/lit/ - Literature

So how about those video games being shit stories?

>>11665489
Eh, some of them are shite. Some are good entertainment.

The only thing that I think they do better than books is lore. Don't get me wrong, you can devote entire books to the weaponry of Warhammer but that form of exposition doesn't feel the same than playing a game and coming across a big poster with subtle references to a plague or something. IDK.

>>11665516
Personally, I think that simply being involved gives them a new dimension that books and films don't have. But judging by the argument in the previous thread, the whole thing seems largely a matter of taste.

>>11665503
Ok, so you're just retarded and have nothing else to say. Gotcha.

>>11665509
Cool.

>>11665452
So what are some good pulpy sci fi novels?

>>11665538
The Takers is pretty good.

Are there any novels about the positive aspects of transhumanism?

>>11665548
I think that the forever war dabbles on that towards the end.

>>11665489
>Roadside Picnic is a masterpiece of scifi novels
>Stalker is a great movie loosely based on it
>Stalker the video GAME is only good for atmosphere and gameplay

really makes you think

Recommend me some recent (2014-2018) fantasy books.

>>11665561
You're really dedicated in keeping this shitshow going, aren't you?

>>11665563
The Straggler's Mask is only a month old. I'm sure that qualifies it.

>>11665571
It takes two to tango just don't reply ;)

>>11665563
I don't like fantasy that much but I thought The Crimson Queen by Alec Hutson was good.

wheres the nude? im disappointed anon

>>11665578
when i publish my own book im going to shill it here

Downloads are found in the sticky, we finish this weekend!

By the way, I've decided that we're going to read one book/month in the future so we'll have a short pause until September first after we finish this book.

I don't get how the FTL 'spacetime-burnmarks' in 3BP was supposed to travel together with planets. much less stand still as observable pillars
Stuff like this happens in a lot of SciFi, and always bugs me, thinking about the fabric of space as an object in space
Why would a change to the fabric of space move around with a planet in orbit of a star, bouncing about in space.
Figure it would be more like an absolute set of unmoving coordinates, that everything else move around if you could see a part of spacetime that was different from the rest.

And even it the space moves and expands, why wouldn't it quickly diverge from the solar system?

>>11665548
Count to the Eschaton Sequence, just finished
Huge focus on transhumanism, good and bad
Weird books, the author had fun with 100s of small ideas that couldn't concur at the same time, so they occurred over a long period

>>11665489
Video games at best have OK storytelling, that gets praised too much.

>>11665452
Fucking Idiot
The New Thread goes at the top and you delete old threads from the bottom. Are you from Australia or something?

Who ever makes the next New Thread Use this.
Previous threads:
>>11665452
>>11659336
>>11643333
>>11631963
>>11609531
>>11602870

>>11665927
You forgot to mention the (embed)s

>>11665892
Plot particles, they make stuff work the way the book need.

>>11665137
You are wrong and probably gay.

Does anyone know whether it's possible to somehow download stories from wuxiaworld in ebook form? I want to read them on my kindle, but I'd need an epub or mobi for that.

I know of asionnovel.com, but their books are not perfect and constantly refer to the website.

>>11665578
Okay, dude, Imma read that book of yours. I hope you are at least a decent writer.

People here have been accusing Brandon Sanderson of being anime, but it turns out that Glen Cook actually is:
https://youtu.be/OX-cOA11my4?t=563

On a related note I'm on the last book of the Black Company series and I've really enjoyed it. How do his other works hold up?

>>11666329
Also something interesting about him from an interview:
> sequel to An Ill Fate Marshalling, but someone stole the manuscript box that had the manuscript and all developmental material in it, evidently sometime in the late 80s. I've found only pages 141-143 of the first draft, misfiled with another contemporary manuscript. (At about that time many things disappeared from my house, including dozens of scarce books, my only copy of my porn novel, and the mention manuscript. That was when we stopped letting fans come over and hang out. The culprit has never been identified.)

>>11666329
He has a comedy series about a private eye in a weird noir fantasy setting. IT's fun although I only have the first collection of three novels.

>>11666329
I read few Garrett P.I books, not bad but it wasn't my thing really. Also, Soulcatcher a best waifu. No, I'm NOT THAT anon.

>>11666329
Dread Empire is more high fantasy in tone and is rougher, very much a prototype of the Black Company books, but I liked what I've read of it.

Instrumentalities is great but gets cut short.

Garrett P.I. is good, they're detective stories. Not much to say about them beyond that.

The Dragon Never Sleeps is a very good scifi standalone. Starfishers is more of a coin toss, I didn't like the main series but the unrelated prequel Passage At Arms is a great Das Boot style story about a stealth ship.

The Tower of Fear is also apparently very good.

>>11665516
>>11665522
I feel like a first-person narrative could achieve the same effect, assuming the writer doesn't take the time to write an exposition essay on the topic later on. It's the idea of knowing only a small part of a larger story, and books generally don't do that since readers want to know as much as possible.
But video games are definitely more immersive, there's no question about that.

>>11665603
this t,b,h

>>11665892

This bothered me. The same with Sophons and how they operated.

>>11665548
Permutation City
Diaspora
The Golden Age
Count to the Eschaton

>>11665892
Maybe the "burnmarks" had mass and remained in orbit around the star. Of course, then it would have been relatively trivial to eject them from the solar system.

I agree it doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

>>11665917
I liked his take on how transhumanism can't fix all of your problems because of game theory.

>>11665563
anything not written by Joe

Just finished reading the entirety of Bakker's Second Apocalypse series from start to finish for the first time, completing Unholy Consult last night. Pretty uneven experience desu Everything has gone according to keikaku for Kellhus, right?

>>11665563
litrpg is the fantasy of this half-decade.

Is any decent, or at least not terrible fantasy book with crazy waifus?

>>11667428
>Is any
Are there any*

>>11667428
Oh, it's you again. Did you not like waldo rabbit?

>>11667428
no

>spend half a year reading nothing but wheel of time
>drop it
How do I get that time back lads?

>>11667428
>Soulcatcher anon misses one thread and we’re back to this question

>>11667428
Auri is complete bonkers, and there's the psycho waifu too. You'd have to put up with a whole book of cuckfuss, though.

>>11666100
here you go anon, along with hundreds of other xianxia epubs
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B13nhfwsSdwYQWJGcHlXcmF3STg

>>11667496
Read Malazan :3

>>11664802
>If you decouple it from the time in your life when you read it, you'll realize it's not that good. It's a fun read, but you won't lose much by skipping it.

Yeah Earthsea only pioneered several SFF concepts that most of the genre leans on while doing a better job incorporating them into the story without tripping over itsself. Seriously nigger?

> but you won't lose much by skipping it.
> but you won't lose much by skipping it.
> but you won't lose much by skipping it.


As opposed to what? Harry fucking potter?

>>11667509
Thank you. Where are those from?

>>11667509
It doesn't have the one I wanted. ;~;

>>11667562
So much awful thinking.

Just because other works are bad doesn't make it good.
Just because it's better than trash doesn't make it good.

There is too much good stuff to waste your life with something that is merely "better than garbage". Being the first one to do something usually means that someone else did it better later. The first one is usually stale and primitive.

If you want to convince anyone that reading Earthsea is worthwhile, you'll need to come up with actual arguments. As it is, you only show that people who can't think properly like Earthsea.

>>11659450
Thanks to these clowns the first thing that comes to mind whenever I see a woman win anything is that she didn't earn it, because she probably hasn't if the stated goal of the jury is to include a substantial number of women in a field that barely has any women and where normally only a tiny minority of all authors win. It's a question of statistics. If 1% of all people win, and there's only 5 people of a certain group, the probability of one of them being good enough to win is low.

>>11667655
it's there anon

>>11667648
some webnovel epubs discord i joined

Give me the top 5 web serials.

>>11667843
desolate era
coiling dragon
library of heaven's path
emperor's domination

>>11667721
Searching is pretty counter intuitive. By default it searches my drive. I have to right click a folder I want to search and select "search this", then the search gives me a server error, so I assume it should work.

Do you have an invite to that discord?

>>11667721
Also, can you please link it? There's a good chance the search doesn't work for people besides the owner of the account and I can't search all those folder manually.

>>11668151
>>11668138
sure, they make the folder public though so it should work
discord.gg/YpsJxm

>>11668162

>>11668169
4chan ate my test. Perhaps google is having problems in general. I was saying that it doesn't work for me and it's not a problem on my end.

anyone read this? how is it

>>11668232
the author ran this channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ogrx6d9oohf6D42G44j1A so i expect it not to be so bad

>>11667501
Stop obsessing you retard.

>>11667428
Soulcatcher. We need more fantasy books with waifus desu, just without cuckoldry or some Bakker's rape shit.

Listened to the three body problem, I have about an hour left on it and I'm not sure if I want to finish it. Is the second book significantly different? That was way too long without any real kind of payoff.

>>11665548
City and the stars

>>11668479
>Is the second book significantly different?
I meant to say BETTER, whoops

>>11665611
Be my guest.

Shill it in every fucking thread ever made. I will probably buy it too.

>>11667501
>decent or not terrible

I've got to admit: Black Company's second book isn't just awful, it's horrendous.

First, it spends a third of the book - at the very least, it might be more - on a washed-up cowardly bitch of an innkeeper in some random town. He mans up a little then fucks off out of the narrative basically forever. He's nothing more than a waste of pages.

Second, it's got a castle staffed by monstrosities, against which the Black Company conducts a siege. This ought to be awesome, but as far as I've read it consists of the following:
>the creatures of the castle attack, we lose X men but we get them contained
>[Limper/Whisper/Feather] fly overhead and do some magic shit, it does no appreciable damage
Repeat ad fucking infinitum.

RECOMMEND ME SOME GOOD COSMIC HORROR FUCK

>>11668723
First books was always the best one. There are some scenes in later ones that I liked but overall later books were just not that interesting.
Should have made a book about Soulcatcher, taking Croaker back and fixing her insane mind.

>>11668733
Some of the Discworld novels do pretty good shit with cosmic horror. The Dungeon Dimensions, sure, but there's also the Hiver and - my favorite - the Dark.

>>11668723
Speaking of Waifus, Feather was a waste, they made a qt taken couple.

>tfw a characters official art matches with your idea of them perfectly.

First time I read the hobbit I thought they were all a lot fatter than tolkien apparently intended them to be.

>>11668859
I always saw the dwarves exactly like Tove Jansson illustrated them... up until Peter Jackson ruined the image forever.

>>11668862
Don't get me wrong, that artwork's pretty delightful and the Hobbit movies have a lot to complain about - but they really did nail the dwarves.

>>11668859
i always imagined eggy as a cute goth loli

>>11668723
>>11668747
Soulcatcher a best.

When Croaker chopped her head off, I stopped reading the series. I realized at that point that Lady was going to be Cook's waifu insert and that nothing interesting or unexpected would happen. Skimming a few synopses only confirmed my suspicions, and then it even got worse with some silly mystical god child shit.

Lady is a virgin? Seriously, Cook?

>>11669032
>>11668747
>>11668431
>>11667498
>>11666365
fuck it, we need to have a poll

https://www.strawpoll.me/16320963
https://www.strawpoll.me/16320963
https://www.strawpoll.me/16320963

>>11668747
>>11668777
>>11669032
>post semilegitimate criticism
>responses are all about some two-bit character I didn't mention and don't give a shit about because "muh waifu"
Lovely.

>>11669073
>semilegitimate criticism

Dude, it's a trashy fantasy series for neckbeards. The writing is poo. The pacing is all over the place. The characters are ill-defined, interchangeable, and underutilized whenever they do show some personality.

Your criticism is wasted because it's either going to be read by people who already know the series is trash or people who are so deep into the /sffg/ abyss that they are pirating litRPG audiobooks for their fix and see Cook as a god in comparison.

You need to acknowledge this and focus on what matters: waifus.

Don't forget to vote in the poll >>11669066

>>11668955
Ditto, asians have a thing for long legs and everyone in the martial god asura world is like four meters tall.

>>11669032
Yeah, later books in general were pretty dull, the fun was in the North with all the Taken. Somebody should write a fanfic with Soulcatcher x Croaker, it wouldn't worse then with Lady.

>>11669247
legit through the books were going to turn into lady versus dominator with soulcatcher and the company stuck in the middle of it all

would have been a load more interesting than what we got

>>11667673
There's a lot of shit out there to argue against, Earthsea isn't the sword to fall upon.

>>11669262
It was not right to kill her off like this or even have her allied with Dominator. Author made her up as the best of the Taken, she wouldn't kill people just for the hell of it and would have made a better ruler. Company should have put her in power, stopped the war and as ironic twist did some good in the world at the same time fulfilling their obligations as mercs (which they broke at the start of the first book). I will never not be mad.

>>11667562
>he squanders his brief existence reading Le Guin when he hasn't even finished Wolfe's bibliography, let alone read the Solar Cycle for the second time

I'll pray for you, my negro.

>As he walked, he grew more and more excited. The road he walked was filled with blood and gore…
>The blood and gore of scores of wild animals, whose butts had exploded violently.
>“Bang!” Another furry animal in front of him screamed shrilly as an invisible attack struck its rear end, three times, until it exploded, sending a mist of blood spraying into the air.
>“Boom!” A foraging giant condor, not even landed on the ground yet, shrieked miserably, as if it were experiencing a nightmare. Then its butt exploded.
>“Bang, boom.” That was a fierce, human-sized tiger that had been about to pounce on Meng Hao. In mid-air, it emitted a terrifying roar that changed into a horrific squeal, whereupon its butt blew open, showering gore and blood everywhere. Perhaps because it had so much fur, it actually exploded five times in succession.
what the absolute fuck even is this

I am going to make a poll to gauge /sffg/'s taste. What else should I ask about? I'll try to put it up at the beginning of next thread.

>>11669354
Hold up. Fade-in sex? Fade in for the sex scenes and skip everything else?

>>11669356
Fade-out? Okay.

>>11669356
That actually sounds like it could make for a good book if you did it well. It's all sex scenes, but throughout the character behavior and dialogue you could get some ideas of greater context and bigger world around them.

>>11669372
I dunno about good, but that shit would probably sell.

I used to see The Way of Kings on a recommendation chart going out around here. I know Sanderson has some problems but I picked it up and started reading, and its pretty good. The world building is nice, the writing has an occasional bump in the road but isnt as awful as people here made it out to be. Has anyone here enjoyed the stormlight archive so far? Seeing as it used to be recommended I cant be the only one who actually kind of likes Sanderson.

>>11669354
Meme potential, being /lit/-patriciancore

>>11669390
SA is his best work by far. a lot of people liked book 1 and 2. 3 seems to be a lot more disliked

>>11669354
The degree of (over)explanation of magic/technology.
Grimdark and murdery vs optimistic and most people stay alive.
Also:
>dialog

>>11669390
I like it. And his whole Cosmere concept is nice. It might be too ambitious in the long run but it hasn't ground to a halt yet.

>>11669425
>The degree of (over)explanation of magic/technology.
Done.
>Grimdark and murdery vs optimistic and most people stay alive.
It's maxed out, but I can take off dialog and put this instead, since dialog and prose are linked, although personally I think they are distinct things. I've see books with good prose but when characters started talking it just felt completely off.

>$10k on paymetons for litrpg dogshit

Life's not fair, not even, not balanced, not right.

>>11669472
Which series?

There's a disney smut artist named sakimichan who makes like 30k a month drawing genderbent narutos with their tits out.

How does this make you feel?

>>11669489
Mad, because artists cry about how manipulated and used they are when a mediocre one can make a decent amount of money drawing. Meanwhile it's a lottery when it comes to writing unless you pander.

>>11669489
I'm pretty sure that they'd make more by pandering to furries and their fucktons of disposable cash.

>>11669365
Not /sffg/-related but fuck sex scenes. The book I am reading right now better have a fucking good reason for making me think of sex all day on a slow day at work like today.

>>11669512
What're you reading? That bunny-furshit that keeps getting shilled here?

I hear it's basically porn.

>>11669493
The tortured artist mystique is what gets artists laid though bro.

>>11669502
I mean, she's pretty much doing that already.

>>11669515
Kafka on the shore, hence not /sffg/-related. I much preferred the one fade-out sex scene in God Emperor of Dune.

>>11669467
>Not dialogue

>>11669512
Just masturbate to it.

>>11669536
At work? I'll see if I can hook up on my way home and if not I'll just deal with it myself.

What kind of person writes about a scary dog and suddenly start describing its dangling balls rather than the jaw or something dangerous? Must be because the author is a sexually repressed Japanese. The translation is getting sloppy towards the end as well, missed ,quotation mark, switching between currencies and minor details like that. The book is decent though and I only have 100 pages left so I'll have to finish it.

>>11669512
>fuck sex scenes
That's the point.

>>11665489
speaking of video games, is Peter Watts Crysis novel actually good?

>>11669711
>>11669705
>>11669720
Who's this cunt?

>>11669722
Some sci fi writer

>>11669662
The only thing worse than video game adaptations of books or films, is the opposite.

>>11669493
>Aspiring writer
>Have to go through hoops just to get criticism
>Aspiring artist
>"Boohoo my $1k patreon dropped to $500 after I got overwhelmed by all theae people wanting to buy my art and failed to deliver"

>>11669493
To be fair, it is harder to be a mediocre artist than a mediocre writer, and most writers don't even manage to reach mediocrity to begin with.

>>11669808
Neither do most artists.

>>11669390
Way of Kings is probably Sanderson's best novel. The problem with Sanderson is that he's bland, and while muh magic system might seem cool at first, it's actually not complicated enough to stay interesting novel after novel after novel. Blandness + volume = people get bored and talk shit, especially since Sanderson has shown zero improvement in his writing.

>>11669899
Way of Kings doesn't end with a fight straight out of Bleach so

Words of Radiance > Way of Kings

Why aren’t Ada Palmer and her series Terra Ignota talked about here more often?

She tackles gender more skillfully than Le Guin ever did, and she weaves a host of great characters with a fully fleshed out setting to create a tale combining theology, politics, and philosophy that uses a possible future to reflect upon the present day using thinkers of the past. And she does all of it while maintaining the thematic structure of 18th century literature, including tropes like the apology chapter. It’s exactly what I’d expect from a sci-fi-nerd/literature writing prodigy who never discovered her skill until after she spent decades becoming a history professor at Harvard.

The only reason she didn’t win the Hugo is because she doesn’t dumb down her vocabulary or style to make it digestible for a preteen. It’s the most unique book I’ve read in the past decade. Did /lit/ not like it?

>>11669073
Don't pretend you aren't interested in how two undead demi-god super mages would fuck.

>>11669908
>Ada Palmer
I remember reading some interviews and no thank you.

>>11669908
>Did /lit/ not like it?
Of course we did, which is why we'd rather gripe about something worthless.

Anyone have the latest scoop on niggers ruining the Hugos with their whiny nigger shit?

>>11669963
It's the same old. Let it be.

>>11669711
>I'm sorry but I don't interact with accounts who have fewer followers than inches in my cock
>he says while interacting with that account

>>11669792
Don't forget critiquing someone else's writing takes forever (if you don't have ass it) while it takes 10 minutes at most to criticize someone's art.

>>11669908
I've read the first two books (haven't gotten around to the third). When they came out, a lot of people here read them and liked them.

I liked them and I'll eventually get around to reading the rest of the series. There are several things I don't like about the books: the action advances at an absolute snail's pace, the 18th century structural and dialogue references while well-executed are also like many 18th century authors tedious, and there's a pervasive attitude of smugness about the whole thing -- her dialogue (which is most of the prose since the novels are written in the first person) sounds like Joss Whedon directing a movie about the ancient regime. Also, she clearly doesn't know as much about warfare/military history as about some of those other subjects and it shows.

Still, you're right about the merits and they outweigh what I criticized above. I do occasionally recommend it, but usually when people ask for recs here I don't get the impression they'd be interested in TLTL.

>>11668482
They are quite different. That's kinda the fun about the trilogy. The books take different aspects, and timescales and switch around a lot.

Dark Forest is pretty fucking good. Might be the best in the series.

Just finished RoEP trilogy. Feeling kinda bad cause I don't know anyone to talk about it.

Anyone?

>>11669908
Yeah I loved Too Like the Lightning, easily the best book I read last year. We talked about it a bit at the time, but as with any general, the conversation usually just returns to the norm (in our case mostly fantasy chit-chat).

I shilled it a fair bit, and I agree with all your points its an excellent piece of modern sci-fi, if not genre fiction. You wanna campaign with me to get it in the OP pasta lists? It's a new arrival but I think it's high quality has earned it a place in /sffg/'s recommended list.

What did you think of the third in series? Seven Surrenders was more consistent excellent, but I felt Will to Battle well a little flat in places.

>>11670066
The sophons were dumb and silly

There's no way a human body could function in a four-dimensional space since cell membranes etc are three-dimensional.

Cheng Xin a shit

Overall good though, felt like an improved Clarke.

>>11670066
Cheng Xin did nothing wrong.

>>11668232
>MC is a woman named Terra
seriously?

>>11670088
The Sophons fucked me up setepai. They were OP as fuck and felt unreal.

I have spent very little time in the fourth dimension mate. The books do say that the rules of the dimension are not well know. Bodys work there so I dunno. Didn't bother me.

Cheng Xin a shit. Weng Jie a shitter. Wade a good.

>>11670102
are you Canadian? That post was a wreck. Cheng Xin did wrong while trying to do right. Weng jie literally tried to destroy humanity so I hated her much more.

>>11670088
Only problem I had with the Sophons was the fact they couldn't read minds. Was this explained by the quantum operation of the human brain or something? I can't recall.

Imagine how crazy the book would be if they could read minds, Jesus Christ the story would be even more demented.

>>11670217
Even Wade, the most hardass guy in the entire universe and her absolute antithesis, understood that she was actually right and gave her a chance to veto him taking the wheel. He could have saved the solar system but her way was the way to restoring the universe.

>>11668733

Northwest Smith, every story is about a cosmic abomination from beyond the stars leading men to their doom with the magnetic powers of pussy

>>11670519
>Northwest Smith
Damn nigga. I know Jaos lolified the Mythhos but this is the first time I heard of cosmic horror poon tang.

>>11665489
Let's be honest, most are. You'll occasionally get a gem like Tactics Ogre or FFT which are made even more unique since it's a Japanese game, and Japanese games are notorious for shit stories/characters.

>>11670828
>gem like Tactics Ogre or FFT
Stop kidding yourself. They're only "gems" if you only have video game narratives as a frame of comparison.

>>11670896
Both have better narratives and characters than the vast majority of Fantasy novels that get shat out these days. Maybe you should stop kidding yourself.

>>11670929
Fine, but even the best video game still leaves far behind the best novel - and even the worst of those novels stands taller than the worst video game story ever written.

>>11670929
Who said most fantasy novels were good? Everyone in this thread knows most of them are fucking terrible, but the best of them go far higher than what the best of video games have to offer. I just pointed out that TO and FFT being considered "gems" says a lot in general about the state of "good" writing for video games.

>>11667496
>>11667532
just finished this, very good. about a farmers girl than runs off to be a mercenary

>>11670951
It's going to turn to shit from here on, though. Drop it now.

>>11670951
Does she lezz out with anyone?

>>11670418
Huh. Never thinked of t that way.

>>11669390
check out warbreaker by sanderson, its part of his Cosmere but unrelated to the main series.

So liberals write door stopper message-fic and right wingers trashy pulp. It seems impossible to have writers that care just about writing good stories without falling victim to cliches, conventions, or ideology.

>>11670964
pure virgin asexual maiden :3

>>11670959
1/4 way through the 2nd and its not that bad, when does the quality drop?

>>11671011
What if I wrote trashy door-stopper message pulp? Because I think I did.

>>11671011
KSR would like a word with you

>>11669903
i havent seen bleach but ive seen enough anime to know that the fight at the end is absolutely straight out of anime.
it was good though
>>11669390
the guy knows how to structure a novel with great payoffs. we enjoy sanderson, we just dont think he's the god reddit seems to think he is

>>11671021
>pure virgin asexual maiden :3
Hmm, not bad.

>>11671031
>All of the skyscrapers in the year 2140 are like miniature islands from the extremely elevated sea levels due to the effects of global warming
Yup. Another ideologue using fiction as a vehicle for ideological proselytizing. Do you think the hugo and nebula can ever be given to neutral authors?

>>11671021
>pure virgin asexual maiden
Picked up.

>>11671122
>rising sea levels is ideology
What would you consider neutral?

>>11670940
Furry orgy fantasy with unreadable prose included?

>>11671195
Yes.

You'd be surprised and sickened with what kind of drek gets put out in Steam these days.

>>11671150
Of course its ideology. Climate change vindicates all the things academia had been calling for through the decades (business regulation, environmentalism, aid to the third world). Fuck it, just look at this article if you don't believe me:
https://unfccc.int/news/gender-equality-crucial-to-tackling-climate-change-un
I would consider neutral a story that puts plot ahead of political themes. Anything short of that shouldn't be given the time of day.

>>11671236
No I wouldn't. Got one lewd game from there.

>>11671243
You're the one making a big deal of what could easily be a simple what-if statement to help create an interesting world to provide the setting for a book. Do you know for a fact that it's preachy or are you just making an ass of yourself?

>>11665892
There are no absolute coordinates, neither in space nor on Earth. Any position you specify is always relative to something else.

The hypothetical stuff called 'dark matter' seems to be bound to ordinary matter by gravitation. Could be the same thing with the burnmarks, though it's an obvious gap if the author didn't specify.

>>11671195
Where do I find these?

>>11671243
well then have fun reading dan brown instead.

>>11671381
According to at least one Amazon review, >>11665578

>>11669354
Absolute horse shit. You don't read at all do you.

>>11665489
They're not. Books can't compete with complex narratives like fnaf and baldi's basics.

>>11671487
That's not true! What about a masterpiece such as Twilight? You could never tell it in a video game without losing so much of its nuance and complexity.

>>11671492
Twilight would probably be even worse as a video game since you have gameplay padding out an already poorly paced and bloated story.

I think there's a market for shitty sci-fi romance novels for women.
>The Space Captain's Co-Pilot
>Passion of a Drone-ship Hangarboy
>The Intergalactic Spy That Shagged Me

>>11671528
I mean theoretically, if you did it really well, you could use the gameplay to fix the pacing a little.

Probably not going to happen, though.

This thread made me realize that of all my years playing video games I can't name a single one where I was engaged in the story. Even the ones with stories people love.

>>11671662
I can name maybe half a dozen.

Still more than books I was engaged in.

>>11671668
Name them

>>11671662
From this year I can name Far: Lone Sails, there's no dialogue or narration to distract from the story. Just desolate post-apocalypse sci-fi.

>>11665452
Listen you asshole. The > breaks link detection in every browser, and the fucking (embed) does nothing.

>>11671750
Go fuck yourself, nobody gives a shit.

Make the next thread and make it right if it's so fucking important.

>>11671750
must feel bad to be this retarded

>>11671761
I say it every thread. How fucking retarded are people

>>11671765
No one gives a shit about third world browsers / addons

>>11671689
Cave Story, Shovel Knight, Iji, Morrowind in a couple places, Super Metroid in one place, Shadow of the Colossus, LISA, three of the Final Fantasy games, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Planescape: Torment, aaaand I think that's all of them? I may have forgotten a couple.

Still rather more than I'd estimated there to be.

>>11671750
Some yahoo with 4chanx copied the autogen (embed) from their window a thread or so back and no one has subsequently removed it.
As far as the >, have you considered perhaps that we hate you?

>>11671750
works fine for me

need help remembering a story from childhood.

There was a girl mc and a golden dragon who had to keep some strange petrification snakes falling from the sky at bay for 3 days continuously breathing fire. I honestly only remember that, they may have been in an old tower.

If anyone can run me an assist thanks.

>>11671843
Sounds vaguely like one of the Pern books.

>>11671843
Anon is right -- it has to be Pern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonflight

Ok guys, I'm going to read The Wandering Inn

>>11671851
>>11671906

thank you boys, I ended up finding earth sea on my own and that was a blast to read! There is only one more, but it was really complicated and its hard to build a coherent message about it.

Thank you all, it's hard to say how much that meant

To people that cry about structured Magic systems and want something random I recommend The novel Nightlord Sunset. Didn't expect to enjoy this so much.

Who here works at goodreads?

They copied my dragon on sffg books meme.

>>11671987
post yours

>>11669908
She just needs to become black and she'll win a Hugo three years in a row.

>>11672011

>>11671910
>web serial
>leveling system
>female main character
No thanks.

>>11672084
It's said to be the best litrpg yet. I have to confirm whether or not this is the case.

>>11672085
>litrpg
If you want further proof as to why video games will always have shit stories, just ask yourselves what's the gaping hole in litrpg as a genre.

>still no "xenophilia essentials" chart

>>11672134
Post books with alien babes

>>11672085
Does she have a harem?

>rate my magic system bros

>>11672294
It will never work.

>>11672294
Why are people so obsessed with complex and unique magic systems? I mean if you can properly write one then go ahead, but if you can't just stick to the old "people shooting lighting out of their asses because why the fuck not" system of magic. I find that a lot of authors who go out of their way to break fantasy tropes just end up going full retard. Abercombie is a good example of this. First Law and Broken Empire are good examples of trying too hard to subvert old fantasy tropes to the point where it just becomes an unintentionally hilarious edgefest.

>>11670979
Is there anything else like this in the series? It seems to be a whole bunch of books although I enjoyed stormlight 1/2, 3 was a pain to read through.

>>11671420
>>11669354
>Intricate vs simple prose
>POVs
These are the plebbiest things to rate books on

>>11672080
Dragons with books aren't a new idea.

>>11669354
The fuck is original world building vs classic world building? Are you just making up terms?

>>11669354
This list looks like it was made by a person who doesn't read and has no idea how to describe the components of a book or story.

what do you think Jasnah's pussy taste like?

>>11672579
I took it to mean original worldbuilding vs. a fresh take on elves and orcs. Maybe being too generous though.

>>11670951
Should be Sheepfarmer’s Slaughter. They missed a great title.

>>11672596
That's got fuck all to do with world building, that's just talking about how original the setting is. World building is an active process.

>>11670085
I wasn’t able to finish Will to Battle. After Bridger killed himself I just got so down about the whole thing that I couldn’t bring myself to read much of the third book. It crushed my hopes.

>>11672294
>*neutrino has mass in your path*

>>11672512
>>These are the plebbiest things to rate books on
You know, you don't actually have to vote on them. If you think they don't matter, you just skip it.

>>11669792
>>Have to go through hoops just to get criticism
Outside of the billions of forums?

>>11669808
Wouldn't say so. It's just easier to tell when someone is a mediocre artist. Writing is even more subjective to a point, when it's probably more about the topics you write about.

>>11669980
Critique isn't necessary going all the way and offering suggestions. It still takes longer in the end either way but not that much more unless we're talking about something huge.

>>11671243
>Climate change vindicates all the things academia had been calling for through the decades
Almost like reality doesn't give a shit about your politics.

>>11672331
Probably because they people who write them are gaymers. Besides, humans generally like understanding shit and order, so something very complex and yet something they can have a control about is appealing.

>>11669354
Where the fuckety fuck are the fucking themes?

>>11672735
This is Plebland. We recognize no themes here.

>>11672582
You misunderstand. The intent is not to rate books, but to rate anons, in particular /sffg/. I just want to know what is most appreciated in this particular thread. Of course, since you yourself did not answer to the question in the post by stating what you consider important, I take it you either can't read or you are some kind of pretentious outer-lit faggot, in which case I really don't care what you think of the list.

>>11672735
What do you suggest? Keep in mind you'll have to take something out since the choices are maxed out already.

I've been trying to find a site I saw before that was similar writing.com though specialized in science fiction and not shit but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called.

>>11672827
Your terms are either too vague or are nonsensical. It's like you've never talked with another human being about why you like a book and are just guessing at what words mean.

I want to write this but on a spaceship that's been lost in the middle of nowhere for hundreds of years

>>11672864

>>11672827
Maybe being more efficient with stuff like POVs/waifus/sex, making it more of yes/no, incase of POV multiple/singular.

>>11672869
Got it.

>>11672859
You too are being vague. It's a list, how hard is it for you to point out "I don't really get what you mean by 'x'"?

>>11672827
>I just want to know what is most appreciated in this particular thread.
Might as well answer for myself: I think the thing I pay the most attention to is the conflict, if it's shit about some faggot saving the planet or his marriage, I couldn't care less, whether it's told from intricate multiple POVs of waifus that have sex written in the best prose a human can imagine or not.

Now after a compelling conflict which is tricky to put in a list obviously; probably the characters being interesting, which is just as vague. The rest just has to serve them.

Guess another point one could've include in the list would be plot, something like full of twists vs simple going by beats.

>>11672902
That's too large, it won't fit. Think of something else.

>>11672962
Maybe the scale? Personal - global, internal - external. Don't know, mate.

>>11672970
That sounds pretty good. But I am too tired to think right now, way past my bedtime. Hopefully I can finish this before the next thread is up.

>>11673018
Classically, breakdowns would go something like this:
Sci-fi vs fantasy
Character-based vs plot based
Man vs man, man vs society, man vs himself. (Genre is almost always Man vs man however)
Stand alones vs epic series vs related book series

I think Romance vs Not Romance is useful but I'm not sure why you would need to breakout Waifus as separate from romance

>>11671122
>global warming is ideology
t. massive brainlet

>>11671243
I asked about raising sea levels, you brainlet, because that is what the book is mainly about.

>>11671011
Right-wingers write unpretentious fantasy and sci-fi for the most part.

>>11673844
Okay, but it's still trashy pulp with no greater value than to entertain us for the five minutes it takes to read through all of it.

>>11673844
>unpretentious
Propagandistic.

>>11673847
And what are your examples of this trashy right-wing pulp?

>>11673859
Gor.

>>11673851
Nice try, Jemisin.

>>11673847
Why would you bet upset over something that entertained you? Which was its original purpose.

>>11673861
Gor is for fapping. You don't have to be right wing to enjoy it either. I mean I would probably fall more to the "right wing" side of politics and I don't agree with treatment of women in Gor, though granted most of them just start enjoy it. I guess that's why these books were popular with women back in the day.

>>11669353
It's "I Shall Seal the Heavens" by Er Gen.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/i-shall-seal-the-heavens/

>>11672585
liek my cum

>>11671021
>pure virgin asexual maiden :3
Just like me but I'm not a girl. Picked the fuck up!

>>11671021
>>11671048
>>11671126
>>11674354
She gets gangraped later.

>>11674360
aww

>>11674360
Picked the fuck up!

>>11674360
>turns out shes just a side character the real mc raped

>>11667843
1. Unsong
(that's it, I haven't finished anything else)

>>11667843
I got a few chapters into Worm before I gave up in disgust. Yet seeing as it's the only webnovel I've ever read, it will take the position you ask as top one by default.

>>11672331
Because after you get redpilled by the modern scientific mindset, you constantly try to engineer everything. So it's hard to stay invested in the story when you keep coming up with questions like "why didn't he just use that magic before" or "why don't they use the teleportation ability to power a perpetual motion engine".

So either your story gets accused of relying on deus ex machina, or you write something with barely any magic available to main characters (like Tolkien) or you get something with implied RPG stats.
So you end up with more like a superhero story set in medieval times rather than an attempt to rewrite your own Beowulf. Which is fine by me, but then again I don't read that much fantasy anyway.

Hopefully the anon from the dark matter thread reads this as the thread died before I could reply:

>>11673282
>>11673282
>couldn't the assumption be simply 'we don't have the theory to make sense of it'?
That is essentially what has happened. Only pop-sci plays it as if dark matter exists 100% confirmed. If something looks like a banana, acts like a banana, smells like a banana but its purple, call it a 'purple banana' and start by studying banana pigment.

Again no one is assuming that our gravitational theory is 100% correct, it's just that they can't figure out how to explain the theory and the 'inconsistencies' in a better way than with our current model + dark matter.

>To imagine an entire other category of matter instead seems like a massive leap.
Well at a point in time we thought atoms were the fundamental building block of matter, then we saw inconsistencies in chemistry and thought that there might be sub-atomic particles....

>>11672331
>Why are people so obsessed with complex and unique magic systems?
i think it has to do with capturing the imaginations of the readers and helping them daydream about the setting (it is about worldbuilding, after all). So, in a system like Mistborn with well-defined magic, you could think to yourself "hey, I wonder if a Lurcher or a Coinshot could use their powers to enable transportation (trains, boats, etc.)" or talk with your friends "hey, which kind of misting do you wish you were?" Nerdy AF thoughts, sure, but i think a lot of people like having these thoughts. and a loose or poorly-defined "system" of magic doesn't really enable these thoughts/conversations.

Do you guys read non-fiction fantasy here?
I have to say it's my favorite genre at the moment?

>>11674886
>non-fiction fantasy
i... don't understand.

>>11674886
Mythology?

>>11674934
Nah, non-fiction fantasy.

>>11674904
Brainlet.

>>11674943
>being called brainlet by animeposting true-fantasyposter
I can't even

>>11674886
>non-fiction fantasy

So, in-universe educational/historical/memoir books that would be considered non-fiction in the universe they're set in?

>>11674628
Worm is a good example of why first impressions matter because the first few chapters reads like YA novel with bullied female protagonist who meets cool group of friends that brings her out of her shell#432445r324324. Hope when it gets edited and published that the author restructures that and the timeskip.

>>11675485
All right, but how much better does the story get after that?

*laughs in different voices*

>>11675505
Different anon here, but it's just as shit but in a different way.

>hurr the superman analogue is actually a depressed giant alien and decides to kill humanity

>>11674886
>non-fiction fantasy

>>11675521
Hot damn it's been such a long time since I've seen that image.

>>11674886
Is this the designated bait post?

>>11675541
>tfw I get that response literally every time I post it
Feels good man.

Are there any books that cover an explosive expansion of human civilization after the discovery of a fast means of travel?

>>11675505
It's spoilery, but the school and bullying stuff barely come up anymore and it's pretty much the main character fighting with the other villain groups, trying to fight off city/country/world destroying threats, and hardcore mental gymnastics to justify doing some shitty things. I'd only really recommend it if you like capeshit and like the idea of a well thought out "grimdark" capeshit setting where the main character has a seemingly shit power against other capes who have weird/obtuse powers as well. If the doesn't sound appealing then don't waste your time. I don't read/watch capeshit, but I liked it despite its glaring flaws like the pacing and points where the prose gets awkward and you can tell the author was probably trying to get those chapters up before his self-imposed deadline.

Has anybody ever done orcs in space?

>>11675514
Best waifu.

>>11675707
?

>>11675707
making one right now

>>11675720
Looks cool, what's this?

>>11675730
Are you serious?

>>11675734
You could have at least also told me what it was

>>11675739
If you don't know what it is already, then you've been living in a barrel to such extent that us telling you what it is isn't going to help you.

>>11675749
Oh fuck me what the fuck is all this shit

>>11675739
>You could have at least also told me what it was
I guess. Warhammer 40k.

>>11675766
>>11675767
Are there space commies?

>>11675781
Yes.

>>11675749
I didn't know what it was.

jk I play nids

>>11675798
tranny or a girl?

>>11675839
Nids are cool fuck off

>>11675858
So tranny.

>tfw decided Soulcatcher was best waifu before she was revealed to be a woman
I had a feeling, but that was enough.

>>11672512
>Dragons with books aren't a new idea.
>knowledge is the greatest treasure, more so than gold
You don't say

>>11674360
>5 days of torture and rape
This will appeal to some anons.

>>11676018
It appeals to me because it's the accurate fate of women picking up a sword and trying to run onto a battlefield. If they don't get raped by their foes they'll eventually get raped by the men on their own side. The only way to avoid this is to pull a Joan of Arc and try to pass yourself off as a guy, but that comes with it's own set of problems.

>>11675933
>tfw we could have had an empire ruled by catcher and Lady would be taken
Croaker more like choker

>>11676074
Have you read Ties that Bind by Rob J Hayes?
In the first or second chapter the woman swordsman character just drops her pants when ambushed by a bunch of men

>>11676074
Oh! Oh! I thought up a new shill!

The Straggler's Mask contains no less than three women disguised as men, although no one has yet found all of them: desu it probably has more to do with my writing inadequacies than any kind of subtlety.

Be the first to identify all three of them and I'll think of a prize to give you.

>>11676090
So you admit to calling them steamed hams despite the fact they are obviously grilled?

>>11676102
It's a regional dialect.

>>11676114
Ahuh, what region?

>>11676133
Uh, upstate Gondor.

>>11676145
Really
Well I'm from Near Harad and I've never heard anyone use the phrase "steamed hams"

>>11676087
Not enough goodreads reviews are complaining about misogyny for me to buy it.

>>11676168
Oh, not in Near Harad, no; it's an Ithilien expression.

>>11676179
Author probably isn't popular enough
She gets bought from a brothel at like 9 years old

>>11676090
Nobody cares about your shitty book no matter how much you shill it on here anon.

>>11676190
I see...
You know these hamburgers are quite similar to the ones that sell at Mordor burger

>>11676211
Oh, ho-ho, no! Patented Shill Burgers. Old family recipe!

>Uni campus only has one fucking post office
>It's all the way on the other side of campus
>Finally get there
>Line is long as shit

Give me a book with the angriest and edgiest protagonist/main cast ever. I don't give a fuck anymore.

>>11676223
For steamed hams...

>>11676224
Elric.

>>11676224
Prince of Thorns lmao

>>11676224
Court of Broken Knives

>>11676224
The Way of Shadows

>Rand STILL won't kill women
Don't think this semen slurping series is for me

>>11676397
Why should he kill women?

New Thread
>>11676482
>>11676482
>>11676482

>>11676447
They're awful

>>11674676
> "why didn't he just use that magic before" or "why don't they use the teleportation ability to power a perpetual motion engine".
Because sometimes these decisions are matters of moments and people forget that they can do certain stuff? Especially if the character is new to magic.

Hell even in fucking vidya, the players usually have all skills available to succeed but forget that they have some or use the wrong ones at the wrong moments.

Disregard to logistic and public opinions during war is much more problematic.

>>11671781
>Iji
You're my absolute nigga.