/lit/ - Literature

What do you want out of a book discussion?

>>16063181
Knowledge.

>>16063166
fuck branderson
fuck abercrombie
fuck rothfuss
fuck martin
fuck female authors in general
fuck grimdark
fuck maps
fuck the chosen one
fuck trilogies
fuck sagas
fuck chronicles
fuck grimdark
fuck sci-fi
fuck female protagonists
fuck chinkshit
fuck trite revenge stories
Fuck magic systems
Fuck world building

>>16063272
Fuck (you).

>>16063272
Based

>>16063272
tell me of your stream of consciousness fantasy standalone

>>16063272

>>16063272
So you want a story about a boy who lives at home and has a fantasy about themselves written by you?

>>16063181
Recommendations
I lurk here 99% of the time and the more you guys talk about books you like, the more I read. You've been slowing down though.

The one time I actually had something new to discuss the thread vanished

>>16063612
You can tells us now, friend.

>>16063725
oh it was just that someone whose opinions I actually trust said that Harrow is bad compared to Gideon the ninth

Supposedly gets even worse for the informal online inspired dialogue to the point where it drags you out of the setting

>>16063736
>the informal online inspired dialogue to the point where it drags you out of the setting
but, that is the setting. i didn't mind it in the first book, thought it was fun.

If i didn't like Assassins Apprentice by Bobbin Bon, should I give the Liveship Traders books a try?

>>16063906
probably not

>>16063272
Fuck E William Brown
Fuck dark elves
Fuck authors milking their readers through paywall and never releasing the book because it's better to sell the book a chapter a month for 5 bucks a month, than to release the book in one go.

Why aren’t you reading Worth the Candle yet, /sffg/? It’s an ongoing fantasy novel in the growing genre of rational fiction by seasoned author Alexander Wales, and it is absolutely amazing. It tells the story of Juniper Smith, a not so ordinary high-school student who suddenly finds himself whisked away to the magical land of Aerb for no apparent reason and imbued with extraordinary powers patterned after RPG abilities.

Sounds like just another LitRPG Isekai story, right? Well, sure, but only in the same sense that Worm is just another superhero story.

And BTW, it is NOT fanfiction, so you can read it no matter what books or shows you have watched (though some familiarity with RPGs, either pen-and-paper or videogames, is strongly recommended).

>>16063977
>Fuck dark elves
Shut up, scum, or I will have witch elves flay you alive, cut off your cock and feed it to you.

>>16064025
but what is rational fiction anon?

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/34169/blood-queen-ssyba

Title: Blood-queen Ssyba

Synopsis: Ssyba is a turbulent figure: ruled by hunger and animal fear, ancestor to a prehistoric specie of apex predators, in the present day disgraced to mere pets and curiosities but still very much swayed by an instinctual will. During a night chase she is poisoned, assaulted from the cover of darkness and left dying in the streets. As consciousness streams from the head wound, she is met with a destiny that she can't deny.

The setting presents an Earth burned and rendered sterile. Societies bundle together on the edge of planet-wide deserts. And under the tormenting photon-shower of the sun, a dour plot is struck in order to bring again an ancient dynasty.

Chapter 4 was posted a couple hours ago. Eagerly waiting for feedback.

>>16064088
Hey, I seen you on storythread.

>>16064025
>rational fiction
*voms*

>>16064113
These 2 are pretty much the only threads I post in. Sometimes I go on /his/ for the memes and /adv/ for edge but otherwise I stick to writing / fantasy threads.

>>16063272
Based

>>16063906
No, don't read hobb

What is some good modern sword and sorcery?

>>16064088
This chapter felt a bit rushed compared to the others? I like where you're going, but it took some effort to stay in the reading flow. Didn't really get your "virgin violence" image, but that may just be me.
It's possible I was in a more critical frame of mind.

Why should I read Bakker if at all? And if you say that I shouldn't read him, what should I read instead?

>>16064375
Thanks. I can get really bloated with text if I want to. I ca strewtch an image for hundreds of words, so I took some anon's criticism to heart and trimmed the fat off a little bit. It was still 2700 words, so the chapter itself was not shorter. Maybe it felt rushed because Fagan Stabs as a character is meant to make things happen? In this sense he pushed the plot forward and we'll finally see action in the coming chapters, since Ssyba is now on the hunt, so to speak.

>>16064375
Oh and ''virgin violence'' was meant to represent the pure nature of animal slaughter. When a lion kills a gazelle, it's a thing of nature. It doesn't need planing, it's moved by chemicals and hormones. It's raw, animated by instinct and ferocious in execution. It's virgin.
When humans kill, especially assassins in relation to the story itself, it's a sterile business. It's formal, planed and premeditated. It's a fabricated making of death, it's a known thing. It's not virgin.

Post 'em, dickbags.

>>16064242
Tales from the Magician's Skull

>>16064060
Rational fiction is fiction in which characters behave like real, intelligent people would in their situations rather than like morons whose actions are dictated by the script or like fake "intelligent" characters who only get things right because the plot says so rather than for any logical reason. Bonus points for using real world-concepts from economics, mathematics, physics, etc. to their advantage.

An example from Worth the Candle, at one point Amaryllis conducts a stand-up meeting with the other members of the party. When one of the characters complains about the discomfort of standing and suggests that they use chairs in their next meeting, Amaryllis replies that she did it on purpose to keep the meeting short. This is a real-world management technique.

Another example, from a rational fanfic (whose name I won't mention because the fandom it belongs to is forbidden), is a character who is looking for a magical artifact. She manages to construct a compass that points directly at the artifact, and to her surprise the compass points up at the sky. She thinks "Aha! The artifact is hidden by floating invisibly in the sky!" but as she teleports around to try to triangulate its location she notices that the compass doesn't move a millimeter. She gets a bad feeling and teleports home, over 100 kilometers away, and since the compass still hasn't moved, she decides to estimate the distance between her and the artifact by using theta < 0.1 degree as an upper bound. She solves the trigonometry problem by taking the multiplicative inverse inverse of the tangent of theta (600 after rounding) and multiplies it by the more than 100 km she traveled to get a lower bound of 60,000 km. She concludes, correctly, that the artifact she is looking for is hidden in space.

Basically, think hard sci-fi, but also for fantasy, and the realism applies not just to the fantastical elements but to anything of importance.

Just finished Nexus by Ramez Naam. Fucking awesome book, my first ever sci-fi book. Gonna read a different book now just to let me savour what I've just read and give my mind a break. Then, I'm gonna hop back onto the second book of the trilogy. Excited.

>>16064523
>math problems
Get out, nerd.

>>16064523
So 'Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City'?

>>16064314
Rogues of Merth is a blatant homage to Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser, but the stories are fun and enjoyable.

>>16063589
If you joined the goodreads group you'd see a lot of more of what people are reading and reviews of it.

>>16064523
https://www.amazon.com/Legend-10-Elemental-Masters/dp/0615348130

>>16064526
Which means you have nothing to compare it to so that means nothing.

>>16064375
>>16064483
And let me add one last thing. Context is important
>Ssyba felt a warmth spread over her (...) in anticipation of the slaughter to come. In a spasm she could unleash such virgin violence.
It's related to the previous thoughts of domesticated nanza. She took a glance at herself and saw her claws, and understood what could be done. That was the whole theme of this chapter, the conflict between nanza nature and what reality demands of them. They're basically domesticated tigers even though most nanza did not comprehend it. Someone at odds with their true self is bound to suffer and despair.

>>16064523
>>16064025
I don't read hard scifi, you think I will read hard fantasy?

>>16064498
>only 66
>laughs in antisocial

>>16063166
has anyone read this? i really liked it.

>>16064523
If you think that's what hardsf is then you're autistic AND crazy

>>16064432
Ah, not the pacing, that was fine. Don't remember thinking previous ones were too bloated either, but might need a critical reread. Meant more the uh, roughness. Perhaps your earlier wordiness eased me into the imagery and the trimming made me have to stop and review a bit to catch your intent.

>>16064780
Oh I see. This chapter was indeed more filled with dialogue. Maybe that's why? Earlier in the story I had a lot of static and descriptive paragraphs, but in this one chapter I had things happen to Ssyba instead of having Ssyba ponder about things. Though, when I re read it, she is still her usual contemplative self.

I don't know, maybe it was really a bit harder to get into this chapter. Maybe I'm getting too familiar with the character and didn't ease the reader this time.

What you fags reading?

>>16064914
The Gentleman's Guide to The Golden Age of Blowjobs.

Potentially a silly question, but how acquainted should I be with Hinduism and Buddhism before reading Zelazny's Lord of Light?

>>16064914
Sword of the Lictor

>>16064602
I can compare it to the non sci-fi fiction books I've read.

>>16064616
Can you stop. Some shilling is tolerated but this is too much and it is not even fantasy or sci fi just some porn in scifi set.

>>16064523
3rd Example. In canon Harry Potter, Voldemort needs to hide pieces of his soul to be immortal. What does he do? He picks precious historical artifacts like Ravenclaw's Diadem and Hufflepuff's Cup and stores them behind a bunch of traps and monsters and obstacles. He's thinking like a videogame RPG villain.

In the rationalist fanfic Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (http://www.hpmor.com/)), Voldemort horcruxes the Pioneer plaque before it leaves the solar system. Not content with that, he make further horcruxes and drops them into a random spot of open ocean, encases them in tungsten and drops them into an open volcano so they will fall down to the Earth's core, makes one invisible and buoyant so that it will float in the atmosphere forever, and a fourth one he simply hides in a random cubic meter of Earth in a random spot on Earth's surface.

>>16065158
4th Example. In the rationalist post-singularity novel S.I. by DataPacRat (
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_ZcUba_GKVCm_i2VeGrfSBBxC8pR6VZC5VBBUVKKxYk/edit)), the main character ends up immobilized to the point that the only thing they can control is their breathing. Other characters are quick to communicate by reciting letters of the alphabet (the MC takes a deep breath when they get to the letter she wants), then the MC further improves their communication by suggesting tap code instead, which is a real system used by POWs during the Vietnam War.

Also from the same novel, the MC has to talk to a hostile, captured AI of unknown intelligence. The MC takes all sorts of precautions, like setting up a deadman's switch that will pull the plug on the AI if she lets go of a button. The boxed AI tries to escape by torturing an AI friend of the MC which it has itself captured (or maybe it was just pretending to, nobody knows) and the MC resolves to ignore it because game theory says you should not give in to blackmail (only reason someone would blackmail you is because they think you will give in).

Wheel of Time is probably still my favourite, all in all. It's just such a shame the pacing suffered for so long.

>>16065158
Doesnt he need to get them back at some point?

>>16064946
You can read it with no knowledge and it'll be very good but it's even better if you're familiar with the hindu gods and the basics of the buddha story.
The Mahabharata and Ramayana are both very good reads but that's way too much of an investment, so just wiki the main ones if you didn't even do that in school.

>>16064914
Too Like the Lightning. I like it so far. The type of narration, it was a surprise when I started reading that it even has a stylistic choice, akin to a 18'th century philosophical novel, is actually interesting.

>>16065108
Not him but did yiu even read it? I mean im not ok with shilling either but this thread is basically ass bait posts and chart fags. I, for one, welcome our writer overlords

>>16065211
>>16065158
>>16064523
>>16064025

>>16065838
SF makes you want to be absorbed in the moment with the book. Preferring to be alone isn't bad imo.

>>16064523
Sounds like Hinton's Scientific Romances.

>>16065211
While some of your examples are interesting, others seem basic or just even a little dumb in some sense. In the sense that it stops being an interesting Narrative and starts being wank about what I read on Wikipedia recently. And the whole tone of your opening introduction seems to infer that fiction that lies outside of the works that label themselves "Rational fiction" is inherently irrational and stupid. This just serves to illuminate your analphabetism and unfamiliarity with fiction outside of children's books like Harry Potter or simple adventure stories.
So you just read books written by nerds who think way too much about " all of the cool stuff I, a misunderstood genius, would be able to do if I would have a wizards wand or would be magically transported into a computer role-playing-game and have all the cool spells. I'd tape six wands together to make a wand-shotgun to blow away all the other boring wizards with no imagination" - they would think at night, alone in their beds, one hand under their pajammies.
Good stories need compelling characters, and if every character is an over-analyzing, over-planning and improbably autistic it gets old real fast. Nitpicking children's books like Harry Potter is not really a compelling Narrative in the long run. And how much really would you be able to read about someone introducing SCRUM or AGILE or whatever other "modern and therefore superior" management system to medieval blacksmiths. Try reading something new to you, you might be impressed.

Just started reading "The stars my destination"
I'm taken aback by the protagonist being meh and unambitious and suddenly he knows everything about everyone and wants to find that damn ship, even if the ship probably didn't even fucking see him and just went by, checked the wreck and fucking left. Nobody owes that bastard anything.
I'm only a few chapters in and maybe things will change, but so far I hate the protagonist so much that I can't force myself to keep reading it because of him.

>>16065935
you're supposed to

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6308379-the-child-thief

This sounds pretty interesting reading the first review. Anyone read it?

>>16065935
Did you miss the fact that the destroyed ship and the other one are owned by the same company? Or that they never bothered to thoroughly check for survivors?
>Nobody owes that bastard anything.
Are you American and/or a /pol/tard?

>>16065935

I also just started it really liked the opening describing the jaunte and how it influenced space travel

>>16066053
No I haven't missed it. I'm sure it's a plot point to be explored, but right now it's not enough to keep me going. I WILL keep going though. I want to read it and jaunting is interesting, although I'm more into high concepts. I would have liked NO LIMITS for teleportation, but that's just me.
And no, I'm not american and definitely not a poltard. Why is that even important?

>>16066240
Imagine if you were on some BP oil platform in the middle of the sea that underwent some disaster. You're the sole survivor, you send a distress signal. BP sends a ship but they never check for survivors.
In what ultra capitalist hellscape would you not be owed the bare minimum of human decency? That's why I asked if you were American.
The ship that checked the MC was into some sketchy shit as well.

So, I want to start writing a story set in an alternate present day Earth. Sometime in the dead memory of history, it has been discovered that humans can become entirely or partially permeable, allowing them to physically pass through matter as if through thin air. At first it was hell, since people basically went full permeable and fell through the earth to the planet's core. However, this has been studied and is now an accepted field of activity.
Present day Earth is very different. Some technologies have stagnated or even reverted back to their antique counterparts, there are no guns or firearms, the arts of poisoning and psychological warfare are much more developed since permeation still can't save you from an illness or mind fuckery (depending), some technologies exploded in advancement. There is free energy, superconductors and electromagnetic levitation. Buildings are constructed for sheer area space and we are no longer limited to the surface. Cities deep inside the earth on the edge of inner earth seas are common, or at the bottom of the oceans since permeation can allow you to travel there without feeling the pressure.
Mind sciences are also more advanced. Since permeation is total and absolute, you can't even see unless you permeate everything except your head (photons would just pass through you otherwise). There are mental exercises to help with visualization, in order to allow you to reach your desired location without seeing, hearing, smelling, etc etc. Also astral projection is a new field that is being studied. There are schools of permeation that wish to discover a way to only permeate cell-sized parts of the body, allowing for instant cure of cancer, viruses, bacteria.

So this is the world building part of the story. What do you think? I think I have a plot in mind.

>>16066354
funky ideas don't make a good story.

>>16064914
Ringworld. It's a book that by all means I should like, but my life is in fucking shambles atm, so it's very hard for me to enjoy anything.

Where is the anon(s) that chase away wannabe writers? These threads are slowly turning into people shilling their unfinished shit, or asking for help with their unfinished shit.

I'm reading Wheel of Time and they're describing the previous age, and it sounds fucking awesome, magic and hovercars. Any books with that feel?

>>16066601
Yeah bro, better post more charts

I fucking hate chart faggotry

>>16066053
Are you a chang or a wong?

>>16066323
>In what ultra capitalist hellscape would you not be owed the bare minimum of human decency? That's why I asked if you were American.
The average American makes more money than the average mutant in your country. Sit down. Be humble. Fuck off.

>>16066645
Not him but imagine viewing money as the end goal of human existence. Jesus christ I hope you;re a 4chan automated reply bot.

>>16064914
>What you fags reading?

>>16066655
>retard brings up MUH CAPITALISM
>gets schooled
>other retard brings up MUH MONEY
>schools himself
Please return to outer /lit/, marxshit. We have enough shitposters in here; we don't need the likes of you queers.

>>16063272
>fuck sci-fi
filtered

>>16064523
have sex

>>16066696
>pic
This is some Early Reader's babyshit, you're not helping your case.

>>16066672
>>16066638
>>16066645
I like how you retards post in a literature board and pretend to read but pic related is how you actually parse reality.

Were you faggots offended or something? How about you discuss the book.

>>16066725
Jesus Christ fuck off already. Go ruin another thread with your bullshit, you stupid faggot.

>>16066732
He's completely right. YOU, are the one ruining the thread.

God I hope the general dies today. The golem shitting on everything once again.

>>16066732
How am I ruining the thread for discussing one of the main conflicts of the book's plot? The one that's so obvious it begs the question what sort of human being would not sympathize, even a little, to the MC for being marooned for the simple reason it's not profitable or to hide some shady business practice?
It's like reading Count of Monte Cristo and thinking Dantes was a whiny bitch.

Discuss books instead of nitpicking on arguments and being triggered by what you assume is some leftist reasoning.

>>16066764
>>>/lgbt/
Return to your containment board.

>>16066598
>but my life is in fucking shambles atm
So is everyone, anon. I want to an hero, but I'm holding out because some books that actually made me feel happy have sequels coming out later in the year.

>>16066772
See: >>16066773

Really liked black company 1 but couldn't give 2 fucks about the second book. Why? I also hated the third person parts. Why?
Why did I think about in those moment when I dropped that shit and never looked back?

>>16066614
I haven't seen charts in months, but I do see threadly wannabe writer shills asking about writing and other shit that doesn't belong in the general.
If you're work is finished, fine drop the mobi file and some might pick it up, don't drop your fanfiction tier one chapter a week and ask "how's this one chapter of an unfinished book", or "how do I write [insert topic] scene in a book. We aren't your beta readers or workshop buddies, drop the entire finished product or fuck off.

>>16066803
The literary techniques on the sequels, and the plots too, get progressively dumber and shittier, to the point he inserts astral projection in order to have a witness to certain events, so yeah, hate for the sequels is perfectly reasonable.

>>16064498
I failed you /sffg/ i'm 1 (one) book behind the schedule.

>>16065211
>>16065158
>>16064523
I think you're autistic buddy. You might like litrpgs. They have stats to you can calculate for along with the characters. Try Jonathan brooks, that fag might be more autistic than you.

>>16066863
I haven't updated my goodreads since last year. I didn't even start this year's challenge. I failed sffg more.

>tfw you like dark and violent fantasy but hate grimderp
I think it's because grimderp is simply epic fantasy, but edgier and I'm bored to death with epic fantasy. That and most grimderp writers think shock value and subversion = quality writing.

>>16066952
I read grimdark for the mature themes. Fed up of the kiddie tier logic and decisions that protagonists make. If you talk up, you will be raped is perfectly acceptable.

>>16067063
grimdark is a mature as saying "dad you aren't the boss of me" for fucks sake.
>If you talk up, you will be raped is perfectly acceptable.
Congratulations you went from reading shit meant for 10 year olds to shit meant for 14 year old.

>>16066952
Try Cry Havoc. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35701482-cry-havoc

>>16065416
Thanks. I remember some tidbits about both The Mahabharata and Ramayana from school, but I've also recently read The Gita and some other short texts so I'm fairly confident I'm going in prepared.

>>16066822
I supported anti writer memes back when we had had that annoying bunch that just sobbed about how hard it was all the time. I'd rather have actually writing writers than all the whinging going on like what I'm doing now :^)

>>16063736
The informal prose smattered with archaic vocabulary set to a rollicking rhythm with occasional memes was always part of what actually makes this different from other series. No, the thing that brings Harrow down is the extremely overcomplicated overarching timeline and plot which you have insufficient clues to pin down. That's the hallmark of an extremely experimental, talented but also amateur writer. Gideon is in the traditional plot structure like most books so it's hard for someone who can write as well as Muir does to fuck up. Harrow is good, but it really shows exactly where the author bit off far more than she can chew.

If you compare the book to something like Wolfe, it's like using a hammer instead of a chisel. Sure, certain characters like God are as charismatic and likeable as a fuck, but the actual ambiguity is because the author rearranged the fucking timelines like she's cutting everything into jigsaws and deliberately withholds information as opposed to being ambiguous because each scene can be interpreted in different ways.

She's probably one of the most promising modern authors, but needs far more books and far more practice to nail it. And many authors never make it.

>>16067063
A story like The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson is infinitely more "mature" than your average grimderp tale yet it doesn't wallow in nihilism, edginess, and subversion despite having a tragic ending.

>>16064914
Finishing Tales of Zothique, then have The Night Land and Soldier of Sidon. I have The Wizard Knight, Peace, and Fifth Head of Cerberus on the way.

>>16064025
I don't read books with female MCs. They are invariably boring.

>>16067137
>that good of a rating with that many raters
This actually makes me NOT want to check this out since the tards on goodreads have notoriously terrible taste.

>>16067290
Female MCs are fine if it's third-person and being written by a man who is at least 50 years old or the book was written before the 90s.

>>16067326
What about sffg's taste?

This is like the third thread in a row where he's sperged out at someone mentioning an obvious theme of a book lol

>>16067365
Almost as bad.

Please recommend me some isekai.
I've already read:
>wizard knight
>Gor
>A princess of mars
>a yankee in king arthur's court
>dante's inferno
>alice in wonderland
>captain N: the novelization
But I want something more recent, easy to read and with some humor and levity. None of that litrpg bullshit tho.

>>16067398
Lord of the Mysteries
Thomas Covenant if you're ready to read someone ripping on the subgenre albeit from a position of sincere love

How was Oathbringer?
I thought Way of Kings was pretty good
But Words of Radiance was kinda meh. Will I like Oathbringer?

>>16067438
people here seem to think it's a step down
haven't read it myself

>>16063906
It depends why you didn't like it, but probably not.

>>16067438
I'm in the same boat as you, currently thinking I won't read Oathbringer after an anon did an angry rant about how many tens of thousands of words are dedicated to Shallan's Mary Sueness.

>>16067382
Is it possible to trust the taste of anyone?

>>16067116
>rape novels are for 14 year olds
Are you Indian or something?

What's the /sffg/ equivalent of the Red Baron questline?

>>16067740
anyone above 20 who is not mentally retarded will find little maturity in "rape novels". Only teens believe rape and gore are synonymous of maturity, and it's teen who mostly enjoy such forms of entertainment.

>>16067740
Enjoy your high brow literature

>>16067820
Was this one any good?
I thought the cover looked retarded so I never gave it a chance

>>16067849
The cover looking retarded, the story being retarded and grimderp edgy rape for teenagers naming themselves XXX_Metal_Darkness_Raep_Corruption_XXX usually go hand in hand.

>>16064914
The Traitor Baru Cormorant, with interruptions for Conan short stories

>>16067849
Nothing fantastic, but I enjoyed the slew of supporting characters the the mini arcs/resolution they all got.
A female character get cucked pretty brutally. You've been warned

>>16066696
Bro... You just posted cringe

>>16067849
it's objectively trash but i like it, Lightbringer is little better

>>16067660
Yes; just not masses of people. Find individual reviewers or sites whose tastes line up with yours.

>>16067974
How is that one? I've always been curious about it but after a poor experience reading Prince of Thorns and Red Rising, and finding them both YA tier trash and kinda similar in premise, I've been hesitant.
Is it well written? How YA is it?

>>16067974
>The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Group read of 1st part is tomorrow in the /sffg/ discord in the OP.

>>16068229
Not that anon. Traitor is not YA it is adult fantasy fiction. However, the author is not very talented, in my opinion as the Baru series has just been heading downhill after Traitor. I'm halfway through Tyrant and characters spend more time soliloquising than actually doing anything.

>>16064411
The only reason I read it was cause someone posted a cool ass picture and said, in regards to the ASOIAF thread we were in, that Prince Of Nothing was better book series. I thought “now that’s a bold statement”, so went and read the first one a little over a month ago, and am now on White Luck Warrior and I have not been disappointed. Actually its been a pretty fucking sick ride. before bakker I was reading multiple books at a time, thinking that I’ve read all the good fantasy there is to read, but it’s been book after book so far and I’ve got 2 more and I don’t think I’ll be stopping. I also get those juicy book dreams where im in the world and shit like back when I read asoiaf.

Tldr: i highly recommend nigga.

>>16064914
Wlw bakker

>>16063977
>hes still crying about his indie author of his shitty book
holy shit dude, get a grip. i read the first half of that first book because of you, i figured it had to be such a good book, but it was fucking garbage, what is your problem

>>16064025
Where can I find the book Anon

>>16064914
the faithful and the fallen. finished malice on second book now. its pretty good, when normally im not a fan of books being about a different character each chapter.

>>16065352
Was it the first fantasy series you read at a point in your life when you were like “I’m gonna read fantasy books” or nah.

Serious question

>>16065982
>Peter is quick, daring, and full of mischief

I'm looking for a recommendation. It can be a light novel, or a web novel. I'm looking for a fantasy story where the main character has absolutely no magical powers. Like something where the main character has to fight mages despite being powerless.

>>16068679
Bump

>>16068679
conan

>>16065773
No. The mc is stong female and it seems from his shilling, whenever she does something it is due to her female feelings or some hormones or something. It is trash writing and not even sff.

Why is sffg so anti Abercrombie?

>>16064914
Starting Vance's Lyonesse.
>>16063977
What's so bad about dark elves? Snorri fucking Sturluson wrote about them c. 1200

>>16068765
I'm not, I love Abercrombie except Best Served Cold, fuck that book

>>16068679
Dracula.

>>16064914
Hyperion. Just stopped at the start of Lamia's story. Really enjoying it so far except the Poet's story was a little weak.

>>16068777
im also a big fan, what didnt you like about that one? that was the one with the girl going on a murder spree to get revenge, im assuming by the title. if i had to pick one that was least liked it would be the one where the girls brother was kidnapped, and it was kind of west themed where there were indians and frontier towns and shit.

>>16068765
He's like the poster child for grimdark writers. He uses every grimdark cliche to the fullest and completely unironically.

>>16068679
Rogues of Merth

>>16068910
explain why thats a bad thing if its a good story with good characters. not everything has to be super unique and genre changing

>>16068814
Yes BSC is the revenge book. The problem with it is that before I read the first page I know there's going to be a deconstruction, I know the simple revenge story is going to be turned inside out. I didn't care about the main character or the main plot, and the rest of the book wasn't interesting.

>>16068945
I don't like subversion in general and First Law is rife with it. And it's reached the point where you expect all the typical tropes of epic fantasy to be subverted when you read grimderp. No not every story has to be unique and genre changing, but within the context of grimderp Abercrombie is beyond generic. There's also shock value for the sake of shock value. I like darker, horror-filled fantasy, but modern grimderp is like the torture porn equivalent of that. Just dull.
>Oh wow your "hero" Logen Ninefingers just murdered a child. So edgy.

>>16068679
Darksword

>>16068576
rape alien dreams

>>16068973
i hear you there, i really didnt care for logan, glokta was what got me into those books

>>16064914
starting Rendezvous with Rama

>>16069287
lovely book
one of the greats, hope u dig it

>>16066803
Because Soulcatcher a waifu and Lady a shit.

>>16064498
Been on a massive YA kick this year

>>16067398
Thomas Covenant
The Gandalara Cycle
Porter to E'ewere
Don't read the Fionavar Tapestry, it sucks

>>16064498
Currently reading nothing,~20 books

>>16067398
dont read thomas covenant. they are horrible. you want easy and humor read magical kingdom for sale sold

>prologue contains the only bit of fantasy for the first two thirds of the book
why does this happen just write historical fiction

>>16067398
Pirate Freedom

Read pic related if you want some grizzly horror fantasy with a healthy dose of black humor.

>>16069598
Tell me what is it about and why is that naked woman kneeling there.

>>16069603
Short story collection, but the real meat of the book are the stories about ghouls. The writer basically crafted LOTR for ghouls. And by that I mean no other writer will come close to matching let alone surpassing fiction about ghouls.

And you gotta read the book to find out why they're kneeling (that scene is totally in the book by the way). The rare case where a book's cover is 100% accurate.

Does anyone have a digital version of Drowntide by sydney j van scyoc kindle? I've looked online everywhere and nothing.

>>16064914
Gideon the 9th, trying to but I got distracted with some horror books instead

>>16064914
Close to finishing all of Vorkosigan. Fucking ride of a series, no wonder it's so praised.

>>16067286
I’m reading The Wizard Knight now. It’s good, but like with every Gene Wolfe book I feel like I’m missing a lot and I’ll need to reread it.

>>16069524
Historical fiction is constrained to real world places, fool

>>16069482
Oh man that Galaxy of fear book with the bugs was great. Enjoy anon

>>16069482
>>16070164
I read Galaxy of Fear as a kid and loved it, is it worth reading?

>TAIN Shir walks the deck of RNS Scylpetaire between the forlorn and the furious and the damned. A killer among killers but she alone is free.
Why does Seth Dickinson always think that this is okay?

has rothfuss commented since his editor called him out for being a lazy piece of shit?

How does the black company stand upon a reread?

>>16065158
Voldemort may have wanted to die some day.

>>16064914
The Fisherman by John Langan
Previous books were The Ritual by Adam Nevill, Blindsight, and Echopraxia.

Do any of you keep track of the books you have read in some way, like with a website or a text file?

>>16070545
Goodreads

>>16064523
If I want to learn math and science, I'll read math and science textbooks, not a fucking fantasy novel. What's even the point of fantasy if it follows the exact laws of our universe?

>Harry: You turned into a cat! A SMALL cat! You violated Conservation of Energy! That's not just an arbitrary rule, it's implied by the form of the quantum Hamiltonian! Rejecting it destroys unitarity and then you get FTL signaling! And cats are COMPLICATED! A human mind can't just visualize a whole cat's anatomy and, and all the cat biochemistry, and what about the neurology? How can you go on thinking using a cat-sized brain?

Holy cringe.

>>16069492
Thanks for listing books I should avoid.

>>16070545
Goodreads. Throw in a small review to remind you what the book is about and if you should continue the series. I used to forget I read books back in the day and continued with the sequel.

>>16070829
Yeah that's I'm thinking of doing, keeping a record just to make sure I don't forget things. I don't want to use any social media features or whatever else these sites have.

>>16064498
What app is this?

>>16064498
Is goodreads actually worth reading?

>>16070912
*using sorry

>>16064523
It's the same as worldbuilders disease, it may be fun to write about for you, but it comes off as unbearable and pseudo-intellectual to the reader.

>>16070982
Go more into world builder's disease and when it becomes terminal.

My story is only about finding your own purpose in a world of strong ideologies, but I find it easier to write the more I worldbuild.

>>16070912
Sure. It's good for keeping track of books you've read/want to read.

FUUUUUUUUCK YOU SANDERSON, STOP WITH SHALLAAAAAAAAAAAN

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

>>16064498
I never update my currently reading, just log stuff when it's done

This faggot is so unlikeable

>>16071448
So why do you watch him and make free advertising for him? Delete your post.

>>16071457
This

>>16071043
Why do you need an extraneous website for that? You could easily have like a spreadsheet or something that does the exact same thing.

>>16071739
Why would you use a spreadsheet? You could easily register on goodreads and have a ton more features like pictures and descriptions.

>>16071771
>features like pictures and descriptions.
How are these useful? You can't recognize a book by its name and author? You can't come up with a better description yourself than some generic pitch made by a salesperson?

>>16071250
Honestly anon, if you're reading Way of Kings, just skip her parts and the interludes entirely.
I've been doing it and enjoying it far more.
For a man that allegedly studied feminism and 'Writes good female characters' they sure do fucking suck.

>>16071820
pretty sure he's never in his live had a conversation longer than minute with an actual living, breathing female

>>16071907
He's married.

Women are uninteresting as they are not the penetrative force. They are liquid, and liquids are only as entertaining as the solids they flow through.

>>16070912
>>16071792
Hey, autist. Use Goodreads or not. Sure, a txt file, a spreadsheet or a fucking clay tablet would do the work. Just not as effectively.
Nobody cares. You could check whole authors' biblographies, every book's genres and subgenres, pub date, page numbers, etc. Add hundreds of books to a plan-to-read list. Have several tags for your bookshelves, track yearly progress, books you re-read, dates when you read them, get recommendations based on a book title or a specific bookshelf, etc.
My "library", consisting of stuff I read and my backlog is over a thousand book titles. I don't see myself typing all that shit into to some spreadsheet, nor remembering the details of some book I might have added 6 years ago.
If you do, maybe you don't actually read a lot. Or if you read as much or even more, well, good for you. Stay in the 20th century if you will.

>>16071739
If it does the exact same thing, why are you so buttblasted about people using it.

>>16071771
This. I use a spreadsheet, four columns: Author, Title, Rating, Date. If I need to note something I add it next to it. I don't need more information than that.

>>16069515
>dont read thomas covenant. they are horrible
Disagree
>you want easy and humor read magical kingdom for sale sold
Agree

>>16070514
Some day we'll have FTL travel (it's the HP universe), so he could go after Voyager.

>>16071996
Post it.

>>16071961
>asking questions
>buttblasted
the state of 12 year olds

>>16071938
>He's married.
So? That's no guarantee, doubly so for wackjobs like mormons.

>>16071955
Why do you need to know all that? You spergs said all you needed was to keep track of everything you read or want to read. Stop getting so triggered and shifting the goalposts due to simple questions, you dumb autists.

Is Dune Messiah supposed to be so much skinnier than Dune?

what's the general consensus on neal stephenson

>>16072735
It's the end to Dune.
It's much shorter but (imo) it's the peak of the first 4 - with 3 being a valley.

>russian wuxia
alright im doing it.

>>16072626
>Why do you need to know all that?
To each his own, but a better question would be, why wouldn't you want all that if you've been reading a lot and for many years?
I use the other features to help keep track of my backlog. I can check how long a book is in case I feel like reading something short, filter by genres or by my own tags to read books from France, or SF, check and add other books by some author I liked, all this with a minimum of typing and without having to cycle between 40 tabs open of Google and Wikipedia. Not to mention the image of a cover and an already available synopsis are easier to check and remember. Or the recommendations, which bring up interesting stuff from time to time.

I used spreadsheets and txts ages ago and then they got unmanageable. Spreadsheets are clunky, need more data entry and any changes you introduce (more data fields, different codewords, etc) means extra manual work for the most part.
You could use Goodreads or any other library website to do this bare minimum of tracking titles, and it would still be easier to manage than a spreadsheet. Plus you get a few useful features if you feel like using them, all located in one single place, and at the reach of a few clicks.

>>16072786
Not a valley,it just seems worse than it is when placed next to 3 of the best novels in the history of SF

>>16072988
We still talking about Dune? It wouldn't even make a top 100.

> ctrl f
> no Malazan book of the dead

Why arent we talking about the best fantasy series ever written?

> ctrl f
> no Malazan book of the Fallen

Why arent we talking about the best fantasy series ever written?

I personally think Children of Dune was great and very entertaining. Lots of cool memorable moments.

>>16073047
Fuck off

>>16072789
Is it also litrpg?

>>16073003

>>16072744
good
long
king of the autistic rabbit trail

>>16063166
The Blade Itself (The First Law #1) - Joe Abercrombie (2007)
When I first tried reading this I didn't make it past the first chapter due to being so off put the writing style and I didn't have the interest to continue on at the time with there being so much else out there. I knew I would eventually give it another chance someday because it will being so well reviewed by many of allegedly similar taste. At the suggestion of someone I've been discussing books with, I gave it another chance. It turned out that style that was bothering me was only for the first two Logen characters and then disappears. I was fine with rest of it, so I don't quite understand what the problem was. Possibly something with the repetitive short sentence structure for assumedly stylistic effect. From what I've seen this is considered "grimdark", but that isn't what I read at all. Maybe there's a misunderstanding or a difference in perspective in standards. What I read was a darkly humorous moderately traditional fantasy. Although there are various stock phrases as has been noted, what struck me the most is how many and how often the characters need to relieve themselves. I wasn't expecting there to be "chosen ones going on a adventure" and overall so far it's more of a 'traditional' fantasy than I was expecting it to be. There are definitely other influences though as well. The characters were more of a mixed bag with the multiple POVs. Glokta was enjoyable all-around. Jezal's buffoonery was highly amusing. The rest ranged from ok to mediocre. The characters overall, included the non-POVs, were agreeable.
I've seen a lot of comparisons to A Game of Thrones, but I don't think that's particularly accurate by itself. I'd describe it as traditional fantasy, Game of Thrones, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and modern fantasy games and comics in about equal measure. Of those, I would have preferred less traditional fantasy.
Overall, I'm glad I tried again. It isn't anything particularly special so far, but it's definitely solid enough and I'll read more of them.
Rating: 4/5

I read Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg and really liked it. Has anyone else read that one? What did you think?

>>16074813
>From what I've seen this is considered "grimdark", but that isn't what I read at all.
I think you may be suffering from a severe brain injury, anon.

>>16070912
Yes, you can find some nice obscure books in the "readers also enjoyed" section

>>16074917
>Silverberg

>>16074813
The first chapter is terrible and almost made me stop reading. He was trying way too hard to show off his writing skills

>>16069515

>>16074917
I haven't read that one but Thorns was depression kino, despite the fact the protagonist dates a 17 year old girl.

Does Terry Pratchett have any bangers? I always pass by a large collection of his books and I've been wondering if I should try one.

>>16075333
At least a few. I think Going Postal is his best.

>>16075333
You should, it is a great series. You could try one of the "starters" to begin with.

rape scene gave me a boner

>>16075387
Moving Pictures is a bad starter novel, pretty much anything else from that chain is better.

>>16075212
>>16075064

Nemesis or The Gods Themselves? Which should I pick up?

>>16074813
The 2nd book is even better

>>16063272
>fuck female authors in general

Ada Palmer tho

>>16075642
The 2nd book suffers hard from 'middle book syndrome'. Only Glokta's chapters are fun, everyone else has boring character development.

>>16075834
wrong

>>16071448
his older content was somewhat tolerable, where he just talked into the camera without the epic "HELLO, MY LOVELIES!", ten thousand jump cuts per video, epic green screen effects - all the typical sell-out youtuber cancer.

Choice of magic 2 in September!
Soon.jpeg

>>16076250
Yikes

>>16063272
>fuck female authors in general
i wish

>>16076250
You mean four? Or is this audiobook only?

>>16076276
This woman is a particularly sub-average writer

>>16067753
I guess game of thrones? Tons of people get cucked there

>>16076277
Audiobook

Is this good?

I bought Gideon the Ninth cause I saw people recommending it here, how badly was I memed?

>>16076455
>how badly was I memed
I laughed in irl at this post. All the quote on the front had to advertise the book is the alternative lifestyles of the characters and you paid money for it?

>a demon/evil spirit is gradually killing an entire city because they didn't give it its once in a century sacrifice
>the only sorcerer in the city (who the people treated a little crummy) is willing to fight the demon/evil spirit to save the people who haven't died yet and will probably die himself in the fight
>the sorcerer's woman, who is the daughter of an important man in the city (who is also dying), says to him, "They're not worth it"
>as in her own father and all the men, women, and children aren't worth saving
Boy I don't think the author intended his readers to hate this bitch, but goddamn what a cunt. I understand she loves the sorcerer and all and doesn't want him to die, but to say an entire city isn't worth saving just because SOME of the people were a little rude to your boyfriend? Fuck off.

This absolutely rips great characterisation, fast pacing and it doesn't do the baby shit of having you follow a newcomer to the world.

>>16076601
really lame humor though

>>16076445

It's good, yes. A Deepness In The Sky is set in the same general universe and is quite a bit better.

>>16076445
Yes it's good, maybe a bit basic/dated nowadays.

>>16076455
I mean it is a meme book, it's imbued with internet culture. Embrace the memes.

>>16076455
Thankfully the author can actually write a pretty goddamn good story and tries something different, as opposed to most authors nowadays who are just shit at writing even cliched shit (or who later reveal themselves to just be shit -- such as, but not including, Ann Leckie, Yoon Ha Lee and a bunch of other meme authors like Stuart Turton and Clair North who start out looking good and become godawful either in the middle or at the end).

>>16075642
Third book was the best though

>>16075385
Going Postal is heinously overrated. It's basically a messier, more epic, less focused version of The Truth. Moist props up the novel so much by the end he borders on unbearable

>>16077236
Moist is the reason it's the better book. I also don't see how you call it messier when The Truth is basically a series of barely connected conflicts running into his newspaper over and over.

Reading BotNS, going on Sword of the Lictor. So if I understand the implication is that whenever Severian is doing something dangerous, the Claw glows, and he says something along the lines of "gee golly wonder how I didn't killed there" like during the duel with the avern, or his escape from Thrax when he thought he was going to drown, it's because the Claw was literally continously bringing him back to life? So then why did it glow for the man-apes in Saltus? I get it was a Time Machine/Christ descending to Hell reference, but was it supposed to be trying to turn them back into humans or what?

I'm currently reading Genocidal Organ, something simple as too grow into the habit and allows me to mull over more complex literature. I must say, I'm liking it so far but I've already seen the film, is there more like it?
After this I plan on reading Neuromancer

>>16077481
Just wanted to add, the characters are way too introspective for being american military.

>>16077485

Lad, John Boyd makes Sun Tzu look like a fucking philistine

>>16077517
You know very well that's not the sort of introspection I meant.

>>16077427
>trying to decipher BotNS
lol just enjoy the ride, anon.

>>16077517
>In Destruction & Creation, Boyd attempts to provide a philosophical foundation for his theories on warfare. In it he integrates Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics to provide a context and rationale for the development of the OODA Loop.
Why is it always Godel's Incompleteness Theorem with this shit? And what does the uncertainty principle have to do with military strategy?

>>16063166
Hi /scifi/ fans
Looking for something good with
> the worldbuilding detail and scope of LotR and Dune
> the strangeness and creativity of LeGuin and Butler
> the darkness and Machiavellianism of ASoIaF
> not Joe Abercrombie
> not Gene Wolfe
sorry if recommendations have already come up in this vein. thanks fellow nerds

>>16077427
Yes to your interpretation of the avern duel and Thrax sequence. The claw is either resurrecting or healing him. It has restorative powers and it's not 100% clear what else. The reason why I'm not calling it a mere healing talisman is because it's not entirely clear and I don't want to spoil things. The Claw comes from the Conciliator, that's all you need to know. You will learn more of its origin further on (you can collect some clues on the way but I think it's in Urth of the New Sun iirc).
Inside the cave, remember he was bitten on the arm, Severian is defenseless and is pretty much fucked because he's surrounded on all sides and is getting drowned. So the claw is either healing/reviving him and glows as a result, or it's glares in order to protect him. The apes stand back because, as Severian says on different parts, they seem to be partly human. And as humans, they bow to the power of the Conciliator, in some way.

Overall, it's not a good idea to ask general questions about key elements of the plot, because the answers are usually provided much further on, or they required finishing some book or the whole series to make a plausible interpretation. You're asking to be spoiled. Just enjoy the ride and move on, juggling all your theories as you keep reading.

>>16077659
Have you read Hyperion?

>>16077659
samefag
> Read all the R. Scott Bakker books, nice and dark and good worldbuilding, but poorly drawn characters and overly grimdark and trying too hard to be muh Lovecraftian nightmare
> Read some of Malazan books, some were bredy gud, but couldn’t get into all the weird races and slogging subplots
> Read Name of the Wind, kind of meh, needed something more
i like deep dark cthonic magic and well written characters. pic related was my favorite book as a kid. thanks frens.

>>16077659
>>16077684
Mask of the Sorcerer

>>16077659
Maybe Black Sun Rising, but I hated it.
Not that I've read any of these, but by elimination, it's what I'd picture The Dragonbone Chair (called the original ASOIAF) and The Faithful and the Fallen (might be too grimderpy).

>>16077684
Samefagging as well. Read Hyperion if you haven't. It takes a while for the sheer strangeness of the setting to become apparent, but it's the only series I've read that has made me as invested in the worldbuilding as my first read of Dune did. The second book is kind of bad but arguably necessary to make sense out of the setting, because of the payoff to Sol's story laying bare its cosmology. All I can say is "the virgin singularity vs. the Chad Omega Point"

>>16077741
>>16077681
Thanks, will check out.

>>16077778
I recommend you a book >>16077717 that is EXACTLY what you're asking for and you don't reply to me? You bastard of a faggot.

>>16071448
He is such a cuck, I can't believe I believed him and read the Witcher. The cuck thinks WoT and Witcher are one of the best fantasy series.

>>16077786
based

>>16075393
Is it good, my normie friend who is a girl enjoyed it. I'm hesitant because I have a bias against books that have positive reviews by buzzfeed.

>>16077786
forgive me anon

>>16075733
The author of The First Man in Rome is a woman so I hesitate to say all women authors, yeah most women authors suck humongous cuck.

I've never thought to ask this question before.
What's good adult adventure/fantasy/sci-fi stuff?
I've read Ender's Game and didn't really care for the rest. As for more sci-fi, I've read one of the Bolas books.
I love Treasure Island, 3 Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo, but apparently these are books for young adults. I gotta tell you. There's no way I was getting any of Count of Monte Cristo through my head at 13.
But what should I be reading "as an adult". You know, not Harry Potter, Not LoTR, apparently.

And one more chip on my shoulder about these "young adult" books. How THE fuck do American teachers expect American students to understand one fucking paragraph of Wuthering Heights. I loved that too now, but I didn't read 1 chapter in highschool.

tl;dr. I've read Treasure Island, Great Gatsby, 3 Musketeers, All Quiet on the Western Front, Count of Monte Cristo, Wuthering Heights and these classics are apparently books for children but I enjoyed the very very much. What gives?

>>16077955
>But what should I be reading "as an adult".
An adult isn't concerned with what he thinks he should be reading, that's what kids do. You still have to grow up anon.

>>16077975
I knew I'd get that response and I'll keep enjoying my sword adventure books but I want to know the answer for the knowing's sake.
What the fuck do the normalfags of society deem adult fiction?

>>16077955
/sffg/ is in pretty much universal agreement that Book of the New Sun is the most "literary" thing we could recommend for you outerfags. It's so incredibly dense that no one will ever truly "figure it out." Wolfe's stuff in general I would recommend to you.

>>16078006
Is it sci-fi where humans are limited to our Solar system? I like the "small" scope of space like that... I also like thousands of planets wide kingdoms like Battletech too so I guess either will do.
I'll check it out though.

>>16077989
I think you know the answer already. It's just things that are needlessly obtuse, usually in terms of prose but often also content, have some theme about society and life and are meant more to analyze than enjoy. Stuff like Monte Cristo is seen as juvenile because a revenge story isn't intellectual enough, neither are stories with orcs and magic like LOTR. But it doesn't matter and the less you think about what others think the more you'll enjoy books and life in general.
>>16078006
Nah BOTNS is easy reading compared to Gormenghast.

>>16078006
What level of pseud do you need to be at to consider "dense" to be the highest quality for a book?

>>16077989
How to write something adult though?

>>16078034
I didn't say it was the highest quality, fuck face.

>>16077989
Books not marketed as Young adult or Children literature for one. Bilgundsromans or coming of age are usually young adult or juvenile fiction.
"Mature" literature would be literary fiction. Just google if you don't know what this vague term means.
Some types of genre fiction are usually considered adult fiction (crime, mystery, historical, horror, some fantasy, some SF, etc.)
Not every genre fiction book is automatically considered adult though.
The thing is there's not a clear definition. It's partly marketing and the way some books and authors have been relegated to a younger audience. Edgar Allan Poe, Stevenson, The Count of Montecristo, The Thousand and One Nights, Dickens and other adventure novels were historically read by adults. The passing of time has deemed them as "entertaining", or "constructive" for young minds, which has caused some strange things, like illustrations being included, covers been made for children and teenagers, abridgements, etc. They are a special category of classics, than can mostly be enjoyed by both adults and children. Nowadays, children don't read them, they're more easily sold on Harry Potter and YA fiction, so it's not uncommon to discover or rediscover them at a later age.

>>16078018
I think you're right. I did know that. But Monte Cristo is such a good fucking revenge book. God damn. He got them. He got them all.
Anyway. As for the obtuse part. About 7 years ago I asked for a lot of books for Christmas because I never read at all and figured I needed to at least get some classics down for the count. In that list was Ulysses. In my childish brain that was the "most adult" book. But even I knew then you couldn't just jump into it. So I got Dubliners instead.
Didn't enjoy any of it. Not one bit. There's a story in there about a boy happy to see a girl so he goes to the shop to get her something but was upset when he couldn't buy her the thing so he didn't see her again. The End. What the fuck is that?

Now just give me a boi with a sword and a boat and let me be free.

MAGNA

>>16078018
>isn't intellectual enough
Fart sniffers.

>>16077605

It's a red herring. Sort've a litmus test. Weeds out people with broken OODA loops.

>>16078060
>Fart sniffers
>look it up on urbandictionary
Wait there are people who don't enjoy the smell of their own farts? I'm ecstatic whenever I get it and am really disappointed when it's a smellless fart.

>>16078199
Anon....

>>16077955
I wouldn't consider most of those to be for kids. Teenagers are made to read these books because they're considered influential and important, so not reading them would make you seem ignorant or uneducated. It's an effort to round out a young person's education, make them a bit more worldly by exposing them to new ideas and bringing them into the wider discussion of literature.

Unfortunately this effort is usually wasted on your typical high-schooler. For starters, these kids are forced to read the books, they don't come to them willingly. As the adage goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. You can require all the reading you want, but if they don't want to read it they won't take it seriously and won't engage mentally with it. There are some kids who like to read (I was one myself) but the vast majority do not.

TL;DR of this is that it's very common for books you associate with kids, because they're assigned in school, are usually only appreciated as an adult, because you weren't mature enough to take them seriously when they were assigned reading, or just plain resented being made to read something you weren't interested in at all.

>>16077955
Also:
More Ender's Game, less gay pig tree sperm and complaining about your ugly hispanic wife to a computer. And less autistic wood grain counting. Xenocide
Whatcha got? Come on, come on. Aliens invaded yesterday! We're not sure what they want. What do we do now?

>>16078354
Gotcha.
And TY to you all for the answers.
I keep going back to Wuthering Heights but I resented having to read that because it had a lot of words I didn't know (and couldn't just use a smartphone yet to just google it quick because they didn't exist). And I didn't understand the English they used. Sentences weren't strung together the way I talked so I hated it. Then I read it when I was 20 something and I liked it.
It's still kind of fascinating to me the way they talk in these 1800's novels. Everyone says exactly what they mean in NO uncertain terms. Lying is the most heinous of sins. I just... enjoy it. It moves the emotions along quickly and gets the point across how it's meant to be understood.

>>16078392
People like you make me feel like I was a teenage genius even though I know I wasn't.

>>16078408
I played vidya, you read.
All it is, mate. However, I doubt you ever got mad at a book so maybe you had a better time of it. Actually, I'll just concede that because now I'm seeing the possibility of all these worlds and going, "Geez, you guys read 50 books a year, huh? How the fuck can I catch up? I could read 10 books and think I'm having a good time and never find the world that would take me to the next level beyond that just because I passed on the cover art."

>>16065158
Why didn't the "wizards" just cast themselves out of the dullest fanfiction in the history of Harry Potter fanfiction? Seriously each chapter following the sociopath wizard and his pals from Hogwarts Academy as they jack themselves off to bayesianism has been indistinguishable from the others. Aside from the awful characters, the story's only consistency has been its lack of excitement and ineffective use of science, all to make magic unmagical, to make action seem inert.

Perhaps the die was cast when Yudkowsky vetoed the idea of killing himself; he made sure the series would never be mistaken for a work of art that meant anything to anybody, just ridiculously unprofitable cross-promotion for his think tank. Methods of Rationality series might be anti-Harry Potter (or not), but it’s certainly the anti-James Bond series in its refusal of wonder, beauty and excitement. No one wants to face that fact. Now, thankfully, they no longer have to.

>a-at least the books were good though

"No!" The writing is dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character had a thought, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his rationality."

I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Yudkowski's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that he has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Methods of Rationality by an autist on 4chan. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these people are reading Methods of Rationality at 23 or 24, then when they get older they will go on to read self-published harem novels." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Methods of Rationality" you are, in fact, trained to read self-published harem novels..

Why didn't the "wizards" just cast themselves out of the dullest fanfiction in the history of Harry Potter fanfiction? Seriously each chapter following the sociopath wizard and his pals from Hogwarts Academy as they jack themselves off to bayesianism has been indistinguishable from the others. Aside from the awful characters, the story's only consistency has been its lack of excitement and ineffective use of science, all to make magic unmagical, to make action seem inert.

Perhaps the die was cast when Yudkowsky vetoed the idea of killing himself; he made sure the series would never be mistaken for a work of art that meant anything to anybody, just ridiculously unprofitable cross-promotion for his think tank. Methods of Rationality series might be anti-Harry Potter (or not), but it’s certainly the anti-James Bond series in its refusal of wonder, beauty and excitement. No one wants to face that fact. Now, thankfully, they no longer have to.

>a-at least the books were good though

"No!" The writing is dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character had a thought, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his rationality."

I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Yudkowski's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that he has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Methods of Rationality by an autist on 4chan. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these people are reading Methods of Rationality at 23 or 24, then when they get lonelier they will go on to read litRPG." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Methods of Rationality" you are, in fact, trained to read litRPG

>>16063906
Luveship Traders is very different and much better.

>>16064025
because the author states he is a complete addicted redditor. The novel is shit and after some time you understand that it is restricted by the ideology of its creator.

>>16065158
Making yourself forever immortal is a stupid idea. Eternity is a long time. So at some point you want to die. Voldemort was actually extremely rational.

>>16067438
>>16067525

I felt like the pacing of oathbringer is slower than the previous books and that makes it a bit harder to read, but i think it's still worth a read if you at least somewhat enjoyed the previous books. At least the flashbacks are way better since they are about Dalinar and not fucking Shallan, who is undeniably the worst character in the series and i hope she dies a terrible death.

So apart from Tolkien, the Witcher and Discworld I've never read anything, what should I start with?

>>16079542

>>16076550
You're one of those self entitled cucks. You treat people like shit, then expect them to sacrifice themselves for you when you need help.
You feel that someone should sacrifice themselves for the masses.
I'm glad that those idiotic self sacrifice novels are falling out of style. I hate that trope in movies and books where the "hero" stays back to sacrifice himself for others. You should fuck off and kys you piece of shit. Why don't you an hero for the city faggot cuck scum.

>>16079542

choo choo motherfucker

We at page 8.

>>16080140
>>16080140
>>16080140

>>16080141
alright i fucekd up

>>16080318
>>16080318
>>16080318

Everyone answer my query in the new thread