went ok, but it also doesn't really help that my attention span often doesn't allow me to read longer than 10-15 minutes.

>Reading slower, and summarizing each chapter on paper afterwards
Thanks, I'll just try to train myself to be disciplined.

NEW THREAD

>>9041042
>>9041042
>>9041042

>>9040873
The only recent observed successful transmutation of lead into gold was through the use of powder which produced a effect similar to nuclear fission; drinking the "alcohol-free goldschlagger" would result in a slow painful death.

>>9041050
the character's power is explicitly nuclear, but if not lead, then what about mercury-197 which becomes atomically stable gold through epsilon decay, which to my knowledge isn't dangerous

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>>9030669
> What's the one book everyone should read by Asimov, ...

The Foundation trilogy, taken as a whole, is only a little longer than a single volume of some other truly hefty series. If you're feeling parsimonious with your time then the answer to your question is to read the second book in the trilogy: "Foundation and Empire." There's a quick synopsis as a sort of prologue, an occasional encyclopedia blurb drive-by, and at least one scene per story arc with the characters picking apart the nature of their current dilemma. Asimov repeats this formula across all the books in the series (and not just the trilogy). You won't be lost, even by jumping into the middle. So, why F&E in particular?

The first part is basically about the late, great, late Roman empire tripping over a cute clutch of vigorous and dynamic Greek city states. States that are in desperate need of being stomped flat, just because. Leading the charge to do just that is a right and honorable Erwin Rommel look alike. It makes for a decent tale, but its worth is to be found in getting yourself sufficiently prepared for part two.

If you are an aficionado of fantasy featuring a mysterious, vague, featureless, spooky action from a distance Dark Lord, part two will be to your liking. Asimov's take on this trope is no work of awe inspiring genius, but can be surprisingly satisfying.