Random Oldfag Edition
Previous thread >>8046540
>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/
Any obscuremaybenotsogreat authors you'd like to share?
>>8054973
First for Emperor Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, known to the Fremen of Sietch Tabr as Usul.
>>8054892
>Write what you know, man. Don't write women at all. This is how we end up with Brent Weeks.
What do you mean by that, I thought he wrote pretty good women
Just finished pic related. I thought it had some superficial resemblance to Haldeman's Forever War. In this case, a crew of two encounters different versions of the universe after every interstellar transition. Also, sexual mores were brought up every time. Originally written as separate books, it doesn't have the same strength of narrative, but was enjoyable none the less.
>>8054973
>Any obscuremaybenotsogreat authors you'd like to share?
I think anyone who likes SFF should check out Michael Swanwick.
>The Iron Dragon's Daughter/The Dragons Of Babel
A refreshing, non-Tolkenian fantasy setting. More ideas and originality in these two books than in all of Sanderson's ouvre.
>Stations Of The Tide
A surreal SF tale. Heavily influenced by Wolfe's Third Head Of Cerberus.
>Bones Of The Earth
Like Jurassic Park/The Lost World except good.
>Dancing With Bears/Chasing The Phoenix
The adventures of a duo of conmen as they travel through a profoundly changed, post-machines uprising Earth. Pulpy, funny, recommended.
>>8055023
Fifth Head Of Cerberus*
Sorry, brain fart.
>>8055002
Having "read" Dune through an audiobook, i always thought it was Paul Moardib Atreides, and for some reason always found it funny. Also, i didn't thought it was as good as people said, so i'm debating wether or not i should continue with the rest, since the first one was the best, supposedly.
>>8055043
If you didn't like the first one don't bother reading on.
I, like half of the people on this board, am trying to get more into reading
I figured I'd start with something I love, Star Wars, so any recommendations on where to begin with the books?
>>8055080
Darth Plagueis
>>8055080
The Darth Bane (yeah, I know) novels are supposedly good.
anyone else here a fan of Delany's scifi work? specifically Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
I've been a scifi fan all my life but I read Stars... a few times within the past half a year or so and christ it changed my life. Definitely the best scifi text I feel like I've ever read, and a revolutionary use of scifi itself even if you don't buy into the revolutionary politics he puts it to work for
idk, I checked the /lit/ wiki and there was zero mention of it despite it being unlike anything I've ever read before, and really damn good at that.
but that might just be because I wrote so damn much about it this semester. But even his other scifi works don't even come close imo
>>8055043
I loved Dune Messiah even though, despite having read it three times really, I couldn't tell you anything about the plot except for what happens at the very end
I couldn't read Children of Dune for years because I expected I'd hate it, but it actually really surprised me. It might be my favorite despite Dune itself
all the other ones have such cool names I wish God Emperor didn't suck ass
>>8055091
>Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
This was a favorite read of mine back in my twenties. I used it as proof that SF wasn't a literary wasteland, that innovative stuff was being done in the field and there were voices that the most exacting style-snob couldn't scruple to include in hifalutin' conversations.
Boy, was I wrong.
It's turgid, it's obfuscatory, and it's mutton dressed up as lamb. "Cut through the galaxy's glitter; slice away all night. What thoughts did I dole out to that world (out of the six thousand, which, according to a rumor that had crept worlds and worlds away, corroborrated only by a certain certified psychotic, may have been) destroyed by the XIv?
Certainly I thought about it.
Yet after a week, after a handful of weeks, now at home, now away, somehow the rational part of my mind had accorded it much the weight one gives to the most insubstantial notion."
What the...? Six thousand worlds, or one, destroyed and the thought is insubstantial. I am reminded of the moment I stopped reading Susan Cheever's work, when she described a moment in a character's life as "soft as loss." Loss, soft? Funny, that isn't how I've experienced it. And this farrago, what is the insubstantial notion that the author gives to the possible destruction of a large number of planets? Too big to understand, too hard to grasp entirely, what? But insubstantial?
That's the beginning of chapter four. It's one example of a repeating problem that I see at fifty that I didn't at twenty-five: write lots of words, no one will notice that you're not saying much.
I haven't re-read Dhalgren, Delany's claim-to-fame book, and now I don't think I will. This re-read wasn't a success at all. It's a book I think is second rate, about ideas I think are unoriginal and pretty uninteresting. And that makes me sad.
>>8054973
This one is fairly decent. Starts on pre-spaceflight earth. Protagonist and other earthpeople abducted by lobstermen.Lengthy imprisonment, epic escape. Returns with hostages, spacecraft, and potentially friendly alien contact.Humans reverse engineer ship. Build improved copies of same. Form alliance with other alien race.Discover the lobster's secret
>>8055099
one answer to the question he poses
'where do you stand to see a world destroyed' or whatever
I think that's a terrifying notion. Especially for an industrial diplomat who sees so many worlds just to leave them again? it seems like the discussion of Fugue just prior on Nepiy sets up Marq as a character who would feel just such a way
>>8055100
There's even a little girl secondary character for pedo-kun.She's a lobster.
>>8055080
The Dark Lord Trilogy
>>8055099
I like(d) Delany but he truly descended into his obsessions. Through the valley of the nest of spiders or whatever his last was ... i tried. Gay sex wasnt the deal breaker, but sucking off dogs, eating snot, swallowing pee, pedophilia, every gay guy super well endowed but with a hunger for smegma .... genuinely vomit inducing. I don't know if I can re-read dhalgren or stars in my pockets anymore without having flashbacks of smelly snot eating and piss drinking
Just finished the first two books of the Stormlight Archive. It was pretty good but makes one wonder how he can possibly draw it out to 10 books with thousand pages each.I guess they'll fail at stopping the Desolation in the first 5 book story arc and stop it in the other?
alsoWhy the fuck did Shallan not remain in Dalinar's camp? Makes no logical sense from the character's standpoint. One of his biggest mistakes in book twoSadeas was clearly not in Urithiru so what did Adolin kill?
andcan't he let the characters he kills stay dead?
>>8055127
It's two different sagas akin to Mistborn. First 5 books is one, the next 5 are another.
>>8054973
>Any obscuremaybenotsogreat authors you'd like to share?
I've mentioned this once or twice, but no one ever says anything in response, so I'm gonna toss out Kieran Shea's Koko series (two books in right now, don't know if there's a third coming.) for some fun
Also, Brett Patton's Mecha Rogue is giant robot anime: the book if that's how you get your sick kicks. It's far from good and in fact, I think the series died after the second book due to poor sales, but there you go.
>>8054973
>Any obscuremaybenotsogreat authors you'd like to share?
'The Gameplayers of Zan' by M.A. Foster
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2480332.The_Gameplayers_of_Zan
The Gameplayers of Zan (1977) is one of those books where I find myself wondering however anyone could have started from a blank piece of paper and come up with the idea. It’s weird, and it’s alien, and it is a very odd book indeed.
The Ler are an artificially created race, made from human DNA but at the next stable point along the evolutionary chain. (Handwave, handwave.) They have five fingers and two thumbs on each hand, they have a very different reproductive cycle, and they have developed their own initially artificial but very distinct culture. At the time of the novel, 2550, there have been fourteen generations of Ler living on their reservation, reproducing in their own natural way, a hundred thousand of them surrounded by twenty billion humans. Human culture is itself very different from anything we might expect. This is one of the things that makes the book so odd. The Ler are not held up in contrast to humanity as we know it, these humans are harder to identify with than the Ler are, and the Ler are pretty strange. The effect of the book is like taking an immersion course in the alien.
The book plunges us into the Ler from the beginning. There are, oddly, footnotes. It’s like reading a translation. We’re given Ler words and concepts, translated once and then used untranslated. We begin with a Ler girl who knows something (we don’t know what, and it’s one of the central mysteries of the book) who is in a sensory deprivation environment and who chooses to “autoforget” to delete her memories, which Ler can. Then we jump to Fellirian and Morlenden of the Deren braid, the real protagonists, who are asked to search for the missing girl. The question of who she is and what she knew are the hook that lead us through Ler society and Ler interaction with the human world.
http://www.tor.com/2009/05/08/alien-immersion-course-ma-fosters-the-gameplayers-of-zan/
>>8055136
I do like footnotes
what do you fags think of chia meiville?
May be a dumb question.
I'm pretty new to reading and enjoy fantasy, are there any books/series I should not read till I am better versed in the genre? Or does something like this matter at all?
Do post-apocalyptic books like Metro 2033 count as sci-fi?
>>8055202
meh
>>8055202
I like him.
>>8055205
Yes and no. There are three different reasons you might want to hold off on a specific work:
>1. If you don't read a lot in general, certain works may be denser and harder to follow, and that includes but isn't limited to fantasy books.
>2. Some works reference common fantasy conventions in order to subvert expectations, so waiting to read them until later may mean you enjoy them more.
>3. If you don't already know for sure that you like fantasy, reading something shitty or just more cryptic may put you off the genre. This doesn't seem likely to be an issue for you.
I might recommend holding off on Wolfe a bit, given that you're kind of new to reading. That's about it, though.
If you want something fun/easy to get into, I recommend the Amber series for fantasy, and the Stainless Steel Rat for sci-fi.
>>8055080
General rules for exploring SW legends novels
1. Aside from Shadows of the Empire, books that focus on movie characters are usually bad. This is ESPECIALLY true of the massive 20-30 book saga that focus on the space orc/zerg hybrids.
2. Short story anthologies are all pretty quality, authors were allowed to be a lot more experimental with them and you don't get as annoyed by the incredibly mediocre prose that characterizes SW novels if you take it in short bursts.
3. Evil characters are generally more interesting than good ones mostly because the books are forced to go a little deeper than the movies in explaining why bad guys are bad to get the reader to believe it. Novels focusing on evil characters, like the Bane trilogy and Plagueis novel are among the best that the universe has to offer.
4. Books set during the Prequel era, and books set during the post-ROTJ era are generally worse than books set before the prequels or during the OT.
>>8054973
First for bookchan
>>8055218
Thanks for the advice
>>8055014
Ignore him, he is the one complaining in the last 3 threads about Brent Weeks having a rape fetish, and there is too much rape in Brent Weeks books. I bet he is a feminist.
>>8055699
>I bet he is a feminist.
You say that like it's a bad thing
>>8055136
This looks interesting. Thanks.
>She took off her gown and spread her legs
>YOUR DUTY AWAITS MY LORD
Bravo, Weeks
>>8055127
There are lots of things going on at Roshar, and to tldr the post, there's a fifteen-year 'timeskip' between SA5 and SA6. The back half will also have main characters who are side characters now (Jasnah, Lift, the guy who thinks he is Talenel, etc.)
Legend of Korra season 3 end right in the fucking feels
>>8055914
Hmm I see. I'm most interested in the guy with tattoos all over his body, collecting information about the spren.
>>8055091
>I've been a scifi fan all my life but I read Stars... a few times within the past half a year or so and christ it changed my life.
>>8055974
>the wee little babby can't enjoy any books that aren't the Diarrhea Revelations
Point and laugh, everybody.
>>8055974
Why do you keep making charts without Wolfe? He's far more memey than Peake.
>>8055999
Maybe because he thinks Book of the New Sun is actually good?
All his "old charts" are missing wolfe.
>>8056088
Maybe because Wolfe isn't exactly a really old author, compared to many of the rest.
>>8054353
Fair enough anon.
Oh no what, Kylar Stern died? WTF
>>8055914
Didn't someone plagiarize that map for some other fantasy series? I remember seeing some other maps with the same geography.
>>8056601
oh nvm resurrected again lmao
just like in lightbringer with kip
I want to write something that will become incredibly popular, stop it half-way, throw the dogs a few filler novellas every three years or so and live off the series for the rest of my diabetes shortened life
Any ideas as to how I can do this?
>>8056614
what?
>>8056724
gods resurrecting characters after they die
>>8056729
what does that have to do with the map?
>>8056737
i quoted the wrong post
>>8056614
.... did you by chance get an ARC of Blood Mirror?
>>8056972
What?
F I R S T
I
R
S
T
>>8056991
First is the worst, second is the best.
>>8056989
Did you get an ARC(advanced readers copy) of Blood Mirror(the next kip )
>>8057010
You're not the improved anon, you're an impostor trying to shill up trolls
>>8057021
NDA.
>>8057039
What? Don't you get a copy with the requirement that you give a fair review?
>>8057048
Yeah, to the author.
>>8057048
You're thinking of a review copy, and ARC is about getting feedback from readers during the editing process.
>>8056686
Have you tried a pen and paper?
Why is the general dead? Is it finals or something?
Glad I finished school.
>>8057339
I'm a grad student. Finals here were three weeks ago.
>>8056686
appeal to the masses or be brilliant.
protip: appealing to the masses isn't as easy as you think it is.
>>8057339
Quarter schools have finals in a month
>>8057339
I have an exam in a few hours
>>8055923
Not only is Legend of Korra not a book, it's not even the best fantasy cartoon.Shrek 2 is the funniest movie I have ever seen. Literally one of the funniest comedies of all time. It has incredible pacing and dialogue. The reference jokes are actually funny. The surreal world was so modern fantasy it actually worked. The bar of villains. The rocking score. And don't even get me started on the scene set to "I need a hero" being sung by the villain unironically and completely played straight. Shrek 2 has just overall one of the best concepts ever and is, in my book, the single greatest animated feature of our generation.
>>8055002
In the book of the new sun audiobooks, the guy pronounces "triskele" like "tricycle
>>8057339
It's after midnight on a weeknight throughout part of the western hemisphere and the entire eastern one. Some people have jobs.
>>8057458
Shrek 2 is a pile of shit.
>>8057500
I too have a job.
>>8057524
Not an argument.
>>8057500
That's no excuse, you lazy sod. Pour another cup of coffee and keep posting. You can sleep when you're dead.
![books1-1[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/yqeXU5B.jpg "books1-1[1].jpg")
This was quite good, I kept thinking it felt like a 21st century version of 70s anthropological sf
>>8057594
>coffee
Enjoy hypertension you addict faggot.
>>8057625
Is this based on that video game?
>>8057471
No joke here guys, but what is it with people who speak only English not knowing how to pronounce normal sounding words and names for shit? Everybody I know who knows a different language is fine pronouncing everything except words with "th" in them.
>>8057339
I went through all of Legend of Korra except the final 5 episodes yesterday, so didn't read anything or found anything to talk about.
>>8057458
Yes, but the YA romance makes me feelless lonely.
And generally I didn't enjoy a series in a while like this.
Also I haven't seen Shrek in ages, but it is still a pretty dank meme.
>>8057010
>Keeping Malazan
>Crossing out Black company
You atleast could have tried
>>8057796
Stockholme syndrome.
>>8057990
Yeah this happened to me while reading wheel of time, I started with what the fuck is this shit and then after three thousand pages it was either start to like it or go insane so i started to like it.
>>8057992
Except Malazan is way better than WoT.
>>8057993
Wouldn't know, haven't read it. And after learning that it spawned from a D&D campaign I'm not really inclined to do so, much as I like D&D I like my fantasy to be atypical.
Plus they tell me it's edgy as fuck which is another no-no.
>>8057992
So it is like listening to Swans?
>>8058114
Yes, actually. Pic related.
>>8058136
Your pic related is unfunny shit
>>8055950
Speaking of, Cusicesh is above normal spren but below 'god'spren (like Nightwatcher and Stormfather.)
>>8056601
No? Why do you keep asking this after being told no once already? It's based off of a Julia set, anon.
Finished Altered Carbon. Started Land Firt for Heroes. Here's my impression so far:
>meet a new character, let's have sex
>meet an old friend, let's have sex
>thanks for the briefing, have sex with my slave
>I need to speak with my god, better have sex
>our clan leader is bad because sex
>I should investigate that, let's pose as sex fiends
>ah, a demon, better have sex with it
I don't mind the occasional sex scene, but this is starting to read like a gay version of Twilight. Is there an actual story in here somewhere?
>>8058195
I've only read neurancer, but I see the pattern
>>8058208
You're speaking nonsense. If you mean Neuromancer, that was written by Gibson not Morgan.
>>8058246
Must have mixed up titles and authors then.
>>8058152
>Why do you keep asking this after being told no once already
I asked it once?
>It's based off of a Julia set, anon
What does that have to do with plagiarism?
If both >>8055914 and the one you posted are legit, why do they have areas that are called different things? And what is up with this one?
What is everyone reading and what do you think of it?
>>8058461
I'm reading Book 3 of The Wheel Of Time
It's been good so far but I struggle to imagine how he can possibly stretch this story for another ELEVEN books. It's mind boggling.
>>8058006
That means you won't read Gray Mouser, because that "supposedly" spawned D&D games.
>>8058483
That simply means that Malazan is derivative while F&GM is not, which is why I might read it someday.
>>8058461
Just finished book 3 of Malazan. Pretty okay, if a bit brutal for my taste. Decided to only read it on weekends because hauling those monster hardbacks to work and such is a pain. That and I was pining for shorter works that I could switch up every day or two.
>>8058468
ive not read them, but i think theres more than one story
Just finished this.
While it did take a while to get used to the author's meme and jargon-heavy prose (I mean seriously it was ridiculous at some points and got in the way of plot delivery), I did think it was a fascinating examination of consciousness with a heavy, bleak atmosphere and unique aliens.
What does /sffg/ think of it and the works of Peter Watts?
>>8058675
I'm thinking of reading it. Can you give an example sentence of that meme prose? Is it more memey than Wolfe?
>>8057114
Dinosaur /female hate/2000 anon won. The classical crew gave up. Why stay in a place your not wanted?
They have better shit to do, like read actual books, unlike us. We just meme all day without actually reading anything.
>>8058679
You spent a bit longer in there than the rest of us," he remarked.
"That's significant?"
A jerking shrug. "Maybe your organs got a bit more cooked than ours. Maybe you just got a delicate constitution. Your pod would've caught anything—imminent, so I figure—ah."
"What?"
"Some cells along your brainpan going into overdrive. More in your bladder and kidney."
"Tumors?"
"What you expect? Rorschach's no rejuve spa."
"But the pod—"
Szpindel grimaced; his idea of a reassuring smile. "Repairs ninety-nine point nine percent of the damage, sure. By the time you get to the last zero-point-one, you're into diminishing returns. These're small, commissar. Chances are your own body'll take care of 'em. If not, we know where they live."
"The ones in my brain. Could they be causing—"
"Not a chance." He chewed on his lower lip for a moment. "Course, cancer's not all that thing did to us."
"What I saw. Up in the crypt. It had these multijointed arms from a central mass. Big as a person, maybe."
Szpindel nodded. "Get used to it."
"The others are seeing these things?"
"I doubt it. Everyone has a different take, like—" his twitching face conveyed Dare I say it? "—Rorschach blots."
"I was expecting hallucinations in the field," I admitted, "but up here?"
"TMS effects—" Szpindel snapped his fingers— "they're sticky, eh? Neurons get kicked into one state, take a while to come unstuck. You never got a TAT? Well-adjusted boy like you?"
"Once or twice," I said. "Maybe."
"Same principle."
"So I'm going to keep seeing this stuff."
"Party line is they fade over time. Week or two you're back to normal. But out here, with that thing..." He shrugged. "Too many variables. Not the least of which is, I assume we'll keep going back until Sarasti says otherwise."
"But they're basically magnetic effects."
"Probably. Although I'm not betting on anything where that fucker's concerned."
"Could something else be causing them?" I asked. "Something on this ship?"
"Like what?'
"I don't know. Leakage in Theseus' magnetic shielding, maybe."
"Not normally. Course, we've all got little implanted networks in our heads, eh? And you've got a whole hemisphere of prosthetics up there, who knows what kind of side-effects those might let you in for. Why? Rorschach not a good enough reason for you?"
I saw them before, I might have said.
What's the hypest /sffg/ novel?
My vote's on this, shit was genuinely pulse-pounding
>>8058693
shit, that was on my to read list...
Any science fiction in line with Alien or Event Horizon?
>>8058691
>>8058706
>>8058686
I don't see memes, there might be jargon but no memes(didn't read blindsight yet). Read more good sci-fi and you'll get use to the jargon.
>>8058701
It's a good book, when I finished it I thought of it as 4chan the novel.
>>8058461
Shadow of the torturer, chapter 9. I'm actually wondering when does Severian get kicked out, since that's the synopsis for the first book, yet i'm almost halfway there and it hasn't happened yet.
>>8058718
Admittedly it was a pretty tame passage compared to some parts of the book. There are some pretty bad science metaphors as well.
You'll see what I mean when you read it, though. It's a good book but I feel like it could've been even better if the prose were different. Sometimes I had no clue what was going on due to Watts' terminology.
But give it a try, maybe it's more up to your speed!
>>8058724
What about the two books /lit/ has written? I can't remember then name of the last one, but it was filled to the brim with meems.
>>8058706
What is this image shppose to portray?
What are those see through fade images i can't make them out?
Is this some kind of new dank meme?
>>8058730
What are you talking about, Chapter 9 is not even 100 pages in. If I remember right he gets kicked at around 125 pages.
I'm also reading it right now btw. At around 180~ pages
>>8058739
I misremembered and thought i was at around the 90th page, but it turns out i'm only in 62. Well shit, i'm barely 1/4th in.
>>8058734
>There are some pretty bad science metaphors as well
This is the worst thing about the book. Soooooo many pithy rants about science shit
>>8058737
Hyperspace/w/e and a cold day in a tundra w/e?
That was outer lit, i didn't touch that shit
>>8058757
Hypersphere, actually, can't remember the other one.
>>8058703
Forgot to say, already read Solaris
>>8058760
The Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra, pleb
>>8058738
A dino and an old man, they correctly portray your decrepit fossil fuel ass since you living under a fucking rock.
>>8058675
I really, really like Blindsight, and Watts is one of my favourite authors based on the Rifters trilogy and Firefall (Blindsight and Echopraxia). I have Beyond the Rift here somewhere too, have to read it sometime...
>>8058872
Hows Echopraxia, is it a sequel? And does Blindsight stand alone well?
>>8058879
Echopraxia is a sequel, but not a direct one. I don't mean there's a time skip or anything, but it involves a different "theater", so to speak. What happened in Blindsight does have a bearing in Echopraxia, though.
I think Blindsight stands well alone. There's a definite potential for continuation in its ending, but I wasn't clamouring for a sequel or anything when I had read it.
Watts talked about a possible third and final novel, but I think it might be on the backburner? I know he was disappointed a lot of people had no idea what was going on in Echopraxia, so he's probably not going straight for another one in the series.
>>8058686
Now I'm remembering what the Rifters trilogy was like, Watts is excellent at ideas but he writes like an edgier Neal Stephenson.
>>8055080
Don't start with Star Wars. Just don't read it at all. If you read shit like that, don't bother getting into reading. You don't have to start with the Greeks or Ulyssses but at least check out the recommended reading list.
Thoughts on Chronicle of the Unhewn Thrown? It seems to have strong focus on mythology and gods from what I gathered, which I love.
Feel free to throw me other books that do those well.
>>8058412
Oh you weren't being serious, merely shitposting in the thread. Equally as dumb but not surprising. Shame on me.Polite sage for responding.
>>8058675
I enjoyed the main character and his profession that I can somewhat relate to and even appreciate the moral stance behind it while agreeing.
>>8059088
I was being serious. Dont be cynical cunt all the time
So, i have started reading the Dark Tower after so many years. I've heard that Stephen dropped the ball aat some point. Is that true?
>>8059112
Yes, it falls apart by the end
What's a good big, "epic" fantasy series with 6+ long-ass books that starts out interesting, doesn't drag too much in the middle, and actually comes through with a solid ending?
>>8059149
>Epic series
>doesnt drag
>solid ending
Why not just ask for them to be gold plated, diamond encrusted, and wrapped in unicorn leather too?
>>8059149
Malazan, if you can get through the first book, is your only real option.
>>8059149
Malazan is your only real option.
You should be safe if you get through the first book and the first 1/4th of the 2nd.
>>8055023
>Michael Swanwick
Yeah, he's great.
>Like Jurassic Park/The Lost World except good.
Pff. 'Bones of the Earth' is an obvious parody/troll novel. (Either that or he was stoned out of his gourd when writing it.)
Strangely enough, the ridiculous troll novel is the only one that won awards...
>>8059036
Starts good, but book 3 is an absolute disappointing mess.
Not a bad first series, but it was definitely fumbled a bit.
>>8059288
>the ridiculous troll novel is the only one that won awards
But Stations Of The Tide won a Nebula and a bunch of other novels were nominated for Hugo/Locus/whatever.
>>8059149
asoiaf is the best. Malazan will bore you
>the country's name is in the accusative case
Didn't they test this book before they released it?
>>8059597
Don't read that.
>>8059605I didn't, I just heard about it in a comment section and wanted to complain
>>8054973
Is it too edgy to have a fantasy novel end in the protagonist eating a baby? It's a novel about cannibal fledgling gods.
>>8059322
Hm, do you recommend it? And in what way exactly is book 3 bad, without spoiling it?
>>8059720
Could work if you do it right, I assume there's a symbolic/ritual significance?
>>8059729
The baby is a godling bloated on divine power provided by a priesthood so he can attract and be fed other fledling gods.
>>8059720
Nope, if /tg/ is anything to go by liberals fucking obsess over justifying necromancy and genocide as long as it's for the "muh greater good".
>>8059769
Is tg liberal? I mean it's apolitically autistic.
>go to /sffg/
>people claim to like prose
>no one ever talks about Peter S. Beagle
>???
>>8059725
It's a good series. I really enjoyed books one and two. Three wasn't complete garbage, kettral chapters really carry the book.
The problem was that it seemed really rushed, all the overarching plots of empire, gods and cssestrim get streamlined down in complexity compared to the prior two books.
Is Cherryh anon still here? She's been awarded SFWA Grand Master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO8_27e0TxY
>>8059999
>those quads
>>8059999
Yeah, I'm here. I was pretty exciting on learning about this a few weeks ago. Thanks for the update.
I've been reading the "Blackcollar" series by Timothy Zahn recently. It's okay, kinda generic stories about ninja commandos doing guerilla war against the aliens that defeated humanity. However I'm posting because in the third book there's a part where one of the characters is imprisoned and then escapes by attacking his captors after filling his prison jumpsuit full of paper and wearing a bean bag as a helmet.
>>8060157
>escapes by attacking his captors after filling his prison jumpsuit full of paper and wearing a bean bag as a helmet.
Does it make more sense in context?
>>8060161
Kinda. The main non-lethal gun in the series appears to be some kind of pistol that shoots paralyzing darts like a shotgun. And apparently these guns can have their velocity tuned, so the character figured that they would be set to only penetrate his jumpsuit.
It just feels like a very silly and out of place scene.
>>8059036
F U C K A D A R E
U
C
K
A
D
A
R
E
>>8060396
Muh stronk womayn empress
Muh half genocidal elf babby
>>8060410
Don't forget about the whore and
F R A T R I C I D E
R
A
T
R
I
C
I
D
E
How do I tell the reader something about a fantasy character without doing a big "Concerning Hobbits" style info-dump? The first thing that happens in my story is a half-human guy contacts the protagonist - I need to explain that he's half-human, what the other half is, and how that makes people react to him, without derailing the scene he's a part of. Best thing I can think of is to have a random yokel stare and ask "what the heck are you?", but it seems like a cheap trick. Thoughts?
>>8060436
Try the caught shopping route.
Protagonist asks why furry-human is buying something, have half-human explain it's because his fur requires extensive maintenance.
>>8060480
Cheers, that actually works really well - my main guy's a trader, who might conceivably have armor with multiple neck holes in his wagon, and I can have all the other customers leave in a hurry to reflect how regular humans view hydra-people.
>>8060523
*which is, of course, what the hydra-guy wanted so he and MC can get on with what they're scheming.
>>8060157
>Zahn
That guy is so prolific it's hard for me to believe the books are any good.
>>8060553
The Blackcollar books are apparently the first ones he had published, and while they're not the best scifi ever I've found them entertaining enough. (and it's not like you're really going to drag a Hugo award out of "space ninjas.") The only other book I've read by him was The Icarus Hunt, which was ages ago but IIRC it was a sort of a slow-burn thriller about a space smuggler contracted to take a cargo ship to Earth.
I've heard that apparently his Thrawn books are the only parts of the Star Wars EU that aren't shit. Now to be fair, I don't know if that just means he's a good writer, or a competent writer compared to the usual EU authors.
This talk of space ninjas got me thinking.
Is there any book that is basically Naruto(jutsus will be replaced by symbiotic technologies) in space?
Bv Larson and Neal Asher are the closest I've seen to this.(no anime)
>>8054973
>Obscure sci-fi
The Administrator series by Taku Mayumura. It's more interesting than good, but it's solid and it's always fun to science fiction from a country that doesn't produce much of it.
>>8060654
>"You may have defeated my pupils and shamed my dojo. But do you think you can stop my 'Lunar Demon' cyber-jutsu?" said the ancient black clad man. The mobsters went quiet in terror at the mention of the lost martial art of Earth Command, suppressed by the victorious Martian Empire after the inner worlds war.
>>8059826
I've been looking at this or Mirror Kingdoms to start with him, which would you reccomend?
>>8058468
lol shit expands, you've got a looming way to go.
It's worth it though.
>>8054973
>Any obscuremaybenotsogreat authors you'd like to share?
Gerard Klein. Overlords of War was a fantastic ride. There was, like, this monster that could naturally time-travel that got bred for cavalry use, and this dimension where alien gods keep humans and force them to continually fight to show them the futility of war, except this time-traveling cavalry can break out whenever they want.
Also Patricia Anthony. Cold Allies had this video game nerd running a tank drone against Arabs invading France. There was a really cool scene where the soldiers his drone is with get nerve-gassed and he can't do anything about it.
>>8055023
You sound like you haven't actually read anything by Sanderson. His characters suck, his prose sucks, but his ideas and originality are just fine.
AND sandersonfags never go on about how their nihilist fantasy is so great because it subverts things.
Anyone got any good recommendations for something celtic-ey or mythological sort of?
Maybe something similar to like Lavondyss or Mythago Wood but crossed with Lord Dunsany or Clark Ashton Smith?
Or should I just read more Leiber?
Fuck I don't even know what I want.
>>8059826
Only ever read The Last Unicorn.
Was good.
>>8059096
They're maps of the physical world and Platonic ideal world. In Platonic ideal world, water and land swap places.
And I didn't notice the Julia set, that's really cool.
>>8060862
FUND IT
>>8060913
Perhaps you would like "The Wizard Knight"
>>8060913
>Or should I just read more Leiber?
How far along are you? I'm just finishing up Swords Against Death.
>>8060898
Mirror Kingdoms is a good sampler - it has stories from Sleight, two other anthologies, and ones related to his Last Unicorn and Innkeeper's Song novels. From there you can figure out what you like best - of course, the drawback is the other short collections will all have at least one story you've already got in MK.
>>8058691
>that scene where he's makin' romance with the industrialist's daughter while Earth is getting nuked
>tearing that dude out of the Martian sensory deprivation colony and having a child telepath break his mind
>that burning man that pops out of nowhere the whole time
Loved it.
For more modern hype SFF, Golden Son was pretty good.
>>8060605
>The Icarus Hunt
That was pretty fun. All I remember was the bro-alien sending his psychic ferrets to scout ahead.
Zahn's pretty much a budget Alan Dean Foster, isn't he?
>>8060913
Lloyd Alexander, the Prydain chronicles. Also a lot of Diana Wynne Jones' stuff.
>muh YA
They're good authors.
>>8060913
Cherryh did a set with elements of celtic myth. They're not my favorites, though I've not read the edition with revisions and a new ending.
>>8061041
>They're not my favorites
By this I mean that anything Cherryh is recommended, but I wouldn't call these particular works representative of her aesthetic.
Rather, pre-80s Cherryh lacks some of her later polish.
>>8060954
How does it compare to Sleight of Hand?
I want to like Brent Weeks' work but it's hard, I love the plots but it's impossible to read them I keep getting disgusted by all the rape and how he handles women it's nauseating
>>8061308
Yep. The worst part is that he's clearly trying to write good female characters, but every time he has to introduce some sort of hardship for them he just defaults to rape or something that clearly has a rapey subtext.
>>8061191
I'd recommend Mirror Kingdoms, it's a bit longer (400+ pages vs a little under 300) and has more variety, like a "best of" rather than a standard anthology. You can't go far wrong with either, though.
>>8061308
>I keep getting disgusted by all the rape
He's clearly thinks that he's Le Edgy McEdgy when he writes rape but it actually comes across as tryhard fanfiction tier cringe.
You can just skip the pages though.
>>8061308
>>8061315
>>8061369
>>8061308
>implying lightbringer sluts didn't want it
They can't resist that Prisim dick
>>8061416
>gri
Oh boy you fags brought back the gay anon. I thought we got rid of him
I'm working on my own medieval-ish fantasy novel.
I have a thing in there that can grant any wish. It's not going to be used as a MacGuffin, but it will be an important point.
Would it be pretentious to call it the Heart of Darkness? My second choice is the Atom Heart.
How many memes did sffg spawn?
>>8061416
Gavin and Dazen sitting in a tree.
K I S S I N G
>>8061434
Center of oblivion, quark of nothingness, seed of infinity, womb of emptiness.
>>8061456
>Gay, Rape and Incest
>Not Literature, Reported
>Meme Wolfe...
>...and his follower, Absolute Aram
>ROTHFUSS IS SHIT SANDERSON IS ANIME
>>8061466
The god king fucked his kids, there is tonnes of GRI in Night Angel. But lightbringer?
>>8061478
Don't forget dinosaur, women can't write, little girl protagonist, is malazan good, charts
>>8061478
>>Meme Wolfe...
was even more popular when this general didnt exist
wolfe was in every other thread back then
>>8061482
Unless you countThe Logan'ing of Dazen aka Gavin Original by his identical twin brotherthere isn't much G or I in Lightbringer.
NA, on the other hand, is up to its neck in GRI.
>>8060935
Okay so there's no guns in space because (to borrow from David Drake's Surface Action/The Jungle and Battle Angel Alita) Earth's atmosphere got blown up by terrorists so the protection of the space stations/dome habitats became so paramount that possession of firearms became a automatic death sentence. So the various thugs and warriors of the solar system had to resort to fists and blades for plying their trade.
Eventually this developed into complex and secretive schools of martial arts derived from the half-remembered ways of Old Earth, each developing their own secret killing techniques and bionic combat enhancements in the hopes to best their opponents. However as time went on and the other planets were colonized, these techniques were gradually forgotten or where suppressed when the schools were destroyed during wars.
>>8061494
As he should be. I figured out There Are Doors this week. I only need like 7 or 8 more flashes of insight. (Evil Guest, Sorcerers House, Land Across, Castleview, Wizard Knight, Borrowed Man - can I solve them, or will they forgive me if I fail?)
>>8061492
Those only showed up the last few weeks
Any books with little girl villains?
>>8061588
little girls are a spook
>>8060605
>I've heard that apparently his Thrawn books are the only parts of the Star Wars EU that aren't shit.
Not true. X-Wing books are pretty good too. And the Revenge of the Sith novelization is better than the movie (not really an amazing feat, but still)
>>8061492
>women can't write
This one is true though, not a meme.
It's like saying "the sky is blue is a meme"
>>8061640
when you're 25 you'll wake up one day and it'll hit you when you see yourself in the mirror "wait... maybe i was the meme all this time?"
>>8061644
Actually that happened when I was 27
>>8061647
>Actually that happened when I was 27
>>8061669
Someone made a meme out of my face but it's not posted anymore.
>>8061674
M-marc? Is that you?
>>8060945
I'll look it up
>>8060950
Read all the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stuff, but none of his other works
>>8060986
Loved the Prydain chronicles when I was a kid
Haven't read any of Diana Wynne Jones' stuff, might as well read Howl's Moving Castle though everyone says its good
>>8061041
I'll check that out too
>>8061496
Read Finn Mac Cool it was enjoyable, haven't ever read anything else by Llywelyn might as well get back to it
>>8061674
>not posted any more
I'll have to fix that when I get wifi
Any science fiction with a little girl protagonist?
>>8061817
Honestly unironically really kill your fucking self.
>>8059376
>asoiaf is the best
He asked for something with a sold ending.
ASoIaF is beyond saving at this point and won't be finished within the next 10+ years.
>>8061308
It's not even the rape that is the worst, of course rape IS bad and very bad it's vile but the threat of rape is even worse than rape itself it completely takes away all agency from the woman and she has to submit to the patriarch instead of being able to apply herself ,and of course it also humiliates her and causes extreme emotional distress and humiliation that it's vile and gross and disgusting and horrid, it's fucking wrong and it should never appear in any book it's just wrong on so many levels
>>8061817
the marvelous land of oztip is actually a girl... or possibly they persuade him, err, her of it later
>>8061817
Yes the novel I'm writing right now.
It has a 7 year old little girl protag.
It may or may not be... well..
>>8062015
Some books deal with the theme of rape.
For example, Severian through the journey realises how it's pretty bad actually.
>>8062041
Oh my god I feel physically fucking sick from reading about Gor what the FUCK
>>8062041
I accidentally read Time Slave (dollar bin), Sapkowski had some real weird fixations. Terrible author
>>8062048
>triggered by vaginas anon gets tired of being ignored
(You)
>>8061674
Are you Maurice from /krg/?
The threat of rape always makes me incredibly hard, just knowing that she is about to have penis enter her makes me so stiff it hurts.
Nothing is hotter than clamping your girl's neck, and entering her from behind without permission.
>>8062102
No, he's Marc Aramini, writer and person on whom the first lit absolutely haram is based on.
Pic related.
>>8062115
I hope the next girl you fuck has vagina dentata.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagina_dentata
>>8062115
>anon is proud of the fact that no girl would ever willing fuck him
KEKKED
E
K
K
E
D͏
>>8062117
>mfw my OC became a meme
sorry, Marc, I never intended for this to happen.
Any good Japanese-inspired fantasy?
I was thinking of reading Tales of the Otori, anyone read?
>>8061492
>dinosaur
One retard spamming something isn't a meme, unless we're talking abatap levels.
>charts
Don't think sffg started charts.
>>8061572
>I figured out There Are Doors this week
What is there to figure out in There Are Doors? As far as Wolfe goes it seems pretty simple.
>>8062137
The only Japanese-themed fantasy I've read was the Lotus War series which I dropped after the second book. It's a steampunk fantasy thing with airships and shit and a fuckton of "Industrialization is ruining the environment", which I don't disagree with, but when it's portrayed as literally turning the air into mustard gas, the propaganda is too blatant to be readable.
Maybe try some anime? I hear Mushishi is pretty good.
>>8062137
Best Japanese fantasy is untranslated.
>>8062174
List of good Eastern themed shows:
Mushishi
Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away
Mononoke (different work than the princess, it's similar to Mushishi, but has longer arcs and is much darker in themes and atmosphere, so murder, abortion, incest etc. )
The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra
Natsume
>>8062192
Wow dude you sound like an anime pro. I bet your amount of watched shows is in the double digits, truly a master of knowledge...
>>8061817
I know you're not a real person, but if you were, you might like Cyteen. It's loli af, in the common parlance.
Have a cat smiley :3
>>8062192
>this triggers me
Avatar is a western cartoon drawn and animated in an eastern style.
>>8062139
I know for a fact that it's more than one person dinosaur posting. I did it more than once because yall get autistic when it happens. It's fun.
>>8062251
Does her senpai/oni-san do lewd things with her?
