/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

Any good books with a little girl protagonist?

>>9408701

Sabriel.

She's a girl and comparatively little.

>>9408701
>every thread
degenerate

>Unironically recommending anything by Brandon "incongruently palatial" Sanderson

>The war that Tolkien wrote about was a war for the fate of civilization and the future of humanity, and that's become the template. I'm not sure that it's a good template, though.

>writes A Song of Ice and Fire in which Ice is literally threatening the fate of civilization and the future of humanity

>>9408766

>doesn't even bother explain how anyone in Westeros survives a winter that can last for several years
>the North has summer snows, which means shit can't grow there at all
>not a single mention of tax policy from anyone

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Read this after Blindsight. Good book, although Blindsight was better. I'm not very smart though so can you goys help me with some stuff:

Portia is controlling Bruks by the end right?
Why does he kill Valerie?
Is the person who gets up and starts to walk at the end Bruks or Valerie controlled by a bit of Portia that somehow got into her?
What was Portia's plan to begin with? Somehow kill off humanity like Rorschach wanted to do? I guess so since she was sent by Rorschach
Jim's brain was hacked by Rorschach using the messages from what Jim thought was Siri, so what does this mean for Siri? Is he also under Rorschach's control? Why did Rakshi hear a female voice in the Siri messages?
What was the message that the Bicams were trying to leave for Bruks?

Hope Watts writes another to tie everything together.

>>9408775
>the war should've stopped all trade
>the North should've starved to death
>meanwhile food is so integral to the storytelling an ASOIAF cooking book gets published
I really like the story, but I feel like GRRM has butchered the storytelling.

>>9408791

Honestly, it was just the novelty of "Look, these goodie do-right guys? They die. They suffer horribly" that pulled people in. That's all.

There's no actual randomness of people dying, otherwise the Mountain would have gotten a crossbow bolt through his eyes quite a while ago.

What do you guys think of Vandermeer?

>>9408847
The Ambergris stuff and some of the Southern Reach was good, Veniss Underground only OK. I see he has new books coming out and I mean to read Shriek and Finch at some point. Haven't read any of the anthologies he's worked on.

>>9408864
I've read his works are classified as new weird.

How different is it compared to typical fantasy?

>>9408864
I vastly prefer the anthologies he edits, he's got a wide reach, The Weird gave me some great new authors to look for

Authors like Jean Ray, Bruno Schulz, Amos Tutuola

>>9408780
My dear friend, I've had this conversation about five times and it's just as enjoyable each time.

Yup, that's known. However, I've heard some debate about if Valerie injects him with a modified form of it.
Could be his own action, baseline meatbrain defence, or it could be the unmodified Portia controlling him even then.
Pretty sure it's Bruks, after he tried to kill himself.
Yeah Portia and Rors are one and the same. I think Portia was specifically designed to knock-out Icarus though. Raises an interesting question of what it's going to get up to on Earth. (My head-canon is it might go rogue from Rors and we'll have some civil war on our hands) However if Rors was destroyed Portia is all that remains and is now acting alone.
This question really exposes where Echopraxia shines. It actively implies that the entirety of the Blindsight narrative was actually just Rors fictionalising it's own death, with everything else (the buildup, the romance), just attached to make it more believable. HOWEVER the female voice Rak hears means that Rors could have intercepted Siri's still legitimate messages and it either trying to negate them with its own brainwashing of loved ones voices, or it could have somehow gained control of Siri himself. The end of Blindsight seems to imply things are very cosy for Siri, but he want inside Rors multiple times. He could easily have been brain-hacked or in someway altered. There's a lot up for debate here, and I don't have the skill to analyse the text enough.
No idea.

I agree that while Echo bangs, it's nothing on Blindsight. Also it can get very tricky to read at times, but maybe that's just me. Watt's is planning a final in the trilogy, called Omnipotence or something. Mentions it in his reddit AMAs and the odd blog post

>>9409070
thanks buddy, good to hear he's planning a final book

>>9408879
Anyone?

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Any good books with sexy lizard people? Especially some where cloaca get stuffed.

>>9409476
>tfw I read that hentai

>>9409484
Source, please.

>>9409504
I don't remember. I usually download and delete when finished r-rreading.. Yea.. Reading. I get my sources all over the internet, including 4chins. Don't remember where I got men stuffing lizard grils from.(or even if the download link is still active, the creators search for those sites to report the links as copyright infringement).

>>9408864
>Southern Reach

Anyone has been able to find this series online? The usual torrent sites don't have it.

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>>9408695
Whats your pen name /sffg/?

>>9409070
>>9409134
Pretty sure the final book is about the vampire uprising powered by portia

Hey /sffg/,
I'm looking for coming of age fantasy books for my cousin who's turning 14 but reading almost anything, so maybe no 100% YA stuff for people too dumb to read. I've read some of them back in the day until ~1995, but it wasn't quite my genre.

So far he's liked (not restricted to coming of age, just to get you an overview)
- Harry Potter
- Robin Hobb trilogies
- The Magician / Feist
- Blade whatever trilogy/ Abercrombie
- Rothfuss Kingkiller shitfest
- Lies of Locke Lamora
- Piers Anthony (about the only SciFi he liked)

Any suggestions? Thanks for throwing them out there :)

>>9409730
Sanderson, Nix, Fforde

>>9409730
The Rigante series by David Gemmell.

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>>9409730
Though I don't know who Nix is, his guy get's it: >>9409748 and I would recommend Mistborn from Sanderson.

I would certainly add Terry Pratchett to the list of recommendations, some example books that might fit the age (I was rushing through all Discworld at that age): The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents;
Thief of Time; Pyramids; Mort; Eric.

>>9409776
>>9409769
>>9409748
Thanks, guys!

I've read Shades by Fforde back when it came out, then put the second book out of my mind when it kind of never happened. Now I see it's planned for 2018... well, back on the list it goes.

>>9409730
I have fond memories of reading The Belgariad by David Eddings when i was around that age.

Where do i start with Jack Vance?

>>9409730
Dragonlance Chronicles or Darksword Trilogy for something a little more basic; The Death Gate Cycle for something a little more unique, but still typical fantasy. They're all by the same authors and are good for young'uns.

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>>9409806
If you like erudite fantasy with monsters, demons and wizards, then there is the first Dying Earth book, which is a collection of short stories in that setting. It's usually sold as part of an omnibus which collects all the Dying Earth books, though, so it might feel like a commitment to start here, even though the first volume is self-contained. Most of his well known and better regarded books are part of a series e.g. Demon Princes.

But I read Emphyrio which is a great one-and-done story, a science fiction, a coming-of-age and rebellion tale set on another world. It's also one of his easier books to find physically.

That's all I've read by him. I have another of his science fictions, To Live Forever, in the mail. By this time next week I might be able to have an opinion on it.

>>9408879
>>9409164
The only texts I've really read from it were Mieville; his stuff is kind of like Steampunk if it was actually about things and not just an excuse for cogs on top hats. In general it's based more on cosmic horror ideas than epic/mythological ones, but there's a mishmash of aesthetics going on; Vandermeer's stuff seems almost biopunk and very ecology-focused, where Mieville's more about uncanny forces in complicated cities.

>>9409806
depends what you're looking for a bit. his stuff can generally be divided up two ways - one, fantasy versus science fiction; two, heroic versus comedic. The usual recommendation is Dying Earth, which is fantasy / comedy. My personal favorite and recommendation for starting point is the Demon Princes series, five books, science fiction / heroic - I think it's his strongest work and most directly gets at the things that make him good. In general, I think his heroic science fiction stuff is his strongest work - it most closely gets at the interesting thematic aspects of his work and it offers the most scope for his wild inventive faculties. I think that personally the first thing I read by him was Night Lamp, which is very representative and fairly enjoyable.

Really, though, there's no bad place to start except for The Grey Prince, and that's not even a bad book.

>>9409730
He has to read The Hobbit and LOTR at least once in his life.

>>9409635
Go to a library

>>9408780
>>9409070
The way I see it, the message was supposed to convey that the answer was within himself.
Also, Echopraxia suffers from somewhat unclear prose at times. That's why it's confusing.
Still, I found it to be even better than Blindsight.

>>9409730
The chronicles of Narnia. Then tell him that most of the characters are possibly dead. Have him reread it.

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What does /lit/ think of YA fantasy?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/66j7ke/ya_is_not_an_insult_please_dont_use_it_like_one/

>>9410558
Like any other sub-sub-genre, there are a few really good titles and a lot of dogshit ones. YA probably has a lower good-to-shit ratio since it's plagued with people trying to be The Next Big Thing™ and get a Hollywood deal, usually by writing a generic dystopia in which we learn that totalitarianism is bad.

>>9410534
how did you know

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>>9410558
I enjoy reading YA, but I also like to use it as an insult.

So I'm not too sure on my thoughts.

>>9410558
The problem with YA fantasy is that most of it is written for adults.

>>9409730
>Lies of Locke Lamora
>14
WHAT THE FUG ARE YOU DOING? TOO YOUNG.
Next thing you'll say is that he read Bakker.

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>>9410558
What little good shit there is gets drowned in a sea of bland dystopian garbage. You have to dig through ten books to get to one decent one.

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>>9408695
Not b8. Why does this come recommended on the fantasy section of this board? I thought the sections featuring Bayaz and the Maker's House to be interesting but far too short and undeveloped. Other than that I didn't find anything revolutionary in the story or exceptional with the writing. Did I miss something?

>>9411222
Or shitty John Green types

>>9409730
Give him A Song of Ice and Fire. I was about his age when I picked the series up and I loved it. I also have a kinda similar reading history as he does, having read HP and Raymond Feist's stuf before picking up GRRM, so I think I get his taste.

I might also recommend Shadowmarch by Tad Williams.

>>9409730
The Baertimaeus Trilogy is pretty great. Also if he likes spy stuff and secret societies try A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch

What is some decent enough fantasy series with shit loads of magic being used, ecluxuding malazan, rothfuss, sanderson, weeks, brett, sabriel, sullivan, rowling, grossman

>>9411451
Dresden files, may not be your taste though. I didn't like it.

>>9411451
B A K K E R
A
K
K
E
R

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>>9411237
Of course the recommendations are questionable, they are only entirely authentic to the person who made them, such is subjectivity. The science fiction charts are in reasonable shape, with the 'crash course' being the most visually appealingly by way of its concise arrangement. This could satisfiably be the only linked chart in OP, being a genuine primer with key texts in several areas of the genre. No, I didn't make it.

The other SF charts are too cluttered and too big. They also have some quirky choices which reflect an individual's taste, and overlap too often in their predictable and tedious prescription of Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein.

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Which site is the best to monitor meaningful (not a shitton of shite) new releases in horror/scifi/fantasy?

>>9411566
Ask literally any other thread

>>9411237
it's good if you like feeling superior to the writer but at the same time appreciating the fun romp he creates

i envy him
publisher gave him something like half a million to write x number of books over the years
his life is set

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>tfw you can't even save little severian

>>9411590
Pick a recent book you know is good and look at the amazon recommendations, that's what I've found most useful.

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I just post this here.

>>9412147
BotNS is honestly the best thing I've ever read. Wolfe is a God.

>>9412147

Did BotNS do time travel best?

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http://evanpalmercomics.tumblr.com/post/60248601430/part-1-of-jrr-tolkiens-the-ainulindal%C3%AB-read

Found this courtesy of /r/literature

>>9408695
are the children the niggers of westeros?

>>9412581
>>9412147
shame i only glimpsed that there is time travel stuff and did not quite get it or have anything near a cohesive picture of the narrative in my mind.

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People that read this trash have serious problems.

>>9409730
Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Book of Knights by Yves Meynard

>>9409806
Chronologically
Dying Earth

>>9411451
The Red Knight

Only read the first book though.

>>9409824
Gallancz masterworks series was great I don't know why they had to end it, then revive it with no numbers and every cover smeared in green and yellow
Anyway, try Lyonesse for his take on epic fantasy

>>9412980
>Only read the first book though.

How come?

>>9411512
That's a shit list

>>9409776
Garth Nix, wrote The Old Kingdom series. It's actually quite a fun read. Sabriel was the first book. Top bloke too, met him a couple years back and had a good ole chat. He's good to his fans and I like that

>>9412822
Why are you doing this? Are you ban evading or something?

>>9409639
The Eidolon

>:D

>>9409639

Stevian Heartbound

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>>9412980
>>9412983
Don't trust that guy, don't read the red knight. The book is inconsistent with it's worship system (praising the Christian God and the sun...)
It shows a poor representation of mercenaries. These dudes just came back from a fight for their lives and they are behaving like gentlemen.

I mean with the black company you could tell that croaker and others were omitting parts, but this captain dude was straight face about it. You had this hot pants head nun who was practically drenching her girdle anytime she was around the captain, dropped hints that if he took her she wouldn't complain and what does he do? Someone who fought for months without getting w drink of pussy one? He continues to be a gentleman.

If you are a GRI aficionado, don't touch this book.

>>9413146
does it have some hot brother & sister action though?

Here's a thread question, approximately how many science fiction books have you read? How many fantasy

Approximately 200 science fiction for me.

Way less fantasy, probably in the 50-60 range.

how am i supposed to know that

>>9413146
What is this bullshit?

>>9413164
If my sorting system is to be believed, I've read 21 Science Fiction and 12 Fantasy books. Since the first of the year. Make of this what you will.

>>9413157
Not the first book. Dropped the series after that. At the end the seemingly advance of technology to come and the wyrm or dragon coming into play actually made me want to continue. He was the most interesting character in that entire bloated book, and the way he looked like he had "planned for this for a long time" was interesting. But I resisted, and still do to this day.

Some say there is GRI after book 1. But I'm not reading on. I give each book a chance of completion before I shit on it. A lot of them stretch the story out until til the end, then do some amazing finale that blows your mind. But as I spoilered above, that was the only interesting part near the end. If book 1 was so dreary, why would I read the others?

>>9413164
Combined? Over 700. More fantasy than sci-fi I think though.

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>>9412982
I liked the old black colour scheme better, but it does show wear more. The post-relaunch yellow colour scheme is good and bad - some titles look great, especially more recent ones, while others are just the old art with a yellow filter on it. It also seems random which books have a gloss or matte finish on their cover or not; this matters, because the matte finished covers peel and separate a lot easier. I can't complain much, they're putting out Strugatsky Brothers books in full trade paperback.

Picture is a stack of the older pre-relaunch books - not mine, because my shelf is a wasp-like yellow and black.

>>9413248
After the first book, everything that intrigued me about the setting takes a back seat to fighting big bad monsters and wanking the Captain.

>>9413257
The relaunched fantasy masterworks is good

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Can one of you angels help me decide what to read? I simply can't. I've tried so many series and grimaced at page one, and been disappointed so many times when I decided to stick through to the end that I don't know what and who to trust anymore.

All I know is that I just want to read fantasy again.

My all-time favorites are still LotR, ASoIaF, PoN and the very first Thomas Covenant trilogy. I'm sad that in both the case of PoN and TC, the latter books are terrible.

I've tried getting into Malazan TWICE but it's such a mixed bag that I just couldn't take it anymore and gave up midway during the sixth book (on my second run, it was the fifth on my first). There's something about its constant quips that's too reminiscent of capeshit, and I fucking despise the way entire characters go into the hole. For example, I'm genuinely curious how the Mappo/Icarian story is going to conclude, but I've read thousands of pages just to have it return to the spotlight... and it still hasn't. Stuff like this I simply can't abide. I feel like a hostage being made to suffer through things I hate for the small chance that I might see my loved ones again.

Other than that, I'm warm towards Elric, Witcher, Conan, and Lovecraft's stuff. I'd count The Name of the Wind as the worst book I've ever read. The First Blade trilogy was also okay, but so passable that I barely recall what happened in it. In general, I've tried a lot of series and just gave up after fifty or so pages because I felt they weren't for me.

The only thing I haven't touched so far despite its fame is WoT. Partly because I said I'd save it for when I'm old and dying in the hospital, and partly because I fear it might share in the Malazan plague of throwaway characters filling page after page, while the "main characters" that you're introduced with in the beginning are discarded.

I'm sorry to blog and probably offend people with my shitty opinions, but I'm desperate, /lit/. I just want to pick up a series I'm certain I'll like and fuck off for days.

>>9413485
Does it have to be a series?
Does it have to be in a faux-medieval setting?

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>>9413485

Read The Black Company yet? If not, have a go at the first three books.

>>9413500

Not at all. Go wild. I also enjoy Russian lit and have a guilty pleasure in Black Library stuff.

>>9413521

I've tried it. And like in most cases, I didn't hate it at all. But I just got the feeling the story wasn't headed anywhere in particular, and that I'd end up disappointed when all is said and done. And nowadays that's a big time investment. Is it worth it?

>>9411237
Are you referring to the first book or all of the First Law trilogy?
It's one of the few fantasy books out there that feels as a comfy and thoroughly satisfying read: well written and developed characters, wholesome plot, no messing about with filler descriptions, no SJW nonsense, and enough grimdark to make it believable.

You (and a lot of people on this board) really need to start reading books for the story, not because you're expecting some revolutionary masterpiece that will reinvent the wheel. Rothfuss got a lot of praise for supposedly doing that, and we all know how his novels crashed and burned (if not being drowned in purple prose first).

>>9413593

Yeah, my bad, I was referring to all of it. And I read some other stuff by him at the time... Best Served Cold, or something? I liked that one less. In any case, I wasn't saying it was bad. It just didn't do anything for me on a personal level.

Though, I think you're misunderstanding me completely if you think I want to be blown away by something entirely new. That's not the issue. Quite the contrary, I'm a supporter for "generic" fantasy, so long as it feels right.

I don't dislike any book because it's "unoriginal"; I dislike it because it doesn't get me emotionally involved. That's why I mentioned Malazan as a work I don't enjoy--one moment you're reading a book in the series that has characters you're grooving with, the next you're stuck with a bunch of assholes you wish would just die. This is not cool.

>>9413164
I have no fucking clue. What sort of autist keeps count?

The answer is "a lot."

>>9410558
Wow, what a complete and utter faggot

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I was pleasantly surprised by this book. A slightly complex (for a short book) plot centering around an AI's bid for immortality. Somehow, smashing together all the stars in a stellar cluster (50,000?) briefly causes that mass to disappear from the universe. This breaks the Big Bang Big Crunch cycle and the AI can continue functioning for eternity (what will power it, hmmm?). This means that life will die out and never be reborn in the next cycle. Oh, and the universe is treated like an organism, with the Bang Crunch its beating heart. To reverse this madness, our intrepid feline heroes must fly a starship at 0.999999999c for 45 billion years, hopefully counteracting the momentary loss of all those destroyed stars' mass. Throw in some time dilation (always a favorite of mine), cryosleep, and a dash of time travel paradox and you have the basic plot. Did I mention the AI has achieved some level of mind control over every inhabitant of the universe? Anyway, I got some faint van Vogt vibes from this. Perhaps the wacky, barely understood reasoning behind the plot's driving forces.

I 'll give this 4/5 feline space princesses.

>>9413864
Where is the goodreads, catfag?

>>9413898
Here, on 4chan :3

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Now thinking of van Vogt, I decided to follow up with this. Guy gets pulled into the 24th century for reasons (to be slain in the presence of a woman he murdered's descendant, as therapy) and becomes embroiled in revolution. Bit of a roller coaster ride, with any temporary equilibrium shattered by another layer of "whut?". Didn't find it too special, but it kept me interested.

Sounds like 3/5 dinosaurs (no I'm not biased, shut up!)

I finished Metro 2033, I don't get the praise for this book.

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Next with some Herbert. This was actually two short stories originally published in magazines, with ink illustrations. Lots of illustrations (mostly character portraits), roughly half of the already slim text. I love it when books throw a few of these in, but combined with the large font and top/bottom margins, I'd hesitate calling the result a book. The stories weren't that special either. Both took place on a library planet, and featured passive approaches to dealing with an unfriendly galactic government.

Rates maybe 2/5 dinosaurs

>>9414044
There was a pretty good video game made out of it and so it was a lot of people's first exposure to post-apocalyptic novels.

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>>9414013

>>9413521
>>9413544

Black Company is hot garbage.

>heh, we're the bad guys, and our boss is a sexy, evil super witch who used to be married to the badguy
>come watch us defy genre conventions as we fight the goody two-shoes rebels!
>j/k we were actually secretly the good guys the whole time ;)
>and our boss was secretly good the whole time (and she's also still a virgin for some reason)
>oh, and she has sex with me, the main character (who is definitely not an author insert)
>and our daughter is a super baby goddess with ultra magic :)

Eye rolling nonsense.

>>9414176

Well, I read the first trilogy back when it came out, so yeah, it might not hold up as well after all this time, but at the time, it was pretty decent.

>>9413634
I haven't read Malazan yet. I'm a bit wary of it because of the reviews, and the fact that you supposedly have to read it several times to 'get it'.
I did thoroughly enjoy The First Law though, and I didn't feel that it wasn't engaging enough. Some of the characters, like the Inquisitor Glokta, were quite well written. Dunno, maybe it's a matter as simple as 'different strokes for different folks'.

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>>9414176
You are fooling anyone.

>>9414176

I feared this was the case...

>>9414199

>you supposedly have to read it several times to 'get it'.

I don't think that's true at all. Maybe for normies. The setting isn't spoonfed to you, that's all.

>>9413485
If you're up for something a little bit more light-hearted, I suggest choosing something from Discworld. Books that are a little bit cheesy are nice now and then,

>>9414262
>The setting isn't spoonfed to you, that's all.
This is true. I read all thes books once and got it. Maybe there are finer connections and subtle treasures, but I wanted the over all story and got it.

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>>9414176
>Black Company
>Bad

>>9412935
Re-read it brother. Shit will start making sense. Also did you read Urth of the new sun?

>>9414199
>you supposedly have to read it several times to 'get it'.
Not true at all. Who has been telling you that? It's a series you get a lot out of the second and third time you read it, but you don't have to read it more than once to follow it. You just have to read it carefully the first time.

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>reading Steel World

>one of the heavy space marines is called Borges

>now I cant help but picture him in my head as the actual Borges, clad in power amor and blowing space raptors with a big laser

Any one know the name of the Sci-fi book that was supposed to be pretty dense and was written with a lot of references to Latin

The cover had an illustration of a knighted clothed in black, flowing robes and maybe a sword?

Sounded interesting

>>9414772
Shadow of the Torturer?

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>>9414759
>steel world
>people are reading and enjoying my recs
>maybe they will trust me with my other books

>>9414958

what other books? you mean the rest of those in the chart?

the selection is a bit spotty in places, but nothing too offensive, stuff like the broken empire is basially modern pulp so I cant really get mad at it

>>9415093
I have at least 15 books that aren't discussed here on that chart. Why would you pick one that discussed/ berated to death?

>>9415174

because I was memed into reading it, thats why.

>>9414567
Not yet. Think I will read Fifth Head of Cerberus first.

>>9415183
Did you read a blurb? Did you check reviews?
Always read up on anything recommended here. Remember the last decision is with you.
Also when asking for recs say what you like (magic, post apoc, GRI, adventure, bro-ing it up, tech, weapons, military, etc) so people can recommend closely with your likes.

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>>9415191
Good luck. Mind the Christianity.

>>9415204

I just wanted to read something trashy on a long plane ride, it served its purpose well enough.

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Didn't see this general. Made a thread but should probably ask here if anyone's read this

>>9408695
what's that image supposed to be from?

>>9415323
>image name

>>9413485
Fantasy: Emperors blades trilogy, stormlight archive, the travelers gate trilogy, dawn of wonder, gentleman bastards (author is a sjw but that doesn't come off in his writings),

Sci fi: ready player one, pandoras star, the windup girl (more steampunk than sci fi)

Obscure but good the Fate book 1

>>9414136
So pretty much what happened with The Witcher?

>>9415488
You could draw a close analogy, yes. I doubt the Witcher books would have had a fraction of their current fanbase outside of Poland were it not for the games.

>>9408695
I'm thinking of starting Wheel of Time but was wondering if Sanderson ruins it

>>9415524
Sanderson could only make it better. WOT went down hill after book 3. But I stopped reading after the prequel.

>>9415493
>>9414136
Recently, a funny little thing happened between Sapkowski (Witcher's author) and Glukhovsky (Metro's author).

Sapkowski said the games took away from his books (which is obviously untrue), and, upon hearing this, Glukhovsky called him "an arrogant motherfucker."

Turns out, Sapkowski was just butthurt because he passed on royalties.

>>9415598
took away from his book sales*, rather

>>9415524
The problem with WoT is that it's insanely long, and there's at least 3 or 4 books of it (even just in the Robert Jordan-written books) that no one would really claim are good.

I still have a lot of affection for the series and I think it does a lot of things really well. But if you want to consider reading it, you should be prepared for massive pacing problems and tons of padding and frustration. Also, it's very much pre-GRRM epic fantasy, much more late-80s early-90s in terms of its themes, not at all interested in realism or anything like that, so be prepared for that. If you're down with those things, and you actively want to read a 14 book series, go for it. Sanderson is fine.

>>9415529
*tugs braid*

To be honest, if you can't contain your story within three or so books you might as well just not bother telling it. Fourteen books is absurd.

>>9415355
He probably one of those wretched phone posters.

>>9415629
>if you can't contain your story within three or so books you might as well just not bother telling it. Fourteen books is absurd.
Is that a shot at Sanderson?

>>9415629

>if you can't contain your story within three or so books you might as well just not bother telling it

I don't know anon, I think theres something appealing in a long series you can get comfy with. That said WoT was ridiculous, I remember dropping it at book 8 in my teens when my tolerance for reading pages and pages of crap was at its highest. Up until that point I had never dropped a series, no matter how long but with WoT I just couldn't do it. Now I'm an adult and even more discerning with my time even thinking about all of that pointless padding puts me off. Maybe if they released an abridged version of the series that heavily edits the pointless shit.

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>The man in the dinner plate hid his contempt for the young boy mopping up gravy from the dinnerware.

>His time was nigh.

>He would escape his porcelain prison and butcher his captors.

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>>9415723

How do you go from this...

>>9415629
You must despise Sanderson.

>>9415650
And what exactly is wrong with phone posting?

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>>9412491

>>9415210
>>9415210
Can't say I'll be aware of it any more I was aware of the Greeks. I don't read classic literature, never did, be it Bible or Homer.

>>9415735
Sometimes people just want to discuss terrible things because it's fun.

Not because they want to troll or conduct negative emotions or take part in some meta-ironic narrative...

Because it's fun, dude. Like watching a tire fire with your friends. Or shooting at a car on cinderblocks.

You fucking tourist.

Anyone here read Counter-Clock World? What did you think of it?

Ann or Lottie?

>>9410558

Good YA Fantasy:
Harry Potter series
The first three Artemis Fowl books
Anything by Garth Nix

Bad YA fantasy:
literally everything else, unless you call The Hobbit or A Wrinkle in Time """"YA""""

>>9415761
I thought the first two Spooks books by Joseph Delaney were quite good, started getting really dumb on book 4 and I dropped the series though

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>>9415761
>forgetting the best YA trilogy
Shameful

>>9415766
I read this when I was 12, so I don't trust 12 year old me's glowing review of it.

>>9408695

>https://i.imgur.com/r688cPe.jpg
>Black Sun Rising

This is one of my favorite fantasy trilogies but it doesn't seem to be discussed very often in the general. Anyone here read it?

>>9415761
fuuuuuuuck youuuuuuuu for not knowing about John Bellairs, Susan Cooper, and Lloyd Alexander.

John Bellairs isn't for everyone but Susan Cooper is a great fantasy YA author

>>9415772
Read it a long time ago, but remember loving it. From what I recall it had a really good anti hero. Setting was fairly unique. Overall darker sci fi. I've not read her other works but always meant to.

>>9415776
Lloyd Alexander is the best YA author.

>>9415772
Yes and it's fucking amazing.

>>9415786
Don't read the other works, they're disappointing.

>>9415743
>Sometimes people just want to discuss terrible things because it's fun.

Then start by dumping shit on that book first m8, don't start with "i just post this here" because it is know that there are redditfags here sometimes.
Don't blame me because that looks like a clearly bait, this is 4chan you mongoloid.

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>>9415766
My nigga.
Pic related was also pretty good as a kid

>>9415772
Read the first book and thought it was pretty good. Second book was a bit samey and boring so I dropped it. Is it worth picking up again?

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Reading through Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning / Seven Surrenders right now. Decent quasi-utopia worldbuilding and well-drawn characters.

>>9415788
I have non-standard opinions on Alexander (my favorite stuff from him is Westmark, which no one really likes or cares about, and I don't care that much for Prydain), and I also don't like him nearly as much as I like Bellairs or Cooper, but he's undeniably both Very Good and a Classic.

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>tried writing something other than that parasitic obsession
>wrote half a sentence
>deleted it
>thought some more
>closed libre office

why can't I do this?

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>>9415723
TUC WHEN????

>>9415524
Sanderson ruined it. There's no point in reading it

>>9415849
Because you are influenced by weebshit

>>9415938
I was only really asking to brace myself. But apparently it went to shit long before Sanderson touched it so it's whatever at this point

>>9415761
>no Charlie Bone and the Red King
>no dark materials
>no Septimus Heap
>no very selective choices of James Patterson
I now know you're a faggot.

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>>9415776
>>9415788
>>9415761
>>9415962
>plebs making a pleb genre even plebier

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>>9415967
>I like distinguished fantasy works like Infinite Jest, Gravity's Rainbow, Iliad and Ulysses

I want a heros journey that's fucked to hell and back

>the dark lord isn't actually all that bad while the magical questgiver is dangerous entity who couldn't give less of a fuck about humanity their chosen hero
>the hero hates the quest and is legitimately worried (with good reason) he's has a schizophrenic break
>he has no upper body strength or useful magic powers so his options are either run away or bite people
>the wise old master has advanced alzheimers
>They nearly die getting the legendary unbreakable sword, only to find that's rusted or that he's not strong enough to lift it
>the quest itself turns out to have horrific consequences if completed that would result in more innocent deaths than anything the dark lord could accomplish if they dedicated themselves to it for the rest of their lives

>>9415962
Dark materials is better than most adult fiction even though it's a written by a fedora

>>9415993
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

>>9415993
>>9416003
Yes. The only one of those that TC doesn't fit is that the dark lord is pretty horrible. The rest are fair descriptions of it.

>>9415726

God, PoN was such an amazing trilogy... I kept telling myself Judging Eye and White-Luck Warrior were exceptions, but Great Ordeal wasn't any better...

I can't say I have much hope left, and I don't think Bakker is as smart as I want him to be. That, or he just doesn't give a shit.

>>9408762
He ruined WoT

>>9411455
Too much sex. That's not usually something I complain about but that series was weird at times.
Couldn't finish it

>>9410840
Eh. The cursing and the violence probably appeals to his 14 year old mind.

>>9416066
>Too much sex.
You just exposed yourself as someone who memes reading books. You fucking pretentious scum. Pretending to read books may work in outer lit, but in here you actually have to read shit to talk about it.

>>9415993
Some of those are in the first law trilogy.

>>9415524
>Wheel of Time
Just from the title alone you can easily tell that it sucks. Why waste time on it?

Where is the brave anon that said he was going to read Dhalgren?
Status report?

>>9415524
Sanderson wrapped it up pretty well, I enjoyed the last few books . The main issues with WoT set in well before he ever took over the series, considering what he got handed going in he did a great job finishing things. He had to juggle so many characters a lot of whom had little or no real value to the story but Jordan had for some reason given them so much focus in the books that he couldn't just ignore them or else readers would be asking "what about Garyth Bryne and Siuan Sanche?" and so on as if their parts were really important enough to give them point of view perspectives in several chapters across half a dozen books.

There's a lot of things I can nitpick the series over, but fact is I still love it. It's comfy, easy read and even if the books get bloated with unnecessary character focus the main cast is still charming and always a pleasure to read. All that said, it's not a series I recommend to people lightly. It's very, very long. If you're not willing to dig into something that huge then don't even bother starting.

>>9415822
Bait in the Socratean sense, yes.

I bought it the other day. To call the chapters essays is stretching it. So far she's amazingly consistent. But I'll probably iron out the self-contradictions.

>>9416305
I read Dhalgren once, fond memories, good ol' half faggot Kidd. Kinda falls apart at the end tho ;)

Fuckin Bookzz doesn't have lightbringer 3, anyone have a link for me?

Stuck looking after my grandma in the middle of nowhere, I've basically cleared out the bookstore here, please help my delicious escapism.

Cheers lads.

What's some good military-focused sci-fi?

>>9413164
I'm pretty new to sf/fantasy. I've read about 20 books or so. Mostly Wolfe, Pratchett and Sanderson.
Of those maybe 2 were scifi, mostly read fantasy.

>>9415210
Is there Christianity in Fifth Head of Cerberus? I didn't pick up on that...

>>9416366
>grandma
>middle of nowhere,
You don't want bakker do you?

>>9416366
I can snatch it for you and upload it if you want

>>9416491
I mean I read Black Prism and Blinding knife over the last two days, and now I'm invested, but like I'll read it after, sure. Thanks.

>>9416626
That would be excellent. Thankyou friend.

>>9416636
Nice, see you all in another 24h

>>9416643
glhfgb

>>9413129
Not him, but doing what? Are you offended at his use of the word nigger?

Did your little feelings get hurt? Grow up you fucking snowflake.

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Post your favorite cover.

>>9416683
The meaning of Nigger has changed. It used to be part of our culture, part of our speech, but it didn't convey any genuine racism.
That has changed now.

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>>9416729

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>>9416866
fuck woops

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So how about some Sanderson ey? Haven't read
Words of Radiance yet.

Can anyone recommend me some speculative fiction where Axis powers won ww2, preferably from their pov not some: this is post apocalypse dystopia so lets fight for freedom bullshit done 10000 times.

Lately I want to read different povs, not usual where you know how it will end, good always wins, guy always gets the girl, protagonist is goodie and so on...

>>9416943
Actually i want to generalize this request.
I want books where protagonists views and culture are different(more different the better). Where value systems are different. I want something where people are different and i cant find anything which is to be expected but god damnit its annoying. I like character driven novels the best and characters are well always kinda same... I want them different!

>>9415832
Keep trying to read this but it's not on the UK Amazon Kindle store nor in bookshops

Ho hum

>>9416973
It's on bookzz

>>9416973
>>9416994
How do you even live?
https://forum.mobilism.org/search.php?keywords=Too+Like+the+Lightning&fid%5B%5D=0&sc=1&sr=topics&sf=titleonly

Hello! I havent read almost anything for a few years, but I just finished reading Time traveller's wife and re-read Inheritance cycle. Now I hunger for more!
I also watched Doctor Who recently, and I really liked seasons 5-6, and now I am looking for something similar. Ant recommendations?

>>9416972
The Three Body Problem trilogy is a pretty good look at things from a Chinese perspective. Most explicit in the opening act of the first book, but also through the events of the second and third, you can really see how the author's worldview was influenced by growing up in the latter years of the Cultural Revolution and the abject poverty of rural China, and China's rapid and destructive development into a modern industrialized country.

>>9416995
>>9416995

>being a broke degenerate who doesn't pay for his books

Bring an author is such a dreadfully paying job unless you write garbage. Cheapskates.

>>9417010
>The Three Body Problem trilogy
I'll be honest this didn't really click for me until The Dark Forest, though book 1 picked up towards the end. Might be because of its translation being a bit weird and stilted, and the main character was basically a cardboard prop.

>>9417010
Unfortunately I've read it I liked it alot especially for different perspective, I'm tired of same old western culture. Thank you for your reply though.

>>9417027
The first book had the meat but none of the flavour. Best example I can think of for struggling through a bad book for a better sequel

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Mark Lawrence, Prince of Thorns

Any recommendations for well written, dark novels like this?

In fantasy or sci fi.

Mainly I'm sick of "comfy" fantasy/sff tropes.

>>9417009
I'll preface this by saying that I enjoy the dark and conceptual Doctor Who stuff.

You could start with the Doctor Who novels especially the ones written by Miles Lawrence (Alien Bodies, Interference I and II) and Fear Itself (by Nick Wallace). The audioplays should not be missed especially the best written ones which include The Chimes of Midnight, A Death in the Family, Scherzo and Peri and Piscon Paradox although there's prerequisite if you want to get familiar with the characters.

>ENTRY LEVEL fantasy like the Inheritance Cycle
Most people like Brandon Sanderson books like Elantris or the Stormlight Archive.

>Good CONCEPTUAL non Doctor Who book science fiction -
The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons should not be missed, especially Sol's story, it's poetic and fantastically written with aspects of time travel
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
Blindsight and Echopraxia by Peter Watts - fascinating. Along with Stainslaw Lem's Solaris this is a fascinating insight into human nature in the face of the unknown
Ninefox Gambit - Akin to Block Transfer Mathematical timeships and akin to aspects of the Doctor Who EU (Faction Paradox)

Novellas:
Flowers for Algernon by Keyes

Very short stories:
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov
Supertoys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss
The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke

Well I finished The Crippled God.
It was a great ending for sure, but I'm not certain I'm satisfied with it. Felt parts of it were rushed and too short. For example Mappo and Crokus, the convergence seemingly lacked a lot of players from earlier in the book, and the aftermath of the convergence felt a little empty as it didn't tell more of the Parans' and the Host's futures. But I guess it sort of goes with Tavore's words near the end.

>>9417009
>>9417068
To expand on the audioplay recommendations, listen to Jubilee (Sixth Doctor) and Spare Parts (Fifth Doctor).

Then listen to the Eighth Doctor's stuff.

Main series (Four hour long episodes. Maybe listen to the EDA first to get used to the audio format)
Introduction
>Storm Warning
>Sword of Orion
>The Stones of Venice
>The Chimes of Midnight
>Seasons of Fear
>Embrace the Darkness
>The Time of the Daleks
>Neverland
>Zagreus
Divergent Universe arc
>Scherzo
>The Creed of the Kromon
>The Natural History of Fear
>The Last
>Caerdroia
>The Next Life
After the Divergent Universe
>Terror Firma
>Other Lives
>Absolution
>The Girl Who Never Was
>The Company of Friends
>The Silver Turk

Eighth Doctor Adventures series (Can be listened to either before or after main series. Format is more similar to the NuWho TV series with shorter episodes and more lighthearted.)
S1
>Blood of the Daleks
>Horror of Glam Rock
>Immortal Beloved
>Human Resources
S2
>Dead London
>Max Warp
>Brave New Town
>Grand Theft Cosmos
>The Zygon Who Fell To Earth
>Sisters of the Flame
>Vengeance of Morbius
S3
>Orbis
>Hothouse
>The Scapegoat
>The Cannibalists
>The Eight Truths/Worldwide Web
S4
>Death in Blackpool
>An Earthly Child
>Situation Vacant
>The Book of Kells
>Deimos/The Resurrection of Mars
>Relative Dimensions
>Prisoner of the Sun
>Lucie Miller
>To The Death
Dark Eyes
>The Great War
>Fugitives
>Tangled Web
>X and the Daleks


Then afterwards the Tenth Doctor audios and the War Doctor audios.

>>9409635

My go to sites for books these days are Library Genesis or Mobilism.org . I gave up on torrents.

>>9417115
I'm trying not to scare that anon off honestly
I didn't actually find Spare Parts GOAT but I did enjoy the Tub Full of Cats and Crystals of Cantus.

Neverland was great and so was Zagreus, Natural History of Fear is Doctor Who's answer to 1984 with some fucked up twists along the way. I never did listen to the EDAs but Dark Eyes 1 through to 4 is great.

And if anon enjoys the most fucked up Big Finish stuff the book Shades of Grey written by Jasper Fforde is fantastic.

>>9409635
It's on libgen

>>9417115
And to add to this I found the Tenth Doctor and War Doctor audios to be quite dull.

>>9417127
>>9417134
>I never did listen to the EDAs
Do try to make time for them at some point. Lucie is a great companion and season 4 of the EDAs is basically one long GOAT.

>but Dark Eyes 1 through to 4 is great.
I personally thought it got a bit weak around Dark Eyes 3, since the Eminence just isn't a compelling villain. But DE4 did finish well enough.

>>9417134
I liked Ten's audios though I don't know how much of that was just nostalgia for Tennant and Catherine Tate, and the fact that they didn't outstay their welcome.
War Doctor's first volume was kind of weak but it got better for the second. I haven't listened to the third or fourth volumes yet.

>>9409730

Try Robert Aspirin's Myth-Adventures series. Stick to the order the books were published, avoid the shitty prequels and the in between books written near the end by authors other than Aspirin.

>>9416972
A Voyage to Arcturus is about a journey through various countries that exemplify different schools of thoughts. It's a good book, but it might be more abstract than what you are looking for.

>>9417165
Thanks alot, i read description on wiki and it looks interesting. I'll definitely give it a go. I dont mind abstract

>>9416683
Typing shit that makes no sense in the attempt at starting a flame war.

>>9416419

Starship Troopers by Heinlein

>>9417009
>I also watched Doctor Who recently, and I really liked seasons 5-6, and now I am looking for something similar. Ant recommendations?
In case you didn't know, there's a huge amount of Doctor Who books, and some of them are pretty good (particularly from the era where the show was cancelled).

Alien Bodies is the one typically recommended.

>>9417127
>Zagreus
>great
A lot of fans would disagree. I don't think it's as bad as most people say but I definitely wouldn't recommend it to a new fan.

By the way, are either of you nerds familiar with /who/? It's an eternal Doctor Who general on /tv/, we discuss the audios and books too. One of you definitely is because this thread was mentioned there.

>>9416419
Anything by BV Larson and Neal Asher
Mainly Undying Mercenaries and Agent Cormac series.

>>9415993
When will the "deconstruction" meme finally end. Retards like Rothfuss and GRRM think they're so special

>>9416918
WoK was okay but WoR was garbage and that's only book 2 of his 10 book series

>>9414153
>>9409648
I had a similar feeling about it. But how can one be sure Portia survived the suicide attempt?

>>9409730
Revenger from from Reynolds was kind of in between there.

>>9417193
I think a lot of the disappointment with Zagreus was that expectations were too high. People were hyped because of how long the cliffhanger at the end of Neverland was left unresolved, they expected a proper multi-Doctor crossover instead of the weird substitute memory overlay we got, and they expected Zagreus himself to actually be a threat instead of just being a very confused Eight.

>>9417061
Is this bait?
I guess you'd want to read The Twilight Saga if you want self-insert characters of that level.

>>9415832
I could not get through the first 100 pages.
Does it pick up at all after that?

>>9417068
>>9417115
Thanks! Atleast The Hyperion Cantos and Shades of Grey are available at my local library, so I am going to check them out! I'll also look out for Alien Bodies and other Doctor Who books. I never thought they would actually be good, so I never bothered to check them :P

>>9417304
>people rate the book bad, don't recommend
>what do they know, I'll read it anyways
>I could not get through the first 100 pages.
>Does it pick up at all after that?

my dislike of all the attention that The Handmaid's Tale boils down to
>reeeee stop liking what I like

>>9409806
I have a related question. Which of his works is the most similar to The Moon Moth? I really liked that story (as part of the sf hall of fame anthology), I've read a bit of Demon Princes and I'm in the middle of Tschai right now, but it doesn't interest me as much as that little story.

>>9411451
Deverry
Not sure if it's considered decent round these parts, I like it enough to have read the first 7 books so far, not sure if I'll ever finish the remaining 6 or so.

>>9415747
I liked it, though the premise borders on simply stupid, the execution was great.

>>9416943
Man in the High Castle by PKD
It's not really from nazi POV but everyone just seems to accept that the nazi's won.

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>>9417704
>Deverry
Read that a long time ago. Isn't there some incestuous tones with it?
>>9411451
Weis and Hickmans Death Gate Cycle; rune magic system that two races at war use. Pic is book two and my fav of the series.

>>9417744
>Isn't there some incestuous tones with it?
I guess because of all the reincarnation stuff that happens some people who were brother and sister in one life become lovers in another, I don't really remember though desu.

>>9417754
I thought Jills father struggles with his sexual attraction to her in the first book or something.

When will steampunk either A) stop fetishizing the British Empire or B) stop calling itself "punk"? Because the two things really don't go together.

>>9417759
Looks like you're right. There's also some raep.

>>9416048

Are you saying there was anything of value left to ruin?

>>9417879
when will steam punk stop being shit?

I love listening to audiobook narrators sing Tolkien's songs.

>>9409730
every 14 year old should read "the once and future king"

>>9417921
Read the Windup Girl then take the rope challenge for being so wrong.

what does everyone itt think of The Elric Saga

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damn...

I just realized the entire Earthsea trilogy could fit inside one volume of Stormlight Archive with room to spare

I'll ask again has anyone read this?
>>9415318

>>9418165
not me

>>9418143
Stormlight really has no reason to be has bloated as they are.

>>9417879

There should be more wild west steampunk. Brits are boring

>>9417879
I want biopunk.

>>9417061
You seriously need recommendations to find edgy SF? It's the only kind people are writing now.

>>9417704
There's not an awful lot of magic in the Deverry books. They're also quite repetitive, the same 3 characters that keep being reborn and they have to go through the same life challenges as before, with old man Nevin fucking about in the background waiting for everything to sort itself out on its own so that he can finally died.
If you've read book one, you've read them all.

>>9417882
nice bit of homo rape going on in book 2

>>9417009
Time traveler's wife is basically porn, so maybe try the smut thread instead

>>9416366
lrn2irc

what's more interesting:

>Identical twins who are pretty normal but play up their creepiness as a joke
>Identical twins who hate themselves and take it out on each other.

>>9418709
I liked PKD's take on twins in Dr. Bloodmoney; the twin is a tumorous glob with a consciousness who lives in the abdomen of the other, who can hear the outside world and talk, but is blind.

Weird or unusual twins is a really old trope (Cain and Abel) and the danger is being too hackey with it.

>>9417946
>SE Asia poverty tourism, tenuously steampunk edition

>>9417744
>what is this? a picture for ants?

>>9418733
Honestly I wanted to have twins more like fred and george without them being so similar that they were ripoffs.

I had one idea that they were twin girls who were huge horror movie fans and liked to play creepy ghost girls for shits and giggles but then would take off the greasy wigs and makup and act like the cool older girl the adolescent hero would have a crush on

>>9418776
Wind up gril is actually bio-punk

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Stormlight books are getting longer and longer which is aggravating because it is taking him longer to write them and the Cosmere is already taking several planned decades as is to complete but this is confounded by Sanderson continuing to take "breaks" writing YA that nobody asked for.

I'm a little caboose-clobbered

>>9418810
>she will never give you head in exchange for some "awesome"

There are suppose to be AT LEAST two Sanderson books a year. I know Stormlight 3 is out in october... WHERE IS MY OTHER SANDERSON FIX?

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>>9418865
Uh. Oh I think we get The Lost Metal this year?

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>>9418876
>Some people do wonder why I’d do like The Apocalypse Guard before The Atzlanian (Rithmatist 2). It comes down to having two publishers. Stormlight, Rithmatist, and Wax and Wayne are all books for Tor. I need to give Delacorte some love too, and they’ve waited patiently all year for me to finish Stormlight. So they get the next major writing time slot.

>I hear you, Rithmatist fans. We’ll get something to you before too much longer. My son Joel (who has a character in the book named for him) is getting old enough to read The Rithmatist, and so I intend to read it with him together, and then jump into the second book sometime soon.

RREEEEEEEE

Dark One
>Ah, the eternal Dark One update. If you’ve been reading State of the Sanderson posts for a while now, you might be looking forward to this one (still) making no progress.
>My anti-Harry Potter story told from the viewpoint of a boy who discovers he is prophesied to be the Dark One…has made no progress this year.

Projected Release Schedule
>I’m going to keep this to three years this time, as my projections in the past have tended to go skiwampus (technical term) after about one year of projecting.
>I intend Rithmatist 2 and Alcatraz 6 to slip in here somewhere, but I don’t know where. (I was hoping to do one of them this year, but Stormlight three went even longer than projected.)

February 2017: Snapshot
November 2017: Stormlight 3
Spring 2018: Apocalypse Guard 1
Fall 2018: Wax and Wayne 4 (final book)
Sometime 2019: Apocalypse Guard 2
Sometime 2019: Undecided. (There will likely be a second novel this year. It’s possible that I’m still working on Stormlight 4 though, and will have a lean year as a result.)
Sometime 2020: Stormlight 4
Sometime 2020: Apocalypse Guard 3 (final book)

>February 2017: Snapshot
>November 2017: Stormlight 3
FUCK SANDERSON
TWO BOOKS THIS YEAR ALONE AND ONLY ONE IS COSMERE RELATED
He got a shit load of side projects on hiatus and he picks up ANOTHER FUCKING ONE
Sanderson is slowly turning into GURM. Promising shit he can't put out.

>>9419382
Mhm it is frustrating. He could put it out if he would stop putting out so much other shit nobody fucking wanted.

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What am I in for, lads?

>>9419427
I used to say I could read anything by Sanderson... that is no longer the case.
I'm not touching his librarians, nor his apocalyptic guard.

>>9417729
I think that's my favourite thing about Dick, he takes bizarre or insane concepts and makes them feel like mundane everyday part of life in the book.

>>9419551
The advantages of being an actual crazy person in sci-fi writing are hugely underestimated.

>>9409639
Mister Words

>>9416918
WoR is pretty great I liked a lot more than WoK.

>>9419382

>Sanderson is slowly turning into GURM

GURM seems to have completely and utterly burnt out on ASoIaF. I honestly think at this point he's just kicking back and waiting for a heart attack to claim him so he doesn't have to deal with writing the last novels. Maybe Sanderson is juggling so many projects to keep things fresh and burning out on a series at bay. Still. I wish the fucker would just hurry up and release Stormlight 3 so I can decide whether I'm going to bother to continue with the series or not.

>>9419747
>Jasnah with a shardblade fighting giants

You're getting exactly what the cover of the book shows.

What are Philip K. Dick's best novels? Just started Ubik, hasn't gotten very interesting yet but I'm hopeful.

>>9419861
Valis.

>>9419861
Old Dick:
-Time Out of Joint
-Confessions of Crap Artist
-The Man in the High Castle
-Martian Time-Slip
-Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb
-Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
-The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

New Dick:
-Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
-A Scanner Darkly
-Radio Free Albemuth
-VALIS
-The Divine Invasion
-The Transmigration of Timothy Archer


I still lament over the fact 'The Owl in Daylight' was never finished

Just started Babel-17 and already have a couple of beefs with it. Brass can pronounce voiced labial plosives, but not unvoiced ones? That makes no sense. If the fangs really prevent his lips from closing, then he should be unable to pronounce either.

Secondly, General Forester has somehow never noticed the difference between voiced and unvoiced "th". Yeah right. I know the author's just trying to give a simple example of allophone variation, but that one made the general seem dumb.

Thirdly, corporate doesn't mean the same thing as corporeal.

Any more... Cerebral SF come out recently? High adventure is good and all but right now I feel like reading something deeper.

>>9419945
>he didn't read hogg or dhalgren
Pussy. Fuck off with your weak sauce.

>>9419551
>>9419564
This aspect of PKD, or being ordinarily nuts, is in his radio interviews. One moment he is talking shop about book publishing and Carl Jung, and then it's faces in the sky, dualism, divine possession, and conspiracy revealing phantoms.

>>9419861
Ubik is surely one of his better. I'd hold off Valis and his later material until at least two of his 60s books like Do Androids... and Martian Time Slip. He went around the bend with his later books so there is a danger you'll be turned off or overwhelmed.

>>9408766
>writes A Song of Ice and Fire in which Ice is literally threatening the fate of civilization and the future of humanity
Don't see what the problem is. Not like Martin's ever gonna finish.

Dude's probably going to singlehandedly cause the total collapse of grimdark-death-blood-gore-darkness-so gritty-evil-bloody-blood-death-blood style fiction in general when he croaks due to the culmination of a multi-train trainwreck when he dies.

Get ready for a long resurgence of Good vs Evil because aSoIaF's about to become the posterboy for why writing anything Grey in Fantasy never works.

>>9419959
Would reading them clarify the issue of the plosives?

>>9408791
>>the war should've stopped all trade
>>the North should've starved to death
>>meanwhile food is so integral to the storytelling an ASOIAF cooking book gets published
>I really like the story, but I feel like GRRM has butchered the story

Dirty Santa has fucked the story from one end to the other.

If we ever do get books, we'll only be able to speculate how much of the show fed back into it.

>>9419995
>>9420004
Actually behind the scenes GRRM canned TWOW to protest the Trump win.

>>9409504
I think it's from some guy named guo, it's a kobold.

>>9419450
That's book 2 of the series.
Try 9 Princes In Amber.

Oh, and it's GOAT fantasy.

>>9420053
Perhaps you or another Zelazny reader can sell him to me, with my unread copy of Lord Of Light on the shelf. I keep picking it up, reading the first two pages, and then putting it back down. It seems like it has a steep learning curve, and the idea of a forty page first chapter while I get to grips with an Eastern-infused mythos is enough to make me reach for something else. Is Lord Of Light a New Wave Siddharta or a PKD'ian treatment of Eastern fables?

What is lit's opinion of this reading list by Gary Gygax??

http://www.digital-eel.com/blog/ADnD_reading_list.htm

>>9419946
I haven't read them yet, but Too Like The Lightning and Ninefox Gambit seem interesting.

>>9420153
"reading list" is probably not quite the right attitude to take towards Appendix N since it's so closely tied to a specific role-playing game genre rather than to fantasy fiction as fantasy fiction. And it's a really good list at doing that! it's incredibly revealing as to the roots of Dungeons & Dragons and what that game is trying to do. But that's not really related to fantasy books.

From a literary point of view, I think what's most interesting about it is that it predates the modern (post-Lester Del Rey and also, really, post-Dungeons and Dragons) understanding of epic fantasy, which a lot of fantasy readers seem to get trapped in. Most of the people on the list are doing completely different things from what - for instance - Sword of Shannara is doing. And that's really interesting to me.

From the point of view of what you should read, Jack Williamson, Roger Zelazny, Vance, Tolkien, Moorcock, Dunsany, and Leiber are the ones that I really recommend spending time with. Also Howard has his moments. Most of the rest - in my personal opinion - you can take or leave.

>>9420153
I have a lot of opinions, but to be concise as possible: there are a lot of writers on there who were popular in there day but are now falling out of print and into obscurity. Of these, Leigh Brackett and her Mars stories should be more widely read and reprinted.

And yes, ERB, Howard, Leiber, Lovecraft and Vance are known around here, deservedly. Although I think modern readers do forget about Edgar Rice Burroughs and his John Carter, which is interesting in itself.

The rest can be forgotten or left for enthusiasts and obscurists.

>>9420083
You sound like a fucking pleb. Stick to YA or Sanderson if you're feeling adventurous.

>>9420153
>>9420178
>>9420181
Wonder why CL Moore or Clark Ashton Smith didn't make the list.

>>9419861
A Scanner Darkly is his conventionally best book in my opinion. Not as metaphysical as some of his other stuff but it's filled with great characters and writing that feels a lot more personal than most of his other books. And for being a dark story it's honestly one of the funniest things I've ever read; you could drop half the dialogue into an Achewood comic and nobody would be able to tell the difference.

>>9420195
I wondered about C.L. Moore, maybe they didn't read her. Jirel Of Joiry seems very D&D to me (I haven't played it.) She's a feminine Conan. I can only guess Moore was getting obscure by the seventies. And yes, Clarke Ashton, another Weird Tales alumnus. I still haven't read the fellow.

>>9417291
Are you memeing? Or is this one of those famous /sffg/ posts where somebody criticizes a book they haven't read?

>>9418165
It's a fun banter series with three bros similar to three musketeers. Gets a bit formulaic after the first book of two though

>>9419998
Weren't you talking big previously about reading hogg and dhalgren?

>>9409639
Penfifteen Name

>>9420284
thanks

>>9415191
I'm p sure he wrote Urth because his buddies were like "Gene my man, people aren't as smart as you. You need to help them understand this better." So yeah needless to say, it'll give you some answers.

>>9411237
It's not meant to be revolutionary. It's just fantasy that knows it's fantasy. It's unpretentious, which is a characteristic most fantasy epics lack.

Holy shit, Dying Inside was fucking great. What other Robert Silverberg stuff is worth trying?

>>9420289
No, you've mistaken me for someone else.

>>9420317
You're lucky I'm here, one of the few in sffg who seem to read Silverberg (9 novels and several short stories at the current count). If you like Dying Inside, read Downward To The Earth, where the protagonist travels to a planet to ask forgiveness from a race of sentient elephants. You should seek his Hugo winning novella Nightwings for a cool post-invasion Dying Earth genre story about an old man who wants to travel to the places Jerusalem was so he can be young again.

Be aware that Silverberg's 60s-70s output is very different from his 80s-90s, when he became a more reflective writer who was more interested in fleshing out his characters and settings. Of these, Tom O' Bedlam is good, a post-apoc tale about a growing cult with a traveling savant in the middle of it, a holy idiot who dreams of alien planets.

But I love Silverberg. He is a better prose writer than a contemporary like Dick, but more concerned with spiritual and transcendent experiences, matters of the soul.

I'm 300 pages into his At Winter's End so I'll share an opinion on it in a few days, because this is already a much greater better fantasy than his Majipoor stuff.

>>9420317
The Alien Years is worth checking out if you're looking for a serious novel. Good "realistic alien invasion" story; just be warned going in that it's going to feel confusing and pointless in a lot of spots because I think that was the point. Also incest.

I can't remember the name but I also really liked a collection of his short stories from when he was a staff writer at some schlocky pulp magazine. It's great if you're into stupid pulp scifi in general, but what makes it is that each story is prefaced by a page or two of explanation for why each story ended up so stupid (the answer in a lot of cases is something like "they painted the cover first and then told me to write a story about it, so I had to think of a scenario that resulted in two scantily-clad women wrestling on top of a giant diamond"). Really fun if you're interested in the opposite extreme of the artistic spectrum.

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I started reading Goblin Slayer.

too much rape, imo

>>9420354
>>9420361
awesome thanks for this, I'll be sure to keep a look out for his stuff in our local upcoming book fair

>>9420028
>Actually behind the scenes GRRM canned TWOW to protest the Trump win.
I call bullshit!

>>9420246
I've read it. I just really dislike it. In my opinion, it is shit.

>>9419995
He complains about Tolkien writing about a war for humanity and the end of civilization while writing about a war for humanity and civilization himself. The difference boils down to (almost) everyone in Middle-Earth knowing about Sauron, and only a few in Westeros actually knowing about the White Walkers, which is where the grey come into play.

Newfag to sci-fi here
Just read The Martian and loved the science "realism" aspect of the book.
Was wondering if anyone had any recommendations close to that?

>>9420695
To be fair, the White Walkers have been dormant (at least in Westeros proper) for thousands of years whereas Sauron, for all his skills at subterfuge, is very active and leaves very well documented footprints.

>>9420697
Entering Space: Creating A Spacefaring Civilization by Robert Zubrin

STFU and Look, I'm sick and tired of yall critisizing GRRM. I know EVERYTHING there is to know about Martin. He is the best writer out there, and if you don't think so, well you don't know literature and you don't even read to all of Martins books. Some of the chapters may be a little nasty but that isn't all he writes about. He writes about violence bacause he had somuch of it in his life! i mean he DID see his mother be murdered. and he writes about incest sometimes because he fucked his sister at a young age. he lost a lot of loved ones at a very young age too. he didn't start writing books until that happened. Maybe you all should give his writing a chance- by one of his books. One day, i will meet GRRM and tell him all about what i think. GRRM is the best!

>>9420709
Thank you my dude will look it up. /lit seems to be my new favorite board

>>9420738

GRRM does not write literature. He's an accomplished story teller/entertainer that appeals to the current zeitgeist. In 20 years people will be pointing and laughing at the retards that assigned any significance to him beyond popular culture entertainment. He's a glorified pulp fiction writer that panders to a generation of people that mostly consist of weak, sad forever children lacking even minimal ability to achieve anything even minorly significant on a personal level let alone for society who think whining and complaining makes them special while they run from their own shadows.

>>9420792
>In 20 years people will be pointing and laughing at the retards that assigned any significance to him beyond popular culture entertainment.
>implying
You know damn well everyone will instead be pointing and laughing at Martin himself for not only failing to finish his Magnum Opus, but for letting a TV show blow his ending for him.

If the readers get laughed at, it'll be for buying five books and expecting an ending.

>>9420836
this. as much as i love the song of ice and fire series i dont think ill be satisfied with whatever ending he comes up with.
this writer's block is hitting him hard and i gotta criticize the guy for not planning out the end of his series he's been working on since the fuckin 90s.
i think its good he's getting help from other authors though.

>>9420836

Brandon Sanderson can finish it for him with the scripts from the TV Show.

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is this a good place to start with heinlein?

>>9420859
The worst part is it's not even the readers getting screwed. It's the middle list authors who're trying to make ends meet. A huge failure to finish like aSoIaF is going to burn a lot of readers from buying books until the whole series is done. Brent Weeks wrote a bit where he just ripped into Martin for taking so long.
>>9420862
Sanderson's actually come right out and said he won't do it for two reasons.
1) He's actually gained some notoriety so now he'd rather work on his own shit.
2) aSoIaF is a complete clusterfuck and he has no idea how he'd fix it.

>>9420993
You got to admit, it's impressive just how many people Martin's managed to piss off over this. Other authors are openly shitting on him at this point and aside from only a couple holdouts, hasn't he basically burned his fanbase to the ground?

>>9421027

What I find amazing is that even if he manages to live long enough to finish the series he's going to disappoint everyone and be hated for how he ends it.

fresh
>>9421255

>>9421255

>>9421255

>>9421255

>>9421255

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>>9417061
Picrelated. Written under pseudonum by some numale.
In theory a story of an old mercenary who gathers his old army for vengeance.
However it was written by a cuckold who tried to get on the hype trend of modern grimdark.
So expect modern Bioware level shit writing.
The book includes:
- STRONG WOMYN as a main character it would be okay but she is STRONG WOMYN for all of the wrong reasons.
- DIVERSITY, nigger vikings, good arabs, stupid violent white males, and asians to fill the last racial checkbox
- Sexual Diversity a wide cast of attack helicopters, pansexual, gay kings, multidimensional genderfluid asexual traps, STRONG WOMYN doing men's job and slave numales doing housewife's job.
- Due to the need of edgyness the book is full of rape, gore, gory rape, raping gore, "moral ambiguity", Characters who behave like jerks, but the author will try to make you feel sorry for them etc. Considering that the writer tried to create his diversity utopia where people of all colors, religions, genders and helicopter types live in peace and tolerance but on the other hand he added all that grimdark and gore for the sake of grimdark the whole world looks like a complete hell full of violent savages, murderers, perverts, psychos and maniacs who contantly rape and kill each other, or kill and then rape. The better anti SJW ad you can hardly find.

But if you really want to get into good dark fantasy, go with the Black Company or Abercromby, thought with time he turned into a complete cuck.

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I've just read two short stories witcher books (Last wish and Sword of destiny) and I am looking for similar books to this since they were awesome. Any recommendations? I don't read a lot.