/lit/ - Literature

>>18886585
First for women are(generally) terrible authors

Bakker is the best fantasy author.

Bakker did a good world building with the BLACK SEED concept

First for Fang Yuan

>>18886593
>generally

LMAO. Found the simp.

>>18886645
Coldfire trilogy is based af. All other woman authors are trash

>when woman exist and writes a book
>when woman exist and doesn't have dick
>when protagonist is girl
>when protagonist is not ripped man with thick cock

>>18886670
I couldn’t care less. I will never read a female author in my life, and I will never run out of good books. And I haven’t even started on philosophy yet!

>>18886688
mmmhhmmm how just how thick??

>>18886693
>I will never read a female author in my life

>>18886688
Didn’t ask.

Fuck E William Brown
No Books in 2020 nor 2021
Fuck Pay Pigs and Enablers.

>>18886700
Does it trouble you?

Does Inchoroi in Bakker books have bodies this good? and packages this big?

>>18886721
That is not a good body.

>>18886740
your mom disagrees

>>18886585
I need the best time travel (preferably time-loop) stuff you've ever read

>>18886746
No, not really. My dad actually, he said that her tits are too small.

>>18886754
You're in the wrong place, this is for closeted homosexuals to rant about hating women.

>>18886763
forget about the dad, when a STUD like that enters the equation, dad can sit in the corner and watch.

>>18886786
I don’t hate women. I love them in fact. I just don’t read books written by females.

>>18886754
Mother of Learning is the only good time loop book I read. Anything dealing with time is usuallya shit show.

>>18886797
>I love them in fact.
you love MEN more, you always find yourself appreciating the masculine, free yourself and get dat BLACK SEED.

>>18886791
Yikes dude. I don’t want my dad to watch me have sex with her.

>>18886813
want it or not, the STUD is having his way

>>18886809
Of course I love men. I’m a biological woman.

Are you faggots going to keep derailing the thread?

>>18886817
Why do you insist on calling me a STUD?

Enjoy your vacation sweetie (:

Tfw the barest glance at just one of your crypto wallets causes communist transexuals to seethe so hard they autistically spam their black cuck fantasy folder on a fantasy book message board

It angrifies me how easy it seems to be to write these short stories I read from obscure writers yet I can't write for shit despite reading and being inspired by all the same stuff these guys read and are inspired by. It just isn't fair.

>>18887017
Not my problem.

>>18887022
f-fuck you...

>>18887017
Try writing flash fiction and work yourself towards a short story.

>>18886585
>Book Club
now: seveneves https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22816087-seveneves

aug 29: inhibitor phase https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56072402-inhibitor-phase
sep 15: wisdom of crowds https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40701780-the-wisdom-of-crowds
sep 26: the scar https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68497.The_Scar

>>18887080
Don’t care.

>>18886754
Here's one for you, and written by a woman. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Basically, every time this guy dies he gets reborn with his previous memories (he's born in 1910's Europe). He lives through the war, earns shit-tons of degrees and titles, over and over, and slowly starts to realize there's other people like him, part of some so-called Cronus Club.

Basically, you're not allowed to fuck up major historical events or fuck with other time loopers as a member. But then some faggot starts killing loopers' parents (one of the only ways to permanently kill one), introducing future technology into the world at large, and generally fucking things up for everyone, so they have to figure out who it is and kill them. MC spends a great deal of time as a scholar so there's a lot of academia in the book, and his rivalry with the antagonist is really well done, transcending lifetimes and periods as they both live, die, assume different identities and repeat, trying to ferret out the other's date of birth and location.

It's also not afraid to get gruesome, with the characters doing and getting accostumed to some pretty horrific shit over the course of their long, long lives. There's a lot of torture involved, as is always the case with immortals, and the whole thing is set over a slick 1940's war aesthetic the world over, through primarily Europe and Russia. Pretty kino read, to be honest. Not a lot of looping books in the market, and this one's really well written.

>>18887337
Awful. Don't ever post here again.

>>18886585
Hey, I'm looking for help on some magic terminology. I had the idea for a WWII-styled alternate history setting where magic returned to the world in the early 1900s(?) and each nation has done research into it independently, and are using it in combat for the first time in this war. The thing is, I want all the various nations of Europe (besides Britain) and Asia (there are more of them involved without being specifically allied with another than in the historical WWII) to have their own terms for magic users, and the various schools of magic, with a clear theme, like Germany calling specific kinds of magic "x-kraft", like "Flammenkraft" for fire magic, etc., that kind of thing. But besides the German one, and some vague ideas for French and Spanish, I'm stuck on what would work best for the other big powers, like Russia, Italy, China, India, Japan, and so on. Does anyone have any suggestions for me please?

>>18887570
Okay but what is your story actually about?

>>18887672
Based anon burying the world-building shitters.

>>18886585
>writing sci-fi schlock
>there’s a special type of liquid armor that soldiers wear
>one character asks another character what it is
>I loredump 2,000 words on the ancient battle between serpentine god-royals and humanity in massive underwater oceans, which ended up with one of the serpents being converted to Catholicism and giving crusaders this magic armor as a token of his faith in our faith that Jesus Christ did for our sins
>already sensing that this information will only be slightly useful down the line
I’m such a retard. I don’t want to delete any of it, but it’s just so out of place that there’s a mini history lesson at this scene. Maybe I’ll just move the story to a bit later in the book. Fuck.

>>18888117
put it in appendixes and add a footnote, Tolkien-style

>>18886595
yeah. based

>>18888162
That’s not a bad idea, if I can get a solid, 25 pages of footnotes to add
Thanks

>>18887337
Great book. My favorite scene was a minor one. Harry is doing archeology in Afghanistan in the 70's and an American mercenary drives up with his troops and begins to chat. The merc mentions, "See those statues now because they'll be gone in twenty years."
Harry goes, "Hmm," and says, "Tienanmen Square."
Merc arcs an eyebrow. "Huh?"
Harry: "Chernobyl."
The merc catches on: "Well, Michael Fucking Jackson to you too!" and claps him on the shoulder.
And the two Kalachakeras go have lunch and chat about war and the Cronus Club.
It was a neat little "fellow traveller" scene.

>>18888117
That sounds fucking retarded. Not in a schlock way, but in a regular retard way.

>>18888236
I promise it sounds better with a little bit of context and an in depth explanation
Still, it has no place in that part of the story

Thoughts on Bruce Sterling? I bought The Difference Engine to finish my William Gibson collection but I haven't started it. Then I bought Schismatrix because I like the cover but it isn't here yet.

*rips of Berserk*

>>18886585
Why is no one able to beat this trannime poster to the thread?

>>18888271
>rips off*
he kind of did though
and that is a good thing.

>>18888297
I was so close to beating that fucker this time; I saw the thread was at 305 replies and I pulled up some really nice Conan the Barbarian artwork and copy-pasted all the stuff for the general but when I refreshed the thread they'd already made a new one; that motherfucker doesn't sleep, they're always right on time
One of these days I'll beat them

Finally read some John Ringo. I've been vaguely aware for years of the "OH JOHN RINGO NO!" meme, so I tried reading his Paladin of Shadows series. Finished the third book (Choosers of the Slain), before giving up. It's an over-the-top macho technothriller, which was fun at first. But the protagonist is a gary-stu creeper, and the the third book had way too many plot holes.
I don't know if I'll read anything else by him.

>>18887178
reading is too hard for some people

>>18888203
Jfc I’d kill myself

Nai kotumo ar nilmo, kalima Vala
thauza ar poika, Moringothonna,
Elda ar Maiya ar Apanóna,
Endóressë Atan sin únóna,
ilar thanyë, ilar melmë, ilar malkazon sammë,
osta ilar harwë, lau Ambar tana,
só-thauruvá Fëanárollo, ar Fëanáró nossello,
iman askalyá ar charyá, ar mi kambë mapá,
herá hirala ar haiya hatá
Silmarillë. Sí vandalmë ilyai:
unqualé son antávalme mennai Aurë-mettá,
qualmé ten' Ambar-mettá! Quettalman lasta,
Eru Ilúvatar! Oiyámórenna
mé-quetamartya íre queluvá tyardalma.
Ainorontessë tirtassë lasta
ar lma-vandá enyalaz, Varda Manwë!

Why are jellyfish always so fucking overpowered?

>>18886704
FUCK YOU STUPID IDIOT AND SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY FUCK YOU

>>18886600
Reverend Insanity bros... I don't feel so well...

i'm about 90% through the last book in the three body trilogy, really loved it.
i don't think i want to go back to malazan after this, but maybe some other fantasy--i like thorough worldcrafting but malazan is just a bit too heavy sometimes.
is it time to read brandon sanderson?

>>18889013
>is it time to read brandon sanderson?
Dear lord no are you insane read Kreutzer Sonata instead

>>18889013
>i like thorough worldcrafting
>is it time to read brandon sanderson?
It's like you want us to hate you.

I read The Space Merchants, liked it very much. won't read the second part since i heard it's not so good. it's very comfy, very laid back story but at the same time it progressively starts feeling like it has real weight to it. very cool setting too

>>18889013
Brainlet can’t handle Malazan, resorts to reading YA instead what a classic tale

>>18886754
Replay. Prose is pretty boring but it left me feeling warm and fuzzy despite being fairly depressing

>reading The Trouble with Peace
>The Long Eye is magic, girl! It is the devil that cannot be caged! It is the demon that breaks all chains! If there were rules it would not be magic.
How will magic-system fags ever recover?

>>18888203
What the fuck even happened to that guy? I thought he was gonna join the MC's team but he just gets offscreened and never shows up again. What was the point of introducing him?

>>18888538
Schizo nerd

I finished Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch last week. Enjoyed it quite a bit. What PKD novels are best?

I'm planning on getting Ubik next, was also thinking about getting Flow my Tears the Policeman Said but I'm not certain on that one yet. I wanna go for the books that haven't been adapted to movies yet-should I do Flow my Tears, valis, or dr bloodmoney? Also, what are the best compilations? I tend to prefer full novels, but collections of short stories might be fun as well

>>18890165
Didn’t ask.

>>18890165
I only ever read A Scanner Darkly and found it weird.

>>18890165
A good one that never gets mentioned is Counter Clock World.

>>18889783
>calling someone a nerd
>in the sci fi and fantasy general on 4channel dot org

Anasûrimbor Chûnghus

>>18890276
There are many level of be nerd your is cringe

>>18890433
There are many levels of retarded ESL, yours is below contempt

fuck you sffags you all sucks hard

>>18890482
Seethe mongol

>>18890165
Ubik is great. Flow My Tears too. don't remember much from Dr. Bloodmoney. haven't read Valis, but I think it's supposed to be one of his top schizo books.

>>18889635
>What was the point of introducing him?
It goes back to the arc words of the novel: "What is the point of you?" The mercenary scene shows that the the ennui of the kalachakras isn't limited to the stuffy Cronus Club types. Fidel (I just looked it up, that was the merc's name) boasts that he's getting out there and "really living life," but in reality his warmongering is just another time waster. He even admits at the end of scene that, “None of it fucking matters. Not one bullet, not one drop of blood. None of it makes any fucking difference at all.”
He's really no different from the others, like the Nigerian kalachakra Akinleye, who's cope was hedonism at least until her Forgetting . Assuming he survived Vincent's purge, Fidel would eventually go through his own Forgetting.
Out of all the kalachakra, Vincent was the only one trying to do something that matters.

Has anyone managed to produce sword Qi yet
I continue to meditate on and sleep with my sword

Ok /ssfg/ do I read connan or malazan next? Whatever has the most recommendations will be my next book.

>>18891026
Conan is the easier read and more fundamental, so you definitely need to go there first.
t. Malazanfag

>>18891026
Conan is a classic and has stood the tests of time
Malazan just turned old enough to drink

>>18886585
Hey, I'm thinking of having the main magic system of a setting I'm working on be based on runes, but I realized rather quick that I'm kind of stuck on what to actually have the runes look like. Besides the Sigil System RPG and Witch Hat Atelier (see picture related), my best source of inspiration is Norse runes, and I want to avoid just copying those. Someone else I asked suggested Runequest and ogham script as sources of inspiration, but I haven't had the time to check them out yet, what else would you suggest?

Also, what are the pros and cons of having the runes represent letters vs individual words/concepts (again like in the pdf in the latter case)? And if I go with the latter, besides the obvious, like runes for the various elements, what are some 'key' runes that I should include? Any suggestions please?

>>18891042
Magic systems should be vague and mysterious.

I just finished reading The Three Body problem. It's a good novel. I enjoyed a number of things about it a lot and I learned a little about Chinese history, which I now realise I know fuck all about. 3/5.

>>18891145
Brainlet take unless magic is the focal point of the story

What are some good ones that have a gothic element/feel to them?

>>18891306
Titus Groan and Gormenghast (don't bother with the other two in the series) are must-reads, also anything by Poe

>>18891308
Thanks anon, will check it out

>>18891042
I'm not really sure why you're asking people to come up with your own world building ideas for you. It'd be one thing if you were asking for people's opinion on an idea you already came up with, but instead you want to crowdsource your creativity. I'd suggest doing more research on the topic of runes cause you sound like you know almost nothing about them. Elder Futhark, what you call "norse runes", was just a writing system used by Scandinavians, and it was just one variant of a pervasive Germanic rune alphabet used in northern Europe. Not magic, just a way for people to write stuff down, no different than the Latin alphabet or any other script.

>>18889013
Going from the most based Sci Fi on the planet to the most reddit fantasy on the planet?
You can do better than that, and you know it.

>>18891247
Now you get to read the good books.

>>18889004
Why?

>>18889004
>Reverend Insanity bros... I don't feel so well...
Does someone read Infinite Bloodcore by the same author?

>>18891691
Yes I will read the other two books starting tonight. I went in blind and really enjoyed the novel. The countdown was really a great scenario and I loved the accounts from the strange planet and the proton technology at the end.

>>18891145
Then how exactly are the characters supposed to be able to use them in any real capacity?

>>18890876
That makes sense, I guess. I still don't get what the fuck the quantum mirror was supposed to be, or why it'd make their life meaningful in any real capacity. If I were a kalachakra I'd probably hole myself in a mansion with my riches and never interact with the outside world again. That or become a serial murderer/rapist. Then, it's as easy as paying someone off to kill my parents when I get bored. It's not like being a kalachakra is some eternal curse, it's really just like being a regular person, but longer. There was never a need to hunt for some higher meaning or purpose, Vincent was a seething manchild and an actual faggot

>>18886585
I told someone yesterday I once read a sci fi book where humanity realized aliens existed when a star disappeared from the sky because the aliens had 100% use of efficient solar energy
When they asked what book I told them it was Ringworld, but now I think I’m wrong and it was actually Ender’s Game - can anyone confirm, or am I wrong on both counts?

>>18892004
Ender's game is elementary school tier shittery and the hack Card is a moron who writes incest

>>18892032
That doesn’t exactly answer the question but thank you for your contribution

>>18892032
Incest? Can you be more specific?

>>18892004
Wrong on both accounts. No idea what it is.

I've seen a lot of excerpts here and have heard from people I trust that Bakker is great. I'm starting to read him this night. Hope he's worth the hype.

>>18889013
You should only ask for suggestions AFTER you've read the entire Wolfe oeuvre.

>>18886585
I've been working on a setting where everything has a spirit representing its true essence, a bit like a mix between Shintoism and Platonic ideals, with the smaller the thing that the spirit represents, the weaker it is, with most weaker spirits being non sapient (for instance, only the largest and oldest, or at least otherwise significant, trees would have a sapient spirit, just for starters).

I was thinking that magic would involve manipulating this spiritual underlayer of reality to achieve a supernatural effect. It would have started out as just trying to do things to get the attention of powerful spirits in certain ways, which would eventually evolve into directly making deals of mutual benefit with spirits, like offering something to the spirit of some fields to help ensure a plentiful harvest. Then someone would eventually find a way to directly manipulate spiritual energies through arcane means and rituals, getting an effect without a middleman (it probably helps if one has some spirit ancestry, since more powerful spirits can take on truly physical forms separate from their source, and I'm certain that the first to use magic this way had a spirit as a parent). The third method I was thinking of would have someone either merge with and/or consume a spirit via either a particular deal or a ritual, effectively making them part spirit and giving them some of their powers. What do you think? Can you think of any other ways to use magic, or any pros/cons to the three methods I listed above, please?

Is Three Body really that amazing? It seemed pretty standard to me, I didn't get why it's praised so highly. Do I need to finish the trilogy?

>>18892264
>>18887672
>>18887768

>>18892293
>I didn't get why it's praised so highly.
Because the writer is a dirty little chink and OMG SO EPIC IN SCOPE writing. Retards have always been, and will always be, impressed by "epic" shit. I can't tell you how many anons I've come across who've praised Malazan; not because of its quality (or lack thereof), but because of how EPIC it is.

>>18892157
He's not lol, one of the most overhyped authors on here, throne of glass for pseudo-intellectuals.

>>18892264
>was thinking that magic would involve manipulating this spiritual underlayer of reality to achieve a supernatural effect
Sounds too broad and undefined, it would work ok until there is some magical battle between to magicians and then because actual mechanics are so broad it would be simply impossible to portray and visualize. It would devolve into some dresden tier magical system where magic is as strong as you wish it to be.
Having spirit deals sounds kind of lame, rituals are edgy or just cringe.

>>18892293
Yes. 3BP is fairly middling compared to the next two books in the trilogy.

>>18890165
Such a good book. One of his trippiest tales. Some of my favorites were Time Out Of Joint, Martian Time-Slip, A Maze of Death, and Clans of the Alphane Moon, off the top of my head. VALIS is much different than the majority of his other works.

>>18886754
The Man Who Folded Himself
Prepare for a lot of "not gay" gay sex

This is on the back of The Peripheral by William Gibson
>Like Pynchon and DeLillo, Gibson excels at pinpointing the hidden forces that shape our world." - Details
Is it true?

>>18890165
I liked Ubik, but I'm a summer for 'what if like, none of this is real' concepts

>>18893767
*sucker

>>18893767
who does that besides PKD?

For anyone who read the Grishaverse trilogy (yeah I know, YA etc etc), I've been looking into the netflix adaptation to figure out if it's worth watching, and while reading about the differences with the books I came up with several different sources saying Mal had sex with Zoya, and also several other girls in the past.
Now I recall distinctly that when he tells Alina about his feelings for her she asks him about his previous experiences with the opposite sex, and he replies he had never been with anyone, not even Zoya who had tried to hook up with him at the beginning of the first book. Did I imagine all of that, or was that conversation in the books? Sorry if it's a silly question but it's been bothering me all day and if possible I want to avoid sifting through the books to find that out, because I don't even remember in which book it supposedly happened.

based

>>18887570
>Japan
x-tsukai (user)

>Italy
uomi di x (men of x, look up italian grammar rules or google translate since the article changes)

>Australia
x-battler

>China
Each school is referred to by a colour

>have a magic in my story
>never explain how it works
>mc can't be bothering learning so he just expels spit as pure energy when he needs to break a lock and uses his own ingenuity the other 99% of the time

Just finished pic related.
As always from this series, it was a good read. Seemed to lean a bit more on the humor than previous entries, but was otherwise pretty standard. Plotwise, this picks up roughly 5 years after Physicians of Vilnoc, the political situation in Cedonia deteriorates after the death of the emperor, and a faction of the royalty approaches Penric's brother in law with an offer to restore his station. This is obviously not ideal for the people who had Arisaydia blinded in the earlier novels, so they try to have him killed, but they do so in a manner that the Bastard takes personal ire to.

A thing I've noticed is that the Penric novellas are becoming less Novellas and more novels, this one clocks in at 235 pages, which is a far cry from some of the earlier entries which were barely 100 pages.

Do recommend.

>>18894428
yeah ok Pratchett I'm not reading your shit unless you provide at least 50 pages of detailed descriptions of all magical schools, power system, spell levels and rankings of all magic users

>>18894485
You're being sarcastic, but this unironically how zoomers believe all fantasy should be written.

>>18891863
[Spoiler]The quantum mirror wouldn't have accomplished anything meaningful You may as ask Deep Thought what the meaning of life is. Vincent was fucking up the timeline and committing mass murder on kalachakras just to do a physics experiment.[/spoiler]
But as deluded as he was, he was trying to find meaning. [Spoiler]And yes, he was a faggot.[/spoiler]
If I were a Kalachakra, I would live every life as if it were my last. Yes, I'll probably be reborn, but eventually (after five lives? fifty lives?) some asshole a hundred years ago will stomp the wrong butterfly and I'll never be born--and I'll never even see it coming. The kalachakras' confidence in their immortality is weirdly misplaced.
Mind you, I wouldn't be living in fear (no more than I live in fear as a mortal), but I wouldn't smugly assume my life(s)span will stretch thousands of years.
Being a kalachakra is mortality with extra steps.

>>18890165
Ubik was great but hardly groundbreaking these days. I can see how it influenced the Matrix and Invisibles though.
A Scanner Darkly is a pretty cool cyberpunk paranoia novel, lots of drugs but a message of hope at the end
Starting VALIS after reading a lot of PKD is difficult because it's more autobiographical and takes a while to get into. It's ideas a pretty big but it's boring/preachy for a while.

>>18891863
The quantum mirror wouldn't have accomplished anything meaningful You may as ask Deep Thought what the meaning of life is. Vincent was fucking up the timeline and committing mass murder on kalachakras just to do a physics experiment.
But as deluded as he was, he was trying to find meaning. [Spoiler]And yes, he was a faggot.
If I were a Kalachakra, I would live every life as if it were my last. Yes, I'll probablybe reborn, but eventually (after five lives? fifty lives?) some asshole a hundred years ago will stomp the wrong butterfly and I'll never be born--and I'll never even see it coming. The kalachakras' confidence in their immortality is weirdly misplaced.
Mind you, I wouldn't be living in fear (no more than I live in fear as a mortal), but I wouldn't smugly assume my life(s)span will stretch thousands of years.
Being a kalachakra is mortality with extra steps.

>>18890388
I like this, this is funny

>>18891819
Because they're wizards.

Warhammer + launches on Wednesday this upcoming week, and I've gotta say for whatever cringe reason I'm intrigued as it gives you access to a huge bunch of ebooks and comics. Are any of these actually worth reading?

>>18894719
I like the Dan Abnett inquisitor books.

>>18894719
The 40k ones are pretty cinge, but the Gotrek and Felix series is decent enough. I like the setting, instead of medieval it's more renaissance with a bunch of slightly anachronistic shit as a result of cultural cross pollination, such as one of the stories focusing on a bunch of Skaven (giant sentient, paranoid rats that are almost as evil as they are incompetent) trying to steal a steam powered tank from an Imperial Military College.

any rec for western written isekai? any from classics to recent ones, good or bad
I've already read alice in wonderland

>>18894850
The Knight by Gene Wolfe

>>18894850
Daniel Black by E William Brown
Wraiths Haunt by Hugo Huesca

>>18894729
>>18894765
Thanks anons. Will check them out

>>18894850
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen by H. Beam Piper

>>18894850
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

Just finished Book of the New Sun... Maybe I'm a brainlet but I've no clue what that ending was about.

>>18895225
Did you read Urth of the New Sun?

this was comfy, civilization was a mistake

>>18895265
No. Not yet. Honestly, I'm not even sure I want to anymore.

>>18895331
The story isn't finished until you do. You can't expect it to make sense yet.

How did Brandon Sanderson get away with it? I started book 12 of the Wheel of Time, The Gathering Storm, and the writing has been drastically reduced in quality. There are sentence fragments on nearly every page! Let this be a lesson to any anons out there who are afraid of publishing: you, too, can be an internationally best-selling fantasy author by obtaining a mere middle school education! It helps to be a crypto-Jewish Mormon with CIA connections, too. Call a hit on rival authors, like what happened to Robert Jordan, while you're at it.

>>18895371
Well my book is going to be real literature!

Any books that give STALKER vibes? That is, dudes with guns, scavenging for survival, post apocalyptic world with weird anomalies, mutants, etc. Already read Roadside Picnic and The Road. May give the Metro books a try...

>>18895414
Protip: only read Metro 2033. The sequels ruin everything. The game sequels are unironically better.

>>18895225
Read it again

>>18895371
Brawndo Samarkand isn't a best selling author because he writes crap, but because he writes a lot of crap

In the time it took me to make this post he's already completed the first draft of his hit new novel about a queer pigeon tamer that inscribes clouds with the dreams of the undead

>>18895422
How so? I don't mind spoilers.

>>18895467
I still mark them. There's a secret society of elites keeping the conflicts in the metro tunnels running but the larger world is perfectly fine

>>18895474
It does sound kinda stupid. Still may give the sequels a try if I like 2033 good enough. Not like I know other books in this genre to waste my time on...

>>18895409
>>18895463
I just don't understand how you can get published with gratuitous grammar mistakes on nearly every page. Who was the editor? Were they drunk or asleep at the wheel? Shouldn't the publishers have seen his draft and told Brandon to go home? Why did Robert Jordan and his wife pick Brandon to continue his work? Robert Jordan isn't the greatest author in the world, but he does not make basic mistakes that 11-year school children overcome. Did they not realize that The Eye of Argon is objectively more engaging and artistically crafted than anything Brandon Sanderson has ever bequeefed from his gaping cunt?

I knjow it's kinda off topic but does anyone know of any good cowboy or adventure novels that have the same sense of adventure or darkness that a fantasy novel does?

>>18895512
>Who was the editor?
Moshe
> Why did Robert Jordan and his wife pick Brandon to continue his work?
Because Mistborn

>>18895516
Yes. It's called Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West, written by Cormac McCarthy.

>>18895414
The Jerusalem Man trilogy, but that's more Heroic Fantasy than what you might be looking for.

>>18895474
I only read Metro 2033 years ago and never felt the need to return for the sequels, because it was a nice self-contained story. It's kinda nice to see my hunch validated. But I do have to say, that one sentence certainly has subverted my expectations.

>>18895516
The first book of the Dark Tower, The Gunslinger, would be this.

>>18895276
>mfw "tribe who likes to debate and respects the hammer"
it's kind of a shame the ending is a downer one as the only kid who had some interest in the old way of thinking dies

>>18890388
Based

>>18894065
What is that from? Looks breddy gud I want to read it

>>18886870
That was a good thread. Shows just how infested with discord trannies sffg has become

>>18886595
The Bakker cumguzzlers on this board is sickening

>>18894719
I liked all the warhammer books where the protag dies in the end

>>18895276
One of my favorites. The book gets criticized for its cynicism, with the survivors' kids not only losing pre-plague technology and literacy, but reverting to complete ignorance (near the end, 50+ years later, one of the kids thinks "Americans" created not only the ruins around them, but the world itself). But, at least for Ish's group, I find it realistic. While Ish's tribe survived the "secondary deaths" (suicide, alcoholism, insanity, etc), they still in effect spend the rest of their lives in a form of high functioning shock. A undercurrent of numbness follows them. Ish's wife Em lost her husband and two sons in the plague, and throughout book she has a blase, take-things-as-they-come attitude. Same with George, who was a deacon, but didn't seem concerned with keeping the Christian faith alive. The tribe largely sat around in a kind of stupor while their children grew up illiterate.
The catastrophe was too cozy. None of the tribe had to work hard or plan for the future. They generally lacked the energy to organize towards long-term projects. Ish was an exception, but even he was lackadaisical, and his elitism undermined his own efforts. He put all his hopes into Joey, dismissing the rest of the kids as lacking the 'spark.' In the end, Ish's most useful contribution was the bow.
Plus pre-plague knowledge was largely beyond the next generation's context. Necessity is the mother of invention; without the former, you can't have the latter. With such easy, hunter-gatherer lives, past knowledge would seem irrelevant. It didn't have to be; Ish could have introduced pre-plague knowledge as a means of improving his kids' lot (i.e. use books to learn how to make antibiotics, how to grind lenses for eyeglasses, etc), but even this would have limited applications.
It's a tragic story, though we don't know that other tribes weren't more successful in keeping knowledge alive.

>>18895512
>Why did Robert Jordan and his wife pick Brandon to continue his work?
Did Jordan actually have a say in it? Iirc he died much sooner than even his doctors had expected, so I wouldn't be surprised if even his preperations for the time after his death were cut short. The widow probably decided alone.

i read the bakker trilogy and thought it was solid. Is he still a meme here?

>>18886870
are you the crypto shill who was writing shit self-published fiction?

>>18893624
>Like [critically acclaimed author #1] and [critically acclaimed author #2], [scifi/fantasy author] is HIGHBROW and REALLY GOOD and you, the cultured and non-nerdy person reading this, shouldn't feel embarrassed about buying his book even though it's about robots fighting dragons
Does this kind of name-dropping ever convince non-genre fans to pick up a book? I can't stand it, even if the author is good and deserves the praise it comes across as tryhard.

>>18896929
>Is he still a meme here?
It should come as no surprise that the most daring contemporary fiction writer should be a figure of some controversy.

>>18896929
>are you the crypto shill who was writing shit self-published fiction?
No, I've never discussed my finances here before. I mostly just tell everyone to read Zelazny and shit on litrpg isekai faggots

>>18897018
How’s the tobacco crop looking this autumn, Scott? Any community college teaching gigs lined up for next semester, or will you need to get a line cook job and/or go on food stamps?

To think if the millions he could have made with Patreon… and if he hadn’t alienated all his fans, save the seven or so Zaudunyani who still post here.

>>18896929
I do write occasionally, but I would never self publish or shill my shit here like a fag

>>18897135
Stay strong. Keep the faith. At the No God’s end we’ll meet again.

>>18896929
Bakker is King here.

sci fi thriller page turner. What comes to mind?

>>18897674
Some shitty A G Ridley book.
I read one of his books once and it was literally a rip off of the TV show lost.

>>18897674
Unironically Gibson. Neuromancer, Johnny Mnemonic, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Idoru somewhat.

Also, of course: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Is there a single fantasy cycle that DOESN'T revolve around saving the world, killing God, or killing dark wizard? Anything with stakes lower than absolute?

>>18897866
The buried giant is pretty comfy.

>>18897943
I would think axl-fag's precious is his everything, so him saving her, is him saving his world.

>>18897866
KJ Parker's Engineer Trilogy. Hell, anything by KJ Parker (aka Tom Holt).

>>18897135
Perhaps I'm out of the loop, but what did Bakker do to alien his fans?.
I read the first trilogy when it came out and loved it. Tried re-read it recently and found it kind of grimderp, and the prose that was awesome in my early twenties was now, at forty, cheesy and pretentious.

>>18898039
>Perhaps I'm out of the loop
you are ignorant and weak, is the problem
you're still in the loop, dog

>>18898039
>now, at forty
What are senior citizens doing here?

>>18898081
Not him but I'm 41. I would've thought these threads were full of people closer to my age considering how most people praise books from the 20th century up and down.

>>18896088

>>18895516
>>18895564

>>18898127
The 4chinz are for the young and rebellious at the cutting edge of meme culture, not sated establishment boomers with one foot in the grave

>>18898039
>Perhaps I'm out of the loop, but what did Bakker do to alien his fans?
First there was a protracted flame war where he was targeted by tumblr SJWs as le misogynist white male fantasy author. He also apparently acted like a dick on the second apocalypse fan forums (this is hearsay, I wasn't there). Then there were assorted autistic social faux pas like the "you're a children's book author" ordeal. Then he got in a big fight with his publisher over the last book, presumably over the levels of mass cannibal murderrape he refused to cut kek. All in all, a rolling snowball of burning bridges and self-destruction, culminating in the greatest fantasy series of the twenty-first century.

>>18889192
Malazan kind of fucking sucks as a piece of literature though. I guess you can make the argument that it's a decent example of world building.

>The preposterous idea was to write the only kind of scripture that could be written at the end of civilization, so one of the things I did was invert the biblical emphasis on belief and fidelity--thus the textual emphasis on ignorance, doubt, and folly.

>When I was fourteen I stumbled upon the problem of free will all by my lonesome, and it fucked me up large. The original idea, that of a prophet rallying humanity to overcome the No-God, grew out of the combination of that dark epiphany and my passion for epic SF&F. My old AD&D crew actually set out on a quest to destroy the Consult and the No-God!

>>18898446
>In university a few years afterward, I read Dennett and Hofstadter on memes, and the idea of turning my prophet into a 'meme master' struck me as a lightning bolt. The Dunyain were born. While studying modernism, I realized that fantasy actually provided the perfect literary vehicle. Where the modernist paradigm always features a protagonist struggling to find meaning in a meaningless world (typically through some form of love), I realized I was writing a photographic negative of that, the story of a meaningless character struggling in a meaningful world.

>These books are 'about' many things, but the overarching theme is the death of meaning. The crash site of the Ark echoes our 'crash space,' the way all the stone age tools we evolved to make sense of our lives and our time belong to an ancestral ecology that is in the process of collapsing before our very eyes.

>The preposterous idea was to write the only kind of scripture that could be written at the end of civilization, so one of the things I did was invert the biblical emphasis on belief and fidelity--thus the textual emphasis on ignorance, doubt, and folly.

>When I was fourteen I stumbled upon the problem of free will all by my lonesome, and it fucked me up large. The original idea, that of a prophet rallying humanity to overcome the No-God, grew out of the combination of that dark epiphany and my passion for epic SF&F. My old AD&D crew actually set out on a quest to destroy the Consult and the No-God!

>In university a few years afterward, I read Dennett and Hofstadter on memes, and the idea of turning my prophet into a 'meme master' struck me as a lightning bolt. The Dunyain were born. While studying modernism, I realized that fantasy actually provided the perfect literary vehicle. Where the modernist paradigm always features a protagonist struggling to find meaning in a meaningless world (typically through some form of love), I realized I was writing a photographic negative of that, the story of a meaningless character struggling in a meaningful world.

>These books are 'about' many things, but the overarching theme is the death of meaning. The crash site of the Ark echoes our 'crash space,' the way all the stone age tools we evolved to make sense of our lives and our time belong to an ancestral ecology that is in the process of collapsing before our very eyes. The preposterous idea was to write the only kind of scripture that could be written at the end of civilization, so one of the things I did was invert the biblical emphasis on belief and fidelity--thus the textual emphasis on ignorance, doubt, and folly.

>When I was fourteen I stumbled upon the problem of free will all by my lonesome, and it fucked me up large. The original idea, that of a prophet rallying humanity to overcome the No-God, grew out of the combination of that dark epiphany and my passion for epic SF&F. My old AD&D crew actually set out on a quest to destroy the Consult and the No-God!

>In university a few years afterward, I read Dennett and Hofstadter on memes, and the idea of turning my prophet into a 'meme master' struck me as a lightning bolt. The Dunyain were born. While studying modernism, I realized that fantasy actually provided the perfect literary vehicle. Where the modernist paradigm always features a protagonist struggling to find meaning in a meaningless world (typically through some form of love), I realized I was writing a photographic negative of that, the story of a meaningless character struggling in a meaningful world.

>These books are 'about' many things, but the overarching theme is the death of meaning. The crash site of the Ark echoes our 'crash space,' the way all the stone age tools we evolved to make sense of our lives and our time belong to an ancestral ecology that is in the process of collapsing before our very eyes.

>>18898465
Sounds genuinely pretentious and tryhard.

I will now begin reading this.

>>18898530
based

>>18898455
>The crash site of the Ark echoes our 'crash space,' the way all the stone age tools we evolved to make sense of our lives and our time belong to an ancestral ecology that is in the process of collapsing before our very eyes.
So all the brutal horsecock murderrape is an allegory for the modern condition? Makes sense to me.

>"Admiral! It's an obvious trap!"
"Do you really think a person with a vagina is smart enough to come up with a trap? Full speed ahead. Do not check our flanks."

This happens a lot. Why is every villain like this?

>>18898473
Yes

>>18898561

>nobody in human history has EVER arrogantly marched into a trap because they thought they were a superior person

>>18898534
I read the first story, The Tale of Satampra Zeiros. I think that the names he chooses for characters and locations are a little too much of a mouthful. There's a lot of English words I don't know too, but I can use my context clues for those.
Aside from that it seems like Smith is going to be exactly what I want - Lovecraft meets Howard.

>>18898465
>>18898455
this man browses 4chan 100%

>>18898561
Because it's hard to write battles of wit between two roughly evenly matched opponents. Much easier to have the antagonist's main flaws be idiocy and arrogance. And what do you really expect from feminist fiction anyway? A female military officer as protagonist should be enough of a red flag for anyone.

>>18898697
based

>>18898039
>>18898127
I really ought to do a survey of the GR ages again. Of course, that's only for publicly displayed ages.

>>18898592
As much as feminists would have you believe, no, I don't believe that any high ranking military leader in history decided his stratagems based on me male me always right kind of logic

>>18898697
Check out Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton as well. It's very Smithian.

why the fuck are copies of The Great Ordeal being sold for minnimum like 40-50 dollars for paperback and like 100 hardcover

>>18898465
https://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=2083.0;wap2

>>18898465
Anasurimbor Kellhus, Aspect Meme Master

>>18898473
It really is for a children's fantasy story.

>>18898853
Yeah, I'm interested in that. I've seen it mentioned here a few times.

>The form of the Kellhus flashback scenes ultimately comes from my days smoking fatties and
watching Kung Fu with my grandmother, back when I was fourteen... How I loved that show.

>>18898914
>The form of the Kellhus flashback scenes ultimately comes from my days smoking fatties and watching Kung Fu with my grandmother, back when I was fourteen... How I loved that show.

>>18898974
Who are you quoting?

>>18886585
"Prophecy is like a treacherous woman. She takes your member in her mouth, and you moan with the pleasure of it and think, how sweet, how fine, how good this is... and then her teeth snap shut and your moans turn to screams... Prophecy will bite your prick off everytime." - Gorghan, A Song of Ice and Fire (Written by G.R.R. Martin)

Why do people say Martin has bad prose again? His prose is flowery and choked full of symbolism.

>>18898697
In my mind Smith is a much better writer than Lovecraft, and he isn't really comparable to Howard at all; he is very, very talented for somebody who spend most of his life writing for the pulps though

>>18899097
>choked full
the term is 'chock full' you retarded ESL, also in regards to Martin's prose: people say Brandon Sanderson has 'workmanlike prose' all the time, but really 'workmanlike prose' should be used to describe Martin: simple, functional, polished to the point where it 'works': Sanderson's prose is high-school tier, almost as bad as Paolini's in the first couple of Eragon books

>>18898127
kek 40 year old virgins browsing 4chan, on the other hand I am 32 so it's ok I guess

>>18888271
Not like Berserk will ever be finished anyway

>>18899469
He's already learning how to draw

>>18899546
Delet that post now

>>18899546
based workmanlike, efficient book-finisher. can we hire him to finish bakker’s series too?

>>18899546
How would Sanderson even end Berserk?

>>18899618
Everyone gets raped.

>my slappy ham when reading the Index LN and Accelerator being the model xianxia protag

>>18896618
It may be tragic in the short term, but towards the end the author was talking about the cycle of civilization, how the tribes would inevitably grow larger and combine with others starting the whole wheel of progress rolling again.
Hm, maybe it is tragic then.

>>18900137
>Accelerator being the model xianxia protag
No he isn’t. Accelerator is a Nietzschean nihilist and runs contrary to the Xianxia protagonist.

>>18899689
He's a mormon; not a muslim.

I just finished The Darkness That Comes Before, and since I read it on this thread's cancerous recommendation I thought I'd share my thoughts.

Good - The writing/prose really are solid and every character came across very clearly. The plot was very interesting and told well. Setting and world building were great, the complexity actually helped me become immersed once I accepted I would not recognize every minor dutchy or tribe's name but it just created a sense of a broader alien world. I've seen some criticize this and the use of made up language but I found it really well done and the purposeful mirror of particular ancient languages conveyed assumptions about the base culture in a smart way. Also the Lovecraftian feeling of impending doom from an ancient evil was great and was introduced so well by the prologue.

Bad - The pacing sometimes felt breathless to me, jumping from event to event, people separating or dying quickly with very little time for characters to interact/mull things over together (except Cnaiur and Kellhus which was great). Lastly regarding the "muh wimmun" complaint which is all I heard before going in, I have to agree there to an extent. Esmenett's portrayal was great but I found Serwe just really repetitious with yet another "whore" character. The book leaned too heavily into grimdarkness especially on the sexual violence, particularly the scene where Serwe is running screaming through the woods and two cavalrymen encounter her, and immediately start licking their lips/trying to rape her just felt too cartoonish. This incessant portrayal of everyone as so horribly selfish/evil was the only thing that broke my suspension of disbelief.

Overall I really enjoyed it though, I'm excited to read the sequel but will probably read something lighter as a palate cleanser first. Thank you for reading my blog and remember to Like, Comment, and Subscribe!

was he the self-insert or was it thom

>>18892264
ok but whats the story about?

>>18892169
great, I already have the full book of the new sun on my eReader, thanks anon.
apologies to all the other little bitches i set off by talking about your best buddy bsandies but anecdotally the best way to get replies in sffg for me has been to generously bait my posts.

>>18900765

>>18898828
The Chinese did literally this with Ching Shih, but Chinese naval incompetence is about as well known as their driving skills.

Thick Sansa Stark.

>>18895516

>>18895516
The Lonesome Dove series

>>18898149
I recognize that stock image

>>18900137
>Accelerator being the model xianxia protag
The fuck are you on about? Accelerator is nothin like a Xianxia protagonist.

I'm looking for more cyberpunk books after finishing everything by Gibson and I just saw Bleeding Edge by Pynchon gets thrown in with cyberpunk here and there. Any merit to that classification?

>>18901352
Yeah, its cyberpunk, more along the lines of tech-noir if you ask me.

>>18898149
Ty anon stealing it now. Good threads lately I've already found 2 recs in as many threads

>>18898715
Not only does he browse 4chan, but he posts in /sffg/ on a semi regular basis. He's harder to spot now though because he has dumbed down his vocabulary since being called out

>>18901352
Have you tried Altered Carbo by Richard Morgan? It’s a really good read.

>>18901426
Buy it, you cheap bastard.
>>18901183
Based.

>>18898446
>>18898455
>>18898465
Must've been fun games.

>>18901634
no. Also, I couldn't find it to steal so I'm just not gonna read it

>>18901659
>not supporting the author
why?

>>18901681
I don't support any authors unless I know they're not commie faggots

>>18901578
It's been a few years. I remember being a bit bored in the first half because I had seen the show and the book followed a similar arc, then it picked up more in the second half but I've kind of forgotten it already.

>>18901708
So, you only support self-published authors?

>>18901715
Don’t know about him, but I do. Tired of seeing anons posting the same trite bullshit about Muh woke current books while ignoring self-publish books that don’t do that.

>>18901729
Same, even bought one from a chart that was posted here a few times. Have mixed feelings for it, but I liked it nonetheless.

>>18886585
I'm not anti-anime but why do you insist on forcing this aesthetic into everything?

>>18901715
I don't read self published trash. The same anons that rec self published authors as if they're just as good as published also jizz their pants over isekai chink shit so even if there are any good ones I've got no way of finding them

>>18901767
>The same anons that rec self published authors as if they're just as good as published
Considering the state of publishing, they might be.

>>18901773
Sadly, some people are still in denial about the current state of publishers and publishing companies.

>>18901773
Very true. I also don't read contemporary Nigga Kween Jamison sjw shit

>>18901708
Understandable since I, too, do not want to support commie faggots. But this particular author is not a commie faggot as far as I know. In fact I discovered his books through right-wing channels who hate woke bullshit.

>>18901681
Why should I Matthew?

>>18901786
I think its the same with rewards now. It's all politicize now that its utterly useless in identifying their merits now.

>>18901828
You should check on the Hugo Awards and the Sad Puppies debacle. They'd rather give out no award than give one to a white man.

>>18901828
>>18901838
Didn’t they give an award to a woman for her first book because it fit in line with their insufferable SJW clique?

>>18901843
I'm going to cut this short, the Hugo Awards is more political than Oscars. This isn't hyperbole.

>>18901850
Jesus Christ. When did it all start falling apart? I almost want to believe this is just some elaborate shitpost.

>>18901793
You should read N.K. Jemisin. Her inheritance Trilogy is really good. You’re missing out on some good fantasy.

>>18901887
LIES ON TOP OF LIES

>>18901887
I tried to give The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms an earnest attempt, but I couldn't get into it, the story just isn’t very interesting.

>>18901890
How and in what ways am I lying?

>>18901895
Reread it again, I assure you it’s good.

>>18901887
>An den da ebil hwite man an hees raysis cat was defeated by da brown folks an dey was smart too
Lol no.

>>18901913
If not that, how about the a broken Earth? It’s a beautiful haunting tale worth reading.

>>18901887
idk about inheritance but broken earth was pretty bad

>>18901919
I'm not going to read hundreds of pages of seething propaganda

>>18901919
>broken Earth?
You mean the trilogy where even normies were starting to wake up to the bullshit?

>>18901919
I really like the bit where the brave black woman kills her own child in an abortion metaphor

I think a lot of anons here could relate to Broken Earth because it's a very angry book.

>>18901942
Definitely. Reading the Fifth Season will truly require some patience for some anons to read. It took me around 80 pages to get used to everything in the book and truly start getting invested in it.

>>18901895
Hundred thousand kingdoms sucked ass. It's not even comparable to Broken Earth.
>>18901913
But a white guy is one of the biggest protags in the story. He is a fag though.

Do people here actually read N. K. Jemisin? Not trying to make fun of you guys, just never expected it.

>>18901980
No. We don't read woke jiggaboo bullshit.

>>18901980
I read a ton of stuff. Decided to giver her a try as a I knew very little going in. Broken Earth was fine but by no means great.

>>18901980
Meh, I give authors the benefit of the doubt, so yes, I've read her before.

>>18901980
Yeah, I do. I like to form my own opinion on books and authors instead of being spoon fed.

>nooooooo Kellhus can't just ask Proyas how long he's served golgotterath FUCK YOU KELLHUS BOOK DROPPED

>>18901980
Not everyone here's a poltard.

>>18902033
I can’t fault him for assuming so.

>>18902033
I just assume given the hate that female authors get from here, that nobody reads them.

>>18902063
We read Le Guin

>>18902069
What about Katherine Applegate

>>18902090
Dunno

>>18902063
I think there's only a vocal few that are assblasted over women

>>18902090
The author of Animorphs? Yeah, I read her. She got me into reading.

>>18902063
Not everyone is a poltard. I enjoy plenty of female authors.

>>18902145
>Not everyone is a poltard. I enjoy plenty of female authors.

>>18902033
Do you really need to be a poltard to notice that modern publishing is all about pushing far left rhetoric and traded merit for liberal obsessions? Man, how did these brown women manage to snag every major scifi and fantasy award for the past decade? They must have some godlike literary talents to push crusty old white fuckers from the spotlight! Except a cursory look at the kind of work they produce shows how laughable it really is. Is the whole damn book written in terse present and past simple sentences? I won't read a novel worth of this sludge if you paid me.

>>18902122
Shame they shit up the thread.

>>18902149
No one here is saying that the left isn't pushing their woke agenda into books and nearly every other form of media. But not every female author is an SJW on some crusade like Jemisin is.

>>18902202
Nuance is lost on them.

>>18902202
Even if thats true (doubt it, women sre genetically bad at writing), the sheer percentage of female authors who are either talentless, politically obsessed, or simply have nothing interesting to say is too damn high to hazard trying them out. I'm not jumping in a pool of shit in hopes of stumbling upon a pearl.

>>18902232
You don't have to? You can just check online and check the reviews.

>>18902202
We really need to make a chart for female authors.

>>18902243
I remember getting recommended Left Hand of Darkness which turned to be a story set on the planet of trannies who flip their gender every season or something. This is considered a classic.

>>18902149
isnt 19 a bit young to be a chieftain?

>>18902254
>This is considered a classic.
Le Guin, more than Tolkien, has raised fantasy into high literature, for our time

>>18902254
You're an adult (hopefully). You don't have to read everything you're recommended.

>>18902259
Is it really? Never read it, but isn’t it Middle Ages? So having someone young the norm?

>>18902269
chieftains tended to be respected older men I thought

>>18902274
Could be that they made her a chieftain due to her grandfather? Politics and all that jazz

>>18902280
This is my answer as well, the tribal leaders are probably just trying to get in some good graces with Dekarta.

>>18902267
With the way he acts, I doubt it.

>>18886754
Recursion by Blake Crouch (god tier)
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (kinda)

>>18902291
>kinda
What do you mean by kinda?

>>18902149
I don’t see what’s wrong with this.

>>18887337
Holy fuck I’ll kill myself in this situation

New thread
>>18902302

>>18902296
Stylistically it's not all that different from Bradbury or Asimov.

>>18902293
its not totally time loop or time travel. it employs a quantum mechanic "superposition" so it looks like the character is time traveling but to different realities, so I included it but the other two are 100% time loop thrillers

>>18902262
lol no. Shut up. Please leave.

>>18902296
>I don’t see what’s wrong with this.
It's not an anime action sequence.