/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

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Gene Wolfe, J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert a best.

anyone read cook's dread empire?

Got it by mistake downloading the scifi book of the same name but figured it might be worth a read anyway given how good black company is

Tolkien fans, how do you feel about Jackson's movies?

>>9930939
I liked the original trilogy, the Hobbit trilogy is nonsense and pretty much wuxia/the matrix with its fight scenes and battles

>>9930910
Pleb.

>>9930939
>>9930983
Wonder when they will remake the original trilogy.

>>9931011
DELET THIS

>>9930939
LOTR was pretty good. Could definitely be better but they did well I think.

The hobbit, in relation to the book, was a disaster.

>>9930915
I read the first trilogy (A Cruel Wind) a while back and it's very much a prototype of his style in Black Company, but with a more epic tone to it instead of TBC's low-fantasy style. If you like Glen Cook and have already read TBC and Insturmentalities of the Night I'd give it a shot.

I love the scene when the ancient old wizard on the mountain is first introduced.

>>9930939
The movies didn't capture the depth or (especially) the mythic tone of the books well in my opinion. That being said, the original LOTR movies are some of the best fantasy movies ever made in their own right and I think they did the material justice.

Hobbit was a mess, obviously.

>>9930939
Not great adaptions but very good for fantasy films.

>>9930910
Agreed

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This is releasing in less than a month. It's a YA book, but it's Jonathan Stroud so it doesn't count. Has anyone else read the series? It's the definition of comfy.

Any fantasy books with a good mystery plot? Lots of twists and red herrings and that kind of stuff.

>>9930888
>Wolf Pack Protectors, books 1-3: the complete series. Three tall, dark, and dangerously sexy alpha werewolves protect the BBW women they love. This complete three-book paranormal romance series is full of passion, fated mates, and suspense. Secret Seduction When a tall, dark, and dangerously sexy Alpha werewolf rescues Diana from a vicious attack, she doesn't know who to fear more - her attacker or the wolf. She's heard whispered legends of a powerful werewolf but never believed such a creature could exist. Captured by the wolf, she's taken to his den, and to his bed. Feral Seduction Forced to take refuge in an abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods, Brandy thinks she's finally escaped her stalker. But she quickly realizes she's not alone. An unimaginably sexy, and very naked, man appears in the middle of the night to offer her protection. She's captivated by his stormy eyes, until she learns his dark secret. She knows she could never tame him, but when he makes the ultimate sacrifice for her, she knows she can't live without him. The more he tries to resist her, the more she wants him and for once in her life, she intends to get what she wants. Deadly Seduction Gwen hasn't left the Silver Creek Pack's den since a devastating assault that scarred her body and still tortures her soul. But when Nosh, the alpha of the Dark Moon pack, is injured in a suspicious accident, she's forced to travel to his den. The healer-in-training draws on all her skills and saves the alpha, but soon he narrowly escapes another 'accident'. Someone in Nosh's pack is hell-bent on murdering him and everyone he cares about, and now Gwen has been targeted by a killer. Wolf Pack Protectors is a complete three-book paranormal romance series. This is a standalone book series with no cliffhangers. Love scenes are fully realized and at times include explicit language.

Should I?

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>>9930888
>Last 2 books were close to 1000 pages
>Only about 200 pages of plot progression between the two of them
>The other 1800 pages consist of people eating breakfast or fucking
THE AMERICAN TOLKIEN INDEED

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You know nothing of pulp till you've read John Shirley. This is the pulpiest motherfucker out there.

>>9931264
Do it and tell us if it's better than Sanderson.

>>9931265
How many of those pages were spent describing Westeros' tax policies?

Wondering if I should bother with Abercrombie's Shattered Sea. I know it's YA, but I thoroughly enjoyed First Law and was looking for something similar.

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>>9931288
None.

>>9931264
Is this why fat women on Tinder/whatever the fuck all think they're supposed to be pulling Chris Hemsworth or something? Because of all the paranormal self-insert shit like this?

>>9931320
of course dude

>>9930204 (from the previous thread)

Yes, I've discovered the value of litrpg. The secret source isn't just games directly, but Scott Pilgrim, which was the first to recognize the idea of leveling up as a substitute for the coming-of-age initiate ritual in a culture that spurns them.

I don't think it's a particularly good genre right now, but it has great potential to express both the rootless meta life we lead now and the aching for markers on the path forward. So for this reason I'll continue to watch the genre evolve.

That and I like schlock.

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If, hypothetically, someone had finished BotNS and Dying Earth and enjoyed them greatly, what would you recommend for them to read next in terms of Science Fantasy?

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>>9931398
Lyonesse

Then Wizard Knight

>>9931407
Oops you said Science Fantasy. Those are more just fantasy by the same authors.

>>9931415
No worries my friend, thanks for the recs. I own both of those and intend to read them soon as well. But science fantasy is really interesting me lately, and I wonder what else is worth checking out.

>>9931428
Matthe Woodring Stover's Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle. If you like those two then read the other 2 as well.

>>9931398
Awake in the Night Land.

recommend short stories

>>9931471
The Aleph by Borges

Please recommend me fantasy pulp with depth, like PKD but fantasy.

>>9931471
It's not a short stort but it is short, Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys.

>>9931494
these >>9931407

>>9930915
Read the first two books, with plans to read the rest at some point in the future.

They are good but not as good as Black Company. Try the Instrumentalities of the Night by Glen Cook, I really enjoyed those.

>>9931398
The Vorrh?

>>9931494
The Drenai series.

>>9931498
Where did you hear about Rogue Moon?

I only found out about it from that Great Courses sci-fi series. I don't think anybody talks about it today.

what's the appeal of Lyonesse?

>>9931494
Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, David Gemmell.

James A.A. Corey, The Expanse Series. Great sci fi, ad was originally a roleplaying game setting that the two authors built, but they fell in love with their story. Which kicks ass btw. The tv adaption was eh. Would love to see an rpg with the setting though, my friends and I would play it to shit.

>>9931534
A fairy story with rules, boons, bargains, and consequences. And as told by Vance, funny and charming and clever and witty.

Also heroism without sanctimony which is refreshing in any age and especially ours.

>>9931533
Gene Wolfe said he liked it.

I need a long fantasy series to sink into.

I happen to have access to the Wheel of Time series, is that worth reading?

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Almost halfway through this and I'm happy to report it is indeed NOT grimderp as it has been labeled. Reads much more like something REH or Wagner would have written if they had been directly inspired by Yojimbo.

>>9931625
That's a solid reason. Don't hide it.

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>>9930888
Does The Dresden Files Improve? I'm already in the sixth book and I am just about done with them. I wanted to read Dresden due to being some noir/fantasy. Dresden is not a noir-detective, he's a chosen one cliche that narratives his life like a hardboiled detective. It's as if Butcher took everything interesting about noir and gutted it taking only the recognizable cliches, and then even water those down.


Do they get any better?

>>9931649
>is that worth reading?
Not really, but if you haven't anything better to do you might as well. The first couple of books are decent enough. As far as other long fantasy series go I have to say the ones I've read have never been worth it, except maybe Sword of Truth which became so bad it was good when the sequelitis kicked in. If you want a sort of long series I think Black Company is okay.

>>9931698
If you're at book six and you don't like it, it's only going to go downhill from there. Dresden files is about a wise-cracking action movie protagonist fighting giant monsters with magical explosions, with a little noir aesthetic occasionally. It's pretty good at it too, but it's not some sort of gritty mystery, more like an action movie. Minor spoiler, but he latest book is LITERALLY a mission impossible heist.

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>>9931507
I really like Instrumentalities because it covers the early modern period, which isn't something you really see in fantasy. The 30 year war especially offers very fertile ground for stealing from, one of the most violent wars in modern history, where guns and cannons weren't quite good enough yet so everybody still fielded massed units of professional pikemen (who in turn had swordsmen with big zweihanders mixed in) alongside their arquibus infantry.

>>9931736
>If you're at book six and you don't like it, it's only going to go downhill from there.
Its just that people keep on insisting they get good when they don't

>>9931757
Alatriste was a terrific film. It ends with the Battle of Rocroi. Viggo in usual top form.

>>9930939
Really good fantasy films but I don't really consider LotR to be very filmable. I think Tolkien was right in his essay On Fairy Stories when he talked about how hard it was to put them on stage let alone on film. The story is one that the reader needs to take very personally, they have to be in close quarters with the book or whoever is reading it to them. To have it on screen or on stage separates things too much for how the work already separates you from the characters, and it either comes out bad or requires such changes that make it different (the latter path was generally taken by Jackson.)

Like, seeing hobbits on screen with humans and elves and stuff basically ruins them and makes them useless and unnecessary to their original purpose (the eyes that readers saw Middle Earth through.)

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Is Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky any good?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28765741-spiderlight

>>9931824
So are you saying that fantasy as a genre isn't well suited to the medium of film, or just that it would be better to write something from scratch with the medium in mind?

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>>9930888
Am I not alone in thinking this is so far much better than The Powder Mage?

>>9931398
Hyperion
Dune (get shit on a lot here but try it yourself)

>>9932034
>get shit on a lot here
Why?

>>9932034
I thought it was mostly me that didn't like it.

>>9932023
I've read the first book of powder mage and enjoyed it well enough, far from my favorite series but it's much better written than a lot of the other recently published titles I've tried to get into lately.

In what ways does he improve on Powder Mage?

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>>9931471
AXIOMATIC BY GREG EGAN
THAT IS THE ONLY SHORT STORY COLLECTION ANYBODY NEEDS

>>9931814
Rocroi is one of the most badass things. The tercios held even after they came under fire from heavy cannons, which at the time were not easy to employ against infantry, and were eventually given the same terms of surrender as a fortress under siege, which means they were allowed to keep their weapons and colors and simply leave.

>>9932062
Series gets increasingly hippie woo as it goes on, and then there's Brian Herbert's stuff.

>>9930888
literally hulk the character.

still cool though.

>>9931938
haven't read it but the premise sounds interesting. i have too much of a backlog tho to add it.

Are there any other fantasy authors in the same league as Mervyn Peake? I have been sorely disappointed since finishing his Gormenghast series, seemingly noone in the entire genre has as beautiful prose as him. What a shame he went off his rocker and couldn't write more beautiful books. After gorging myself on such a feast, the slim crumbs and stale bread of standard fantasy is unfulfilling, to say the least.

Please recommend me some fantasy books like The Arts of Dark and Light series by Vox Day or some science fiction books like the Exiled Fleet series by Richard Fox.

>>9932498
Maybe try China Mieville? I know Peake is a big influence on him. And Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell has a similar sort of Gothic aesthetic going on.

>>9930888

I just finished my XPrize story for seath 14c. I'm literally up against every person in the world right now and have absolutely no hope of winning.

I don't even know why I convinced myself to do it.

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Expected a commentary on utopian socialism. (from the description it sounds like the author understands that "utopia" translates to "nowhere place," eg an unattainable state of society.)

Did not expect toy soldiers threatening to murder a psychologist in the opening to the book, also this Mycroft person reads like a total asshole and annoys me. This will be a interesting read.

>>9932498
The only somewhat similar works are The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Worm Ouroboros

>>9932510
>retard unironically recommends China Mieville and token woman author to someone who says he likes Mervyn Peake

You should probably kill yourself.

>>9930939
John Boorman should have been able to do his version. Boorman mangled the narrative in order to convey what he felt Lord of the Rings was really about. Jackson kept the story relatively straight but in the process turned it into an action-epic.

>>9931398
Book of the Long Sun followed by Book of the Short Sun. Some anons have said they don't live up to the original work, I think that they can easily stand alongside Book of the New Sun as GOAT sff stories.

>>9931471
The Eyeflash Miracles

>>9931533
Like the other anon I also saw Wolfe mention it in an interview. Wolfe, Budrys and GRRM were all members of the same writing group. When you think about this certain similarities and homages from GRRM to Wolfe look obvious. For example, both have written about spymasters named 'Spider'.

>>9932498
Off the top of my head Wolfe, Vance and Beagle are very strong fantasy prose writers. I'd check out http://greatsfandf.com/authors-full-list.php for more. Also try Charles Finney and James Cabbel.

>>9931398
Is Dying Earth worth reading? BoTNS fucking changed my life honestly and I want something that's similar to it. I'm reading Long Sun right now and it's pretty good but I haven't gotten far enough into it to compare the two.

>>9932577
Dying Earth is fantastic but it's not the same kind of story as Book of the New Sun. The weird world adventuring stuff is very Dying Earth but the Christian stuff is more Chesterton-inspired.

>>9932509
The Drenai series and Undying Mercenaries.

>>9932515
>also this Mycroft person reads like a total asshole and annoys me
Mycroft did nothing wrong.

>>9932534
Let's hear your selection then, hotshot. Obviously no one writes exactly like Peake.

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where can i get more legitimate old ass fantasy like this?

>>9932555
>John Boorman
Just read about it and am really fucking happy we got Jackson's version.

>>9932804
The Arthurian Cycle is not "fantasy," please stop acting like an ass.

>>9932848
Oh, I'm sorry, you must be a 9 foot tall green man who can detach his head. I didn't mean to offend you.

>>9932852
Next you'll be saying the Holy Bible and the Iliad are "fantasy" books. Stop posting retard.

>>9932857
>implying the bible isn't real
Real edgy m8

>>9932841
Have you seen Boorman's other work? I'm a huge fan of Jackson's old stuff but I don't really know why anybody thought he was the right choice for Lord of the Rings. I like the movies he made but Boorman was a much better fit to adapt Tolkien. He's very English and tradition-minded, while Jackson is a New Zealander with cosmopolitan leanings who at that point only really had experience with the cool, wacky and gross.

>>9932865
No, but I read a bit about how he wanted the movie to be. He wanted Frodo and Galadriel to get it on, Arwen be 13 years old and Aragorn to be with Eowyn, the Beatles as the hobbits, and replace the Nazguls with fleshless horses.

I want a more direct adaptation over that. Not saying I think Jackson's was flawless, but his sounds better to my ears.

>>9932885
I think that we have different ideas on what 'direct' means when adapting. Transplanting a narrative across mediums isn't always accurate. Even though most of the plot-points were followed I don't really think that Jackson got the gist of what Tolkien was going for across. Tolkien's work felt like a proper addition to Europe's fantasy tradition, while Jackson's movie felt like a Hollywood action-epic with a decent plot.

Boorman's movies have the same feel I'm trying to describe. His 'Excalibur', which he made using a lot of ideas left over from his failed 'Lord of the Rings' production is a fantastic take on King Arthur which really does feel like proper English Fantasy like all of the old stories. Jackson's work didn't feel like an old story, it felt like a new movie. And the idea of people taking those movies seriously as anything but pleb fodder and acting horrified at the idea of remakes bastardizing it is incomprehensible to me. It's already a powerful bastardization of a completely different work.

>>9932894
Haven't seen Excalibur, and I haven't really felt like Jackson's is a "Hollywood action-epic with a decent plot", so we definitely have different perspectives on it. I'm probably very nostalgic and attached to the movies, as I saw them as a kid and have seen them almost yearly for ten years, while having read LOTR only once.

I think the more movies strive for "artistic value", if I can call it that, the less they appeal to most people such as myself.

>>9932929
Fellowship was the only good movie it gets so shit after that.

>>9932934
Everyone loves movie Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli but Sean Bean as Boromir was easily the strongest out of the Fellowship, or the best handled at least. A bit unfair because he's probably the most interesting character but everything about Boromir worked so much better. Two Towers is only remembered for the battle scene and Return of the King is long as fuck and jumps around too much. Also too much quipping and stripping down in the later two movies. It's not a post season-1 Game of Thrones level quality drop but it is disappointing if you watch them in a row.

>>9932934
Meh. There are parts of the Rohan arc I don't like, and the Path of the Dead stuff, and the Frodo stuff dragged on (which they also did in the books imo), but "shit" is an exaggeration.

>>9932944
Nah, the first movie is colourful and covers a variety of interesting locations, the bond of the Fellowship is heartwarming and it's just perfect fantasy. Then it goes grimdark and becomes about this one big battle at helms deep and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

>>9931667
Well I finished it and I enjoyed it. Definitely not grimdark nor 'epic', but an enjoyable take on A Fistful of Dollars/Yojimbo in a fantasy setting.

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What are some fantasy books with realistically portrayed women?

>>9933032
The Chronicles of Gor

>>9933036
Legends of the First Empire

>>9933050
That was meant for this guy >>9933032

>>9933032
Book of the New Sun

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>>9933036
It's a shame they're so badly written.

>>9931975
I'm not sure about fantasy as a genre, I think a film for some sorts of fantasy could go over very well. However, Tolkien's works (save the Hobbit but Jackson managed to fuck that up) are just not very well suited for film in the same way that the Iliad would have a hard time. People watch a film (and read a book now too) and basically expect all of the characters to be themselves but changed a little. This is why you have all of those quips in superhero movies and what not. This is also why Jackson changed up Aragorn's character (and pointlessly changed Faramir's too), so that the audience who is now unable to empathize with hobbits due to them being hobbits can empathize instead with the human no matter how removed from humans those humans actually are.

>>9932946
And people complain that Tolkien only spent nine or so pages on it in the book! Even though that shit was boring as fuck in any of the movie adaptations that were made!

>>9933162
>(save the Hobbit but Jackson managed to fuck that up)
No, the companies fucked it up. He didn't get any time to prepare. He couldn't just pick up where del Toro left off.

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>>9932804
The Once and Future King - T. H. White
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights - Howard Pyle
The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart

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Any thoughts on this book and Olympus? I just read them and enjoyed them greatly.

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>>9932498

>>9933220
I'll grant you that.

The dwarf-elf love triangle was inexcusable however.

I'm reading the Elric saga. We know that those who die in the ocean either become servants to Straasha, King of the Sea Elementals, or slaves of Pyaray, one of the Lords of Chaos. The latter fate is at least alluded to as being a particularly cruel one.

What happens to people who die in other ways? What if you die of old age or are decapitated?

Basically, I'm trying to figure out if wielding Stormbringer-- based on what Elric knows about it at the time, that it devours and obliterates souls-- is actually an evil act. It would seem that annihilation is far better than eternal servitude to an alien intelligence at the bottom of the sea, for instance. If the majority of afterlives are this grim, it may be better to have one's soul destroyed, even horribly painfully, so long as it is over in a short amount of time.

Now, it may be that their souls are in agony for all of eternity or something, but if so, there is no indication that Elric knows (and thus is able to make decisions based upon the fact) that this is the case.

>>9931191
I love this, can't wait for the next book. I think it's meant to be the finale? I'd say it's a guilty pleasure but I only feel guilty because it's YA. It's almost as good as the Bartimaeus sequence.

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Conan is supreme

>>9933340
S&S in general is great. I'm hoping to see a resurgence.

>>9933343
this yes

>>9933340
>m'lady
Robert E. Howard is depressing. A proto-robot if there ever was one. He'd be posting here if he were born in the late 20th century for certain.

>>9933361
fuck off sape

>>9933343
It's hard to get it down though, mainly because the people that would accomplish it have now become over specialized in term of genre and story. There's no real feel for how to write an adventure. The culture isn't really there anymore.

>>9931191
How's his other books? I've only read Bartimaeus books.

>>9933364
Has Cleve-posting gone viral?

>>9933410
The golden baby has flown.

>>9931291
Bump

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>>9933340

>>9933510
What is this supposed to mean?

>>9931649
Yes, but not by much. Some of the more irritating aspects of the series become a lot less annoying when you realize what Jordan was going for, but they can still get under your skin (Can confirm I'm on book 7 rn) Malazan is more consistently good, so I guess you could try that as well, but WoT is still pretty good

>>9930939
Nicholas Cage should have been Aragorn.

Also Children of Hurin FUCKING WHEN

Would you read a monomyth shoehorned into a fantasy retelling of the Second World War in which the faction representing the Germans are also portrayed as the good guys?

t./pol/

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>>9930910
>blocks your path

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>>9933593

>>9933593
yeah sure if it was written well

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>>9933599
That's an enthusiastic yes right? My struggle heh is to figure out how blatantly obvious to be about the fact that a) it's WWII b) the Germans are the good guys. Also who should be what race.

>>9933614
>if it was written well
Oh.

>>9933615
Whatever you do don't do a simple switch like the elves are the germans and the orcs are the allies. In fact you could probably keep the elves as the allies and the orcs as the germans, but make the orcs/germans sympathetic - crippled by sanctions on their trade, had their lands stolen, insulted by propaganda, only fighting to protect their way of life etc.

>>9933510
that they're obsolete, I guess. I think the guy who makes these probably smokes a lot of weed or something.

>>9933622
meant for >>9933520

>>9933621
Yea I was thinking Orcs more along the lines of Elder Scrolls orcs instead of just dumb nasty creatures that everyone fucking hate. Or should the Slavs be the Orcs? Men have to fit into this world somewhere.

>>9933628
Yeah you can do whatever, I was just using orcs and elves as examples of 'good' and 'bad' guys and how you shouldn't use them. Ultimately it doesn't matter who is who, so long as you show the whoever the germans are meant to be as the sympathetic ones, if that's the goal of your novel.

>>9933637
Mostly I feel like it would be fun to write fantasy in a post-industrial setting. I admit that I don't read as much fantasy as I would like even though I enjoy the genre, and I'm not sure how many examples there are of this being done, if at all.

The politics of it is for my own fun and to give me a rough structure already in place to follow. I'm always afraid I can't flesh out a story through to the ending.

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>>9931398
>Science Fantasy/Dying Earth genre

Nightwings by Robert Silverberg (it won a Hugo); Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique story cycle, it's ridiculous how good those stories are; Leigh Brackett's Mars cycle e.g. Sword Of Rhiannon, Dying Mars instead of Dying Earth.

In terms of inspiration Percy Shelley's poem Ozymandias, for me, captures some of fallen grandeur of the dying earth aesthetic. As does Lord Byron's 'Darkness', written in the wake of the volcanic eruption at Mount Tamboura, its gigantic ash cloud reducing temperatures globally and creating a world famine. Excerpt;

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires—and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings—the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd,
And men were gather'd round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other's face;

>>9933645
Fair enough; honestly though I'd choose a much less charged real life conflict than WW2, maybe make up your own story instead. Any exploration of post-industrial fantasy you make in the book will be completely overlooked/overshadowed by the WW2 aspect. People will be arguing over whether you're a cuck or a nazi instead of whether you wrote a good book and came up with interesting ideas.

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>no GRI
>no scenes of golem getting her hole dug out in detail
>no scenes of djinn laying hot pipe in detail
>no scenes of infidelity
>no cucking
>the married woman that everyone admires doesn't get dicked by stranger
>no djinn x golem sex
>story ends on a happy note
>no one who matters dies
What the fuck did you recommend me?

>>9933655
>People will be arguing over whether you're a cuck or a nazi
No press is bad press right?

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This is actually great. I didn't expect it to be THAT good.

>>9933247
I think this is his best book.

>>9933813
Sounds like good wholesome entertainment. Added to my list.

Is it good advice to ape the voices of different authors you respect until your own emerges?

If I can see why people like LOTR so much but it doesn't do all that much for me personally even though I like fantasy, does that automatically make me a pleb?

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>>9933831
Use a better image REEEEEEEEE

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>>9933872
No it means you can think for yourself. And that you don't base your likes on herd mentality.

>>9933872
At least you're not alone, I feel the same.

>>9933892
>he posted it again
DELET THIS

>>9933872
Yes, but we're all plebs here for one reason or another, so you came to the right place.

>>9933892
why isn't Book of the New Sun on this list?

>>9933892
>presuming to speak for an entire general
>making shitty infographics that aren't even aesthetically appealing
please find your nearest tree branch and hang yourself

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>>9933892
Have some feedback on your list.

>>9934207
Shit taste honestly. And read Dying Earth.

>>9934444
Dying Earth a shit

Is this another one of chartfaggot charts that he posts 24/7 in response to recommendation questions about books or genres that aren't even on his fucking stupid lists?

>>9934483
yes

>>9934483
It's an arms race, anon. Better hurry up and start producing your own charts. You can't let win.

Who is your authorfu ?

>>9933892
>tfw i should have listened to this anon about avoiding Daniel Abraham
I'm never doubting you guys again

>>9931398
Clark Ashton Smiths Zothique stories inspired both

>>9933375
Are there even any pure modern sword & sorcery tales being written? I know there's writers definitely inspired by Conan and REH, but S&S by way of the masters seems a dead art form.

>>9931398
Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence is Cugel goes to grimdark land

>>9934808
Peter Watts, I'm not gay but I'd suck his dick if it would make him hurry up and finish the blindsight/echopraxia follow up book.

>>9933580
Within 10 years.
That Chris son is like 90+

>>9934921
Hurin will be black

Remember Coltaine

What's your guilty pleasure when it comes to sffg? Mine is Sword of Truth :V

>>9933157
The Gor books remind me of Conan except for the BDSM stuff, and they are better-written than 99% of fantasy novels.

>>9935026
I have none because a book's objective quality is determined by my opinion of it.

>>9934479
Whoa no you a shit

>>9934968
That Wickan traitor? Curse his name!

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>>9934838
>Are there even any pure modern sword & sorcery tales being written?
The Riyria Revelations. DON'T!! read Age of Empire Books

If he could self publish and end up with a book deal so can yall wannabes in here.

>>9935045
I couldn't finish it, but I also picked it up when I was like 13.

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Thoughts on The Night Land?

>>9935161
Would be great if it weren't insanely repetitive and written in terrible ye olde ynglishe. I haven't read the modern retellings but I assume they're a straight upgrade.

Trying to improve my Spanish. Any good sword-and-sorcery or heroic fantasy originally in Spanish?

>>9930939
LOTR trilogy are amazing, the hobbit was extremely disappointing. Why the fuck did it need three god damn movies?

>Also, Jackson's best film is Meet the Feebles

What are some books in the vein of Eden and Solaris would you suggest I read? Especially interested in the latter's themes of the frail and yet disproportionately depended upon human memories - you know, how a vast portion of who we think ourselves to be happens to stem from unreliable, often selective fragments of the past, as retold by our minds

>>9934968
Really looking forward to getting around to the reread. The books are great the first time around, but a reread is apparently on a whole new level.

are audiobooks for plebs?

>>9935405
I've "read" over 800 by audiobooks. Bunch of classics too.

I'm reading (listening to) blindsight because y'all told me to. I'm to the part where they are using negative reinforcement to get the little scramblers to talk to eachother. They are having this big debate over why the scramblers have no genes, and no one even references the fact that red blood cells, which also move around in tubes in a larger body, also don't have genes. This is dumb. Also that first time when they biopsied a scrambler and the others tore it apart someone suggests they are having a civil war. No one even suggests that it's probably a reaction to the scrambler being biopsied aka damaged. Maybe my "baseline" mind just doesn't understand why these are not options, but they seem like the most obviously parallel things to me and the fact that they are not even addressed is irritating. If I turn out to be right I'm going to be more annoyed that these hyper intelligent guys are actually dumb and stupid.

>>9935405
>>9935432

I only listen to audiobooks. I have a two hour+ commute daily, so I go through them pretty quick. Roughly 12-15 hours a week because I listen to them walking the dog too.

By the way, I just finished Memories of Ice, which is why I came here.


All I have to say about that ending is Jesus Christ.

What a great book.

>>9935039
True patrician.

>>9935436
No, that's pretty much it.

>>9935479
Damn it.

>>9935484
I'd encourage you to finish it anyway.

>>9935494
I will...im just gonna pretend the magnetic fields caused them to not think of this for now. Seems reasonable, desu. Rorshac knows a truckload about them and I can assume he couldn't influence their brains in space (causing him to make them just turn around in the first place) because his field don't reach that far. Ehhhh it's workable.

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Just finished Children of Dune in the Dune series.. I was hooked until the end of this last book until Leto got this magic suit that gave him super powers.. I mean.. wtf? Should I even continue?

>>9935513
There are some twists coming, I can't say whether they'll alleviate your concerns or not. How are you finding the book otherwise?

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Who wants to talk about Sanderson?

>>9935520
Pretty good! It started out real ender's game-esque (kid with no empathy and all) but I liked ender's game as a kid so it was just nostalgic. I like the central theme of the Chinese room and am excited for when (i hope) our protagonist makes some breakthrough about the aliens because he's also a Chinese room and they are Chinese rooms together. His rant about the sperm and egg was super true and sad, but also I think if Chelsea was smarter she would have mentioned how plenty of animals mate for life and many animals have the male play a large roll in protecting the offspring, so really he wasn't biologically predestined to compete against her and symbiotic relationships can exist even in human relationships. He just likes feeling miserable and misunderstood, the edgy little faggot. It's funny though because everyone can relate to having that kind of competitiveness in a relationship I think.

I blew through the first two volumes of Book of the New Sun dang fast, but for some reason 3&4 has been on my to-finish list for a year now. Do they pick up at all? I was fine with the pacing and language of the first two; I was engaged with trying to figure out what was going on, but 3 is boring the shit out of me.

>>9935540
I also unironically love anime and autistic worldbuilding. I'm just starting to go look at the wiki and see all the ways the cosmere interacts. I totally didn't get the nightblood thing when I first read the stormlight archive, so now that I have read warbreaker I decided I have to re-read them in my spare time.

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>>9935540
>big books labeled DINOSAURS and SHARKS and ALPHABET

>>9935556
Don't forget about POP UP BOOK.

Though being a Mormon he's probably got like 6 kids.

What are some of the best farmer to king stories you've read? Preferably longer series

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Great formative works of fantasy that build imagination, curiosity, aesthetic sensibilities and empathy?

>>9935616
>>9935656
Read The Hobbit. LotR is obviously a classic but skippable in terms of D&D influence.

Read Conan until you get bored. Then read Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (publication order is better than chronological, unless you want to force yourself through Fafhrd's mostly-boring solo origin story before you even care about the character). Then read the Elric saga. Then Vance's Dying Earth. Then anything else that looks interesting off Appendix N.

>>9935683
I didn't mean for me, I meant for a child. These are also not particularly fitting. At least not the ones I read

>>9935693
Oh, I somehow missed "farmer to king" and read "build imagination, curiosity, aesthetic sensibilities and empathy" somehow as you looking for stuff that would inspire those feelings in yourself.

My bad on both parts.

>>9935704
No I wrote "formative" as in, works that establish and teach these qualities in a pedagogical sense.

>>9933993
Because I enjoyed BoTNS, and Gene Wolfe writes entertaining stories that don't rub me the wrong way.

>>9934483
>one of chartfaggot charts that he posts 24/7 in response to recommendation questions about books or genres that aren't even on his fucking stupid lists
You just proved to everyone in this general that you don't fucking read anything. Anytime I post my charts there is at least one thing that has what the requestor wants, and other things that might interest him. Not my fault you don't fucking read and just blow air out your ass. Neck yourself.

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>>9935656
The Prydain chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Narnia

The first two have books which won the Newbery Award.

>>9935704
Also I'm
>>9935656 this anon. >>9935616 is someone entirely different.

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>>9935715
>>9935656
Forgot to mention this. There's also a D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths

>>9935656
A Wizard of Earthsea

>>9935616
Unironically Red Rising.

>>9935736
>>9935729
>>9935715
Thanks. Any tips on how to encourage reading?

almost finished off with robin hobbs fitz mass of books, two left, and yes I read the liveships and the dragon ones. what a ride, ive had a great time with them so far im gonna be sad when I'm done. How does soldier's son hold up? Also, im interested where to go from here, I would like more dragon based fare I think, I really enjoyed their depiction here as brats.

summer dragon, termeraire, and those dragon naturalist books were good too

>>9935729
I loved this book when I was younger!

>>9935710
>>9935718
I thought I was in >>>/tg/55027838 because I had it open in another tab. So I was reading everything in the context of fantasy that had a big influence on early Dungeons and Dragons.

Sorry, I'm kind of tired.

>>9935782
Not entirely sure but maybe read to them, read with them or better yet read the same thing as them, and talk about what they're reading.

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how's this?

>>9935517
might as well just to get past it, a lot of people think that God Emporor is as good as Dune (they're wrong though)

>>9935848
Are Heretics or Chapterhouse any good? I gave up on the series after reading God Emperor.

>>9935851
nah it's downhill from the start
it's not bad, but I wouldn't call it good. Herbert bit off more than he could chew after Messiah

>>9935656
Earthsea. Un Lun Dun.

>>9931938
It's a pretty decent character study of a man-spider. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend but it isn't amazing. I think the main attraction for me was the novelty.

>>9935848
>they're wrong though
Yes, it's better.

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>>9935729
I loved that book. My school taught reading with pic related (odd for a Catholic school, in a way) so I was primed for them and for fantasy in general.

>>9935876
No, it is not a good book.

If you make your main character an omniscient god you then have to write as an omniscient god which Herbert, being human, cannot do.

So he just comes off as a blowhard.

>>9935782
I think codex alera is kiddy friendly.
Also try Artemis Fowl.
Percy Jackson books (the original 5, don't touch anything after)
Kane Chronicles by Riordan
Daniel x by Patterson
They are kiddy friendly if I recall correctly.

>>9935729
Myths aren't fantasy.

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>>9935811
>dragonfag
Read red knight or the waking fire by Ryan Anthony.

>>9935885
>programmed reading
>already indoctrinating from childhood
Orwell would be proud.

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>>9935656
The Hobbit, The Neverending Story, Brothers Grimm stories, Chronicles of Narnia, Momo. I know not all of these are strictly fantasy but still. Pic related is fun.

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>>9935656
Gonna have to shill the Edge Chronicles. Imagination bursts from the seams in creatures, locales and characters, themes typically include the importance of courage, growth, forgiveness, standing against tyranny, loyalty to friends and family, and the value of intellectual, political, and physical freedom. Full of gorgeous illustrations that will help keep weaker young readers on track and entertain everybody. Only caveat is that adventuring is never with consequences, and those consequences can get gruesome. Not to say the books are splatterfests, but people die bloodily fairly often.

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these were pretty great

>>9935991
So, aside from the GRRM blurb it looks like YA. Is it YA?

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What are some books with elven protagonists?

>>9936003
Not the other guy but I read part way through the first one and it's about a mechanical android developing sentience and starting a robot uprising against their Dutch oppressors. It didn't really read like YA IMO.

>>9932597
I honestly enjoyed the christian stuff just as much as the adventuring.

>>9936004
Riyra

>>9935712
>Anytime I post my charts there is at least one thing that has what the requestor wants

So why not just post the rec instead of pasting one of the few charts you have 24/7 in every thread
Asshole

>>9935616
Dave Duncan's A Man of His Word series.
Haven't seen him recommended yet, his Blades novels are great, as well as the AMoHW series and A Handful of Men.

>tfw you unironically like cat people fantasy after reading two good short stories

>>9936050
You should read Chesterton's works if you haven't already.

>>9936003
it's not YA. It's a good series but just a heads up the ending is complete shit

>>9936081
Anything you'd care to share with the rest of the class?

>>9936200
In the Days of the Witch-Queens and the second story from The Wardog's Coin. Both cat people stories without a hint of cringe or irony.

You hard sci-fi fags are a scourge on the genre. Decades ago whe scifi writers talked about recording data on something that wasted a magnetic reel or cassette you probably went wild. Saying it's not available, it's not possible.

Now that we are throwing scientific theories through the window every couple years. You guys still decry shit saying it isn't possible.

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>>9936387
>theodore beale is shilling for furries now

>>9935910
Programmed reading is older than orwell ya dum dum.

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So I finally finished reading this and I loved it, even though I'm a relative brainlet who struggled with all the dumping of specialized vocabulary.

I had also read Neuromancer several years before. Anything else by Gibson I should check out? The Difference Engine sounds cool but then again I had never seen a piece of steampunk media before that had a story I liked. What about the rest of the Sprawl novels?

Also Wikipedia says Johnny Mnemonic, New Rose Hotel and Burning Chrome are part of the Sprawl universe, but not Hologram Rose or Winter Market. Why not? Those seem very similar setting-wise.

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Thoughts?

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Just finished Last Wish and Sword of Destiny and am onto pic related. I kind of miss the jovial tone of the short stories but the novels so far seem to be definitely better written (or translated).

>>9936004
Drizzt.

>>9936053
Spoiler that shit you idiot.

>>9936055
So they can see other works, be intrigued, and read them????

>>9936809
The dream is dead boys.

>>9937062
>So they can see other works, be intrigued, and read them????

>Only one book there that fits their described type of book or genre
>Don't even point it out to them which one
>Except them to read all the other trash you put there
It's a completely asshole move

Who should I read after Vance and Moorcock if I want more "pulp heroes encountering weird shit but also they're explored as characters?"

>>9937108
Gene "cunt destroyer" Wolfe

Would it be easier to win an award for a sci-fi novel or a fantasy novel?

>>9937103
I think you have the wrong person? I usually recommend the book, post the chart, and give something similar. When they look at the chart if anything catches their fancy they can google it.

>>9937305
Depends on your politics, race and gender.

>>9937305
Combinations of the two seem to be hot shit nowadays. But probably fantasy.

>>9937305

Are you a black woman?

>>9931058
>instead of TBC's low-fantasy style.
It's set on a world that isn't Earth, it's populated by undead wizards that can down entire armies of men and lightning-pissing sky whales. By either definition of high and low fantasy, it is firmly in the high fantasy camp.

The man POV characters just happen to be pretty mundane.

>>9935893
>then have to write as an omniscient god which Herbert, being human, cannot do
Aren't all authors omniscient gods in a manner?

Do we still really need to be spoilering blindsight discussions?
It's been out for a while now and it's a pain to do every single time.

I've seen the advice before that you should mimic the voices of authors you like and eventually your own will emerge. Any thoughts on this?

>>9937400
depends, which authors do you like?

>>9937390
I just ordered the book and I really don't want to get spoiled

>>9937400
Can't hurt to imitate a bit, assuming they're good in a literary sense.

>>9937337
>being this assblasted that a black woman beat a white man at something

>>9937400
I have an extremely deep and masculine voice, I also don't have any range with it, it's just only one monotone deep voice. How am I supposed to mimic someone else's voice?

>>9937403
>>9937407
Gene Wolfe, Fritz Lieber, Ursula Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, and Cormac McCarthy are some of my favorites.

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>>9937409
It's easy when you get preferential treatment by leftists who hate both men and white people. Niggresses who get awards for their identity don't bother me nearly as much as the ones who hand them out tough, I hate their retard ideology.

>>9937416
extremely shit taste

>>9937390
If you're discussing spoilers, why not?

>>9937416
Gene Wolfe is great. I'd stay away from Moorcock as he's a hack.

While trying to emulate Gene Wolfe and to some extent the others you mentioned might result in an improvement I'd encourage you to look outside genre fiction for authors to learn from.

>>9937416
>Ursula Le Reddit
heh

>>9937431
I like Moorcock for his characterization and worldbuilding, not so much his prose. But I'd be lying if I said he didn't influence my storytelling. But I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.

Finally burned out from all the settings I liked. kindly recommend good fantasy or sci-fi
Would love any that had villain protagonists, or series with a lot of volume

Already went through:
Malazan books
Abercrombie books
Sanderson stuff
Discworld Stuff
Black Company
Wheel of Time
Broken Empire trilogy and the one after that
Prince of Nothing books
The Dagger and Coin books
Lies of Locke Lamora
Dresen Files
Lost Fleet
Red Rising
30k/40k stuff (got burned out on this actually, after reading about the legions I liked)
Monster Hunter books
Vamp the Masquerade clan books

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>>9937400
>>9937416

>>9937488
>villain protagonists
Library at mount char

>others
Iron Dragon's Daughter
Metro 2033
Roadside picnic
Shades of Grey
The strain trilogy by del toro

>>9937417
But I'm literally as far left as it gets and I don't hate men or white people.

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>>9935161
Incredible that it was published in fucking 1912. WHH must have been woke as fuck.

>>9937605
I guess anon wasn't referring to you then.
>by leftists who hate both men and white people.
>by leftists, who hate both men and white people.

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>>9937488
>boy oh boy time to trigger that chart hating anon
Try undying mercenaries, Mr N and Jonathon strange, felix castor, check the other books in the chart to see what you haven't read, and if they are to your liking.

>>9935271
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
BotNS, of course
The Golden Age if you want to have some fun with the idea

>>9937626
At what cost, anon... at what cost?

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>>9937623
>>9937605
>>9937417

>>9937630
He needs to fuck off. For years he's been decrying my charts (types like the same person). He really needs to neck himself.

>>9937626
everyone hates your charts

kys

>>9936801
I'm not a fan of Gibson, but his Blue Ant books aren't bad even if they're ultimately only above-average thrillers with a somewhat subtle gimmick of "cyberpunk is here".

The Difference Engine isn't great but it's worth a read if the concept interests you.

>>9937598
>>9937626
Thanks kindly! Will definitely look into it

>>9937305
My impulse was to say fantasy but I also think more fantasy gets produced/published so I don't really know. Just do what you want, man.

>>9937488
Dying Earth (Cugel's not "the villain" but he is a colossal asshole)
Eschaton Sequence (volume, villain isn't the protagonist but you see a lot of him and he's extremely entertaining)

/sffg/ should I be worried that the opening scene to my novel is basically stolen from FMA?

>boy sweeping the floor of a laboratory happens upon a glass orb with an amorphous demon in it who convinces him that he can teach him magic in exchange for freedom
>scene ends with the demon telling the boy his name and revealing a huge, creepy eyeball

>>9937681
God/Truth had no name.

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>>9937645
>everyone hates your charts
Hmm. But he >>9937651 (the ones that actually reads) seems to like it. I made the chart for persons like him interested in actually reading, not persons who haven't read a single book in the past 3 years, but still comes and posts in the sffg anyways like they know shit.
Neck yourself.

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>>9937681
It all depends on how good you write and present it.

>>9937721
He's just being polite frogman. No need for smug.

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>>9937751
Then we have too many polite people in the general. Because I had many people thank me for it, and recommendations I gave (shilled).

Any good fantasy books from the perspectives of the monsters?

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Anyone read All Systems Red?

is prince of thorns worth getting into or its a waste of time?

>A Wizard of Earthsea

This is great!

>Tombs of Atuan

What the fuck happened? It doesn't even read like it was written by the same author.

>>9937837
I thought it was good. Probably has a good chance at being the next Martian style popSF thing if it gets popular.

>>9937108
Clark Ashton Smith

>>9937953
Does Smith really explore his characters, though? I've only read a handful of his stories but the emphasis seems largely on the weird shit.

>>9930939

Hobbit a shit. Originally trilogy was an admirable attempt, but I have a lot of autistic complaints. Considering it just barely escaped being ruined during production like the Hobbit was, I will probably never see a lotr movie that does the books justice.

>MUH BOMBADIL REEEEEEEE

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Just finished pic related. What a disappointment. Spoilers ahead.


>animu level villain: "hurr had some bad experiences so everyone should die. Even though other people were nice"
>aliens can build supercomputer inside a proton but are unable to control a sun
> their supercomputer can project images on individual's retinas and form a sphere to enclose a whole planet, but can't just kill all humans
>Teenager fanservice with the computer game (ok, I enjoyed that part in the beginning)
>""""""""""hard scifi"""""""""" that uses the worst techbabble ever conceived (the proton unfolding made continuing very hard) and neither goes into any non-radio tech even surface-level nor makes use of AI doing everything, in the 21st century


Accelerando and The golden age trilogy are still king. For me.

>>9932498

I'm kind of in the same boat, I'm only really interested in "literary genre fiction", I can't really tolerate dreck prose unless it's a setting I desperately want to read about (Christian Cameron's tyrant series being a good example of shit books that I hated but still read fucking six of them anyway).

Pratchett/Discworld and Vandermeer/Verdigris are ok but highly flawed, the latter mostly tolerable for the setting and those times when it is most Poe-ian, the former for the humour (though I haven't read Pratchett since I stopped being a 24/7 pothead, maybe I wouldn't like it now). Wolfe and Glenn Cook are both good prose, but they both lack that stuffy British refinement that I so enjoy and which is mostly extinct these days. Herbert, PKD, and Moorcock are products of the 60s, the prose is ok, the concepts are kooky/"lsd LMAO"-tier (at times), but none of them were really trying to be literarily significant, just screwing around with ideas that were new at the time.

Old-timey-er writers like Loveraft, Howard, Smith, Burroughs were founding genres and breaking ground, so their bodies of work often have a lot of flaws or feel cliched because they invented what has since become cliched.

Tl;dr: I'm just reading every suggestion I get in here because I'm at a loss and dissatisfied with almost everything except books I've reread three or more times. Most of them I drop within 30 pages, but Wolfe and Vandermeer I probably wouldn't have given a chance without meems and piracy.

>>9938082
Agreed. At least on all the Sophon stuff. I cringed when I read the reveal

>>9938095
What most annoys me is how everyone (including the Zuck) hypes it into heaven. If it would just have been a bad book well, my bad for reading it. But even half of reddit hates it - I assume the chinese just used all their bitcoin rigs to brute force meme it into western civilization. There, you already got a superior plot.

Also
>Aliens need earth, can't terraform any other planet
>Can into living in space for long but somehow not a viable option
>Who gets so far in the tech tree and does not have an exponential tech curve?
>Need conspiracy on earth for what purpose exactly?

Who's your favorite SF or Fantasy author in terms of characterization and storytelling? It doesn't matter if the prose is amazing or mediocre, or even kind of shitty, as long as the other two things are good.

>>9937851
Avoid at all cost.

>>9937851
waste of time

>>9938179
>>9938183
then what should i read

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>>9938154
T Pratchett

>>9938189
What kind of book do you think you want?

>>9938207
Well
I like tolkien.
there's anything that even comes closer to silmarillion?

>>9938082
>>9938139
>>9938095

I could tell this was a forced meme without even reading it. /lit/ has never liked an Asian author who wasn't a forced meme

>>9937851

If there were a MST3k for literature, Prince of Thorns would belong on it

>>9937851
I liked it. There were a few very edgy scenes in the start since the author wanted to show his protagonist wasn't a hero.
Setting is interesting enough, with a little twist later on. There are different types of magic and the source of it all is eventually explained.
There are a lot of character deaths if that's your thing. Author also finished the story in three books since he didn't want to milk it, so the quality is consistent throughout the books.
Has a separate trilogy that's in the same setting and takes place around the same time, with a cameo or two from the original story.
All in all it's alright, drop it if you don't like it though, lots of books to read out there

>>9938207
>Pratchett
Newfag to lit here since I only saw the sci-fi/fantasy general now- how'd the litfolk react when Pratchett went along with Death?

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Anyone know of any scifi books where flexible screens make an appearance?

>>9938286
You thought it was fantasy but it was me, Sci-fi!

>>9938298
BotNS?

>>9936801
Read Count Zero. I enjoyed Mona Lisa Overdrive but not The Difference Engine.

If you want to try another cyberpunk book, Synners by Pat Cadigan, Software by Rudy Rucker, and Vurt by Jeff Noon are great.

>>9938220
You could try reading Prince of Nothing and see how that goes for you.

Can't answer your question because I haven't read it.

any nice book with dragons?
Maybe half-dragons

>>9938324
I loved PoN. The writing, the world, the characters, the premise. Favorite fantasy novel for me.

>>9938332
blindsight

>>9938082
>spoilers ahead
>doesn't use the spoiler tags
???

Dimension fuckery goes up to eleven and above in the sequels, so if you disliked the Sophons you should probably stop reading now.
Their inability to control their solar system and killing humans from afar where explained. You might not have liked the reasoning but it's not like it was a giant asspull. Terraforming takes forever, invading earth would have been easy had they not fucked up. Living in space is discussed in the sequels, and the Trisolarian fleet only had enough fuel for one acceleration+deceleration. Why not use the ETO when their there anyway?

so its consensus that no fantasy author has nor never will surpass tolkien, right?

>>9938082
>animu level villain
The characters are pretty bad throughout the whole trilogy.
>aliens can build supercomputer inside a proton but are unable to control a sun
How do you control three suns when you can't predict their movement?
>their supercomputer can project images on individual's retinas and form a sphere to enclose a whole planet, but can't just kill all humans
Unfolding it makes it vulnerable, still they should've found a way. Murder becomes a plot point in the following book. Which they fail.

>>9938139
>Aliens need earth, can't terraform any other planet
This is a plot point and explained in the later books after an assumption about the universe.
>Can into living in space for long but somehow not a viable option
This kinda too but not really.
>Who gets so far in the tech tree and does not have an exponential tech curve?
Well they have pauses because their civilization gets wiped out at random intervals. Also they do in Death's End.
>Need conspiracy on earth for what purpose exactly?
If the sophons can't kill anyone then it's beneficial. Still it was silly imo.

The series definitely has it's problems.

>>9938381
I already surpassed Tolkien with my own series, so.

>>9938397
wow
i mean
W O W
O
W
This is /lit/ for you, guys.

>>9938381
Nope.

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>>9938220
>there's anything that even comes closer to silmarillion?
No.

I posted on rebbit for the first time. On their fantasy board. They gave me over a hundred upboats, I have never felt so validated. I think we should totally have an upboat system, guys.

>>9938537
yeah its sad
i mean
When you feel something so good but you are sad cause nothing will ever come close to it
i doubt any author will be able to make something so epic as the silmarillion.

>>9938232
Its not bad per se, the scifi hardness is overstated.

The plot is more about how people react to an impending alien apocalypse, and a socials logical explanation for the fermi paradox. The problem is the first book is a mystery, not a psychological space opera. Its a huge genre shift

>>9938407
Tolkien's shit is like finger painting compared to my masterwork. Better get used to the new king of fantasy, kid.

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>>9938591
easy there, kiddo.
lets not get ahead of ourselves,kay?

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>>9938591
Gurm?

hey, /lit/.
I want to write a book which the progatagonist has a goal, he lost everything but he has ONE thing he cares about, and because of this he makes poor choices, and ends up losing this last thing he cared about, so he gets absolute madman and decides to close his heart and think only about his goal, destroying whoever gets in his way, in the end he dies.
say some books to inspire me.

>>9938682
watch gran torino

>>9938631
TAX POLICY

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>>9938682
Sounds like monomania. It's a common thread in myth and literature: Icarus wanting to fly, Captain Ahab's white whale, Raskolnikov wanting to commit a murder. In SF+F Jack Vance's Demon Princes comes to mind because the protag's whole life is about getting revenge on the group of men who destroyed his home town. GOT's Dany Targaryen also seems monomaniacal.

Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo is a great filmic portrayal of monomania. Klaus Kinski's character wants to bring opera to a remote Peruvian region and has to haul a boat over a steep hillside to do it. This is the model of a monomaniac - the singlemindedness, the drive, the disregard for others, the nervous energy, shrilly anti-social behavior.

I hate multiple pov. It feels like just when the story starts getting interesting the author says a fuck you and throws a wet blanket by changing the pov. I just can't get into the story like this. Anybody else feels like this?

>>9938810
well
Putting multiple POVs helps the worldbuilding
i cant help but feel that one sided POVs books are shallow.