/lit/ - Literature

bakker is shit
tolkien is shit
wolfe is shit

Bakker is the only post 2000 fantasy writer who ranks among the greats

Thus, he is the King

Simple as

>>21369910
Can you do any better?

pathetic thread

>>21369903
This web novel is BEYOND GOOD
A classic in the making .and the fact is has to share the same space as most of the trash webnovel contain is an insult to the story .
I spent last night awake binging the first volume .
Synopsis :
Growing up in poverty, Sunny never expected anything good from life. However, even he did not anticipate being chosen by the Nightmare Spell and becoming one of the awakened - an elite group of people gifted with supernatural powers. Transported into a ruined magical world, he found himself facing against terrible monsters - and other Awakened - in a deadly battle of survival.
What's worse, the shadow powers he received happened to possess a small, but potentially fatal side effect...
The synop,as usual , doesn’t say enough. Here is what this story is about :
in the not so distant future . the nightmare spell invade the world ; people infected become drowsy and dysfunctional until they fall asleep and they cant be woken up. Most die and become ‘portals’ that nightmare creatures can use to slip into the normal world and wreak havoc .
Those who survive and come back report being subjected to a trial where they have to survive, and those who do are given certain abilities by the ‘spell’ and become awakened .
the awakened can travel to the dream world in their sleep and eventually at will, where they fight the nightmare creatures and prevent them from engulfing earth as humanity has already lost great chunks of land .
The spell give power as well as a flaw ; every time . no exceptions . the more useful the ability , the deadlier the flaw . if someone can see future visions . he is made permanently blind . if he can heal deadly wounds . he suffers what he healed. And so on. The protagonist has one of the best flaws i have ever seen in fiction. " If he reveals his real name to someone ,he will be enslaved by the person who know it (see title), his flaw is that he can’t lie . if he is asked a question . he has to answer it honestly . he has to navigate his world and make sure he is not accidentally enslaved .( i haven't read far enough to know if he eventually enslaves himself to someone willingly ) "
the writing is good ;as well as the characters .
The mysteries and foreshadowing are well done.
The dream world has a very lovecraftian feel to it . . there are hints that it used to be normal ,until the inhabitants had to go to war against «something » and lost .
The spell doesn’t spoon feed ; the only way both the readers and characters can figure out what even happened to the dream world (and what might possibly happen to the normal world )is by constantly gathering small clues like item descriptions .
The story is just dark enough to keep one on edge while not too dark that it become suffocating . .
Overall ; it’s one of the best if not the best story i have read online . check it out. It’s 600 chapters (around 6 volumes) and ongoing .

>>21369903
Which is the best Lovecraftian alien deity?

looking for a book, all i remember is that the name had several k's and a cover picture of a knight in black armor with spikes

science fiction not so fiction ?
This Perfect Day - Ira Levin

>>21369965
I enjoyed this series until volume 2 or something. It shits the bed hard later on, a pity.

>>21369988
volume 2 slow down a little but it pick up shortly

Fantasy was a mistake.

how is warformed bros?

What's your take on cosmologies? I like a background explanation that ties into themes of the world, even in low fantasy settings when it delivers a motif to the story.

>>21369965
>webnovel
Fuck off, shill.

Is there a decent youtube channel or podcast that summarizes scifi and fantasy books? There's too much shit to read and I want to read outside genre fiction, and it's getting harder and harder to justify jumping into yet another long running series because it looks sounds vaguely interesting. These days I'm looking for one-shots more

>feelio dealio when /sffg/ doesn't read anything outside of a carefully selected handful of the absolute biggest names

Is there anywhere that talks about sff aimed at men? Sffg sucks balls and r.fantasy has been took over women and women with dicks .

>>21370228
What do you mean by this, that people here read about a hundred of these books and then just stopped?

Just finished Foundation's Edge. You're seriously telling me that Golan Trevize has slayed so much pussy that his dick is innately powerful enough to detect robots?
Also, Branno just knowing the Second Foundation was on Trantor because of "scout ships" was fucking bullshit

>>21370376
Most people here have not read a hundred books ever, including picture books.

>>21370376
>>21370228
sffg is probably the only section of /lit/ where people actually venture to explore beyond The Canon™ without tismal judgement of their fellow pretentious gaybuddies. I got a bunch of good recs here

>>21370228
This place is fairly open to new things, including >webnovels and self-published books on amazon kindle

>>21370055
Usually I don't really care, unless it's a major plot point, like the protagonist is a celestial being or something like that.

>>21370145
If you're looking for one shots, you would have better luck with novellas than novels. If you want novels, then you'll have to read mostly those from 50+ years ago, at least. Authors that do so today are far and few between. Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of them.

>>21370228
Try not being so obvious with your shilling next time

just finished the The Books of the North arc of The Black Company, man I have such a dumb banana smile on my face right now. I love it when the hero ends up with the villain lady.

Hi, I don't post here, but I figured you guys of all anons might know. Does this (AI generated) plot resemble anything you've read?
>In a futuristic world, where AI powers everything, humans have become disconnected from themselves. They feel empty, as if they are missing something. Daemons exist up until this point. They are forgotten creatures because one thousand years ago the humans turned on their allies and imprisoned them. The humans finally realize that their disconnection is hurting them and to make things right they release the Daemons, who are like spiritual entities that live in people's minds, and work with them to fight back against a corrupted AI.

>>21370228
Nah, I've gotten good non-pretentious. Like people told me that Red Rising was just a more fun/cooler sort of Hunger Games/Ender's Game type book to start that got butchered a bit by being edited to fit the YA market, but that it branched out into becoming a sprawling war focused sci-fi epic that is sort of the good military parts of GOT meets Dune, over the backdrop of a elite warrior society obsessed with classical Greece and Rome.

I probably would have skipped it based on how the first book was marketed, but it ended up being one of my favorite series.

You get genetically enhanced super soldier heros clashing, against the backdrop of a pretty grim multi faction battle of attrition that spans the solar system. Most of all, it's propulsive and keeps you guessing in a way many sci-fi books don't.

Like, I loved Hyperion, but the follow up series and Ilium floundered and didn't go anywhere for long stretches. I really like Alistair Reynolds's stand alone Revelation Space books, but the trilogy started to get hackneyed and predictable (same problem with The Black Company). Red Rising keeps you guessing and doesn't get bogged down in boring plot lines in a way that makes 800 pages fly by, which I can say is often not the case, even for books that are better written and more serious.

>look for recommendations outside of /sffg/
>always these genres
Why do I even bother. Do you guys know any good summoner based fantasy novels? I read the aptly named Summoner Trilogy already, and Bartimaeus Sequence. Love me some monster binding. But no dragons, too many dragons.

whatever happened to birdboi

Read The Wandering Inn, Read Mother of Learning, Read I Shall Seal the Heavens.

Also read The Prince of Nothing, Neuromancer, Cradle, A Song of Ice and Fire, Hyperion, Between Two Fires, The Poppy War.

>>21370796

Jonathan Strange & Nr Norrell was really good, although could've used a tighter edit. Looking forward to Clarke's newer novel, and the collection of short stories she wrote. Is there a better female fantasy author writing right now?

>>21370796

>>21370739
Good Recs I recall from /sffg/
Alistair Reynolds (Chasm City), The Darkness That Comes Before, Red Rising, The Black Company, the Red Knight, Vurt

Meh ones:
Prince of Thorns
Shadow of the Torturer (better than some of the aforementioned, but it was built up as obviously a class above Hyperion, Dune, or Second Apocalypse and I thought it was just good, with Vurt being a better example of very literary genre fiction)
Probably others I just don't recall because I dropped them.

Bad recs:
People said the Three Body Problem was trash, it was good after I read it based on other recommendations.

I don't think I have Malazan a fair chance because I tried to work it in between a lot of fiction reading, but I couldn't get into it.

>>21370796
He finally succumbed to his autism.

>>21369965
That "flaw" sounds really easy to circumvent assuming you have a greater than room temperature IQ.
Is he compelled to answer any question anyone asks with no option to simply remain silent or refuse?
Because if not it's as simple as making up a different name, since there's no reason you can't have more than one. Or even simpler, if more dangerous, just omit part of your actual name. And even without that there's nicknames, code names, etc...
Unless you're at the DMV or something you never need your full birth name. And if your name is on record then it's ALREADY OUT and there's nothing to lose since the government is already your master and anyone you meet can just look you up.

I think the only interesting usage of that restriction would be if several people already knew it, but the goal was to, while being bound to follow every command they give to the letter, not letting them realize that they have power over you or tell other people your name, eventually culminating in eliminating them.

>>21370910
>the Red Knight
whats this one about? I just finished the first arc of the black company so I wanted to take a break but still in the mercenary mood.

>>21370928
>Is he compelled to answer any question anyone asks with no option to simply remain silent or refuse?
He is, but he quickly learns tricks for answering problematic questions, as "half a truth is also a lie". He also suffers headaches when he's vague in his answers.

>>21369910
>bakker is shit
Yes
>tolkien is shit
>wolfe is shit
No

>>21369970
Howabaut

>>21370980
>bakker is shit
No
>tolkien is shit
>wolfe is shit
Yes

>>21370987
Is it opposite day already?

>>21370933
Leader of mercenary company is hired to protect an abbey from encroaching monsters in what feels like medieval England. Monsters tend to not fuck around with too much but have as of late been more aggressive.

Also some real shit heels from France come over. Battles and magic ensue.

Can /sffg/ name the best sci fi book to come out in recent years?

>>21369903
Are the xanth books any good?
Also does anyone remember any scifi books about cat people? I remember reading a book when I was younger that had cat people on it but I can't remember the name. I'm pretty sure it was a scifi book though.

>>21371003
Duchy of Terra.

>>21370978
Still easy for the most part. Just introduce yourself with a nickname before anyone asks who you are. Or lel wear earplugs.

>>21370995
sounds good, love me some monster slaying hate me some french

>>21371021
That's a book series

Also
>woman captain

>>21371036
shes a captain of a spaceship

>>21371003
Why are you asking this question here when you can just google the answer?

>>21371016
>xanth
Only the first few books

>cat people
Pretty sure you are talking about the chanur novels
>>21371021
Duchy of Terra.

This series starts off interesting but it's actually a HFY book in disguise. Very Reddit. Very Shit.

>>21370739
I still haven't found any books that scratch my Red Rising itch. Some Warhammer 40k books come close, but PB's writing style and the intensity of Red Rising's combat (especially in Dark Age) blow them out of the water.

>>21371070
Huh, I always thought I read some star trek novel but that's the one.

>>21371031
>Just introduce yourself with a nickname before anyone asks who you are
I'm pretty sure this wouldn't work as it's a way to tell a lie
>Or lel wear earplugs.
There's a character like this, but it's not him, kek. He pretty much avoids people for a month in the beginning, but it's impossible to survive alone in the nightmares

>>21371070
>HFY book in disguise. Very Reddit

There is literally nothing wrong with this. Humans overcoming aliens is a sci-fi staple.

Gene Wolfe is a dumb reader's idea of a complex author.

>>21371112
based

>>21371112
I have no idea why people reccomend Black company. The narrator never describes things well besides the magic pranks and you never get a real sense of where the fuck they are at the moment. Seriously ,why wasn't there a fantasy map like other books?

>>21371112
posting this again?

>>21371129
>>21371112
These are bots.

That's not even the right author/book pairing.

>>21371143
Problem, faggot?

>>21371104
How is it a lie to use your own name?
Say my forum handle is XxXSephiroth69, it's entirely truthful to call myself that. And likewise if my name is Joseph but I and all my friends call me Joey it's not a lie to introduce myself as Joey or say my name is Joey if someone asks my name. Only them asking "what's your real name?" or something similar that you run into trouble.
Or are you saying that he's compelled not by his own actions, but by other people simply BELIEVING things about him that are incorrect? Like someone assumes he's 20 and he has to walk up and tell them his name, age, birthdate, and home address or he has an aneurysm?
Because unless it functions like that there's absolutely no lie in saying something like "Call me Steve"

What does /sffg/ think the endgame of the Cosmere’s gonna look like?

>>21371163
Disappointing.

>>21371155
Why are you asking this question here when you can just google the answer?

Is there any fantasy series that is good all the way through? Even with trilogies readers are always "The third is kind of bad." Hard mode: No tolkienshit.

>>21371169
What question, pillowbiter? I don't need to google shit.

>>21371173
Dresden files.

>>21371173
Monster hunter international

>>21371173
Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobbs

>>21371173
Renegade immortal, I shall seal the heavens and a Will Eternal are pretty good xianxia stories by the same author.

Is there a poll for the books read and discussed in 2022 in /sffg/? Like, I think we should have one.

>>21371173
Lotm

>>21371218
We should have a monthly poll that votes for a book of the month. We then read that book and discuss it at the end of the month while voting for the next book of the month.

>>21371228
You mean a book club?

Just go join one in real life. It's actually a great way to meet milfs.

>>21371160
Sorry. I didn't specify.
The ( name) I mentioned is a ' real name '. Given to very few people by the spell. That's why he is safe for the most part because people will not expect him to have a real name.
But if someone find out and ask him . He is compelled to say it .
What I find interesting is that his power. Given by the spell . Basically force him to subordinate himself to someone Even if he's the ' main character' . But to him who survived as an orphan by distrusting others . The act of giving someone complete agency over himself is simply out of the question.

>>21371228
It's been tried many times over several years and never once has worked it out well in the thread, and not much better elsewhere.There simply aren't enough anons who follow through. Those that do usually have a single short post. That isn't discussion. You wouldn't even participate yourself most likely.

>>21371228
I'm still not convinced you guys read things

>>21371218
You can do it. I won't. Polls are flawed data at best for this and it never goes well. There are better ways.

>>21371357
It seems unlikely that you ever could be.

>>21371357
So of us read, just the chat doesn't want to accept what we read.

>>21371379
>Disclaimer: contains detailed adult activities and sexy monster girls.

>>21371379
>may have varying forms of quality
>most are shit

Is this the new YA trend?

>>21371418
You dig through the dregs of publishing post 2010 and show me good books to read, anon.

>>21371443
You've already prejudged them as bad. It would be futile.

How long does it take you guys to read a wheel of time book?

>>21369965
How new are you to everything?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_name

>>21371606
I wouldn't.

>>21371606
Just don't

>>21371328
I mean, monthly readings wouldn't work, most likely, shitters in this thread are going apeshit whenever someone reads, but a poll or something every time a year ends? That's actually doable.

>>21371831
Have you been in the annual /lit/ version? They're utter disasters and have similar results each time. If you mean a top all-time list, then yes, that's also been done before for /sffg/ years ago. There's also a spreadsheet of what's been most liked. If the poll is for anything other than fun and memes, then it's not going to go well. There's always a few who want to rig, ruin, and manipulate. If you meant published in 2022, that probably won't work either due to lack of 2022 books read.

Regardless, if that's something you want to do, you should do so. Why just talk about it and hope someone else does it when you can do it. It has to start with someone. That someone should be you.

>>21371036
Military Women are hot

Judging Eye status: Read.
White-Luck Warrior status: Ordered.
Bakker status: KING

>>21372122
That looks like warhammer so I'll just do a little shilling.

Warhammer Crime: Bloodlines by Chris Wraight is a fantastic book. I reccomend this book for both new and old fans of the WH40k universe.

>>21372141
>detective story set in a hive city

Okay, this book sounds fun.

Bros I cant stop binge reading books

>>21372161
Last 10?

>>21372161
just find a job bro

>>21372161
I reached 200 books read for the year last week.
When I finished one, I immediately get something else. If I don't read a book, I literally start to get sick.

>>21372175
>If I don't read a book, I literally start to get sick.
how

>>21372138
I just got to the part where the old hag fucks the kid in the Yatwerian catacombs. Am I reading it right, that she absorbed his youth?

>>21372173
6 hours heresy novels in publication order ,the black company trilogy, and now the way of kings

>>21372141
Likewise, gonna shill Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor's Legion, also by Wraight. Might be a bit hard to get into if you nothing of 40k but it's the best depiction of Terra and the High Lords imo.

>>21372178
...

>>21372180
Wow, straight up garbage

>>21370416
Most of those people don't even read The Canon (tm), but just pretend to in order to engage in one-upsmanship.

Hate myself and want to die lads.

>>21372141
>>21372181
these look like good recs for an intro to the setting. One is about a regular guy working as a detective and the others about bodyguards for the highest human authority in the setting.

The shilling worked on me. I'm actually gonna buy these

>>21372204
Since at least 2018 in /sffg/.
>>/lit/thread/S12042507#p12043980

>>21372199
Come on man at least three of those books were good

>>21372216
real veteran

I'm sick of sci-fi with humans.
When I search the archive 'alien protagonist' 'alien is the protagonist' 'alien mc' 'alien is the main'
it brings up nothing

What's the name of the book that's set in the future about an AI who hates humans for creating it and has a group captured who get tortured by the AI, but they all die except 1 who is turned into a blob of flesh without a way to vent his pain?

>>21372216
based suicidal oldfag

>>21372443
No Mouth

>>21372464
>2018

>>21372433
https://www.tor.com/2021/03/10/five-classic-sf-novels-written-from-an-alien-perspective/

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/14968.Alien_protagonists

https://www.reddit.com/r/booksuggestions/comments/srhde4/scifi_books_with_nonhumanoid_alien_main_characters/

>>21370995
Isn't that just Hellsing without vampires?

>>21371016
No. Cthon and Incarnations of Immortality by the same author are though.
>cat people
DARKWAR

>>21372494
No I figured it out. It's called Shin Sekai Yori.

>>21372443
I have no mouth and i must meme by Manlet Ellison
>>21372513
Yes, but Red Knight has loads and loads off mommy issues so it's a bit different

>>21372612
>loads and loads of mommy issues
uhuh

>>21372601
That has nothing at all to do with From The New World. I don't know why you'd post that.

>>21370670
Any other books where that happens that you can think of? I also loved the Books of the North, and, after a while, the Books of the South as well (if you stick with it, I promise the rest of the series is great.)

>>21372701
>Any other books where that happens that you can think of?
NTA but Sword of Rhiannon has that.

might end it all lads

>>21368740
>Your review lacks substance. You don't provide any compelling reason for how the book fails to integrate scientific concepts into the plot.
I didn't bother giving any examples, because the entire book is full of it. You can't go more than two pages without this cringe nerd-forcing-a-reference-to-show-what-a-smart-boy-he-is shit. But pic related if you really need an example. This writing is Big Bang Theory tier.

>You expect the crew of the Theseus to be unemotional, ignoring the fact that they are total strangers in an extremely high stakes situation they are as good as completely unprepared for. Because they are smart.
They aren't total strangers. The book mentions their training repeatedly. And smart people don't behave this way; autistic nerds behave (and write) this way because they're poorly trying to recreate scenes they saw on tv.

>Whether or not you find the concept of intelligence without sentience credible, it is a unique premise that isn't totally without foundation. Suggesting that it is irrelevant because they (apparently) manage to defeat the ayys is like saying that the concept of artificial consciousness is irrelevant because HAL is reduced to his autonomous functions in 2001. The purpose of these books is to explore how these "total nonsense" concepts could play out.
The premise is that these aliens are way smarter than humans because they have no sentience to weigh them down. Their technology far surpasses ours. But somehow they couldn't see a suicide attack coming or deal with it on the fly. Such a species should be *more* ready to handle such attacks since that form of warfare is more natural to a race that doesn't have emotional attachment to it's soldiers.

Like how nerds poorly imitate fictional social interactions, Watts poorly imitated what a scifi book looks like. He perfunctorily put in all the elements you might find in a good scifi story, but since he doesn't understand their purpose they don't work together to make a good product. It's cargo cult writing and you can easily imagine his outline for the book was a checklist. It only impressed nerds because it makes pointless references to SCIENCE! topics they had heard of before, giving the nerds an opportunity to stroke their egos about what smart boys they are. I review your review of my review as being the whines of an asshurt nerd upset that one of his ego stroking devices is being attacked.

read them

>>21372917
Stop shilling this it's garbage.

>>21372963
Chud

>>21373000
>Chud
Bottom of the barrel of /lit/. Look at this duuuudddeeee.

>>21372917
What's with all the chink fantasy from the past years? did publishers get tired of the lgbtq money and now they are aiming at chinks?

>>21373005
I'd rather read east Asian fantasy than mental illness crap

>>21373003
Chud

>>21371236
>It's actually a great way to meet milfs.
Based milfposter

>>21373082
Stale ass white boy.

>>21373126
>outing yourself as a nigger

>>21373153
>Being a garbage writer and trying to sound like you fit in on 4chan

>mfw I gaze into the Inverse Fire

>>21373167
Chud

>>21373175
You actually think that shit sounds cool. Look at this man.

>>21373153
>>21373167
>>21373175
>>21373193
we're all posting on a weeb's anime imageboard on a sunday night. none of us are cool.

>>21373216
Dude sounds like a geek mass shooter incarnate.

>>21373193
Chud

>/sffg/ is so retarded you can derail the thread just by replying with a single word over and over again

>>21369903
Any Christmas base fantasy?

>>21372512
I appreciate the links, and yet even in the lists whether it's Vinge, Le Guin, Cherryh they can't help but make humaniggers important to the plot.
I'll search each and try to find one like Egan's Dichronauts with characters like minecraft creepers with symbiotic slug hats, who stretch into molecular spaghetti and die if they get turned north or south.

>>21371315
Sounds boring then, just plot fuel/deux ex machina.
A better one would be for his ability to REQUIRE the orders of another person to function correctly, but in exchange loosen the restriction a bit and allow limited exchanges sorta like a contract. Then he works kinda like a demon, he requires a master to use his powers, but is set up to try to create loopholes and restrictions himself so he can escape the contract afterwards. And everyone will eventually figure this out and either refuse to command him without extremely lopsided terms or try to outplay him and trick him into something.
Instead of deux ex machina, all the agency is, ironically, with the main character. Plus all the side characters now have much more to do instead of being naive bystanders.

Does anyone here read any PulpRev type stuff?

>>21371163
unfinished

>>21369903
Reading Marc Laidlaw
128 MB is so le much

Where can I find Ruocchio's Ashes of man and Durfee's Lonesome Crown ebooks?

>>21373435
Gene Wolfe, The War Beneath the Tree

Reading fantasy is peak comfy.
I think I’m grown up enough now (24 year old who has moved out with a job), that I can finally read Bakker. I tried to force myself to get into it ages ago but I was really too dumb and inexperienced.

https://youtu.be/PKKb--FiNkg?t=326

>This kills the /sffg/ tranny

>>21369903
Sci-Fi author's will have to change the way they portray AI from now on: https://youtu.be/zx3ROK9nOYE

>>21373647
what the fuck is that creature speaking? some kind of modern day goblin?

>>21373647
My mental healtherino!!!!
I know plenty of artists who just do graphic design and logos to make ends meet. The only people I know who use AI art are talentless pajeets who used to pay artists rupees to do concept art for their “movies”.

>>21369903
>Hand over zee Tolkien and zee Bakkah. You vill read zee vebnovels and you vill enjoy it!

>>21373633
I'm not telling you

>>21373647
Artists just need to flood the web with fucked up hand versions of their art so the computers never learn to make a good looking hand.

>>21373633
Both of these series are shit btw
https://files.catbox.moe/27gygs.zip

I know I'm pretty much a secondary for wh40k books but it's getting annoying using a wiki to find out what typea of things they're talking about.

>>21373751
Just spend 100+ hours learning the lore and watching Youtube videos bro

>>21371003
Gideon the Ninth

>>21371016
I'm guessing he wants personalized answers to his question.

>>21372512
>>21373442
There is a couple of weird scifi books I have tried reading that is from the point of view of an alien. They are all kinda eh cause they just read really really weird. The halo Forunner trilogy are all set from the perspective of an ancient alien species, there was another one I read but I forget the name. I think it was on the good reads best scifi list in like 2017.

My friend bought me a collection of Capek’s stories. I want to read his novels now.

>>21373952
Cool. You have my permission.

>can't bump spacebattles thread after 3 weeks of no replies because necroposting rules
goddamn why is every single place on the fucking internet GODAWFUL for discussing books? It's either you go to a shithole like reddit where you have to conform and follow the groupthink belief, or you go visit dead forums with no replies.

>>21374158
It’s not hard to lease a domain and set up your own server. If you make a better product, people will come.

why do people lose their shit over his work so much? Yeah sure writing outrageous shit for shock value is cheap but he doesn't come across like that. He writes about really ugly and absurdist topics and situations which I think reflects life pretty well. Life is extremely ugly to look at. Fantasy isn't supposed to be about pristine fairy lands all the time just because it's "fantasy". This is the wrong thing to get hung up upon when it comes to his ASoIaF books imo

>>21374252
It just became vogue to complain about the soft core “porn” in the show. I don’t even remember the books being overly ribald or obscene, and I read it as a kid. Tyrion is about the only real sleaze I can remember but he’s charming and obviously has a capacity for love despite the cards dealt to him. The world building is quite great and I was always inspired by the fact there’s dynastic histories for the Starla, Lannisters, and Targaryens, but also the more overlooked houses. Can’t remember really liking the female characters besides maybe Arya or the priestess… kinda fucking hated Kat.
Iron Isles were also cool but maybe the characters were painted too grimly. Oddly, I liked the Red Wedding and how it unfolded, even if people were shocked by it. There’s a lot of life and love of the moment despite the moaning about the gritty realism.

>>21374269
Starks *

>>21374252
>He writes about really ugly and absurdist topics and situations which I think reflects life pretty well
No, it doesn't. His idea of gritty realism is frankly ridiculous, it's hollywood tier brainletism.
Take pretty much any representation of bandits in his books. He will portray them as irredeemable rapist monsters who get away with anything because the petty peasants couldn't POSSIBLY do anything to them. Anyone who has any knowledge of history, particularly the history he cribs from, knows that bandits like that were almost always quickly ambushed by several dozen men who had spent the vast majority of their life training with 160lb war bows and more often than not had seen actual warfare.
More commonly, those peasantry would actually BE the bandits, and they'd be paying tax on their robbery to their baron. Also, acting like a monstrous rapist wasn't ever really on the cards because bandits typically didn't roam. They haunted their own woodlands because they knew the terrain and could evade anyone trying to track them there. They had to be somewhat civilized simply because you don't shit where you eat.

Gurm presents a modernist, Hollywood idea of a Medieval society. One which assumes everything must have been shit because all progress is forwards.

Here's a cover of Pumped Up Kicks tangentially related to what I'm talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRIfsFefatg

Gf wants to get into good shit fantasy Le Guin type, adventure stuff as well, what's a good option nowadays? No Brandon Cuckerson and all that, thanks anons.

>>21374288
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Wolfe fucking sucks and I'm tired of pretending otherwise. I got baited into reading Book of the New Reddit and it was horrendous. I gave Wizard Knight a shot and it was even worse

>>21374289
>The Curse of Chalion
Nice thanks. Anything with a female lead or something or a fem author?

>>21374309
The second book of Chalion has a female lead, an older woman in her 40's even. Also, the Spirit Ring by the same author is a fantasy story set in an alternate history renaissance Italy with a female protagonist.
I don't read a lot of female authors other than Bujold though. There's Robin Hobb but most of her books are awful and the good ones can make people bounce off them unless they're a pretty avid reader.

>>21374289
>Bujold
What’s with her creepy self insert of being an old woman/succubus’ demonic soul inside a fertile young man’s body?

>>21374309
Best female author in fantasy is probably Tanith Lee. She’s actually a very gifted stylist.

>>21374327
Bujold is a horny old granny and she doesn't care who knows it. I love the fact that she slips at least one penis joke into every single book she writes.

>>21374308
Try again when you finish school and develop your taste.

Why do we even have threads when you could just google previous discussions on every book you want to talk about?

>>21374500
Why even read anything when it’s literally just combinations of the same 26 letters?

>>21374500
Part of me wishes I had shit taste in books so I could actually discuss what I read.

Unsurpassed levels of kino

>>21371003
Interlibrary Loan.

>>21369910
I like Bakker's prose I just hate his content.

>>21374252
Loser internet virgins love to cry about “shock value” in fiction lol

>try to get into Ancillary Justice
>drop it immediately when the author has to explain the genderless language gimmick at length right at the start
Did the editor really think the reader wouldn't get it?

>>21372189
Like the object of that passage seems to flip in the middle. I don't know, it's the first time I've been confused in this series.

Autistic people should be executed

>>21375149
>The Radchaai do not distinguish people by gender, which Leckie conveys by using "she" pronouns for everybody, and by having the Radchaai main character guess, frequently incorrectly, when she has to use languages with gender-specific pronouns.
I hate how this is supposed to be seen as some creative gimmick when genderless languages already exist with the same issues

This man writes kino in book and twitter form.

>>21375265
I'm fine with the gimmick itself, since I'm a filthy EFL who speaks a genderless language natively. I just didn't like how clumsily it was handled in the prose. The MC says something like "from the bartender's outfit she guessed that she was male". That should have been enough to hint that something was up. Instead the author has to explain the concept of genderless language, which spoils the gimmick

>>21375343
The gimmick was annoying as fuck. How can you visualise the characters if you don't know who/what/how they are.

Reminder that your obese writers will never deliver. ASOIAF and Kingkiller are over. They're bathing in their money and they're not bathing in water ever. They don't shower, they just buy funko pops with your money. These stories will never have an outcome.

>>21375369
Doesn't bother me, I end up making my own headcanon about characters' looks anyway.

Nobody who has a beyond surface level experience with books cares for ASOIAF and Kingkiller.

>>21375433
he's a protovirgin dork (I know he has kids but his wife is probably the only hog who let him smash) and the cringiest moments in the books are the seks and gril moments
otherwise it's not that bad, cherrypicking those is dishonest

I agree tho both are shit entry level fantasy but so are most recs in these threads (MUH BLACK COMPANY MUH MALAZAN)

>>21375407
Obese people will never do anything of value

>>21375433
don't read books written by bullied nerds, their brains developed cuckold fetish as a cope to being undesirable to the female sex.

>>21373751
Read Eisenhorn, Space Wolf or Grey Knights, the books spoonfed you everything.
Or play Dawn of War.

>>21369965
It was fun but now im caught up and have to wait for the chapters to pile up only to never revisit it again like with dozens of other webnovels.

>>21375788
name ONE novel like this

>GRRM constantly uses Weirwood trees in ASOIAF
>Read Hyperion and it mentions Weirwood is what the ship is constructed from

So where did Weirwood originally come from in /sffg/?

>>21375840
There is a place in Sussex, England called Weir Wood which has a local nature reserve. And the word weirwood brings together two separate words "weir" (meaning barrier which obstructs or channels the flow of a river) and "wood". Although "weir" is phonetically similar to "were" as in "werewolf" ("were" means man) and that might also have been an inspiration.

copypasted

>>21369903
>>21375610
Vote for sff books in the lit top 100.

Lord of Mysteries Side Story: In That Corner (1) and (2).
https://gofile.io/d/bIdEsn

>>21375272
is between two fires any good?

>>21375805

>>21374977
Thats the opposite of what your opinion should be, jesus

>>21375343
Sounds like progressive sjw garbage.

>>21371522
Not exactly, sometimes I watched films with unfathomably low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised, at least in a "this ain't so bad" sense.

Say something nice about the queen of /sffg/

>>21376458

Which Fantasy novels are you CONSOOMING for Christmas, my good fellows?

>>21375272
the fuck does that even mean

>>21376458
She deserves so much better than her Goober Husband.

We would have been great together but she's ruined that now by having kids with that hick.

Hope she doesn't adopt an ethnic kid.

>>21376458
wrong

>>21376507
im thinking about buying robin hodd farseer trilogy, mistborn the wax and wayne series/lost metal, maybe hyperion books and thats it

>>21372433
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/love-is-the-plan-the-plan-is-death/

>>21376217
Unironically pretty good sci fi books for your kids

>>21376545
I found her Everworld series to be kinda fucked up when I read it (in elementary or middle school I can't remember)

Is His Dark Materials worth reading?
Heard only the first books was goood.

>>21376458
That's not MY Queen.
This is my Queen. And Robin Hobb, Le Guin, Kate elliot, Fiona McIntosh is pretty cute too, Actually there are a lot of pretty female authors

>>21376552
I enjoyed the first two books, but the third book felt like it went in a weird direction and the ending overall made the entire series feel a bit... Pointless. Also there's a romance that just kind of happens between the two main protagonists and maybe I just suck at finding the lines for these sorts of things but it felt like it came out of nowhere in the third book.

>>21376552
More like They/Them Dark Materials

READ "A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS" AND ENRICH YOUR IMAGINATION

>>21376507
Probably either the Darksword trilogy (1988) or the first three Dragon Prince books (1988-1990). There's a bookstore near me that has a lot of second-hand old fantasy novels so i'll probably consoom more.
>>21376527
Hate her books but she's wife material.

>>21376210
I liked his other book, Blacktongue Thief

What an awful thread.

>>21376663
I thought it was neat and the horror elements were the best part, and i've heard BTF is all horror so was wondering if it was any good

>>21376745
>pic rel

>>21375407
Post skinny kino

>>21376552
>>21376552
Yes.

I reread it for the first time 2 years ago since the early 2000s. Some parts are obviously better as a kid but there were some VERY adult parts that went right over my head that elevated it to a classic for me.

Say something nice about Robert Jordan.

>>21376552
You could do worse, but the are written for kids first

>>21376558
>and maybe I just suck at finding the lines for these sorts of things but it felt like it came out of nowhere in the third book.
I think this is a common sentiment. I've read some defences of it but they basically come down to 'its shit on purpose'

>>21376985
He's dead

>>21376985
I thought that some of it was quite good and that a lot of it was quite bad. Not watching the pozzed amazon series.

https://youtu.be/exDVJXYEFSM

Hairless chimps are just orcs

>>21376217
>be female
>get superpower
>to morph into less impressive predatory parasite
It's like that episode of Beavis & Butthead where Beavis can't get laid in a dream.

shilling this until you read it

>>21377120
>Critics Brian W. Aldiss and David Wingrove praised The Deep as "a remarkable first novel, well written and darkly true to human nature.
I'm conflicted, i love aldiss but i think Wingrove is a hack.
>Whilst a war of succession plays out, the visitor becomes secretary, then recorder; and travels to the edge of the world to meet Leviathan, an immemorial creature who built the world to shelter his sleep from the heaven stones.
Potential of being kino.

I'm reading the Nausicaa manga for the first time
Is there anything like this in sci-fi?

>>21377181
Be more precise

>>21377181
Based Nausicaä reader

>>21376745
Same are the usual then.

>>21377216
Well if you haven't read it idk what to say
Maybe it's like Dune but with a far more explicit environmental message also less cynical and not spacefaring although they used to be able to fly in space
The planet is mostly a waste
Also people have guns and fight with swords
Some of the people spend their time salvaging old materials or digging them up from the ground
They dug up machines like pic related
The main character is a girl who is the princess of a kingdom that maintains it's autonomy because they own a functional gunship which is very powerful and they provide military service to the neighbouring superpower
Kingdoms fight each other

>>21377181
for me the closest thing to the tone and mood of nausicaa is earthsea, the first three books

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twcvkzzpTWs

>>21377280
Well if you want sci-fi which focuses on settings/societies that are in many ways quite primitive, but also have access to some advanced technologies you should check out Wolfe and Vance, as well as Lord of Light by Zelazny and possibly The Inverted World and Ringworld. Moebius/Jean Giraud would also be a good bet

Earthsea as >>21377307 says is quite similar in tone, but it's much more oriented towards children

>*farts*
Sorry to stink up the thread, haha.

Sadly no book I have read so far (pretty much all more famous "fantasy" books) was really fantasy.

Literally every "fantasy" book is just some Tolkien tier "magical fiction in a medieval setting" genre, but no fantasy.
With FANTASY I expect something like World of Warcraft (just to give you an idea), but every book is just like Witcher 3. Sometimes it even feels like the whole "fantasy" aspect is just magic for fighting and creating animals and "humans" without trying to research the real version.

It's sad that such a great genre as fantasy has developed in the main stream as just a cheap way for authors to ignore research and make up their own bullshit, without really creating fantasy.

>>21377430
then why don't you just read something pre-tolkien, dumbass

>>21377430
Maybe fantasy isn't you for. Read the Broken Sword, and or The Mask of the Sorcerer. If you don't like those I think you need to move on.

>>21377430
>fictional analogues are lazy because... they just are!
>all fantasy is tolkien
>it's not real fantasy anyway
You are stupid. My advice: stop reading crap

What are some fantasy books with a focus on size difference of characters or creatures? I love stories where people see the world like grass, trees or houses and furniture from the perspective of being tiny. As well as the scariness (but not necessarily evilness) of very big characters

>>21376970
Between Two Fires is a lot more focused on horror than The Blacktongue Thief, but it's not a pure horror novel. I still think it's his best.

>>21373633
Ashes of Man is out on Mobilism and nowhere else from what I've checked

>>21375433
This page alone disuades me from reading anything by rothfuss. Cuckoldry aside, the protagonist sounds like an unironic "nothin' personnel, kid" type

>>21377430
so basically you want pauldronecore capeshit trash
FUCK OFF

>>21377617
The author himself is one of the largest pieces of shit of all time too. Currently refusing to fulfill a charity obligation because 'my fans are mean to me'. Another author failing upward.

>>21377618
bottom looks more interesting

The top is literally just stereotypical generic fantasy

>>21377669
retard

>>21376571
Absolutely based. Voyage of Arcturus is proto-kino. Just finished it last week and feel like I need to reread it again.

>>21377430
>With FANTASY I expect something like World of Warcraft
>Sometimes it even feels like the whole "fantasy" aspect is just magic for fighting and creating animals and "humans" without trying to research the real version.

Are the Darkover books any good? The setting seems interesting but I'm wary of female authors.

>>21377430
good bait

>>21377679
>barbarian knees not flat
what a downgrade

For some reason I have a hankering for a story set in the ruins of gods, sort of. Not necessarily as dark and depressing as the Darksouls world but about a time AFTER a time of legends, of rebuilding and holding on. Maybe it's because I recently saw some post about people in mediaeval times living in the ruins of ancient rome.
Any recommendations?

>>21377833
Lord of the Mysteries

>>21377833
Warhammer 40k
Pale Lights

>>21377430
Unironically read Reverend Insanity. Xiaxias are set in a REAL fantasy where EVERYTHING is magic, and the ultimate goal of all wizards is uncovering the fundamental nature and mechanism of that magic in order to gain power over it.
In RI EVERYTHING IS A GU, all the things you think aren't are just due to ignorance and are later revealed to be so.

There's no low fantasy medieval bullshit here, even a random peasant fishing village makes it's living by diving for mermaids trapped in magical tar vents off the coast to sell their bones which can be used to manufacture cosmetic potions. The closest thing to a conventional traveling merchant caravan rides inside weightless pagodas carried by giant toads. The Alpha of a wolf pack is determined by which animal is best at using magical powers and can often be found able to fly, regenerate, breathe fire, etc...

>>21377873
this guy gets it, xianxia is a schizo tippyverse

>>21371379
>isekai rec chart
>no light novels

Really?

>>21369965
based esl paid shill

>>21377913
12 Kingdoms is Japan's only worthwhile contribution to isekai fiction

>>21377873
That's literally the same shit just with oriental stuff swapped for european stuff.
Still sword&sorcery all over the place, but different swords and different sorcery

>ask for some literature recommendations
>get recommend rubberstamp clonetool webnovel trash
Has this place always been this trash?
Who here has even heard of zines?

>>21372178
yes and vice versa

>>21377280
The setting of The Pastel City has almost all of those things.

How do I stop reading fanfiction, especially Harry Potter? Not like it's bad, I just finished almost everything that was good and left with mediocre books, which I often don't even finish.
How can I switch back to normal books? Where to find recommendations and suggestions? How to avoid being intimidated by synopsis, or turned down by reviews?

>>21378133
turned to shit around the same time that incel loser started spamming about bakker

>>21371606
Use that time to do something more useful

>>21378173
Download the whole thing as a single epub and just read until it's done.

>>21378133
Hating on webnovels is cringe

chatgpt could probably pump out webtrash derivatives that can be mistaken for the real thing

>>21378274
Cool so try it and compare it to LOTM

how do the Foundation books hold up? I'd just be wanting to read the main ones - I think the first three?

>>21378298
They are ok.

I'm looking for dreamlike narratives - something like The King of Elfland's Daughter

>>21378128
In what way is it the same? Literally every single character in the story is a wizard, arranged in competing wizard clans for territorial rights to magical resource points. It shares literally zero overlap with sword and sorcery.

>>21378173
The only routes open to you are fanfics from other fandoms, chinkshit, WNs, LNs, or becoming an author yourself, probably of one of the above formats. I'm sorry but that's the facts, there's no escape.

>>21378173
>How can I switch back to normal books?
just pirate an epub and read it lmao

>>21378173
>>21378353
What the fuck is even wrong with you people? I'm not even surprised, as I personally know several people who stopped reading anything aside from fanfiction, but that they consume in tremendous quantities. It's a genuine trend.

I'm legitimately interested in what the fuck happened to make you this way so that I can avoid it.

>>21377120
I did read it bro, it was great.

>>21378005
I would also say kumodesu, Youjo Senki and Honzuki no Gekokujo.

>>21378367
There's no escape, it's genetic.
Basically at a certain point you become more interested in writing itself than the subject matter, and thus the only thing that matters is quantity of words and authors to gain the most information possible.
I actually enjoy reading amateur writing BECAUSE of the errors and poor writing, not just in spite of it! It shows me the shape of how writing works and lets me analyze what causes them to err and think about how I might fix it or write it differently. And with fanfic I literally CAN rewrite it myself and publish it!
Also it provides the ability to discuss things with other people since it comes out chapter by chapter and it's always a mystery what will happen next. Speculation, discussion, and criticism is all but impossible for a finished monolithic book, and what little can be done is quickly exhausted by a large fanbase in only a few weeks.

There are two possible responses to reading Naruto/Harry Potter/etc...
>Wow, this sucks, I hate it.
>Wow, this sucks, I can fix it

>>21369928
no, he can't

>>21378342
There's a sword and a wizard on the fucking cover you dunce. Just because "everyone's a wizard" that doesnt change shit. Almost all the characters in Harry Potter are wizard's too.

>>21378262
Chinese novel looks a bit alarming, but I'll try.

>>21378353
Well, I read something decent from time to time, but it's hard for me find something than will take my attention.

>>21378361
Accessibility is not the problem, pirating is easer than buying in my country anyway.

>>21378367
Depression for me. Reading helps a lot with it, but at the same time reading requires some effort, which I cannot provide during depression. Fanfiction has zero entry level, it's like processed food, only left for you is to swallow. But everything comes with a price.
Basically fanfiction is too comfy. A lot have been already set up, and there is not need to reintroduce characters, names, places, worldbuilding, unless it differs from cannon.

>>21378406
So it can't be fantasy if it has wizards or magic in it?
Have you tried reading Starship Troopers? That's a pure fantasy novel according to your definition, no wizards or swords at all!

>>21378250
I dont even know what that is.

Gormenbros.. I just read Boy in Darkness. Should I just ignore Titus Alone and Titus Awakes? I've heard they aren't great because Peake's Alzheimer's Disease was getting bad.

>>21369903
Hey guys. I know this is usually not a trope in the fantasy genre but are there any fantasy series that the main character has depression and is dealing with mental agony? I don’t mean in the edgy anime way that it makes him look cool but actually turns them into a loser and depression is not glorified

>>21378406
'Sword and Sorcery' is a subgenre of Fantasy, not a synonym for it.

>>21378367
You can read it on your phone. You can read it in small bites. You can read it as chapters come out. You can read and write in the comments section. You can more easily interact with the author. You can choose whether or not to pay, and doing so will give money directly to the creator, not to their blood-drinking corporate overlords.

>>21369903
Any Star Wars old EU readers? I'm reading them following publication order, about to begin Hand of Thrawn Duology

is there anything else like The House of Shattered Wings? I really dig the vibes the setting gives off

>>21378441
Wrong genre, no one wants to read about that. Fantasy is about escapism

Another thing I thought about during my slow reread of The Lost Metal: Did Wax use that grapple-ball thing upgrade from Ranette, to help him maneuver/Push around more often, beyond Shadows of Self or maybe a tiny bit of Bands of Mourning? The TLM upgrade from Ranette was phoned in. Wow, 'the Big Gun'!

How did you fags feel about the Bands of Mourning being the spearhead outside on the statue?

Coomlit is insanely arousing what the fuck bros, now I know why the coomlit guy here binge read these trashy things

>>21378511
>You can read it on your phone. You can read it in small bites. You can read it as chapters come out. You can read and write in the comments section. You can more easily interact with the author.
Looking at it from a different angle it seems the work becomes a portal into a social and parasocial experience

>>21369903
Give me THE BEST book you can think of that reflects the mood or aesthetic of the OP image.

>>21378653

>>21377833
I really liked Aching God for this but cant recommend the sequels, its a great first novel though. The setting is set in a medievalish period and focuses around a giant guild that investigates and plunders an ancient civilizations ruins and srhines for their gods on a barren wasteland far from civilization.

The plot is a retired soldier with ptsd needs to go back into the ruins to save his daughter's life after a relic recovered from the ruins is killing everyone through a magical plague.

>>21378649
>Looking at it from a different angle it seems the work becomes a portal into a social and parasocial experience
Yeah, but people also post here about traditional books. People like to discuss things they like.

>>21378822
This, I couldn't finish the second book

So we hate Martin we hate Jordan we hate Sanderson we hate rothfuss we hate abercrombie. I already read Bakker so what else am I allowed to read?

>>21377331
>Lord of Light by Zelazny
I just finished this yesterday. Fantastic read and I chuckled when Hindu pseudo-deities destroyed a city for the mortal sin of rediscovering the flush toilet.

>>21378531
Ye, i'm reading book 2 in the han solo trilogy, Chewbacca just cut a guy in half with his bowcaster, pretty fun

>>21378649
>Comment on a fanfic
>Author responds to me
>3 years ago
>Have it in my head we're friends

>>21378378
good man

>>21379260
I burst out into a sensible chuckle when I got to the end and the 'Necromancer' every god had been afraid of was actually the ship's original Chaplin and he had created an entire continent filled with death-cults all based off of his inane recollections of the bible. Lord of Light was so fucking kino.

>>21378531
I keep rereading Plagueis,Maul Lockdown and Shadowhunter. Still can't seem to get myself to read the final Bane book. Dunno why, maybe I'm not ready for it to be done.
>old EU
Ope, maybe I'm not. Oh well

>>21379260
>>21379557
My recollection is a little hazy but did it ever say why exactly they chose to imitate Hindu gods? I remember the ship was named Star of India, but like you said the chaplain was a Christian named Renfro and the captain was another Christian named Jan Olvagg. None of the other gods Sam calls by their original human names sounded very Indian either so it's a little weird they setup the caste system and all that. Maybe they just liked the aesthetic or realized they could more easily manipulate the common people via some warped version of Hinduism.

>>21379260
For me, it was how much of a big ham Lord Yama was

>>21379671
The passengers of the ship was largely Indian
but not the staff on the ship, the minority who seized power and choose something they figured was compatible with the population from all the passengers

New thread
>>21379691

>>21379684
To add onto this, the Hindu Deities are considered very ACTIVE and visible in the mythology, so it was a perfect cover for their technological supremacy over the colonists. Its why Sam intentionally chooses Buddhism to counter-act the ship's staff that behave as Gods, due to it originating as a very passive religion. Both Buddhism and Hinduism worked because yes, the colony ship I believed was called the 'Star of Delphi' or some sort, and was part of the Indian space program.