/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

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Any fantasy stories with a cute kid being protected by the protagonist? (even if it's only temporary)
I want them parental feels.

Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser is some comfy stuff. I've read two of these tales now; tonight, The Thieves House from 1943. Leiber combines comic book moments with genuinely tense scenes (Fafhrd in the dark cellar, feeling something small and hard brushing his cheek.) In this and the previous story I thought the swordfighting stood out - better than I can recall from the handful of Robert Howard's Conan stories I have read, because I could visualise the parries and lunges clearly. Leiber is set to above Howard in my estimation if the next few readings are of the same quality. But I will read something by Howard this week so I can put together a clearer idea on what distinguishes them, and see where Howard's writing beats Leiber and the reverse.

>>9512400

The Gunslinger

Have fun anon

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>>9512450
I hate Stephen King and am not a fan of anything more advanced than basic black powder in my fantasy novels..

>>9512476

I hoped you reached the scene in wich the MC lets the kid die on purpose.

You dodged a bullet right there.

>>9512491
Glad I didn't read it if that happens.
I want cutesy interactions.

I think some man on youtube is making his own audiobooks of Clarke Ashton Smith and Leiber stories, with atmospheric/ambient sound. They're really good. Look up 'tales of weird.' on youtube. It beats the heck out of any librivox recording I've encountered. Maybe someone can tell if they're homemade or not.

>>9512400
>Any fantasy stories with a cute kid being protected by the protagonist?
>>9512476
>not a fan of anything more advanced than basic black powder in my fantasy novels.

>give me anything
>I have specifics, don't give me that

>>9512427
Everything Leiber wrote is ridiculously of its time and published at just the right time to make least impact possible.

But at least Gaiman got to parasitically attach his name to yet another author after their death.

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>>9512427

>>9512596
You're losing it anon. This was clearly the time for your other repulsive dino meme. The one with the car and radio etc. If even you can't keep it straight then what's the point?

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>>9512593
>being this autistic

Just about to start Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles, heard lots of good things about it

what does /sffg/ think of it?

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What a ride. I didn't expect this series to go to the places it went but i ended up really liking it. There's this atmosphere of ambiguity that I don't often find in other books, as if there are things lurking underneath the lives of the main characters that we never get to see. It manages to make magic truly feel like magic, mysterious, untamable and uncontrollable.

I'm a little disappointed that so much time was given to Plum in the last book, she didn't really have a narrative purpose. Also, certain parts feel rushed like the whole thief-group should have had more time to interact. Overall it was great, but I have this feeling of editor interference in many parts.

Is Robin Hobb's series finally over now?

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>>9512622
Just 4 u anon

>>9512787
How did you like Mr Fox? Give a whole new meaning to guts deep huh?

>>9512787
>autistic whining: the move the video game the screenplay the rape

>>9512858
>>9512878
Woah cool meme guys! Haha so edgy

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>>9512890
Did you read the books or no?

>>9512700
It's pretty decent. Not a lot of Fantasy to it though, or at all really.

>>9512930
I'm being post-ironic

Are there any books that showcase how violent and miserable war was in ancient times? That's something that's always bothered me about heroic fantasy. You lead your army or lay siege to a city/castle, but you never have to worry about disease decimating your forces or starving because the countryside is barren.

>>9513049
The thousand names series.
The black company series

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Any books about
>A descent into madness, recognizing and embracing becoming a villain
>War crimes and child soldiers
>Mass destruction and the futility of resisting mankind's inherently violent nature
>Weird magic shit, maybe nanomachines
>science fiction, any type
>Philosophical ramblings
>and et cetera

And with prose that is good enough to not make me drop the book in frustration. I humbly beg for your help, /sffg/, I need recs to fill the void in my soul where this story was supposed to be. Any book that fulfills at least some of the above ideas and isn't written like shit.

>>9513271
I forgot to add to the list
>Massive conspiracies

>>9510791
>This is what happens when your raised on a strict diet of Obsidian and BioWare.

I don't understand

>>9513271
Tom Clancy has a very large library to choose from

>>9513271
>inb4 Crime and Punishment
But in all honesty it's is the exact opposite of most of your points and a better book because of it

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>>9512849
That pic always makes me kind of sad, reminds me of the fact that the genre wasn't always shit.

>>9513356
Seriously who is this grandpa, and does he supply so much meme rich stock photos?

>>9513366
http://metro.co.uk/2016/03/11/hide-your-pain-harold-from-all-those-famous-stock-photography-memes-has-been-found-and-hes-real-and-alive-5746303/

>>9513271
It unironically seems to me that the book you're looking for is The Tunnel, by William H. Gass. If you choose to read it you're in for a flatulent good time anon.

Does anyone have that page cataloging fantasy authors that circulated here a couple of threadd ago?

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I'm up to Fires of Heaven (book 5 of 14) of the Wheel of Time series.

I hear shit gets boring for like 5 books. When does shit get real?

>>9512700
I love it, but the MC is as dull as dishwater; though I guess that's the point since we're experiencing the story through him and you don't want too much of him to get in the way of Arthur and Merlin and Lancelot, etc,. It's not really fantasy though. The "magic" in the books could all be considered coincidental or the magic is actually real and it's so subtle you're supposed to question if it's real or not.

>The_King_Beyond_the_Gate.jpg
Mah nigga

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What books are people really looking forward to torrenting, getting a copy off overdrive and deDRMing or DDL'ing when they come out?

I'm going to get myself a copy of An Echo Of Things To Come, Raven Stratagem and Stone Sky for sure when they come out.

>>9513457
Has Rand gotten out of the box yet?

>>9513049
Glenn Cook's Black Company series deals with it, as do authors in the same vein as him, like Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen).

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>>9513470
free him

>>9513049
>That's something that's always bothered me about heroic fantasy. You lead your army or lay siege to a city/castle, but you never have to worry about disease decimating your forces or starving because the countryside is barren.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? David Gemmell was the king of heroic fantasy and wrote the greatest fantasy siege story EVAH that deals with that shit.

>>9513457
It's book 8, 9 and 10 that are shitty.

>>9513469
The Will to Battle

I don't really know what's coming up though

>>9513432
bump for this cause im also wondering about it.

is there a best website for keeping track of when the new novel for each fantasy series you're into finally comes out?

I'm waiting on a dozen series but can't be arsed to pull all twelve from memory every month to see if any of them came out when the answer is normally "no"

>>9513843
If there isn't there should be and you should create it. Add a forum and help us get away from 4chan for a while. Please.

>>9513843
Goodreads.

>>9513850
>essesseffgee forums
Would you use it? Y/N? Could be cool but why bother when we have /sffg/?

>>9513859
>why bother when we have /sffg/?
that's what im wondering.
just make a list of novels coming out in their series and put it in the OP.

>>9513843
>>9513850
>>9513851
Ok faggots this is how you do it.

Create a Goodreads account.
ONLY rate books by authors that you enjoy or it will give you retarded results. Then open up https://www.goodreads.com/new_releases/ and it will give you a list of shit that you want.

>>9513432
>>9513765

http://greatsfandf.com/authors-lists.php

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Why is this good.

what does /sffg/ think of a song of ice and fire?

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>>9514204
You tell me.

>>9514239
The pacing goes from 'fine enough' in the beginning to 'glacial' by the fourth book, the characterization is solid enough, the writing gets the job done and is only noticeable when it's exceptionally bad, which isn't too often thankfully. The plotting is the big thing. Early on it's compelling enough but then GRRM seems to get his plotlines out of sync leading to lots of POV chapters consisting of standing around waiting for plot to happen somewhere else so that things can move forwards again. I appreciate that lots of intricate plotlines are being constructed over the course of this enormous and lumbering mess of a series but the longer GRRM takes to write it and the longer the telling turns out to be the less worth it it feels.

At the moment I'd say that if you haven't already started, don't. Maybe when it's finished it will pull together into a worthwhile story but at the moment it feels like a painful waste of potential and a lost cause. Of what we have so far nothing hasn't been done before so you aren't really missing out.

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Recently read some of BloodChild by Octavia Butler, I enjoyed it. For any anons familiar with her work are the rest of the books worthwhile?/ any simmilar authors/books?

>>9514313
>reading anything written by a cunt
lol

>>9514313
>Womameme author
lol

>>9514288
this is a very good analysis, thank you friend. But yes, I'm already in the end of the first book and have already bought the second one, and I'm liking it so far, it's also not in english, and the vocabulaire of my language is much wider, which probably makes it better. Again, I'm not a literature aficionado, so these things you said probably won't be so clear to me as it is to you. Now that I've bought the second one, I guess I'm in a point of no return.

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>>9514358
>>9514360
>""""""lol""""""
It's okay, you don't need to be embarassed by the fact that you don't read at all.

>>9514401
Why in the world would I read books written by females?

>>9514401
>reading books written by ambulant meat holes
looks like you're begging for a pepe

>>9514408
>posting a meme popularised by underage redditshit retards
((You))

>>9514405
>""""""lol""""""
I can't remember the last time I read either!

>>9514412
>>posting a meme popularised by underage redditshit retards
>Pepe wasn't popular more than 7 years ago
look at this faggot

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>>9514412
you could have just asked me for it mate

>>9514417
Are you retarded, slow or simply ESL?

>>9514419
Sure is cancer shit in here!

>>9514414
Yeah, not reading shit books written by shit authors means you don't read at all ;^)

>>9514433
>Smileys on an image board
KEK!

>>9512822
I have no clue, but can someone tell me what is the appeal of her books to males? I read the first trilogy, with the kid Fitz, and he is not likeable, everyone is either mindlessly helping him, a caricature of a villain, or just stands in the background to provide comedy or tragedy.
I don't get why people like it.

>>9514439
Literally how new are you

>>9514442
Because the prose is beiger than a fucking wallpaper.

Fucking kill yourself.

>>9514445
>Literally how new are you
Literally wet enough behind the ears to use literally in a post facebook cunt.

>>9514442
Because Fitz grows up and Nighteyes is the ultimate doggo bro.

>>9514453
>facebook
xD

>>9514460
XDD

>>9513049
It's a tad trite, but both of Joe Abercrombies series, "The First law" trilogy and sequels, and the Broken Sea Trilogy, deal very closely with deconstructing the heroic quest and humanising its players.

>>9514358
>>9514360

Have you got any experiance with that book/author or not?

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>>9514288
>Maybe when it's finished it will pull together
Why are you lying to the fellow?

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>>9514442
>fitz not likeable
That's simply your opinion. He's a bit annoying at times, but likeable imo.

>mindlessly helping fitz
Name one character who 'mindlessly' helps him.

>caricature of a villain
There are numerous villains in the books and they're reasonably nuanced, certainly not total caricatures.

>background characters provide comedy or tragedy
Such as?

>dont get why people like it
Why do people like anything?
They like the world, characters, setting, lore, adventure, action, emotions etc.

>>9514471
>"Simple peck-order bullying", she wrote in her essay "A World without Racism,"[30] "is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other 'isms' that cause so much suffering in the world." Her stories, then, often replay humanity's domination of the weak by the strong as a type of parasitism.[29] These superior beings, whether aliens, vampires, superhuman, or a slave masters, find themselves defied by a protagonist who embodies difference, diversity, and change

Yeah, top tier author

>>9514313
>She claimed to have three loyal audiences: black readers, science-fiction fans, and feminists

Wow, how diverse

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>>9514419
I have one rarer

>>9514487
>>9514491
>double leddit spacing

>>9514496
You could stick a dick in that mouth.

>>9514500

Says the proud black feminist

>>9514507
Sad!

>>9514500
People have different aesthetic tastes.
If you were an old fag like some of us then you'd know that both types of spacing have always been used.
I'd say that you probably joined somewhere after 2015.

>>9514513
>people have different aesthetics
More like people have different methods of damage control.

>>9514487
I didnt say she was a top tier one, only that I enjoyed one book of hers and was wondering if someone else who had read it could give recommendations either by her or others.

Her dodgy politics is why Im seeking out recommendations rather than just going full steam ahead. Its not a unique problem

>>9514360
you can either have an author who was at one point sexually aggressive or you can have an author who was a woman

>>9514470
>recommending edgy, edgy complete shite

>>9514358
>>9514360
>>9514408
>>9514417
>>9514500

Can you just go back to /b/? Or can I interest you in a new /bant/ maybe?

You bring nothing to this thread except le ebin meme, you post-irony factual piece of shit.
I'm not any of the anons you responded to, btw.

>I'm actually depressed, plz give me some (You)s XD

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>>9514517

Fucking newfags

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>>9514517
I am not either of the people you were accusing of leddit spacing.

>thread gets 30 bumps in a short amount of time
>oh cool maybe some interesting science-fiction or fantasy discussion is taking place
>almost exclusively back and forth over whether or not some shit nobody author is shit and whether or not anon is from r****t
This place is still better than Goodreads, but barely.

>>9514378
That sounds reasonable enough. There's still enjoyment to be had. There are at least a few points in the upcoming books which still stick out in my mind since however long ago I read them.

>>9514480
GRRM isn't dead yet. Granted, the next two books would have to be incredible to compensate for Dance With Dragons but it's not impossible. Highly improbable I'll admit.

>>9514525
I enjoyed it. Why wouldn't I recommend something I enjoyed?

>>9514536
If I remember correctly there's going to be an anthology of short stories released to tide fans over.

So, probably inopportune timing with the current bout of autistic jousting going on in this thread, but has anybody here read Anne Leckie's "Ancillary" Trilogy?

I was recommended it by a friend and I was wondering if anybody else here could say if it lives up to the muted hype?

>>9514542
I couldn't give less of a shit about the Game of Thrones world at this point. I just want this car-crash of a plot resolved so that we can finally decide if it's shit or not.

>>9514547
>womeme author

>>9514547
Isn't that the one about the girl who is literally a trans-spaceship?

>>9514551
>read pleb tier literal trash
It all comes together.

>>9514547
I agree with the other anon who read it and who in turn prompted me to read it. The first book has interesting ideas. The second and third books never actually address the plot or ideas dealt with in the first.

If you read this trilogy, I recommend that you read the first book and stop there.

>>9514551
Unhelpful. And specifically what I was hoping to avoid. If you've read it and it's shit, just say that.

>>9514556
I don't know. I haven't read it.

>>9514568
Solid advice. Thanks anon.

>>9514578
If you are looking for something with very tentatively similar themes you may want to try this year's Ninefox Gambit.

The writing in this book is quite dense and hard to get into but I enjoyed the concepts and I felt that the conclusion was strong enough to make the book self contained. The author is also a mathematician which I suppose lends credibility to the writing, however the writing does lean towards the fantasy aspect of science fiction.

Of course, you never really know how strong these trilogies are until every book in them have been published.

>>9514551
>so that we can finally decide if it's shit or not.
I'll save you the trouble. It's shit, the series has always been one very drawn out magician's trick of misdirection mixed with television writing.

Characteristics:
Weird, subtle surrealism, like set the dial between "Picnic At Hanging Rock" and the final chapter of "Picnic At Hanging Rock".
The protagonist, facing some kind of vast grinding horror, like (I'm sorry) the Jotunn in "Atrocity Archive".
Subtle, slow entropic deterioration, like in "Maze of Death" or, uhh, "Chronic City" or something.
Smartfaggy, like Solaris.

Like, a story about a guy who solves correspondence puzzles in the newspaper but then bad shit starts happening and he starts to figure out he's not playing versus a human, or a guy who starts having ghost trouble, but then the person it's a ghost of turns out to be alive. Slow-burn spooky abstract horror. Sorta like Haldeman's "The Monster", a little?

>>9515013
-that is, if you can tell me where to find that

Is there actually any good steampunk/dieselpunk/atompunk literature out there? Everything under these specific genres appears to be awful YA fiction for goth girls and nerds obsessed with superheroes, nothing seems like essential reading for any fantasy aficionado.

>>9515048
Should I continue reading Wheel of Time? I finished the third book last December.

>>9515048
>>9515057
Wasn't meant to be a reply

>>9513515
Only really because of Morgase and Perrin.

>>9512340
Why have you yet to read Malazan.?

>>9515085
>Clumsy prose
>Multiple narrators
>Overly detailed magic
I'm not desperate enough to pander for attention from Reddit yet.

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>>9515013
What exactly are you posting? Is this a cry for recommendations? Or a plea for writers advice / plot review?

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>>9515048
>Everything under these specific genres appears to be awful YA fiction for goth girls and nerds obsessed with superheroes
Pretty much accurate - they're all missing the "punk" element that cyberpunk somewhat manages to tap into. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer and Iron Council are ok.

>>9515204
The former

>>9515085
It's in the fucking charts in OP. It's obvious that it was read.
Stoo asking this question in every thread. We discuss it, therefore we read it.

>>9513322
Yes, yes, we've all read Crime and Punishment. Good for you for recognizing it as a good piece of literature. Why you would waste your time writing this response is a mystery to me. Themes that copy those used in established literary achievements do not a masterpiece make. If you think there's a cookie-cutter way to write a good novel, I guess I envy you for not yet discovering for yourself that that's simply not true. Keep reading.

>>9515207
Yeah that's why I didn't include cyberpunk, even the prose of the authors seems to just be straight up better. The ones in all those retrofuturistic genres all seem hell bent on sounding as antiquated as possible making their characters sound unbelievable. I think I'll check the Johannes Cabal series, people seem to agree it's good.

>>9515207
Would it be too on-the-nose of me to name a bard Strummer?

>>9515173
>Overly detailed magic
In Malazan?

Just got "The Last Kingdom" by Bernard Cornwell, is it any good?

>>9515238
>sounding as antiquated as possible making their characters sound unbelievable.
>why is this fucking book about flying to the fucking moon on a tension wonged spring so fucking unbelievable
>maybe books on flying to the fucking moon on diesel or steam power will be more believable
Kys now.

>>9515324
don't be a retard, suspension of diesbelif is not the same as allowing shitty dialogue that sounds as an autist is reciting a thesaurus

>>9515296
>buy/borrow /"acquire" a book
>do no research on it whatsoever
>come into the fucking book general and ask after the fact if a book is good
Why don't you read and find out?

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>>9515057
I would say yes. I just finished book 12. Fucking amazing, however you might want to get a summary of book 10. That was so slow.

>mfw The Dragonmount epiphany

>>9515335
>I know it's a fantasy not taking place in our time, in America, not even on our world
>why can't they talk like regular americas
>accents, phrase, slangs, pronunciations are the same the world over
>why can't they speak American
I really want the burgers to leave.

>>9515337
I watched a single episode of the TV series on Netflix and decided to meme a bit around here, calm down! The writing style is certainly more simplistic than what I'm used to, with a few awkward grammatical choices (the father "growls" three times in two pages, and the other times it's snarling), but I'm in desperate need of something good and juicy to chew on after gnawing Game of Thrones to the bone.

Should I pick up Wheel of Time? I'm hearing good things and I need a book that excites me with vocabulary as much as scenery.

Also, just realized; the father growls and snarls because his family emblem is the Wolf, and wolves growl or snarl. It's poetry!

>>9513457
The one where Rand is in the box and the one after are the most shit-getting-realest, as I recall. I think that's 6 and 7.

>>9515431
Don't forget The Seanchan campaign in the mountains in book 8. That was pretty real.

>>9515220
>>9513322

My response was rude, and I'm not proud of that. Sorry for biting your head off. I understand where you're coming from.

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What are your guilty pleasures anons?

And by that I dont mean books that are up for debate regarding their quality. By guilty pleasure I mean trash you cant defend with a straight face but you love regardless.

Check out this shit, if you are /k/ you may get more out of it than I did but It was tropey fun nontheless.

>>9515502
>By guilty pleasure I mean trash you cant defend with a straight face but you love regardless.

I love trashy romance novels such as the kinds written by Bertrice Small. If it doesn't have a vividly-described penis, I'm not buying it.

>>9515376
>I need a book that excites me with vocabulary as much as scenery
I can't really take you seriously since you just wrote that and probably sincerely mean it. And people who like WoT like it because of the plotting and characters, Jordan's writing is simple and straight forward and he has tons of pet phrases that he uses constantly throughout the series. If you're actually as ridiculous a person as you just made yourself sound and need vocabulary to "excite" you then I suggest you ditch genre fiction and pick up something written by Joseph Conrad or something.

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>>9515502
This series. I don't know why really, but I often reread these books and enjoy them every time. Also the first few Artemis Fowl books would definitely fit that category, but they start getting weird after 4 books or so.

>>9515502
Some Stephen King books like Cujo and The Tommyknockers

>>9515563
Weird's a good thing, surely?

Any nice books with a girl protag?

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Another evening, another story of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd Gray Mouser. This time it's The Bleak Shore, a shorter story at 12 pages from 1940. At the outset, the two companions are playing dice at the rambunctious Silver Eel tavern when they encounter mysterious pale man. He promises to send them to their death, after which they embark by sail, as if possessed, on a long journey across perilous seas to an island of doom.

This short tale of mind control is largely a nautical fiction narrated by one of the surviving slaves of F+GM's ship after events. The mysterious man represents doom, and challenges the pair to resist his powers - can they resist? It's a straightforward story with a foreboding tone.

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I'm about 80% into The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Why did based Calo, Galdo and Bug have to be kill?

Wasn't this supposed to be a fun easy-going book?

>>9515783
Who told you that it was a fun easy-going book?

>>9515836
/v/, when I asked if I should read this or The Blade Itself.

>>9515857
read both of those series. They're each only 3 books long and quite good.

I have Riyria Revelations and The Black Company book 4 on audible.

I am about to start Riyria Revelations, I am dropping The Wise Man's Fear, holy fuck is it boring. Also the MC is a cuck

Which one do I listen to? I am going to listen to both. The Black Company is good, I like it. I don't know anything about Riyria.

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So when's TUC coming out? Can't wait for sweet love Shaeönanra to finally be redeemed.

>>9515890
How far did oyu get in WMF?

>>9515896

He has to leave the university and gets to the mayor to be his jester.

>>9515911
Hmm, you didn't even last to the Adem. That's the read test of the reader's courage.

>>9515922

He's supposed to be smart but he acts like a complete imbecile 99% of the time, you can chalk it up to just being a teenager but he doesn't even think with his dick. I can't handle it anymore.

I like reading about people making stuff; Blacksmiths, carpentry, researching new magic, even some steampunk artificing, if it isn't too bad.

This is a source of deep personal shame to me, but I remember really enjoying that bit in like the 8th book of the sword of truth where whatshisface spontaneously boot-straps himself into being a master stone carver.

Anyone got any recommendations that don't involve suicide?

>>9516088

A book on making stuff?

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>>9516088
You might enjoy pic related. The inhabitants of the titular island have to reboot civilization with primitive tools before their modern equipment wears out.

>>9516107
I sort of meant that I enjoy reading about characters that make things, I'm far too lazy to do anything other than accumulate theoretical knowledge on various subjects.

>>9516122
Thanks for the suggestion, will look into it.

>>9516125

In awaken online he makes his character stronger then a city. In fact he does make a lot of things.

>>9516141
I have a strange, difficult to explain aversion to "virtual reality as secondary world" books.

>>9516154

Other than they're normally bad?

>>9515502
I'm pretty sure I have everybody beat in this thread for guilty pleasure: horribly written (in their native language) and translated even worse Japanese web novels, I've read such a ridiculous amount of them I can no longer mentally separate them.

>>9516154
Like, I know for a fact that there's no reason whatsoever why it would change anything, fiction being fiction and 'stakes' and 'suspense' being constructed between the reader and the book.

Call me autistic, but something about the entire situation seems to take some of the dramatic punch from the story.

>>9516169
You have a point there, but I suppose I was saying that even with the ideal book, that setting'd somehow lessen the read; I don't like to generalise about book genres (except all books that have torsos of any description on the front cover).

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Why does everyone gravitate to Handmaid's Tale when this deals with the same basic theme so much better?

>>9516186
Because HandMaid's Tale is REALLY heavily promoted.

>>9516182

There is nothing wrong with goblin slayer or konosuba. In fact monogatari is now an audible book

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Is Reddit Gods good?

>>9516338
What do you think?

>>9516312
Oh Anon, you think to highly of me, I'm speaking about stuff like "Emperor of Solo Play" and "Regarding Reincarnated to Slime".

>>9516338
Anyone else read that urban fantasy book where neil gaiman betrays the main characters as a sacrifice to his dark lord satan?

>>9516342
Let me refrain that , is it any good?

My normie friends are watching the tv show so i became interested in the book.

>>9515895
July 4

Get ready for suffering

>>9516353
The Severed Streets?

>>9516394
It's OK. Doesn't have much of a plot beyond vague spooky encounters, culminating in a showdown between old and new gods. The "Shadow on the tree" sequences were pleasantly trippy.

>>9516338
No. Read the sample chapters and wouldn't even read it for $0. Shitty fanfiction about norse and egyptian gods doing whatever stereotypical thing the god is about.

It's not a world that's either interesting or that makes sense (if there are real gods their giant obvious magic bullshit would be evident to everyone and one set of gods would just obliterate all the shitty weaker religions), which is why all series that mixes multiple religions is trash if they're treated as real.

The tv show supernatural had the same problem. Teehee cupid and all these shitty gods are around for one episode, but they have essentially no impact on the world and you see them in one single location and never again. But then christianity has 10,000 demons and angels who rule absolutely everything and the entire world revolves around them, leaving cupid and zeus and other religious characters somehow there but totally insignificant in every possible way.

They even have an episode where lucifer walks into a room and kills a dozen different non-christian gods with one flick of his hand.

That would have happened thousands of years ago, rather than the trope where everyone co-exists until year 2000-whatever then suddenly that's when gods figure out they can kill other gods and every mythological figure becomes a prop for 10 seconds of bad writing.

>>9516338
I've literally read posts on /b/ with better characterization.

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>>9513271

This is literally what my web serial is about but I'm not gonna share it here. I'm actually a bit proud of it and you people would just tear it apart. My self-esteem is a bit too fragile right now for it to be shattered again.

>>9516624
Sounds very *tips fedora*. Did you put in enough Reddit appeasement? You won't have the next Worm otherwise.

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>>9516624
Are you a women? I only read books written by women.

>>9516088
anon, the Golem and the Jinni is exactly what you're looking for and damn-fucking good in its own right. One of the MCs is a genie who starts working in a tinsmith's shop after the owner accidentally frees him while repairing a family heirloom

>>9515596
I used that as a euphemism for "increasingly stupid and nonsensical".

>>9516720
Already read, I'm afraid, but I think i'll re-read it sometime soon.

>>9516186
Just read the synopsis and this sounds shit.
Handmaids isn't amazing but it is fairly believable, and doesn't have magical Hitler gods

>>9514602
Ninefold is good science fantasy, or "laws of physics are wrong" science fiction.
A good book, more people should try it.

>>9516745
There's no actual Hitler-god, he's just worshipped as one, and the official records claim he was. It shows how much their history has been twisted.

>>9516737
Not fantasy, but have you tried pillars of the earth? The entire plot revolves around the building of a cathedral. What was your gateway drug? Mine was Johnny Tremain

>>9516785
Alas, I read pillars of the earth, and (I think) world without end not a year ago, I think I tried to read the one that starts in wales, but the main characters annoyed me.

I couldn't really point to a singular book or series that sparked this kind of interest, I reckon I just enjoy people solving problems with careful preparation.

I think that the trope of 'crafter' character in fantasy is somewhat underdone because it somewhat invites ass pull problem resolution. ("Oh ho, my gary stu MC just happens to have a flash of inspiration and builds the "plot-solver 3000"")

>>9516338
I was pretty underwhelmed by this book, to be honest.

After reading this and having been recommended The Way of Kings, I've pretty much sworn off asking friends for book recommendations

Just finished City of Stairs. I thought the setting was pretty nifty but the story just felt kind of meh to me

>>9515857
>asking the fucking video games board foe book choice
You deserve what you get desu.

>>9516088
The cogweaver saga. But you aren't going to read it anyways. So fuck it.

>>9517007
This is becoming comedic; I've read them all, although I need to re-read that as well, because I couldn't immediately recall the entire plot of it.

>>9516572
You are too fucking stupid to realize why one is stronger than the other. So I, and everyone else is going to ignore your ass.

>>9516338
If you are going to read some Gaiman then read Good Omens and/or The Sandman instead.

>>9517023
>This is becoming comedic; I've read them all
How did you like the loli gnome?

>>9517049
Do you mean the MC? I thought she was, 17, or something? My memory is a fucking colander.

>>9517023
>>9516088
If you are truly, truly desperate.... Daniel x by James Patterson
it's shit though, kiddie shit.

>>9517057
She was young in gnome years. So I just called her loli.

>>9517073
oh, lord...

I think I'll read all those fucking awful urban fantasy dresden ripoffs before this, but thanks for the attempt, I guess.

I'll jam it right at the bottom of my desperation list.

>>9517079
I vaguely remember her characterisation being reasonably solid, even if they lent on the 'distracted genius' trope somewhat.

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>>9517023
This one might be of interest. Humorously written, but part of it deals with bootstrapping a primitive culture to build a flying machine.

>>9517182
Sounds interesting, I'll look for it the next time I'm down at the library.

>>9513314
Any specific recs from him? I've never checked his stuff out. Would red october be a good start?

So I finished the first Powder Mage trilogy, when does it get good?

>>9517313
>he is being serious
>retardation at it's finest
I can't believe I share a thread with such creatures

>>9517313
never. Powder mage is popcorn-tier. Three of the three main characters are literal mary-sues who randomly overpower gods by virtue of shitty writing.

Reading it made me want to instead read a historical novel about French Revolution / Revolutionary War / WW1, that doesn't rely on 3 boring characters that the crappy author hands infinite levels of cheat-magic so that they never have to deal with situations in any way relevant to actual humanity.

>>9517035
>retarded kid thinks lucifer is real and has a power level to justify shitty writing
I'd give you a 1/10 for effort, but you didn't put any effort into that bait.
Watching supernatural and reading Gaiman have not helped your I.Q. at all.

>>9517383
Wow well that was extremely uncalled for

Am I the only one that hates kidnapping plots/rescue plots? Shit is incredibly obnoxious. It's to the point where I basically just drop anything that uses them in a plot defining way. It's even worse than time travel.

I have a bunch of shitty sci fi books that I bought and never read

Heres the main ones
>Edgar Rice Boroughs - Princess mars series or something
>Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy series
>Drew Karpshyn Star wars books
>Isaac Asimov short stories, Prelude to foundation

I havent read a book in 8 years, what should I start with

>>9517565
Asimov short stories followed by A Princess of Mars.

>>9516088
If you're willing to suffer Japanese isekai web novels, "Ascendance of a Bookworm" is good. Librarian gets killed in a earthquake, reincarnates as a peasant girl in medieval fantasy land and sets out towards making books. Translator has gone on hiatus though.

>>9517386
Try the Wolfhound Century series by Peter Higgins. It's a sort of a weird 1930s Fantasy Russia type setting where the main character is a policeman sent to the capital to catch a terrorist, but he quickly gets embroiled in much stranger things.

>>9517584
thanks anon

are those books trash?

>>9517603
Nah, they're classics. Hitchhikers is pretty good if you have the right sense of humor. Prelude to Foundation probably shouldn't be read before the Foundation trilogy. I don't know much about star wars books.

>>9517619
Thanks!

>>9516122
>SM Stirling
This book is actually about dominatrix lesbians isn't it?

Is there a more badass character than Karsa Orlong that isn't a mary sue.

I like to share this reviewer with people, and I'm an infrequent visitor to /sffg/ so here it is: https://ronanwills.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/lets-read-the-name-of-the-wind-an-introduction-of-three-parts/. If you didn't read the link, this guy goes chapter by chapter and reviews the Name of the Wind, and then the other works of Rothfuss, which he seems to completely hate. He also gave a negative review to The Way of Kings, but I haven't read that book so I don't know if he is right. He particularly hates the way Rothfuss writes Denna and that retarded/schizophrenic girl who lives in the sewer.

He's funny enough as a reviewer to make them worth reading, though I would love it even if he wasn't just because he hates Rothfuss as much as me.

>>9517889
I read this guy's entire take on The Adventures of Kvothefuss. I imagine that I'd have made it about 5 pages in if I were reading the actual book. It's pretty entertainingly done. Also mindblowing that something that awful could not only get published, but gather a fuckhuge following.

>>9512400
Book of the new sun

>>9517037
>Good Omens
does anyone else feel like this is way more of a Pratchett work than a Gaiman? i barely can feel Gaiman's influence when i read it

>>9516989
I actually dropped this book because I found it so meh

>>9517772
>Malazan
>anything positive

It's long, good to weigh down drying glue, I have to give it that. Other than that, Malazan is what happens when your DM doesn't care about consistency or a coherent, detailed backstory, just paints something with a continent wide brush, and gives the players epic shit, saying yes to everything. Then one of the autists writes novels out of it.

>>9513491
I just finished reading Legend after starting last night because of this post. Very good stuff.

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>>9518134
Funny as hell. Not too long into Legend I thought to myself 'this is pretty much exactly what Patrick Rothfuss tried and failed to do with The Name of the Wind' and then I went to rate the book on Goodreads and what do I see?

>>9515502
The Honor Harrington books. I really like the way the writer describes Space combat.

>>9516968

If you ripped everything but the bridge men and had someone that wasn't branded Sanderson write it, it would be good.

>>9517889

I posted earlier my dislike for the MC and his relationship with Denna. I might have to check this out.

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Should I persevere with this book? The writing is so shitty it's giving me a headache.

I just want to get to the part where the aliens attack and the humans build the nuclear bomb spaceship. I don't care about all the characters' gay little backstories.

I've never posted in sffg before btw.

>>9517889
Did you read the first comment on the chapter 1 entry?

>>9518235
Not that anon, holy shit is that guy reaching. And even if he isn't that doesn't change that everything Rothfuss writes is bad English. Everything flows in a way that's distractingly off, to the point of being disgusting at times.

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>Reading Southern Victory
>POV charecter makes reference to making bricks without straw for the 10000th time

>>9517396
And you haven't read or comprehended shit. Everything is explained, but your skimming, low comprehension, low iq ass didn't get it.
Your reverse psychology will not work on me. You will die never knowing.

You fucking low iq memers come in here and feel you can participate without actually reading the work, or comprehending shit.

Enjoy your memeing.

#ECHOPRAXIA

Why did Valerie infect Bruks with Portia? Did Valeria infect Bruks with Portia?

Was it an altered version (I've heard that argued here), if so, where and why? And was his murder of Valerie and suicide an act of rebellion on both counts, or did Portia kill Valeria "in proxy"?

This ending has left me incredible puzzled. I feel I had a very good understanding of the novel until this last chapter, and while I've read the novel and chapter even more so several times, I can't feel I'm missing something.

>>9518443
It's unclear who infected Bruks in the first place but both the bicamerals and Valerie wanted to use him as a carrier for Portia.

Valerie's plan was to use Portia to fix the crucifix and divide and conquer bugs from the vampires ("Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just get along?").

When they are alone in the desert she injects something in Bruks to modify Portia, Portia sees this as an attack and kills her. And Bruks suicide was an act of rebellion yes.

>>9518157
I'm actually kinda afraid to pick Legend up now I know Rothfuss likes it, fuck I'm pathetic.

>>9517565
Start with neither.

>>9517603
Yes they are all trash. Will be waiting for your nourishing tears about how "sffg" suggested you books.

>>9518186
It's no great surprise an ESL like you wouldn't get it. Your sentence doesn't even make sense, how do you expect to understand others?

>>9518476
He's obliged to after so many people have pointed out the striking thematic similarities between it and his work. If he didn't he'd open himself up to judgement and people would realize that his work is unreadable garbage next to an unexceptional piece of pulp written 40 years ago.

Legend is pretty great. Imagine the opening tavern scene from Name of the Wind, but shorter and with prose that doesn't make you gag. And immediately afterwards they go off to fight the monsters that are implied to be on their way rather than spending the next 2000 pages talking about how hard it is to pay the tuition fees at Hogwarts.

>>9518469
Excellent, thanks a lot.

>>9518157
>i never read it until I was already published.
>I've won the Gemmel award.
>here's a link to my blog.

Can't Rothfuss write a review without jerking himself of?

>>9518498
Does he remind you of anybody? Maybe a particular fictional character?

>>9518476
>letting someone influence whether you read q book or not
Yes you are pathetic. Kys immediately. We don't need more of your weak genes spreading.

>>9518486
>unreadable garbage next to an unexceptional piece of pulp written 40 years ago.

If you think that's weird check out the similarities between serialized "penny dreadfuls" like The Monk and Abercrombie's The First Law.

>>9518501
Harry Potter?
>i survived the dark lord, maybe you've heard of me
>my vault is filled with gold, loo how rich I am

>>9518506
>nothing is original anymore
>even if you haven't read someone's else work, very close similarities could show up!
>more news at 6

>>9518495
I was also confused but Watts did a couple of extensive QAs in >reddit . You should check them out if you want to read his explanations first hand.

>>9518517
>Going on the defensive about something that wasn't even being discussed
Joe?

>>9518476
Bro, Legend is great. I've never read any Rothfuss so I can't comment on how shit or not his work actually is (though he definitely seems like an insufferable douchebag as a person), but Gemmell was the heir apparent to the sword & sorcery throne. Legend is the definitive 'siege fantasy' novel and is really a middle-finger to modern fantasy with its boring grimdarkness or SJW-influenced shittery.

>>9518420
>reading Harry the commie kike Turtledove

Nevermind his shitty writing, why would you do this

>>9518564
>Reee modern fantasy.

>What is Malazan or Stormlight.

>>9518582
There's a reason why I specified "boring grimdarkness or SJW-influenced shittery" which is very much a staple of modern fantasy.

>>9518591
Hard to be an SJW when you are also a Mormon, ya know? They almost seem like partner ideologies until you see how often they work together...

>>9518626
I remember when people used to say this shit about Jim Butcher, now he dedicated at least 10 pages per book about how its totally cool to be homosexual, trans or whatever.

>>9518626
Still pretending that I meant every single modern fantasy book ever written even though I specifically said the modern fantasy tropes of grimdarkness and SJW shittery?

>>9518186
>If you ripped everything but the bridge men and had someone that wasn't branded Sanderson write it, it would be good.

I can't deny that. The build up to the end with the king doing human experiments was pretty rad too, but not worth slogging through another 1000 page book when I have other stuff on the list.

>>9515502
My guilty pleasures definitely have to be the Warhammer 40k books. There are a couple of them that are actually good like the Ian Watson ones.

The ones I can't defend with a straight face would be the Horus Heresy ones. So terribly written, but make for a quick and fun read on an airplane ride.

>>9518635
Hmm, sadly you've come to the wrong girl, I've read the latter 13 books three times each, not once do the books even mention being trans as something that exists. There are scenes with homosexuality being used as a joke or as a disguise, but that's pretty much it. The Christian God is all but confirmed real, meaning the Bible is confirmed legit, get the picture?

Now before you start typing a response: just think about the series/books you have read multiple times, and what you would think if someone just started lying so openly about them while obviously never having read them even though you yourself might as well be an expert.

>>9518644
Fair enough, you are right that it makes up 95% or more of the entire genre, I just forget about it because I haven't been a Page at a library for years having to see the infinite shit titles.

>>9518626
Mormons are just a different type of sjw.

>>9515502
You've been brainwashed into believing pulp is "trash".

>>9518681
As I said, it looks like they are from the outside, but when you have read the Book of Mormon then you know that it's not the religion of SJWs.

I read the first of three stories, 'The Murthe,' collected in Jack Vance's final Dying Earth volume Rhialto The Marvellous, 1984. Here, a pair of wizards team up with a time traveling overseer to thwart a sorceress who has breached exile, and who is turning other members of the wizard's cabal into witches.

After the two preceding Cugel novels this feels like a welcome return to the format of first Dying Earth volume, of haughty and loquacious wizards who vie with their magic. This is a tale of a force of resurgent and powerful femininity in a tension with a group of old and moribund wizards, and Vance treats it with his usual wry humor, witty dialogue and laconic asides. And as usual, the Dying Earth setting and magic throw up imaginative and exotic images. I really enjoyed this short story, which I daresay can be read with no prior reading. 4/5

Does anyone know where to find a good download of the Discworld books?

I could read the first one alright on my kindle, but for some reason every .epub of The Light Fantastic I find either has the formatting all fucked up, or is missing like 100 pages.

Im not fucking joking here, half the files I tried cut from Rincewind and Twoflower flying on a broomstick to Rincewind talking alone with the stone trolls, the cut happens around page 50, and the only versions that have the missing scenes are the ones with bad formatting.

I could just suck it and read those, at least there are no missing pages as far as I can tell, but it really bothers me when there is an intentional space and you miss it because the whole book is either compressed into a single block or completely separated paragraph by paragraph.

I fucking hate ebooks some times.

>>9518690

nono anon, I do not believe all pulp is trash, but some books are both pulp AND trash at the same time.

>>9517548
Wheel of Time does the rescue plot a lot, but they're usually not that bad. The one major exception is the Rescue Faile arc that takes up like 3 fucking books and is just used to keep Perrin in the same exact place on standby while the rest of the characters finish up their individual arcs before the big end battle. Most of the other rescue "arcs" are very short and only take up a few chapters, and often have pretty good suspense in them. But fuck that Faile arc, biggest waste of time in the whole books.

>>9518065
Shocking

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Is Knights of Dark Renown the best place to start reading the Drenai Saga?

>>9517590
>gets killed, reincarnates
I don't understand. Why is this such a common setup?

Why does Shattered Sea have to be chock full of strong womyn gender swapped bullshit?

>>9518835
I found it incredibly difficult to get into WoT. I finished the first book and about a hundred pages of the second and just found myself bored. Does it pick up pace? Should I commit to finishing the second book?

>>9518911
Because it's 2017, drumpfkin.

>>9518911
Because it's YA
So it can't be offensive as it tries to be edgy

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How is this.

>>9518157
>>9518498
Yeah, for some reason everything Rothfuss says comes off as slimy and self-aggrandizing.

In the post where he explains getting the award for which that author's named, he says "from now on, every award I get should be a weapon" (the award is shaped like an axe), sort of taking for granted that he's going to win a ton more awards.

>>9518959
I liked it.

>>9518928

No.

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How much do people respect ideas over storytelling in their science fiction?

I find myself tired occasionally of repetitive character-building just for the writer to create a canvas for them to paint their ideas on. Of course the solution to this is a combined universe with a core cast, but with really weighty science fiction ideas they can clash and become messy. I really enjoy it when authors get creative with viewpoints, such as from a star, animal or even themselves (self-insert to the point of the character being THEM really tickles me).

Anyone else feel like this? I just finished Stories from Your Life and Others, and I almost rolled my eyes every time I got to sentence of paragraph that made me this "oh here comes the characterization!!!" Am I autistic? Fuck.

>>9518626

I grew up around mormons. I was even in a mormon boyscout troop.

They are a cult and non-believers (those who don't pay tithe) be damned.

GOU Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints passing by and asking if anyone wants to board...no tickets needed

>>9519013

It wouldn't be bad if you couldn't fit the characters directly into a peg every single time. It's like anime.

>>9519013
>How much do people respect ideas over storytelling in their science fiction?
>I find myself tired occasionally of repetitive character-building just for the writer to create a canvas for them to paint their ideas on.

I enjoy ideas when they are presented in science fiction, although preferably they're a metaphor or communicated via allegory. So in this case, I'd say I respect ideas as long as they're in-step with storytelling.

I haven't read the book you're talking about, although I would probably avoid any book where you have a showing rather than telling of ideas.

>>9518959
Fuck, that cover is very comfy, to the old fantasy days style

>>9519013
Depends on how well those ideas can support it. Arthur C. Clarke is a great example of an author who in 90% of cases clearly did not give a fuck about anything but all the neat ideas he had for a setting, and was still popular and successful because his ideas were interesting enough and conveyed with such sincerity that they worked as the focal point of interest in the story. Rendezvous with Rama is rightfully regarded as a classic and is carried entirely by the sense of grandeur and mysticism he builds around the alien spacecraft.

Though I think the key distinguishing feature of Clarke's writing regarding characterization is that he doesn't do stock characters, since he usually just doesn't bother with characters at all. Everybody in Rendezvous with Rama's main cast is a competent, focused professional with maybe one or two gimmick traits thrown in to keep them from being completely identical. Anything more than that would just distract from the true focus of the story, which was "how fucking cool is this spacecraft". You can immediately tell how little he had to do with the sequels by how hard they banked towards character drama.

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>>9519043
I think you've made an incredibly astute set of observations, to the point where I've .txt'd it. You're a smart one anon.

You've also made me realise that Rama actually is a good book, because despite its crappy human elements is was just so well received, showing just how powerful his ideas where.

You've given me a lot to think about, thanks.

>>9519043
>>9519087

Clarke's Rama bored me, but it was after this that I began to figure out my taste, which is for interesting character development and conflicts of personality in an unusual setting. I find that a wholly worked out setting, where the author goes on at length to tell us how things work, is one of the most boring aspects of science fiction. At this juncture I feel like I may as well read a textbook. Thereby I have fallen foul of much of Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and their progenitors. For me the most interesting thing about sci-fi is how it will effect human relationships.

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>>9519159
Thing is I'm a huge believer that "Good science fiction predicts the traffic jam, not the automobile", or so Pohl says. But then when I find myself musing and coming up with novel ideas I can write about, it's almost always the core scientific principle I think up, and hardly ever give a thought to the actual reaction of humans, which maybe I should be considering more.

When I write, I think I need to try and organically show how individuals, societies and in fact all of human civilisation can respond to the fantastical, without just offering a bad repainting of an existing tale.

An interesting example, which I doubt anyone will get is two short stories, Chiang's Division by Zero, and Watt's The Second coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald. Both centre around a female protagonist, the first who tries to kill herself after perfectly proving maths isn't constant and the entirety of the field is bogus, while the second is who works out the entire universe is a simulation built at the end of the universe and kills her husband trying to cure his cancer. While offering radically different ideas, and both being interestingly scientifically, there is essentially a very common story here, with similar emotions being felt.

Thus the argument between idea and reaction continues, and what should reign supreme in scifi. Anyone know any good essays written about this?

>>9519190
Well, what I notice Philip K Dick and Jack Vance often do is to create a setting or premise, where one character completely subscribes to it, and then have another character who is more disillusioned, the loser in the system. They may be friends. This is the seed for conflict and plot generation; characters winning or losing by the rules and boundaries of the world they inhabit.

>>9519015
Bong here, so no experience of mormons. Does anyone have any insights into how Sanderson's religion affects his work? I mean, other than making it all incredibly tame in tone. Specifically, his treatment of religion, his approach to worldbuilding and his thing about magic systems.
Is there some worldview inherent to mormonism that makes him write these weird sexless animes, or has just got a touch of the 'tism?

>>9519251

Yes, the lack of sex is definitely from his religion. His treatment and frankly adoration of religion is definitely from Mormonism. They believe that their religion is the best thing ever culturally. You see this theme in his writing, especially with his Messiahs.

>>9519251

One particular thing I can also spot from knowing mormons

Stormlight Archive below

Him making The Diagram followers the bad guys. The GALL of man attempting to defeat evil without the Gods help.

>>9519013
I've read like 150-200+ sci-fi books over last 10 years and have pretty much given up with the genre for now.

My tastes have gone through few iterations over the years, when i originally moved from my fantasy-phase to scifi-phase, it was all about ideas and the feeling of wonder and awe. At this time i had not developed any 'tastes' so to speak and just read tons of classics and critically acclaimed books.

After that the character development and interesting alien concepts became more important to me, i wanted to read about human beings adapting to alien situations and about aliens with very unique, extraordinary and inhuman psychologies.

The final (and practically still ongoing) phase is the interest in superb world building and general autism towards sci-fi concepts. Im tired to death of all the usual sci-fi tropes, cliches and pseudo-magic technology (unless its logical and theoretically feasible). I also now require certain level of originality from any fiction i read. With the amount of books ive read/listened, this basically removes 99% of all sci-fi from my scope of interest and to be honest i havent touched the genre for several months now.

>>9512400
Robin Hobb's Fool's Fate trilogy

>>9512400
Book of the New Sun
Hyperion
>>9512427
What order are you reading them in?
Leiber did some theatre training with his father, that would have included a bit of fencing I suppose so if so that's where he got the ability to write it so well
Be sure to also read his other works (if you can track them down): Conjure Wife, Gather Darkness, The Wanderer, The Big Time/Change War, A Spectre is Haunting Texas, Our Lady of Darkness
>>9512556
You could do a full cast production of The Big Time it is very much written for a stage pay adaption
>tfw there is no Science Fiction theatre
>>9512594
Wut
>>9512849
What are you trying to say with this?
>>9513271
Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space
>>9513457
>book 5 of 14
Nope.avi

>>9519424

I don't expect shit from fantasy it's background noise for me when I drive and am doing stuff that doesn't take my full attention at work but I am very worried that at some point even for that purpose I'm going to drop it. Originality is lacking all over.

>>9519432
Already read.
Feels bad to see that story end after reading it for half my life.

>>9519437
>>9518065
>book of the new sun

Guess I'll look it up.
I better not be in for dying kids and sad feels.

>>9519299
>>9519307
Thanks. This is the sort of thing I was looking for. I only read the first Stormlight book, so I don't fully understand your reference, but your point is perfectly clear.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that he's a good writer, but I do find his work kind of fascinating. Same feeling I got as a child when encountering anime for the first time and, at that point, it all seemed so original and exotic. Obviously, the sense of anime being original didn't last long, but I had the same reaction again with Sanderson that I was reading something from a truly alien culture.
BTW, is Stormlight worth continuing? I liked the bridge stuff and, as discussed above, the uncanny sterility of Sanderson's writing.

>>9519499

One of the factions that come out in the second book is rather unique.

The bridge stuff was a beast on it's own, very good. Nothing like that in the second book.

Anime is just in a huge rut at the moment m8.

>>9519470
I feel like its inevitable if you get stuck in these meme genres for a long time. I went more or less through the same phases with fantasy aswell. As it stands The First Law Trilogy has been the only fantasy series ive actually finished and enjoyed of within 10 years. Rest have been quick glances at highly rated books that i gave up with after 1st book or within few chapters.

>>9519299
>lack of sex is definitely his religion

That's a bit of a retarded viewpoint.
Some people just don't like writing about sex.
I'd rather Sanderson's sexless anime than GRRMs 'fantasies of a 13 year old'.

>>9519521

I really liked First Law. Yeah it's all meme shit tho, definitely.

I listened to all of Dresden and the Fury books, those were pretty good when you're not solely just listening, I like Jim Butcher for mindless tasks.

I listened to a book I actually liked recently called Age of Myth. Apparently it's a prequel to something else, I haven't listened to that yet.

One thing I do is often times stop one book mid-way and have another ready to go. Then I flip flop around when things get boring. So I have about 3 books going at any given time. Since I mostly just listen to them while I do other stuff.

>>9519529

I didn't say it was a bad or good thing. I was just saying it's because of his religion.

Most anime is sexless anyway ;p

Have their been any notable releases/old book's this thread has started talking about in the past two months or so?

Haven't been reading for about that long

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>>9519543
I never said that you said it was bad or good.
Unless Sanderson has said that it's because of his religion, then I don't think that you can make that claim.

>most anime is sexless
...

>>9518860
>Is Knights of Dark Renown the best place to start reading the Drenai Saga?
It's not really part of it since the Drenai aren't around, more of standalone book in the same universe

Either start with Legend (release order and amazing book) or Waylander (chronological order)

>>9518065
Except she's his grandma

>>9519529
Not him but GRRM isnt even that bad. Sure it feels unnecessary and in poor taste at times, and he might occasionally go a step too far with the graphical descriptions, but ultimately it rarely deducts from the overall 'quality' of his works and usually atleast serves some narrative purpose.

There are some fantasy/sci-fi authors that go REALLY FAR overboard with unnecessary graphical descriptions of sex acts. Richard K. Morgan is a perfect example of that, his books often degrade into a literal erotic romance novel for few pages at a time. Its the primary reason i gave up with his works entirely. Im simply not interested in reading an author unnecessarily jerking off his or her own fantasies directly into paper with detailed desciptions. Maybe thats just me, but i find it disgusting as fuck.

>>9519521
Senlin Ascends is good and unconventional, read that.

>>9519594
The only reason GRRMs sex scenes don't deduct from the overall quality of his work is because the overall quality is shit.
To be honest, I prefer GRRMs sex scenes to Terry Goodkinds, but that's not saying much.
Off the top of my head, only Robin Hobbs sex scenes haven't rubbed me the wrong way. Brent Weeks sex scenes aren't the worst either, but they feel like they are written by a teenage virgin.

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This book is fantastic, original, and whimsical and I can't give two shits about it. Fuck, I'm getting old

>>9513271
Prince of nothing fits almost all of these

>>9519538
>Age of Myth
Might give it a go, read the first book of Sullivans Riyria Revelations some years ago, not terrible but didnt feel like the rest were worth buying.
>>9519598
Thanks, ill give it a go, quick glance at reviews definitely peaked my interest.

>>9519529
>>9519594
>>9519607
Sorry, I should probably clarify my original "sexless anime" comment. I meant a general lack of romantic inclination in the characters and their motivations rather than a dearth of hardcore sex scenes.

When does The Darkness That Comes Before get good?
I'm at chapter 4 and so far there's just a whole lot of pointless name-dropping.

>>9519662
But Brandon Sanderson has written plenty of characters with romantic inclinations...

>>9518860
This book and Morningstar take place in the same world as the Drenai books, but centuries earlier. So you don't need to read them if you just want to read the Drenai stuff, but you should read them anyways because they're both good. I'd suggest reading these books first (Knights then Morningstar) then read the Drenai Saga in publication order; NOT chronological.

>>9519671
Well I stand corrected, then. I've either forgotten them or not read the books in which they appear.

>>9519437
I'm roughly reading Fafhrd and Gray Mouser in the order they were written, so I ignored the latterly written 'origins' stories that begin many collections. So at the moment I'm going through what is usually book two, AKA Swords Against Death. I think I'll go back to read the 'Ill Met In Lankhmar' novella after that. I'm having fun reading these stories. To me they still feel contemporary, not overwritten like much of Robert Howard's Conan, with the right amount of action and levity.

>>9519693
Off the top of my head:
>The Rithmatist
>Elantris
>Warbreaker
>Mistborn Trilogy
All have a romantic shit or something of a sexual nature in them.
Even the Way of Kings has some romantic shit if I remember right.

>>9519666
When breaker of horses and men shows up or the consult does

I forget which happens first

>>9517889
So the name of the wind is shit, right? I've read first few chapters and mc seems to be too much up his own ass and the fact that fighting demon spiders was supposed to be something exciting and an endgame to the most powerful mage in the world made it seem like the journey to that endgame isn't worth it. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything worthwhile. Also why do people like it exactly?

>>9519564
Ninefox Gambit discussion has picked up.
It's a novel sci-fantasy military book, pretty enjoyable

>>9519736
Rothfuss clearly suffers from the same problem as GRRM.
By the end of book two there's practically no way he can reach the beginning of Book 1 within a single book, unless he cuts a lot and does large time skips.
Rothfuss just doesn't have the balls to go beyond his original planned trilogy like GRRM did.
It also doesn't help that he caught a major case of SJWitus after releasing the first book.

One anon in another sffg thread recommended I read Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin Anderson. I'm halfway through the first book and so far pretty happy with it. It's an easy, comfy read that adapts very well to the audiobook format I use.

What's /sffg/'s opinion on it? Does it go to shit at any point in the series, or have any other problems or things I should know?

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>>9519800
Glad you like it so far.
I hope that it stays enjoyable for you for all 7 books, I personally lost interest around book 5.

>>9519800
I haven't read it, but Kevin J. Anderson is a reliable journeyman/hack writer with a lot of experience. Don't expect anything too original but otherwise you should be good.

I'd be interested to hear your opinions when you've actually read it. KJA is just too meh for my taste.

Alright its almost been 20 years now, can someone please fucking help me remember the book I read as a kid?

It was about a family that go on a road trip/vacation. They are driving a camper van/caravan/RV and along the way they meet an alien or two.

Eventually they head to some weird dimension, I think, and the RV turns into this bug with loads of legs like a millipede but they are still driving it. I think they are trying to get the alien home.

Also they go to the grand canyon and the dad tries to have a moment with his son...I think. It could be a national park though.

The cover was pinkish/purplish in hue iirc and had the RV with bug legs driving/walking along a long windy alien road.

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Just finished The stars, my destination, and Im pretty pleased with it.

The book just keeps on gaining more and more momemtum until it just explodes (literally). The last part is Fantastic and the end is perfect.

Linda wish it were lomger though. There were so many glimpses at interesting concepts, like the para-desease collectors or the skoptkis...

Id really reccomend this book to anyone. There a reason it has become a classic.

>>9519813
>>9519819
I'm that anon from a few threads back who's a fantasy fag trying to into scifi so I don't have a lot of SF experience to go on. I get the feeling it's kind of like the WoT of scifi--nothing special and kind of slow-paced and meandering but overall a good job done making an epic out of classic genre themes.

If so I'm not going to be disappointed. I enjoyed WoT too to be honest.

>>9519916
If you really want to read an "epic fantasy" in an SF setting then go for it. If you'd like to get a broader familiarity with the genre then check out this chart:

https://i.imgur.com/IBs9KE8.jpg

As I can guarantee from experience that most of them are better than anything KJA is likely to write. Even if you do decide to go ahead with Seven Suns I'd suggest picking a few books off of that chart afterwards.

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>gritty "realistic" fantasy
>female warriors

New Thread

>>9520188
>>9520188
>>9520188

>>9519251
Because his religion is fundamentally absurd, he's very non-judgemental about most religions in his works.
Alcohol is repeatedly called a poison in his work.
Evil religions in his work are usually seemingly based on the Catholic faith.
Overall I do like him for making fantasy neither too grim or too liberal, even if its a bit sterile as a result.

>>9519499
I'm a super casual reader, and do zero (0) writing, but I do love this shit, so much I bought all his books. I easily get sucked into fantasy books. Only thing that ever throws me off in books is if I either get bored, or find a huge plot hole.