>>7882053
Recommendation Charts:
>Fantasy
Selected: http://i.imgur.com/3v2oXAY.jpg
General: http://i.imgur.com/igBYngL.jpg
Flowchart: http://i.imgur.com/uykqKJn.jpg
>Sci-Fi
Selected: http://i.imgur.com/A96mTQX.jpg
General: http://i.imgur.com/r55ODlL.jpg / http://i.imgur.com/gNTrDmc.jpg
>What are you reading right now?
>Your favourite ye old fantasy
Let me just take the opportunity to recommend the novel "Spin" by Robert Charles Wilson. The ideas are great, the prose is smooth, and the plotline is rip-roaring.
Bumping my request from last thread
Any fun military sci-fi with a waifu protagonist?
>>7899418
Ivory Javelin
Late 2014, someone on /lit/ linked "117 short stories" by Philip K Dick. 2,729 pages on default SumatraPDF and around 1,800 on my e-reader. I've read around 2 short stories a week in addition to my regular reading and finally finished it. It was one of my most pleasurable reading experiences and I'm eager to start on his novels now. Any recommendations? Don't have much sci-fi yet.
>>7899457
A Scanner Darkly, Valis 1,2 and 3, Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep, Man in the High Castle and Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich. Those are his best ones, outside of these you get a similar, but less interesting experience. He's a repetitive authors novel wise if you read a lot of him.
>>7899471
thanks, I'll get started!
I personally loved The Name of The Wind
>>7899457
>Philip K Dick
Could you link these short stories?
>>7899499
That's because you are either a pleb or just mentally challenged.
>>7899358
have u ever said "rip-roaring" in real life and if so what did ppl do
Does anyone have a PDF of Fledgling by Octavia E Butler?
I cant seem to find it.
>>7899358
I wouldn't call it rip-roaring, it was really a slog at times. Lots of neat ideas though, and the red heifer plotline was better than it looked.
Are the sequels good? I just couldn't get into them.
>>7900038
Perhaps you should read the sticky.
>>7899340
>What are you reading right now?
The Ghost King
>Your favourite ye old fantasy
don't exactly know what you mean, so I'll settle for Nibelungen Saga.
>>7899418
>>7900461
forgot pic
>>7899457
Mind hosting that short story collection somewhere? Would love to check it out
>>7899499
I did too. The second book was unreadable though, with the fairy sex scene. I put it down upon getting to that part.
Hello friends.
I've run into a problem reading the Silmarillion.
I can't get the special characters to render on my ebook reader. It's a Kindle Paperwhite.
It's filled to brimming with Ill?vantars and Manw?s.
I've tried to download several versions of the ebook, and run into the same problem with each.
Does someone have a copy with simple text, or know of some way to get my kindle to recognize these characters?
>>7900831
Get a kobo
I'm too indecisive for my own good, so I'll let you guys decide what I should read next of the books I own.
>House of Chains
>Guards Guards
>Goblin Emperor
>Jungle Book
>Consider Phlebas
>Count of Monte Cristo
>>7901399
Count.
Just finished VALIS, and it was a pretty rad dad.
Should I read the next one in the trilogy? Is it as good?
I love Brandon Sanderson books but the feminist garbage in it just makes me want to throw up
>>7901476
yea, cant really go wrong with that one
What does /lit/ think of Narnia? I read them in "chronological" order as a kid and gave up about half way through Horse and his Boy.
>>7901587
I read them in chronological order as a kid and thought Horse and His Boy was totally rockin'. Every now and then I go back and reread one, they're really short and their allegories are really clever except in The Last Battle. It was powerful then, even still.
My favorites are still Horse and His Boy and Magician's Nephew, though. Lewis manages to paint entire civilizations so deftly we forget he didn't say much, which is how you get people saying Calormenes are racist stereotypes and such.
>>7901499
Go for it, just keep in the mind the other two aren't directly connected to the first.
>>7901570
>complaining that books written by a conservative Mormon are too feminist
You are far gone, man.
>>7901627
He is trying to brainwash me, I can see it, all those subtle and very blatant things, different roles for men and females, and some character pointing it out, that's a blatant one, also about women being able to read and leaving notes that shouldn't be read to the men, that too, very blatant
Or saying how a portal to cities would make the world smaller and borders disappear being a good thing, it's so obvious he draw parallels to our world that we shouldn't have borders and that we should let everyone in and it would fix everything there's so much more but it's hard to filter out the brainwashing noise they all use when trying to brainwash me and make me receive commands via the brainwave radiowave transmission when reading the brainwash words
>>7901608
The Last Battle was probably the darkest out of the seven, which is one of the reasons why I like it.
>>7901637
I think you're reading into it to much
Sanderson novels are pretty shallow
>>7901637
Shouldn't you be reading Ride the Tiger?
I read Ilium in high school but never read the sequel. Is it good?
>>7901642
Did you like That Hideous Strength? It was even darker, much more blatant social commentary, and overall I think it was his worst work. His worst work but it has his best scenes.
How do i keep my magic system from feeling like something out of video game or shonen manga
Aka how do i avoid being like mistborn
>>7901775
I haven't checked out Lewis besides the narnia series as a kid. I've heard of that trilogy from a friend. I'll probably give it a go later on if it's an easy read.
>>7901785
>How do i keep my magic system from feeling like something out of video game or shonen manga
not happening
>>7901787
The first two are good but That Hideous Strength is basically a collection of polemic essays. Which isn't bad but it's not a coherent novel.
>>7901637
This would be subtler if not for the last part.
>>7901717
The ilium is the superior aspect of the pelvic bone.
>>7901791
Just "explain" them by implication, don't sit the reader down to explain it like some tutorial
>>7901785
Magic is all practice, no theory.
>>7900467
God dammit. That image/title. If they'd removed the "I rebel" part of her line and just had her say "This is a rebellion, isn't it?" it would have been... not great, but perfectly fine. But they didn't. They made the "joke" and then explained it.
God. Fucking. Dammit. I was hype for this movie because DONNIE YEN PLAYING A BLIND FORCE-SENSITIVE BADASS WITH A SPEAR? FUCK YES.
But now I'm worried.
I want a good fantasy book with a young protagonist that involves a lot of sailing/piracy/exploration.
Preferably a large book that I can sink a weekend to.
>>7901787
Out of the Silent Planet is actually a decent SF novel, even if you don't see the Christian allegory in it. Mostly a literate-traveler-meets-alien-world story.
Perelandra is good SF but shines as allegory, and is possibly his best fiction (I prefer Till We Have Faces by a hair). Blew me away, and I believe in a strong felix culpa.
That Hideous Strength - it's a mix of the two and neither? OotSP is Mars, where the Fall never happened because man never lived there, Perelandra is Venus, where man was placed but the Fallis prevented. THS is Lewis trying to give Earth a little bit of the same treatment he gave Mars and Venus, and it's where he tries to offer solutions to Earth's problems, typified in SJW university staff. Lots of people never finish it, and I guess I could call it "challenging." Merlin and the planet gods were 100% awesome though.
I wouldn't call any of them easy like Narnia. They were intended for adults of Lewis' time, which was sixty years ago, and sixty years before Lewis was writing Spain owned Cuba. If you're not familiar with pre-60s culture you'll miss a lot.
>>7901851
Liveship Trilogy by Robin Hobb
The Scar by China Mieville
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
>>7901869
Just read Star Maker desu. Lewis wrote his sci fi books in response to it but failed to surpass it any fashion.
>>7901888
I read Liveship Traders. I absolutely loved it until the last book.IT WAS HER FUCKING SHIP. GIVE IT BACK.
>>7901892
I'd say he did on a few points. I don't think he was trying to surpass it, it seems like he was just an Asimov fanboy. Voyage to Arcturus was another big influence.
>>7901903
Is Starmaker at all like Voyage to Arcturus? I'm loving Voyage, and Starmaker appears to be in my pile.
>>7901974
Similar the way most pre-Campbell SF feels similar.
>>7901785
Have it be unpredictable, mysterious, and leave it unexplained. Feel free to define rules for the system, which can force you to be inventive with all the possibilities it creates and prevent you from pulling deus ex machina endings, but don't explain those to the reader extensively. Tigana is the best example I can think of here, but no one has read that. Game of Thrones is another.
Sanderson treats his like natural sciences that just exist in their world, so his cultures are built around it and the characters aren't necessarily amazed by feats of magic, it's no different to them than electricity is to us. I'm a faggot and honestly like this approach as long as it's left to the reader to figure out, like Stormlight.
Your best bet is to have the magic still be something spectacular even to the denizens of your world. Have it be extremely powerful or rare, and for the love of god, make its capabilities unique. Don't just have armies of generic wizards throwing around fireballs because they can.
>>7902032
Yeah, Sanderson is a science fiction writer. He wants to be fantasy, though, which is why he tries to build up his magic system and then have something come along that's just magic. Except he explains that too, which just makes him a better science fiction writer. Poor guy.
>>7901974
It's less whimsical and mystical (still slightly mystical, but less so), and it has no characters or anything. It's a long universal history narrative with a disembodied narrator. Definitely rivals it in weirdness, if not trippiness. If you like Voyage I'd consider it a must-read, at least for comparison. Philosophically they're very similar, but at the same time very different. And the sheer variety of ideas and concepts he packs into one novel has to be read to be believed.
>>7899340
listening to Surface Detail at the moment
>>7899340
Just finished the First Law Trilogy. I don't know what to feel but i disappointed.
What's the easiest read that's still a good book? Real stressed out with school. Need something other than video games to distract me and it can't be a difficult read.
>>7899457
Yeah upload plox
>>7902369
The Hobbit
>>7902387
Hm, yeah that might do for a re read. I'd like something new then
How about this; whats the most entry level book on either of the OP selected charts?
>>7902146
I don't understand this. Is basically every form of magic that has any consistency or explanation now just science? Did metaphysics, religion, ritual, alchemy and other shitty "explained" occult ideas that have existed for centuries and inspire most systems suddenly become science fiction instead of regular old fantasy?
Is pickiness the ultimate curse when it comes to reading fantasy?
I feel like I used up about 90% of the books I'll take to heart in one summer, and everything else since has been a huge fucking letdown
Is there a single book that can compare to The Dark Tower series?
>>7902392
By 'easy read', do you mean something with simple prose that you can get lost in, or something light hearted?
Alternatively just grab some discworld novels. Thief of Time or Small Gods are good standalones. Guards Guards begins the series' best arc if you want more than one novel.
>>7902439
In what? TDT isn't particularly high quality.
R scott bakker is literally the best writer of this century. His first trilogy is simply amazing. I must agree, it could have been edited better, add a few things here and there ( especially book 3). I wish he would release a special edition, like an "expansion". The first trilogy in a single book, with more content and edited a little.
In the second you begin seeing his technical skill. 10/10, no other writer comes close when it comes to depth.
>>7902613
his strength is in worldbuilding and conceptual rigor
with characters he's a little shakey, but he's vastly improved over the time. Looking frward to the next book
I'm about to go on a 2 week vacation. For some reason I've been off reading for a while and would like to start reading again while I'm away. I've been meaning to read the following, which should I take?
Tales from Watership Down
The Plague Dogs
Duncton Wood 1-3
Wind in the Willows
>>7902400
They always had an air of mystery about them. You were never sure if the rain dance worked.
Has anyone ITT read pic?
How did you find it? I'm thinking of picking it up
>>7899340
nice pic for ants faggot
>>7902369
Malazoop Herp of the Derplan by Steven Redditson
>>7903230
I enjoyed it. Most of the antagonists can be a bit one dimensional, but overall it's a fun read. Has an almost three musketeers feeling to it.
>>7903246
I find it funny that you call a book/author redshit, when that book /author was hugely popular and has been around ages before that foul site was formed.
Is everything you don't like redshit? If so, Tolkien, Wolfe, Eragon, Stephenson, cook, and Rowling are all redshit. Now fug off.
>>7899340
>Recommendation Charts:
Are there the similar images for non-fictional recommended literature?
>>7903790
You realize you're in the SFF general? Read the sticky.
Any good foreign sci-fi which isn't British or American? Been thinking of picking up Usurper of the Sun and Ten Billion Days, since they sound pretty interesting.
>>7903906
Stanislaw Lem
>>7903246
does reddit even like Malazan? and no it's hard to get into
>>7903927
Already well aware of Lem, Solaris is apparently pretty hard to get in English considering the rights are so difficult, I heard they were going with the Polish-English translation for a new release rather than the original Russian-English.
I'm looking for more European sci-fi similar to stuff like Karel Capek.
What are some stories like Dune or BotNS where you know then protagonist becomes something great from the get go so you see their journey towards that position.
>>7903974
The Name of the Wind
Better than both of those imo
Anything good recently came out with a nice, big, expanded universe with a lot of detailing which isn't along the lines of ASOIAF? I always like it when fantasy novels feel like reading history books a little, something kind of similar to Dune or Foundation.
>>7903981
Guy Gavriel Kay
Any book, just pick the setting you like the best. He writes historical fantasy.
>>7903932
doesn't really look like it, at least they don't make threads centered around it as frequently as here
Hello,/lit/
Any good dark fantasy/dark theme books?
im looking for something with a lot of suspense.
Are there also any good black comedy's/dark comedy?
>>7904068
Read the OP.
>>7904077
Thank you.
Any more recommendations?
I have a lot of free time and would like to spend most of it indulged in books,mostly dark comedy.
>>7903976
Kek
>>7899340
I trusted the guide and read the carpet makers.
I shouldnt have
>>7903764
>If so, Tolkien, Wolfe, Eragon, Stephenson, cook, and Rowling are all redshit
>If so
>If
lad your list couldnt be more reddit, save for Wolfeinstein 3D
Are the sequels worth it?
>>7904466
Not really, no, at least Rama II wasn't (only one I read).
>>7903900
You will sink a lot more time into Berserk than a weekend... The waiting.. oh god the waiting
>>7899340
I'm so shit at actually starting writing projects, /lit/. Tell me which of these sounds the most interesting:
>Man with healing powers helps other residents of a flying "cattle city" farmed by technologically sky pirates for slave labor, when his power is found out he's taken under the wing of the merciless pirate lord who keeps the city under his thumb
>a bitter mage who once helped save the world is forced out of retirement when his memories start to come to life
>NEET internet friends are despondent after one of their own streams his suicide, they soon become aware of a "Hikki killer" phenomenon, supernatural occurrences ensue
>fuck it, fun desert fantasy adventures with scorpion riding tribesmen, jackal men who own the wind, and cities on the backs of giant beetles
>>7904522
#3 > #4 > #1 > #2
>>7904522
Always 4
>>7899418
'Surface Detail' by Iain M. Banks
Other Banks books from the "Culture" series in particular have pretty tops waifus but I enjoyed 'Surface Detail" the most.
I recommend you read all of them lel
>>7900831
Sounds like a "first world problem".
Spend a few years in Darfur, then reassess how pressing that "issue" is.
>>7904296
What didn't you like about it?
>>7904522
4, maybe 2 if you can actually write that character.
>>7904599
Pretty bland, prosa was eh, "twist" was cringeworthy at most, most characters lack any kind of depth
but at least it wasnt as cringy as Dune, I honestly dont know how people can read that tripe.
>oh its the legendary sword XYZ
>I can sense the sword
>it is legendary because of [TEXT]
and this is just one example, the book is full of that shit, making it unreadable
anyways, got rec's for good scifi books ?
I often see 1984 by George Orwell classified as sci-fi, but is this really the most accurate genre to classify it as?
>>7904648
it isn't a genre novel
>>7904663
>Lem
Polaris (liked it), Cyberiade (mediocre in some parts, good in others)
>Wolfe
None of his books ever grew on me; didnt even finish a single one. Might give him another try
>Dick
Cant into drug-lit. Any recs where he doesnt go completely ape-shit ?
>Le Guin
Left Hand (liked), Disposessed (ok)
Seems just like I cant into lit.
>>7904683
Androids Dream? That one is pretty tame
>>7904688
Oh, forget to add, the Dick's I've already read
Androids Dream (Good), High Castle (Eh)
>>7904683
You read Dick because of drug lit.
Wolfe is very specific because you won't 'get' stuff in the beginning and it's supposed to be fun to piece it all together.
>>7904691
Ubik.
>>7904725
Ubik blows
Here's what you read:
Flow My Tears
Dr. Bloodmoney
Martian Timeslip
Scanner
Stigmata
VALIS TRILOGY
Published excerpts of his Exegesis
>>7904522
Desert adventures. Picaresque monster-of-the-week a la Carnivores of Light and Darkness. Publish a chapter a week on your blog.
>>7904561
Darfur is a "real world problem." Spend a few weeks in the spice mines of Kessel, then reassess how pressing that "issue" is.
>>7903976
Good thing you just proved your opinion worthless
I just read Firefall 1+2 (Blindsight and Echopraxia) by Peter Watts. I'm looking for something that can echo the feeling and themes of those books. I'm having a very hard time reading any other books right now (managed to finish The Martian Chronicles and it was good but not as satisfying as the Firefall books.)
>>7905057
Well, you could try the rest of Watts' bibliography. He has the rest of his novels and most of his short stories free on his website.
>>7905106
I suppose that is a good place to start. Thanks.
>>7905114
Personal reccomendations: Rifters is about equal to Blindsight, Maelstrom is lesser but still good, and Behemoth is very close to just bad. His best shorts are The Things and The Island.
>>7905152
Do they have vampires in them?
Playing with a concept for posthumans - humans with too much intelligence tend to go Galt somewhere on the beach, using their massive intellects to survive off of ocean lives while slowly adapting to the water. I don't know exactly why, I just know that females who have undergone this transformation try to lure normal humans to their lair through a mind-reprogramming song.
>>7899340
Just finished up the second book in The Night Angel Trilogy. It was pretty good but the magic is lame and I'm not too keen on the female characters.
Reading Metro 2033 right now and somehow I'm liking it more than the video games.
>>7905285
What do they do to their captives? Is it hot?
>>7905205
The closest thing to Firefall tonally would be Evangelion.
>>7901851
The Lightbringer Series has a lot of this. There are currently 3 of them and they're fucking huge. Pretty fucking cool magic system too.
>>7905326
Probably just eat them, I dunno.
>>7902032
Aka how to write a shit magic system.
I love Sanderson's magic because it doesn't let him fill plot holes by say "oh herp derp magic fixed everything" Magic in his worlds have very specific purpose.
>>7905321
I remember readig the night angel trilogy when i was in highschool and loving it but havent reread it since.
Is it a good series or am i just remembering it as good because i was a teenager?
>>7905414
It's pretty decent. Brutal, that's for sure. I still need to read the last one, but it's on my list.
Pros:
Had me on the edge of my seat pretty much all the time
Fast paced
Insanely brutal. Makes me squirm at parts.
All of the sex worker stuff, I find it facinating
My qualms with it are pretty numerous, however.
Cons:
The magic system is too vague for my liking, the romance is done atrociously,
The prophecy stuff is annoying and a waste of time IMO
I seriously hate aspects of the main character. I've read 2/3 of the series and HES STILL A HUGE BITCH. MOTHER FUCKER YOU KILL PEOPLE FOR FUN, DON'T BE AFRAID TO FUCK A BITCH FFS
>>7905327
Interesting. The only Anime series I've ever watched is Cowboy Bebop. Mind shooting me some comparisons?
>>7905438
Mostly in the nothing-really-matters atmosphere, I'd guess. I keep recommending Hull Zero Three for something similar to Blindsight, but I guess that one anon didn't like it.
>>7905445
Is that the one where the woman he's programmed to love has become some sort of gigantic posthuman monster birthing machine?
I liked that one.
>>7905438
Shinji to Siri.
Sarasti to Gendo.
Mentions of third wave. Very, very heavy on the concept of the alien being unrelatable and yet somehow alive, Christian motifs and also the sense of futility that drenches both series.
>>7905465
Sounds right up my alley actually, I'll have to give it a .torrent. Thanks.
>>7905462
It was more like System Shock 2 than Blindsight to be honest. But with a poorer antagonist and way better monsters. You can't beat the polar bear horror astrogator or the titty lamia.
>>7905488
I like your taste. Give me some more recs bro, please.
Hey, I have a request. I'm looking for a story / series of more trickster type protagonist, that Mellibone / Anti-Conan type of character that in a sci fi setting.
You know, your Locke Lamorras, your John Constantines, the sort.
>>7905052
Look, I wanted to like Wolfe. But I'm three pages into Shadow of the Torturer and I get prose like this:
>Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Ascian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.
>Severian used to feel that way, too, but then he ran into Vodalus. In a way, this is liberating. He no longer has to worry about
trying to be the baddest motherfucker in the world. The position is taken.
>>7905512
I know it's Warhammer 40k, but the Ciaphas Cain books are pretty much this.
>>7905527
Thanks, but I'm not really into that whole franchise yet.
>>7899457
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, The VALIS Trilogy, A Scanner Darkly, and A Maze of Death are all good.
Also, could you upload that short story collection somewhere? I've never read any of his.
>>7905518
That's from Snow Crash, trollboi.
>>7905512
Jack of Shadows might be your type.
>>7905498
For creepy spaceship atmosphere or just generally underrated stuff? John Barnes is pretty unappreciated around here. The space Italians were crap but Orbital Resonance and the Jak Jinnaka trilogy are brilliant affectionate parodies of Heinlein juveniles.
Niven/Pournelle's Footfall has space shuttles retrofitted as orbital fighters and a joint US-Soviet nuclear strike on Kansas.
Adam Roberts takes on Le Guin's Dispossessed and Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom with Salt and New Model Army. In Salt, there's a colony of post-scarcity anarchists, but they're so boorish and violent they make the fascists look good; in New Model Army, the internet makes true democracy possible, and the people turn into a better Leviathan than any dictator could be.
Wayside School is even creepier as an adult.
Pre-publication John Dies At The End had a pretty good atmosphere. It was much better as a web serial by some guy trying to cope with his rape.
I really want to find a story set in a dying O'Neill cylinder. Probably have to write one.
>>7905542
Fair enough, but if you can get past it being fucking warhammer 40k they're at least entertaining. Keep 'em in mind anyway.
>>7905550
I'll definitely look into all of those. I was not aware that Wong was raped.
>>7905518
b-but I actually liked that part of Snow Crash :(
>>7905591
I'm not either, but it's a logical assumption, and he ruined Cracked so it's all right to spread rumors about him on the internet.
>>7905593So did I.
>>7905595
>He ruined Cracked
triggered by truth
I am getting so bored of Latro in the Mist. I'm half way through and story feels like it just isn't going anywhere. I gave up on One Hundred Years of Solitude like 30 pages in.
Maybe reading good historical fantasy just isn't my thing. I should stick to trash like The Golem and the Jinni or The Shadow of the Wind
Just got Book of The New Sun in the mail a couple days ago. Anything I should read before I start it?
>>7905045
Upboat
I enjoyed this post
>>7905595
How is that the logical assumption? Also, was he the one responsible for making 90% of it's content pop culture garbage? I want to learn more biology and anthropology through cleverly-worded dick jokes
>>7905619
Preparatory reading is a lit meme
>>7905626
He's in charge and he refused to discuss it in a Reddit AMA. Also his articles were getting more and more smug.
Think about it:
>Wong (whatever his real name is) is some loser living in Clerks screwing around with PWoT
>Writes a really dark book about a loser video store clerk and his manic pixie best friend
>Fear of going insane, fear of losing close friends, fear of never getting over high school are the threads in the tapestry
>Book-Wong's dark backstory is he was raped in high school
>Meanwhile IRL-Wong watches PWoT turn into a success, then get bought by Cracked
>Loser transcends tropes 'cause he's so clever, gets a hot amputee girlfriend that he can whiteknight for, basically his life is great in the end, rape is never mentioned again
I think it's possible that he was writing JDatE to cope with his crappy life. Maybe he invented the rape to make his alter-ego more edgy, but pre-publication JDatE was some dark stuff.
>>7902754
Wind in the willows.
If your vacation is shared with someone, you could read parts of the book aloud for them.
I don't know what happened at the end of that Greg Bear novel. but now I have a smile and a set of perplexed eyebrows.
I picked this up today
pretty pricey for an old paperback, but I was really intrigued in it. Seems like it got a limited run. It's not even on amazon kindle or whatever.
Goddammit, I've done it! I've run out of books to read. I put down nearly every book I attempt within 10 pages. Everything seems either boring or painfully written
>>7899358
Alright anon, I went back and got it. Previously considered and ultimately discarded due to its (lack of) age. I hold you responsible.
>>7905911
do i really gotta read this now?
i got genre-memed into "the mote in gods eye"
dont do this to me again
>>7905911
An old bookmark fell out. It appears to be a boarding pass stub for a flight from Frankfurt to Venice.
>>7905918
I have yet to read it. That aside, I liked Mote in God's Eye, so you'll get no sympathy here :3
>>7905918
I wasn't crazy about "The Mote in Gods Eye" myself. The prose is quite bad, for starters.
"Spin" is pretty good for a SF novel. You get "the sense of wonder", but without the cringe-inducing dialogue and clunky language that plagues much of SF.
>>7905947
>The prose is quite bad, for starters.
We need to dispel with this fiction that Asimov/Niven functional prose is bad. It does what it needs to and gets out of the way of the ideas, which are the real stars. Sure, flashy prose could show off ideas too, but these men are scientists, and their sciency world will be described in perfect clarity.
>>7905970
Eh, no. I would say the "workman-like prose" descriptor better applies to authors like Ursula Le Guin and Robert Charles Wilson -- journalistic and functional, but not lyrical or "literary" in any self-conscious way (as opposed to, say, Delany).
Asimov and Niven have a lot of great ideas (Asimov anyway), but the way they express them is sub-newspaper quality. They are just not very good with words.
>>7906002
>Asimov
>Just not very good with words
Whatever.
>>7906004
Are you an autist?
His dialogue is fucking stupefyingly awful.
>>7906021
>Are you an autist?
What, like am I trying to prove a subjective opinion? Yeah.
>tfw getting free copy of White Sand
^_^
>>7905337
>tfw shit happens and you don't understand yet and you know shit is going to go down
>>7905911
is legit. I've heard bad things about its sequels, though.
Need a good young protagonist book that doesn't involve assassins. Something like Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn.
>>7906026
It's really not that subjective. Asimov writes sentences like:
"Harroway had no doubts on the point of to whom he owed his job"
(see here: http://ask.metafilter.com/37305/Pick-the-best-science-fiction-book-for-the-uninitiated#578019 )
Don't get me wrong, Asimov was one of the greats. He's just not exactly a wordsmith.
>>7906044
>Taste is not subjective
Anyway my point is not that Asimov was a wordsmith. My point is that he was very good with words for the specific uses he had for them. Read some of his nonfiction if you don't believe me. He didn't want to write dazzling prose, he wanted to communicate logically.
Can someone recommend urban fantasy that isn't a crappy dresden clone?
>>7906029
>is legit. I've heard bad things about its sequels, though.
Yeah, I don't know about the sequels. I did enjoy a couple of Wilson's other novels - "The Chronoliths" and "Julian Comstock". But "Spin" remains my favorite.
>>7906053
Perdido Street Station. You deserve each other.
>>7906044
all art is by definition subjective. It cannot be anything other than subjective. At best you can construct some arbitrary definition of what "good" is and compare it to that model, but that model iteself is subjective because there is no model for what makes a good definition of good
>>7906061
Is it worth it if I genuinely didn't enjoy The Kraken?
>>7906068
Stop trying to impose your "subjective theory of art" on the rest of us. Your opinion is subjective, so keep it to yourself.
>>7906068
Azimov has shit prose, its not up to debate.
Feel free to like his stories, but lets call a spade a spade.
>>7906184
>>7906187
Subjective:
>based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions
this is the definition of subjective we humans have agreed upon. If common use changes sufficiently that a different definition of that word erases the current one, then perhaps taste will no longer be subjective, but until then it is, and you're only making an idiot of yourself for saying otherwise
For the record, I haven't read enough asimov to give an informed opinion (though I did name my cat after him out of respect), but from what I have read, I do think he sucks dangling balls at prose.
That doesn't make my opinion objective, it would be narcissistic to say otherwise. Only a complete ass thinks his view of the world is the only right one
>>7899340
Can anyone recommend me scifi anthologies? looking for russian scifi but anything is welcomed.
>>7905337
It's not shit if the author uses it well. For example, unexplainable magic works well as something the villain uses or a source of conflict for characters, so long as none of the plot's conflicts are resolved using said magic.
Have you actually read the books mentioned?
>>7905908
You are the only constant
my first post on /lit/
what do you think of pic related?
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26209242-the-phoenix-descent
Is it a good book or are those meme reviews? It sounds like an interesting concept, but full of cliche
>>7906061
The Magicians qualifies.
>>7905512
Mark Lawrence's current series.
Anyone else this?
>>7899418
>Any fun military sci-fi with a waifu protagonist?
The Skylords.
>>7906610
how can a review be meme?
I want to fuck Josella!
>>7905612
your modern mind and body are merely lacking the manly arete to push on through. Latro makes the best boasts: When the King of Thrace forces a duel to the death on him with no quarter, he says, "I did not think I could kill a man who begged me for his life, but I would try." Modern culture is weak, effete, lowest common denominator, and soft, thus I expect difficulty in appreciating manly and heavenly glory.
>>7906913
u sound gay desu senpai
>>7906920
It is only when one sounds gay that the floodgate of willing women open, for they, too, worship the masculine.
>>7906925
*opens
>>7906928
though the women open, too.
Thoughts on NPR's guide?
>>7906594
Best short story ever written.
Can barley read that shit
Looking for a good printing of Lord of the Rings to replace these torn up paperbacks I've got. Any recs?
>>7906715
Yes. It was super fucking disappointing
>>7906958
It's pretty useless since it doesn't tell you anything outside superficial information so it's not useful at all. It's also a mixed bag of titles.
>>7906958
>no Bakker
>mistborn is about theives
>furies of Calderon outside of the YA section
>recommending Name of the Wind
Whew lad
>>7906769
Now read The Death of Grass.
Anyone got a The Goblin Emperor epub PLEASE?
>>7907318
I have access to a private tracker that has it. Why do you want to read it? Convince me and I'll get it.
Is there anything similar to Mistborn and the Stormlight Archives series?
Particularly the "magic" aspect kind of things
>>7907525
The Name of the Wind
>>7907525
Most video games
Where do you get your ebooks that aren't shitty copies/OCR?
>>7907630
Anything more than a couple years old will probably be a terribad OCR.
>>7907630
The sticky.
>>7907630
You buy them instead of stealing from an author
>>7907657
OCR typos aren't the same a human would make. They're much easier to spot.
Does anyone ITT know of any Fantasy which has a female lead?
I''m looking for something like the powder mage trilogy; essentially 19th century Europe.Because I intend to write a fantasy with a female lead set in a 19th century Europe era.
>>7907758
How did you like Powder Mage?
>>7907758
Mistborn
>>7907758
>Does anyone ITT know of any Fantasy which has a female lead?
(correct version this time)
I'm beginning to feel foolish, posting this every thread. It's not even that good.
>>7907758
Mairelon the Magician/Magician's Ward.
>My color scheme was conscious and deliberate from the start. I didn’t see why everybody in science fiction had to be a honky named Bob or Joe or Bill. I didn’t see why everybody in heroic fantasy had to be white (and why all the leading women had “violet eyes”). It didn’t even make sense. Whites are a minority on Earth now—why wouldn’t they still be either a minority, or just swallowed up in the larger colored gene pool, in the future?
Is she right?
>>7907834
Nah. Just brainwashed by modern retard doctrine
>>7907834
>Whites are a minority on Earth now
Yeah, and the majority of blacks outside of western countries are barely able to wipe their own asses
>>7907834
She fucked up when she tried to link Global demographics with racial representation in a fictional novel.
>>7907834
No, 95% of people on Earth are white nowadays.
>>7907834
I didn't see why any author had to write for demographics that didn't write for themselves. I didn't see why European-descended authors had to make up for the lacuna caused by generations of literate minorities choosing to enrich themselves rather than build a lasting genre fiction legacy. It didn't even make sense. Whites are a minority on Earth, even now - why wouldn't they just be content writing stories for their children about people who looked like them?
>>7907758
SABRIEL
>>7907956
Isn't that Young adult?
>>7907970
So?
>>7907995
But diversity for its own sake is modern retard doctrine.
>>7907451
Well because I read the synopsis and it sounds interesting. Ever since I learned about Lord of the Rings I used to had dreams of books with these kind of creatures, like Dungeons & Dragons, but most of them are shit ripoffs. But nevermind, I found it.
>>7907834
She isn't really wrong, it's just that some would rather she wasn't right. I'm happy she decided to go with something different, rather than just appealing solely to the generic self inserts or special snowflake personas with colorful eyes and perfect pale features that appeal only to vain teenagers.
>>7908016
>She isn't really wrong, it's just that some would rather she wasn't right.
I believe it's the opposite - many would rather she were right. I wish she was. I wish nonwhites wrote more SFF, I wish they participated more in our culture's collective imagination, I wish they would do the sorts of things that would someday get them off the Earth, but they don't. I'm not going to claim responsibility for their choices, so all I can do is grieve, and write what I want to write, where the skin color of the protagonist is determined by the needs of the story, which will in turn be drawn from my own experience, making them, for the most part, white.
Oh, and it's really hard for a white to write about non-whites in today's environment. Cultural appropriation, you know.
>>7907525
Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks
>>7906049
His sentences often don't come off to be the most logical
>>7906338
Which books specifically are you asking that I've read?
And I can appreciate when some magic shit happens that's not explained yet. It just has to make sense with how the magic system works as a whole. Often I find authors just use the magic as a way to fill their plot holes and I hate that. At least in Mistborn you're figuring out the magic along with the characters, but there's still constants and unknowns thrown into a well structured system with laws.
Other time its all "OoooooOooo Look at me! I can throw fireballs! Oh but I can also see into the future! Isn't magic great"
Can't stand that shit.
Are there good books about Summoners? Fighting using summons, monsters, deities, creatures/whatever?
>>7907834
Because fantasy is often based on medevil Europe
>>7902284
"I bought you from a whore!" not your thing?
>>7903967
I've been reading the Kindle version, and though it's clearly a translation (it gets clunky at times) it seems to get the main themes nailed down pretty well. Minding the translation issues it's still really damn good.
How is Black Company? And why are there so many books in the series, how do they connect?
Why are Daw yellow-spine paperbacks so comfy?
>>7908451
I wouldnt know
