/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

[Anonymous No.11873696]

Best SF Series Of The Century Thus Far Edition

FANTASY
Selected:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/0935e4cd59/105363.jpg (embed)
General:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21328.jpg (embed)
Flowchart:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21327.jpg (embed)

SCIENCE FICTION
Selected:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/def184ad8f/124507.jpg (embed)
https://imgoat.com/uploads/b44928ae11/114401.jpg (embed)
General:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21332.jpg (embed)
https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21330.jpg (embed)

NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:
https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21333.jpg (embed)

SF&F author listing with ratings and summaries:
http://greatsfandf.com/authors-full-list.php

Previous:
>>11866677
>>11859544
>>11841996
>>11830816

[Anonymous No.11873703]

>>11873682
>implying you can't make a magic system whose purpose is not to explain how magic works

[Anonymous No.11873710]

>>11873703
Give an example of this

[Anonymous No.11873717]

>>11873682
Don't limit yourself by believing there is one true way to write something. Both approaches have pros and cons. A good author can use either to great effect.

[Anonymous No.11873721]

>>11873710
LotR magic is explicitly designed to be divine and demi-catholic as a way of connecting magic to history and heritage, but even in appendices nothing but the genesis of magic is explained
Vance's magic in the Dying Earth stories is designed to portray the self-aggrandizement and arrogance of academic scientists and doesn't even pretend to explain what the mechanics of spellcasting are

[Anonymous No.11873725]

I'm about halfway through A Storm of Swords now. When does GRRM get good? I've been waiting to start enjoying these fucking books for over 2,000 pages now

[Anonymous No.11873742]

>>11873703
You don't actually even need to tell the reader what the magic system is explicitly. You just need on to be consistent with your use of magic to avoid Deus ex machina, or well to be consistent

[Anonymous No.11873748]

Revelation Space universe is good but feels like wasted potential. It is one of those series that could have benefited from a more traditional structure instead of a scattering of ostensibly standalone efforts with thin connecting tissue. Great setting, neat ideas, and an unusually good command of atmosphere for a scifi series but not much to be said for the characters or how the "plot" was handled.

[Anonymous No.11873774]

>early thread

[Anonymous No.11873856]

>>11873703
The problem is quite often the reader wants to know where it came from. Not only does this have to do with the protagonist being somewhat special but also the concept of magic being of the same ilk and therefore provide a reason why the reader doesn't have the same qualities.
If I'm going to take something everyone has read or seen and with magic, let's look at Harry Potter. The beginning of magic isn't important, as you have said, but this is actually substituted for the magic world. Here we are intrigued by the very thought of a magical world lying behind a simple gateway on a platform in London. While we don't know the origins of magic, we can trace its existence to one outside our own world and that is the reason why people explain how magic works. As I've said, it's about making the protag special.

Also, writers like to go on and on (as i have here, ironically) and write grand allusions and needlessly describe all manner of things.
The LOTR reference someone posted about is vaguely described, or at least portrayed, as a largely elf thing which again makes human magic impressive but also aims to pull the focus onto the resident wizard (and arguably the most character in the books).
In regards to Sci fi, do send through some ideas of magic within these and I'll have a look.

[Anonymous No.11873863]

Shit thread made early, worst waifu posted late. You all disgust me.

[Anonymous No.11873865]

test

[Anonymous No.11873869]

>>11873703
CAN you do that? How do you make a "system" that doesn't explain how a thing works?

I'm going to need you to post an example or two.

[Anonymous No.11873878]

How's your writing been going? You almost have a story finished yet?

[Anonymous No.11873881]

>>11873878
I've written approximitely 3000 words a day all month: haven't managed to keep up such a pace for so long for a year at least, if ever. If I can keep it up - and the story doesn't swell unduly - the first draft should be ready by 17th of this month.

So yeah, going pretty well, thanks for asking.

[Anonymous No.11873896]

The day is here!

>A couple of questions:
Did you like the book?
Did you finish the book? Will you keep reading Gormenghast?
Did you like the writing?
What about the characters? Favourite?
Is Gormenghast really fantasy? Titus Groan predates Lord of the Rings with 10 years, how would the genre look today if Peake had gotten the attention Tolkien did?
Any other thoughts?

Also, please reply to this post with nominations for next months reading.

[Anonymous No.11873908]

>>11873896
>Did you like the book?
Yes.
>Will you keep reading Gormenghast?
I'm well into the next book, so yes.
>Did you like the writing?
I'm not used to such an intricate prose, and it took me a bit to get into, but in the end I liked it pretty great.
>What about the characters? Favourite?
All the characters were delightfully insane. I think I liked the doctor the best.
>Is Gormenghast really fantasy?
I don't see why not. It doesn't have much magic or monsters, but it doesn't have much real world in it either. And I'm pretty sure the castle is way bigger than any real life castle has any right to be.
>Titus Groan predates Lord of the Rings with 10 years, how would the genre look today if Peake had gotten the attention Tolkien did?
Maybe all fantasy would take place in big fancy crumbling castles, and there would be no elves or orcs running around fucking things over.
>Any other thoughts?
Fucking Steerpike.

>nominations
City, since I think it came close to winning the last time and looked worthwhile.

[Anonymous No.11873936]

Bunch of good books were released today.
Not sure what to read first.

Priest of Bones
Murderbot Diaries 4
Crimson queen sequel
Ironfoot sequel
Time's Children

[Anonymous No.11873938]

>>11873896
>did you like the book?
I read it recently but not for this. I consider it the greatest fantasy novel of all time.
>did you finish the book? will you keep reading gormenghast?
I already have.
>Did you like the writing?
yeah, it's basically perfect.
>Is Gormenghast really fantasy?
Yes, as much so as Lord of the Rings. The most important piece of the genre (which people misunderstand) is a healthy Tolkien influence.
>Titus Groan predates Lord of the Rings with 10 years, how would the genre look today if Peake had gotten the attention Tolkien did?
Purpler prose, if that's even possible. The epic structure would probably not have had a decades-long stranglehold on popular fantasy. Better villains.
>Any other thoughts?
I fucking love Gormenghast. I'm not the most avid reader of fantasy, more of a sci-fi person in general, but every time I open to a page of this series I find a passage written with such lyrical perfection that it inspires me to write.

[Anonymous No.11873940]

>>11873896
>>11873896
>did you like the book?
I read it recently but not for this. I consider it the greatest fantasy novel of all time.
>did you finish the book? will you keep reading gormenghast?
I already have.
>Did you like the writing?
yeah, it's basically perfect.
>Is Gormenghast really fantasy?
Yes, as much so as Lord of the Rings. The most important piece of the genre (which people misunderstand) is a healthy Tolkien influence.
>Titus Groan predates Lord of the Rings with 10 years, how would the genre look today if Peake had gotten the attention Tolkien did?
Purpler prose, if that's even possible. The epic structure would probably not have had a decades-long stranglehold on popular fantasy. Better villains.
>Any other thoughts?
I fucking love Gormenghast. I'm not the most avid reader of fantasy, more of a sci-fi person in general, but every time I open to a page of this series I find a passage written with such lyrical perfection that it inspires me to write.

[Anonymous No.11873942]

>>11873938
I meant to say a healthy Shakespeare influence.

[Anonymous No.11873944]

The Silver Sorceress - Alec Hutson
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=12244950268091541960

[Anonymous No.11873953]

>>11873944
I have crimson queen, do you have priest of bones by any chance?

[Anonymous No.11873958]

>>11873953
crimson queen's sequel*

[Anonymous No.11873966]

>>11873896
>Did you like the book?
Yes, I'm glad I finally read it.
>Will you keep reading Gormenghast?
I will, I had to take a break and read something less elaborate but now I'm back at it again.
>Did you like the writing?
I did. It reminded me about Dickens, probably because of the names. I enjoyed how visual the text was, I don't always visualize when I read but I had a hard time not visualizing every scene when reading Titus Groan.
>What about the characters? Favourite?
I loved the characters. Prunesquallor is without a doubt my favourite, I actually laughed out loud because of his antics several times. I also found it impressive how Peake managed to write a character that's both silly and highly accomplished at the same time.
>Is Gormenghast really fantasy? Titus Groan predates Lord of the Rings with 10 years, how would the genre look today if Peake had gotten the attention Tolkien did?
Some other Tolkien would have come along and changed the genre sooner or later. Gormenghast is unique but not as unique as Lord of the Rings was when it was released. I would say that Gormenghast is related to preceding fairy tales and folk lore inspired works of fiction.
>Any other thoughts?
It have already been said, fucking Steerpike. I have a hard time imagining that I will ever find him likable after he burned down the library of Sepulchrave.

I was a little disappointed by the showdown between Swelter and Flay. Most of the fight was really tense but it was quite jarring that Swelter was defeated because of two spiders blocking both his eyes.

Since next month is October I nominate Frankenstein. We should read something spooky.

[Anonymous No.11873995]

>>11873953
https://forum.mobilism.org/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=2777871&hilit=Priest+of+Bones

should get uploaded today or tomorrow

[Anonymous No.11873998]

>>11873878
started a novel last week, it reads like shit but it's just like 10 pages i scrawled down after walking around in the rain one day, i just want to get the story out then make it actually read well instead of having it be the one big eye gouging expository paragraph it is now

[Anonymous No.11874011]

>>11873995
I should know, that's my request. Small world Bump or add reward if you've got accounts anons.

[Anonymous No.11874024]

>>11873908
>I'm well into the next book
>I'm not used to such an intricate prose
Gotta say, the first chapters of the second book are thick as fuck. It's like the reading equivalent of wading through (really pleasant) quicksand.

[Anonymous No.11874035]

>>11874024
I love the character descriptions in the recap, though:
>...so limp of a brain that for them to conceive an idea is to risk a haemorrhage.
>His main defects? The unsufferable pitch of his voice,; his maddening laughter and his affected gestures. His cardinal virtue? An undamaged brain.
>If ever he had harboured a conscience in his tough narrow breast he had by now dug out and flung away the awkward thing - flung it so far away that were he ever to need it again he could never find it.

[Anonymous No.11874092]

>>11873896
>Did you like the book?
Yes!
>Will you keep reading Gormenghast?
Currently doing so.
>Did you like the writing?
I did, but it's difficult to read on autopilot. I couldn't help but linger and go back over some of the descriptions.
>What about the characters? Favourite?
The characters are really the best part. Prunesquallor is an easy favorite, but I really enjoyed reading anything that described Swelter. One that stuck with me was "flat feet sucking the flagstones like porridge".
>Any other thoughts?
I read an illustrated ebook. Really wish I had a print version with the illustrations.

Fucking Steerpike

[Anonymous No.11874093]

What's the most emotionally attached you've been to characters in a book?

[Anonymous No.11874101]

>>11874093
Unironically Harry Potter.

I've liked a lot of books since but I haven't truly grown attached to characters, angry when they died or suffered, or joyful with them as they succeeded. I grew into a sad, bitter adult.

[Anonymous No.11874113]

>>11874093
Aubrey-Maturin series

[Anonymous No.11874129]

I'm reading The Once and Future King
Did you guys trick me into reading a fucking children's book?
>Arthur turning into animals, isn't that quirky and whimsical?
>Merlin referencing or having objects from different times, isn't that quirky and whimsical?
>story takes place in 1216 instead of like 6th century
>Uther has lived for 150 years
>somehow the Battle of Crecy is a thing that already happened anyway
>Robin Hood shows up for no reason whatsoever
>random fucking tourist guide for Castle Souvant out of nowhere
>knights in armor were heavy and lumbering meme
>medieval forests were untamed meme
>coronation ceremony of Arthur is basically just "he pulled the sword a few times to convince people and everyone except a few barons accepted it and the animals gave him gifts NEXT CHAPTER PLEASE"

[Anonymous No.11874136]

>>11874129
maybe try something a little less complex next time

[Anonymous No.11874137]

>>11873936
>Murderbot Diaries 4
Read 1 and 2, both was short and sweet

>Time's Children
I'm reading "Children of Time" right now, but I don't think it's relevant, lmao

I'dd make sure space the novellas between longer books to get a small refresher

[Anonymous No.11874140]

This guy is really, really smart

[Anonymous No.11874141]

>>11874136
I'll shit in your mouth you tasteless cur, it might as well be pudding as far as your concerned

[Anonymous No.11874163]

>>11874092
>Really wish I had a print version with the illustrations
I have an absolute tome of a book called The Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy. It is a beautiful book of high quality, I recommend it to anyone that want a print version of Gormenghast.

[Anonymous No.11874183]

Give me a fantasy book with trannies in it

[Anonymous No.11874193]

>>11874183
This Anon's Sexual Encounters

[Anonymous No.11874201]

>>11874140
>tbf that's a pretty big number

[Anonymous No.11874213]

>>11873696
>(embed), (embed), (embed), (embed), (embed), (embed), (embed), (embed)

[Anonymous No.11874229]

*decolonizes your genre*
*interrogates your whiteness*

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11874275]

>>11873896
>Did you like the book?
I did. I was skeptical early on because it was taking so long to develop but the doctor won me over with his quips.
>Did you finish the book? Will you keep reading Gormenghast?
Yes and yes. I delayed reading the rest of the series until after the review date so I wouldn't bias my opinion of "Titus Groan".
>Did you like the writing?
Peake paints scenes very thoroughly. Most of the descriptions seem like they'd be a good fit with Tim Burton's style of cinema as everything seems sort of wild and unkempt with any beauty being almost accidental. The roof scene reminded me of certain bits of Ghibli, what with the endless rooflines against the backdrop of sky and far fields while two odd ladies have a tea party on a giant dead tree growing out of the wall.
>What about the characters? Favourite?
>Is Gormenghast really fantasy?
Yes, in the vein of Lewis Carroll.
>. . . how would the genre look today if Peake had gotten the attention Tolkien did?
This would be best answered in a separate post but I think I'll skip it.
>Any other thoughts?
I'm curious as to why the castle is so vividly depicted in an illogical world. The local villagers are carvers who exist to win contests held by the Baron rather than farmers or merchants. A seemingly normal world exists beyond the demesne of the Baron Groan but we see only flashes of this as Keda wanders during her exile. Is it a puzzle or metaphor a la Wolfe?
I also wondered why each character debuts as both ugly and unlikeable before further exposition adds endearing detail to some.
I've noted other ladies of the reading group sighing at Steerpike but has he really done anything wrong? So far he has escaped the clutches of a homicidal (and otherwise creepy) cook, confinement by a taciturn and humorless valet, yet parlayed this inauspicious beginning into a pretty good shot at being the butler by using the family's own faults to his advantage. Each family member is entitled and drearily narcissistic, with only Fuschia showing signs of becoming a decent person. I'm not saying he's a hero but is he really any worse than the rest of the cast? Why did Peake choose to write such unappealing characters for the opening book of the series?

[Anonymous No.11874310]

Should I read Gormenghast since you guys are praising it so much?

[Anonymous No.11874311]

>>11874275
>is he really any worse than the rest of the cast?
He burned a dang library.

[Anonymous No.11874312]

>>11874229
Who's this nigger?

[Anonymous No.11874315]

>>11874310
Yes, go for it.

[Anonymous No.11874317]

>>11874129
Yeah, I also couldnt make it all the way through that book, and that is a rare thinng indeed. Trying too hard to be quirky and whimsical, just like you said.

[Anonymous No.11874330]

is fantasy a poor genre choice for character driven novels?
seems like it would sell poorly

[Anonymous No.11874332]

>>11874330
Just make a epic poem instead.

[Anonymous No.11874337]

>>11874330
It's no worse than any other genre. It just tempts you with magic and weird shit that you might want to focus on instead. If you have the willpower to keep those things low-key and prop up characters and their relationships to the forefront, you'll do fine.

[Anonymous No.11874340]

>>11874330
If the author is good it can work. Space Opera isn't great for characters but the Vorkosigan series is easily some of the best contemporary scifi writing.

[Anonymous No.11874342]

>>11874330
Kingkiller Chronicles is a great character-driven series!

[Anonymous No.11874350]

>>11874330
fantasy sells poorly. period.

If you want to sell books fantasy is the wrong genre, barring some exceptions that got adapted into media, fantasy bestsellers don't compare to regular books. Even top fantasy authors make fuck all financially speaking.

[Anonymous No.11874351]

Why is this fag putting out books so quick?
Super Sales 3 is next month
His Cultivation shit is December
Fostering Faust 2 is January

How does he do it? Rothfuss had 10 years and he still can't complete.

[Anonymous No.11874356]

Does /lit/ know Wolfgang Hohlbein or the Perry Rhodan series? Or do those not travel outside of Germany?

[Anonymous No.11874357]

>>11874310
You had all month, now you should read whatever the next one is.

[Anonymous No.11874361]

>>11874357
I'm just a stupid tourist passing through who has maybe read 6 or 7 fantasy authors in his life

[Anonymous No.11874366]

>>11874351
the cultivation thing is a joint effort with blaise corving from what i understand and published mainly under his name.
also its not really fast. though you gotta commend his work ethic. i wish more authors would work as fast. theres way faster authors. but im pretty sure they get burned out faster.
rothfus is just lazy. most "made" authors are.
also im conflicted with reading wuxia but i like both william and blaise so it might not be that bad. wuxia and xanxia in essence are just stories about drug addicts on their journey to reach ever higher highs if you think about it.
really hope none of the shouting out attacks meme gets stuffed into it. dont really care much for fostering faust but im really looking forward to super sales 3. that series doesnt have any right to be as good as it is. im still baffled by how its so good.

[Anonymous No.11874374]

>mfw reading Hyperion for the first time
All the stories have been bangers so far.

[Anonymous No.11874390]

>>11874366
>blaise corving
You mean that fag that tried to copy daniel black with that delvers shit?
He is a horrible author. His characters are immature as fuck. and HE PANDERS OUT THE ASS. That last delvers book was about some "slay queen tranny" and it hurt to read all that trash. I promised never to read anymore of his shit after that.

[Anonymous No.11874574]

Who else is hyped?

[Anonymous No.11874602]

>>11874574
I was ready to dismiss it out of hand but after reading the blurb, I'm willing to give it a shot if someone who has read it can confirm there's dragon-girl sex in the book.

[Anonymous No.11874606]

>>11873725
You are at the point where is STOPS being good. So if you haven't enjoyed the books up to this point just cut your losses and stop.

[Anonymous No.11874680]

>>11874574
I read the first angels in paris book and didn't care enough to read the sequels, not sure if I'll give her another shot

[Anonymous No.11874684]

Bought this for $6 did I get memed?

[Anonymous No.11874710]

>>11874684
It's ultramillennial

[Anonymous No.11874741]

>>11874710
Thinking back on it more, I will admit the execution is richer than that. Millennial noir? I don't know. More human than its premise, and better than the Water Knife. I read it less than a year ago and had to look it up to be reminded of the plot. Can't believe it shared the award with The City and the City, which was great.

[Anonymous No.11874787]

So nobody's mentioned that Amazon is doing a Wheel of Time series about Moiraine?

>>11874390
>"this trash i'm reading... is trash!" exclaims now self-aware litRPG reader

>>11874574
I like her scifi stuff so I'll give it a shot.

>>11874684
It's entirely readable but from a literary standpoint I really didn't like it. Felt like a "British Novel About Southeast Asia Sometime in 18XX to 1938" story but with a "futuristic" poverty tourism gloss. White guy goes to DARKEST ASIA in search of Treasure for the East Asia Company but falls for Exotic Oriental Beauty, there's the Scheming Chinaman, the local nationalists, etc. Stuff happens, there's a civil war due to the nationalists, the white guy dies of Jungle Plague leaving the Oriental Beauty to mourn him.

[Anonymous No.11874807]

Just read one of Ben Bova's books, never will again

[Anonymous No.11874832]

>>11873863
SEETHING

[Anonymous No.11874851]

How come the last three SciFi series I read was randomly written by (ex)-lawyers, and heavily featured suspension charmers, it's too weird

[Anonymous No.11874864]

Imagine sucking on Soulcatcher tiddies

[Anonymous No.11874865]

>>11874851
it's a sign for sure, my good man.

[Anonymous No.11874872]

>>11874684
Fun book, sexy Asian robot chick and a pulpy but interesting setting. I wish it was more about the non-white characters.

[Anonymous No.11874879]

>>11874872
>I wish it was more about the non-white characters.

[Thiskillsthedarkelf No.11874887]

>>11873878
Poorly.

I'm skipping important steps and just writing unpolished scenes rather than an actual story.

I think my biggest issue is that I'm trying to write gratuitous self insert !not anime xanxia as an adult who has no desire to go on an amazing coming of age adventure himself.

[Anonymous No.11874941]

>>11874879
Because if you're gonna write a book about an Asian setting then you should take advantage of that. The protagonist was easily the least interesting of the characters and yet so much time was wasted on his musing about how orientals are crafty and Thailand is hot and robot girl tits feel nice in your hands.

[Anonymous No.11874969]

>>11874574
>some no name whore who’s won some diversity medals
Yeah no, I don’t read the writing in toilet paper, I wipe my ass with it

[Anonymous No.11874997]

>>11873878
Period story about the sidekick of a Doc Savage pulp hero, jealous and overshadowed, who gets superpowers and decides to strike out on his own. Just started it.

[Anonymous No.11875010]

>>11874941
>The protagonist was easily the least interesting of the characters

This happens all the time, because authors both believe the MC needs to be an audience surrogate and because they don't have the talent to maintain a book's worth of close contact with someone much different than themselves.

This is one reason why BotNS is god-tier, and also the 2nd most common reason people think The Catcher in the Rye is great.

[Anonymous No.11875272]

>>11874807
I’ve avoided him for my entire life because he seems like the kind of writer who would have that effect on me

[Anonymous No.11875315]

>>11874807
Which book was it? Apparently the only book he's ever written that got any decent acclaim was called "COLONY" or something like that, I've never read it (looked too long for an author with a sketchy reputation) but all his other books have AUTHOR OF COLONY on them.

[Anonymous No.11875328]

>>11875315
holy shit this nigger is 85 years old, most recent novel was released last year. He's been working on a series of novels about colonizing the Solar System since the mid-80s. Wiki alleges he's written over 120 books but I can't find any one place that actually lists them all.

This guy is basically the Brandon Sanderson of the 1970s. This is what Branderson will look like in 40 years: still plugging away at bullshit formula novels no one cares about.

[Anonymous No.11875349]

>>11875328
http://benbova.com/bibliography/

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11875364]

>>11875328
>6 Hugos for editing
>edited two major scifi mags
>presided over the writer's guild
>presided over whatever the National Space Society is
>published over 120 books
>nobody in this thread can name one offhand
>bears a certain tribal resemblance
Just a coincidence.

[Anonymous No.11875374]

>>11874183
Fifth Season has one tranny but he doesn't really matter all that much
>>11874312
My future wife

[Anonymous No.11875377]

>>11875349
http://benbova.com/writips/

Red hot writing tips
>Write everyday
>Read widely.
>The end

[Anonymous No.11875380]

I'm a fan of WoT despite some of it's terrible moments. The planned TV series isn't looking so promising thanks to these comments by the showrunner:

On LGTBQ+ representation:
>I think that gender is such a key theme of the books, and discussing gender without a full representation of LGBTQ+ people would be a disservice to that discussion. Rest assured, their will be pillow friends out the wazoo.

"Rigid Mars-Venus gender division etc- troubling aspects of books. Plans to update/improve these? WoT’s gr8 to discuss gender but it isn’t without problems."
>I’m a feminist and it’s very important to me that the show is feminist in today’s context. So a lot of those things will be changing.

https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/09/wheel-of-time-tv-showrunner-hosts-q.html?m=1
>>11874787
Wheel of Time series about Moiraine
???

[Anonymous No.11875389]

>>11873878
I'm getting the summary down for my second novel. I'm realizing I haven't actually thought about much beyond the first 20-25% of the book

At least I have a loose idea of some of the goalposts. I just need to connect the dots

[Anonymous No.11875392]

>>11875380
They decided to show everything from Moiraine's pov in the show, whether this was done to hide the dragon's identity, at least in the first season and give it clear narrative focus, or if it's some sjw faggotry is unclear.

[Anonymous No.11875438]

>>11874864
I wish, Croaker a fag.

[Anonymous No.11875443]

>>11875349
"Sam Gunn" rings a bell. Aside from that I haven't haven't heard of any of these. I didn't know there was an "Volume 2" of the SFWA Hall of Fame anthology.

[Anonymous No.11875531]

>>11875315
I find his stuff average but dated. The older stuff is dated by it's science, while the newer stuff is just sort of generic Libertarian Space Colony utopianism with a side of what I took to be a "earth can only be saved by going to space" environmentalist message.

Though the one big thing I took away from the Asteroid Wars series was that asteroid mining is a economic paradox, nickel-iron ores and precious industrial metals are so common in space that actually having access to them would destroy any profit you could make off them. Though it did give me a story idea about a group of anarchists threatening to crash the world metals economy by dropping disposable shuttles full of valuable metals around the world.

>>11875328
If you're gonna write full time then yeah you're going to be writing a lot of crap nobody's going to remember. Not everybody can hit it big with the next Harry Potter or whatever and then just coast and write vanity stuff. I recall reading that David Weber uses speech-recognition software and "writes" a book over the weekend and then sends it off to his editor for trimming.

[Anonymous No.11875581]

Have there been any good, recent "heroic fantasy" novels? I'm tired of this "12 book epic" nonsense.

[Anonymous No.11875632]

>>11875531
You sound pretty familiar with him. I just have him pegged as a Kevin J. Anderson type whose main talent (like Branderson) is reliably turning out readable novels.

I don't know whether Bova's lack of lasting impact is some crushing statement on his talent or just luck of the draw/bad marketing. Robert Silverberg (who I like) also wrote a ton of novels. I'm sure many of them suck but the ones I've read are pretty solid even if no one would mistake them for high culture.

[Anonymous No.11875686]

>>11873725
>When does GRRM get good?
Unironically in A Feast for Crows. It's a pretty comfy book that very different from the rest of the series.

[Anonymous No.11875697]

>>11875686
>Bakker
How much of his own personal philosophy does this guy insert into his works?

[Anonymous No.11875701]

This was boring until shit started going down in the Mines of Mori- er I mean Cil-Aujas. Also I found this series much more tolerable if you skim over a lot of the inner monologue shit that feels like nothing but filler at this point.

[Anonymous No.11875713]

>>11875632
I'm not super familiar with his stuff actually. I've only read Mars and some of the Asteroid Wars ones, one about corporate espionage on Mercury, maybe some others that I can't remember. For the most part they were consistently solid takes on exploring the solar system in a mostly realistic manner. One of the main things that sticks in my mind is that in one of the Asteroid Wars books a family-operated mining ship gets shot up by some pirates and it takes several years for them to orbit back around close enough for them to signal for help with a laser.

I think your assessment is correct, he's a consistent author who has interesting ideas, but not really somebody who's going to knock your socks off.

[Anonymous No.11875729]

>>11875697
Very much

[Anonymous No.11875732]

>>11875729
Examples?

[Anonymous No.11875733]

>>11875697
A lot of it, but if you skim through that tedious crap it's tolerable.

[Anonymous No.11875743]

>>11874093
Fantasy - Thorn sorrow and memory series
Science fiction - Luna series from Mcdonald

[Anonymous No.11875875]

Every time I watch a Gundam series I find myself thinking that it would be a lot better without giant humanoid battle robots. I don't want to say this on /a/ because I feel like /a/ wouldn't understand, but I'm watching Gundam UC right now and the portrayal of O'Neill cylinders and the colonization of outer space is more nuanced than a lot of televised SF in the Western world. The biggest problem is the reliance on a single anime trope (mecha) to the detriment of more interesting concepts.

[Anonymous No.11875918]

>>11874275
>only Fuschia showing signs of becoming a decent person
Sepulchrave did literally nothing wrong and Steerpike pushed him over the edge to insanity (something he expected to happen), basically murdering him.

[Anonymous No.11875928]

>>11874356
Never heard of desu

[Anonymous No.11875934]

>>11874787
>about Moiraine
Are they adapting New Spring?

[Anonymous No.11876060]

>>11875875
>he biggest problem is the reliance on a single anime trope (mecha) to the detriment of more interesting concepts.
that's most sci-fi anime desu. Starts with an interesting or unique setting and then fills it with the same shit tropes and same character types

[Anonymous No.11876209]

>>11875743
Miriamele is such a whore

[Anonymous No.11876239]

>>11876209
why

[Anonymous No.11876263]

>>11876209
Yeah. Remember disgust for her when Simon found out she was with another man? He literally killed a dragon, travelled half a world, was in a legendary city of sithi but at the end she cuckold him with some shitty captaine.
Oh boy.
Can't wait for new Osten Ard trilogy.

Also is Tailchaser's song any good?

[Anonymous No.11876264]

so /sffg/; I read Marion Zimmer Bradleys Mists of Avalon, and I gotta say, this Book, valued by esoterik feminists far and wide...
... is the very best argument in favour of domestic violence and men disciplining their women harshly, that I have EVER read; the entire book is basically:
> Women meddling
> Women nagging their husbands
> weak husbands giving into their women
> Women cheating on their husbands
> thus everything goes to shit
> only likeable characters are the male ones
whatever did she mean by this?

[Anonymous No.11876277]

>>11876264
>women doing x
>women doing y
>women doing z
There's the reason it was once hailed as a work of importance for feminism. I doubt many modern feminists have actually read it, or would like it if they did. And in this age of heavily connecting all works to the author there's the whole pedophile thing which probably make the book problematic.

[Anonymous No.11876289]

>>11876264
>writes fantasy
>portrays women realistically
For what purpose, give waifus instead.

[Anonymous No.11876291]

>>11876264
That's just like your misogynistic point of view on some strong independent female characters

[Anonymous No.11876296]

>>11873696
>tfw the universe steals away the best sci fi author of the 21st Century before his time

[Anonymous No.11876306]

currently reading Lies, Inc. by PKD and holy shit is it interesting. It is basically a continuation of his earlier "The Unteleported Man"; A teleporter to Formalhaut colony exists in an overpopulated Earth world (7billion population in book, hilariously) only there is no option to come back through the teleporter. A man on an interstellar ship then, travelling to the colony, is the "unteleported man", and the authoritarian government in place is lying to the people about how no one wants to go back out of the millions that have emigrated. He ends up going through the teleporter secretly and has an LSD dart trip that lasts centuries in subjective time. Anyone else intrigued by LSD shitfest writing that PKD is so effortlessly good at portraying?

[Anonymous No.11876313]

>>11875328
i've been meaning to read Bova's planet/solar system colonization books. Have seen Venus and Jupiter and their premises looked pretty interesting

[Anonymous No.11876356]

>>11874093
Particularly Sword in the Storm.

[Anonymous No.11876369]

>>11876277
Well, the thing is, while women do things, they don't ever assume responsibility with the exception of maybe Vivienne, the old lady of the lake, and the women themselves create powerstructures which harm their fellow bitches - what little they do is almost always manipulatively evil, sometimes spur of the moment and usually fuelled by emotions against what even they know to be better judgement.

I wholly agree with you, that modern feminists would dislike it a lot.


>>11876289
there is such fiction which portrais women as decent and normal human beings capable of agency and proper practical problem solving.

>>11876291
>That's just like your misogynistic point of view on some strong independent female characters
but it really isn't, the crux is this:
At any point, almost up to the end, any of the husbands and male characters COULD have saved Britain and Camelot and kept things orderly, safe and prevented the dark ages, all the men consistently acted honorably, with very little exception, and strove for the better of the realm.
Only when it came to keeping their women in line they failed to enact discipline. All of the men are honorable, good guys, and all of them give their women a LOT of leeway and freedoms - they are the whimpy cuckolded husbands who sit by and watch their women ruin the Country when they should have kept their houses and women in Order.

[Anonymous No.11876373]

>>11876296
man, I so enjoyed all his books, I burned through his entire bibliography within the span of at most a month. The worst part is, I'm really salty that there aint ever gonna be another Culture Novel.
> tfw
F

[Anonymous No.11876378]

>>11876289
>tfw no fantasy with teenage latina waifus

[Anonymous No.11876383]

>>11876378
I'm writing one.

[Anonymous No.11876387]

>>11873696
I thought book 2 and 4 had loads of wasted potential. Chasm city on the other hand was pretty cool.

[Anonymous No.11876391]

>>11876383
They better get BLEACHED.

[Anonymous No.11876395]

>>11874093
WoT, It was fun before realising how shit it became at times.

[Anonymous No.11876406]

>>11876369
>le morte de arthur was about how evil women are

well yeah anon, that's the point of the illiad as well- they're stories to remind people that love is dangerous and fucks everyone's lives up, and that you should be a good son/daughter and marry the kid of whoever your parents have an alliance with


murderbot diaries was good but I wish they were longer

any military sci-fi recommendations aside from the classics? I've already read everything good/trashy like BOLO and now I'm getting into the weird part of Amazon dominated by retired ex-military. And when I say weird, I mean weird, ex. the Destroyermen series has all these blurbs in front by old Navy officers saying "This is great! Keep it up!" and it's full of hot topless catpeople

[Anonymous No.11876420]

>>11876406
>any military sci-fi recommendations aside from the classics?
Galaxy's Edge. I would describe it as Star Wars with a right-wing bent and the Storm Troopers are the good guys. And by 'right-wing bent' I don't mean soapboxing propaganda, but the writers definitely lean towards the conservative side and aren't ashamed to admit (there's a race of aliens in the books who are totally not muslims and the writers very, very clearly do not like these aliens who are totally not muslims)

[Anonymous No.11876429]

>>11876420
sounds kickass, thanks

you should read the Deathstalker series. Absolutely fantastic

[Anonymous No.11876433]

>>11876406
about le morte de artur though, but about MZBs Mists of Avalon, the "feminist" telling of Arthurian Legend.

Apart from the classics?
the "Old man's War" Books are rather enjoyable, tell me what you've read and I'll tell you what might be interesting to you, I used to dig military SF when I was in my teens / early twenties

[Anonymous No.11876460]

>>11876429
>you should read the Deathstalker series. Absolutely fantastic
Hmm I'm seeing it being described as a 'satire' of space opera which scares me. I only want to read SERIOUS BUSINESS sci-fi and fantasy.

[Anonymous No.11876467]

>>11876460
try "Ghosts of Onyx" and "the Cole Protocol", though with the former I have fond memories of the translation to German, and didnt enjoy it so much when rereading the original a couple of years back

[Anonymous No.11876476]

Based thread.

[Anonymous No.11876500]

>>11876467
I might give Deathstalker a shot since it's also described as being 'over the top' which is how space opera should be.

[Anonymous No.11876572]

>>11875743
>Luna series from Mcdonald
I find it hard to care about anyone except the security girl and the attorney in Luna. It's actually my biggest problem with the series

(those two characters are incredibly well done tho)

[Anonymous No.11876575]

>>11876429
>tell me what you've read and I'll tell you what might be interesting to you
Stuff I've liked recently- Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, the Vorkosigan Saga, Zahn's Conquerors trilogy, Weber's Out of the Dark, a bunch of terrible crap on Amazon

anything with colonization/Earth fights aliens/Battlestar Galactica single-ship type stuff is my jam right now.

>>11876460
>>11876500
it's only satire in the sense of how ridiculously over-the-top it is

think of it as 40k without the 40k, including properly horrific aliens, official Enemies of Humanity, Inquisitors, evil AIs, gladiatorial games, etc. It's a lot of fun

[Anonymous No.11876577]

Are there any good Chinese/East Asia writers? I dont want this genre to die together with the white race.

[Anonymous No.11876589]

>>11876575
>anything with colonization/Earth fights aliens/Battlestar Galactica single-ship type stuff is my jam right now.
Check out Undying Mercenaries as well if you haven't already.

[Anonymous No.11876595]

Is there anything decent that was released in the past five years?

[Anonymous No.11876610]

>>11876595
It's so hard to not make a "ur mum" joke with an intro like that.

[Anonymous No.11876616]

>>11876595
See: >>11876420

[Anonymous No.11876703]

Opinions on this?

[Anonymous No.11876714]

>>11876577
The future is black writers like >>11874229

[Anonymous No.11876722]

>>11876714
>The future is black writers
Then our future is dark.

[Anonymous No.11876729]

>>11876703
>female warrior protag
lol

[Anonymous No.11876730]

>>11876703
I stopped reading like 80% in once I realised what it actually was since I wasn't that interested in reading through the rest. It's decent enough though

It's pretty explicitly the eastern front in WW2 put into a fantasy context, with a heavy focus on Nanjing and genocide

[Anonymous No.11876740]

>>11876729
Like... really?

[Anonymous No.11876762]

>>11876740
Only time female warriors are acceptable is if they're aided in their female warrior-ness thanks to magic, technology or being a different species other than human that is stronger, faster and tougher.

[Anonymous No.11876767]

>>11876762
The main character in the book is a conduit for a god and only really fights when the frontlines collapse

[Anonymous No.11876771]

>>11876740
>Surprised by racism, contrarianism or general incel faggotry on /sffg/

You must be new here

[Anonymous No.11876786]

>>11876771
Hi incel redditor

[Anonymous No.11876789]

>>11876729
Like I give a shit. I've read enough shitty fantasy that wasn't improved one bit by the protag being male.

[Anonymous No.11876798]

>>11876789
But all good fantasy have male protag.

[Anonymous No.11876800]

>>11876789
I can't really remember a good book with a female protag.

[Anonymous No.11876821]

>>11876800
Name of the Wind

[Anonymous No.11876838]

>>11876800
Sabriel

[Anonymous No.11876839]

>>11876740
You guys really need to go back.

[Anonymous No.11876840]

>>11876771
redditor detected. bacon narwhals in twilight

[Anonymous No.11876848]

>>11875392
Thanks for the answer. I think Moiraine as the pov at the start could work very well.

[Anonymous No.11876855]

>>11876839
>???/???
Gets me every time. Kind of funny considering that pronoun users are "in bed" with muslims (or at least defend them) of all people

[Anonymous No.11876858]

>>11875380
>So a lot of those things will be changing.
OH NONONO

[Anonymous No.11876860]

>>11876855
They only jerk it to Muslims because oppression. It's pathetic.

[Anonymous No.11876868]

>>11876798
>>11876800
Rook
Paladin of Souls
Traitor Baru Cormorant
Shadow Campagins
Empire
Sins/Wrath of Empire
Sabriel and His Dark Materials (ya tho)
Liveship Traders
few Black Company books
Sol'a Harvest

[Anonymous No.11876875]

>>11876369
I really don't agree with your interpretation.

First of all. No one, male or female could have prevented change. Just like the Merlin said the gods and goddesses are the one and there is no strife except between humans. Morgaine tried to preserve things as they were and thus lived a tragic life and only attained peace when she stopped fighting against the wishes of the Goddess.

Second, I don't think that the females in the book was portrayed any worse than the males. Just like the among the women there were strong and weak, honorable and dishonorable males, many of them with their own agendas and goals.

[Anonymous No.11876883]

>>11876577
Liu Cixin

[Anonymous No.11876918]

>>11876868
>Baru Cormorant
Ugh.

>>11876860
Fucking muzzies.

[Anonymous No.11877027]

Could you sum up why Wise Man's Fear is so shit? Especially in the context where Name of the Wind actually did all right?

[Anonymous No.11877049]

>>11877027
>excessive fan service(that sex scene still makes me cringe),
>one of the worst protagonists of all time
>using jenny from forrest gump as his love interest
>using tried and tested tropes but with no hint of originality or imagination
>weird shit like man mothers is the authors idea of humour

[Anonymous No.11877058]

>>11877027
He edited Name of the Wind for 10 years. Wise Man's Fear was written in like on year and then edited for another. NotW is not really a good book, it's problems are just very well hidden.

[Anonymous No.11877071]

>>11877027
>excessive fan service(that sex scene still makes me cringe)
>one of the worst protagonists of all time
>using jenny from forrest gump as his love interest
>using tried and tested tropes but with no hint of originality, imagination or even competence.(adem for example are badly done aiel)
>the authors idea of humour being weird shit like man mothers

[Anonymous No.11877144]

Friendly reminder that if it isn’t hard science fiction it’s actually fantasy

[Anonymous No.11877157]

>>11877144
Friendly reminder that there is nothing whatsoever wrong about this.

[Anonymous No.11877159]

>>11877027
They're both fucking garbage, it is just that WMF was so blatantly plotless and poorly edited that it finally dispelled the illusion

[Anonymous No.11877166]

>>11877071
the only good thing coming out of that trash series was Devi desu

[Anonymous No.11877169]

>>11877144
>pretending science fantasy isn't a thing

[Anonymous No.11877175]

They're gonna make Mat a black guy in the WoT tv series calling it now

[Anonymous No.11877183]

>>11877175
No, Perrin is the black guy, mat's going to be the asian kid.

[Anonymous No.11877196]

>>11877175
Lan will be black and Malkier will be Wakanda

[Anonymous No.11877272]

>>11877196
>black washing Asians
I doubt it.

[Anonymous No.11877303]

>>11876296
>tfw GRRM wote a long post in his not a blog about the death of the fat guy who played Tony Soprano but never mentioned Iain Banks with as much as a single word

[Anonymous No.11877316]

>>11876406
>any military sci-fi recommendations aside from the classics?

Dread Empire's Fall by Walter Jon Williams. Is David Weber Honor Harringon series already a classic? The Star FIST series by Dan Cragg is also pretty decent. At least I could read it, unlike the BOLO and John Ringo Posleen books

[Anonymous No.11877330]

>>11877272
wait is Lan asian in the books?

[Anonymous No.11877332]

>>11876500
>I might give Deathstalker a shot
Not the other anon but I have also read Deathstalker and if you are willing to accept it for what it is it is a lot of fun.

[Anonymous No.11877412]

>>11877330
Borderlander cultures in general have asian overtones to them. Malkier seems to be some sort of oriental/southeast asian mix and blue eyes thrown in for good measure.

[Anonymous No.11877456]

>>11874340
>Vorkosigan series
>first book is a sci fi romance
no thanks

[Anonymous No.11877491]

>>11877303
>comparing James Gandolfini to some Scottish sci-fi writer
Come now anon.

[Anonymous No.11877501]

>>11876868
That's a lot of shit fantasy.

[Anonymous No.11877508]

>>11876839
>like to build clocks
haha

[Anonymous No.11877513]

>>11876868
I've read most of those and liveship traders is the only decent one.

[Anonymous No.11877515]

>>11877513
Frankly, Liveship Traders is pretty damn good.

[Anonymous No.11877517]

>>11876868
>Sabriel and His Dark Materials
Why do you group these two together when Sabriel is excellent and His Dark Materials is whiny adolescent trash?

[Anonymous No.11877529]

>>11877517
you have that backwards pal

[Anonymous No.11877538]

>>11877529
Pullman is clearly still mad that some Christian gril wouldn't fuck him.

[Anonymous No.11877570]

>>11873896
>nominations for next months reading
LORD OF LIGHT

[Anonymous No.11877584]

>>11876868
Decent list, this is the first I'm hearing of Sol's Harvest though.
Can you or someone who's read the books expand on them? Civil war fantasy with magic sounds interesting but the book seems to be self pubbed and has less than a hundred ratings, how's the quality of writing and editing?

>>11873896
Rigante

[Anonymous No.11877618]

>>11873896
About Prunesquallor, what's the deal with everyone calling him different names all the time? Is it Bernad or Alfred?

[Anonymous No.11877655]

>>11877618
It's Alfred. I can't recall him being called Bernard.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11877670]

>>11874311
A library that only Sepulchrave cared about because it was his hidey-hole from the big mean world.
>>11875918
He existed solely to personify the privilege of the baronetcy. He didn't care about his wife, his children, or his devoted manservant who slept outside his door on the floor every night for decades. His only love was a dusty library of books.
Frankly ladies, I'm more in Steerpike's corner than ever. The Groans are a sallow lot, crouched on a moldering pile of ruins while they enslave themselves to mindless ritual. Steerpike is punching above his weight and is the actual protagonist.

[Anonymous No.11877676]

>>11877670
>A library that only Sepulchrave cared about because it was his hidey-hole from the big mean world.
A library is a library. Anyone that would burn a whole bunch of books, without even caring about all the things those books might hold, is an asshole - it doesn't matter why they did it, or that few to no one ever cared for the library to begin with.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11877693]

>>11877676
I didn't say he wasn't. I said he's no worse than the rest of the cast, minus perhaps the doctor and his batty sibling.

Who do you guys see as the protagonist?

[Anonymous No.11877700]

Did /lit/ like the Southern Reach trilogy? I went into it expecting it to be a straight forward sci-fi novel like the movie adaptation, so I was kinda disappointed with it. However it was somewhat interesting and unlike anything I've read before.
Also, what's your theories about Area x? Is it on Earth or a different planet? Is it a moving interstellar ship? Was it created by aliens or supernatural beings? Is Jeff Vandermeer a pretentious faggot?

[Anonymous No.11877702]

>>11877670
>A library that only Sepulchrave cared about because it was his hidey-hole from the big mean world.
I'm coming for your library.

[Anonymous No.11877707]

>>11877693
>I said he's no worse than the rest of the cast
I don't know about that. The rest of the cast are a variety of lazy, stupid, or insane: Steerpike is the only one to approach actual evil.

>Who do you guys see as the protagonist?
Titus. He's the one the entire series is centered around - this would've been even more prominent had the author lived long enough to write a bunch more books. In the first book he's more of a plot device than anything else, maybe, but it isn't enough to lift anyone else into the position of a protagonist.

[Anonymous No.11877713]

>>11877693
I guess the castle itself, as much as there is one.
Unless you want to say Titus, the book being named after him an all.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11877715]

>>11877702
Unlike Sepulchrave, my fingers won't be twining about themselves in helpless anxiety.
>What did you say about Jack Vance, you little bitch?

[Anonymous No.11877736]

>>11877693
It's not just the library. Steerpike saw only opportunity in the deaths of Sourdust and Sepulchrave, never remorse. Steerpike is a budding sociopath, his humanity sloughing from his being like a decayed skin. You can actually smell the mounds of putrescent flesh accrete in his haunts as the story progresses.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11877738]

>>11877707
>Titus.
I can agree with this. Note however that Peake has already foreshadowed that Titus will thumb his nose at the Groan legacy whereas the rest of his family is described (so far) as perfectly content to sit it their filth and rot.
>Steerpike is the only one to approach actual evil.
And he may well turn out to be the villain. The sisters are pure evil; only their idiocy precludes their acting out their desires. Thus far however, Steerpike has done nothing that your average politician wouldn't happily attempt.

[Anonymous No.11877749]

>>11877738
>Thus far however, Steerpike has done nothing that your average politician wouldn't happily attempt
Your average politician is - in the traditional non-relativistic meaning of the word - pretty evil too.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11877779]

>>11877749
But the Groans are the incumbents, anon.
>>11877736
>Steerpike saw only opportunity in the deaths of Sourdust and Sepulchrave, never remorse.
Why shouldn't he? Should he desire merely to be a cog in Gormenghast's grimy subfloor machinery? Sourdust was an anachronism, serving only to enforce moronic protocols. Sepulchrave was a self-loathing automaton, existing only to fill his post.

The more I think about this first book, the more I feel Gormenghast the institution must be an allusion.

[Anonymous No.11877830]

>>11877700
The first book did an excellent job of being atmospheric, creepy and genuinely mysterious. While elements of that were certainly in books 2 & 3 the pacing was glacial and it became a slog to get through. They should have been condensed with better editing into a single book.

[Anonymous No.11877897]

>>11874093
Warlord Chronicles. Such a gutting ending.

[Anonymous No.11877923]

>>11876406
Well to my knowledge the only "classics" of military science fiction are Starship Troopers and the Forever War so:

Armor by John Steakley, written as a response to Starship Troopers being too much of a political lecture.

David Drake. Most of his stuff is pretty good. Hammer's Slammers is the obvious one, but there's also his RCN books which are a Aubrey-Maturin inspired space opera series.

Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell: very average character writing but great space battles.

Passage at Arms by Glen Cook: A great standalone book about the crew of a stealth ship. Think Das Boot in Space.

>>11876420
You keep shilling this but I read the first two and they're not any different from the usual UNITED STATES SPACE MARINES HOOAH Ian Douglas garbage.

>>11877316
At a minimum, Honor Harrington is a classic example of a Mary Sue. And perhaps one of the worst types of sue since it's done via retconning her into a genetically-engineered super soldier instead of "she's a sue because she practices a lot". The first couple of books are good but the series falls apart around book 6 IMO. Treat it like Dune: Read it until it gets too bad for you.

Dread Empire's Fall is good though. Characters suffer from "everyone who isn't a protagonist is a idiot" somewhat but it's still enjoyable.

>>11877456
Yeah and it's some of the only good romance writing in scifi, but you can skip to The Warrior's Apprentice if you're scared by cooties.

[Anonymous No.11877941]

>>11876740
>Like... really?

[Anonymous No.11877982]

>>11876714
>The future is black writers like >>11874229
If they're leftist cunts like Jemisin then the future is black period.

[Anonymous No.11877988]

>>11877779
I like how Steerpike starts out as the most sympathetic character, but becomes less and less so as the story progresses while everyone else (excluding Swelter) does the opposite to some extent.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11878076]

>>11877988
Agreed, Peake used some very unusual characterization in this book.
>>11877982
>then the future is fuligin

[Anonymous No.11878106]

I just finished the last book in the Black Company series and I have a huge hole in my life right now

[Anonymous No.11878114]

>>11878106
Only love for Soulcatcher can fill it.

[Anonymous No.11878133]

>>11878114
I miss One-eye and Goblin

[Anonymous No.11878143]

>>11878114
But Soulcatcher will never let you fill her.

[Anonymous No.11878145]

Reading Puck of Pook's Hill on the recommendation of some pseud on goodreads. It's pretty good.

[Anonymous No.11878153]

>>11874093
Thomas Covenant series

[Anonymous No.11878154]

>>11878143
Just put a helmet on a prostitute and make her do diffence voices.

[Anonymous No.11878156]

>>11878143
She would, because Croaker did not make a move. For sure it's mentioned that she want other people to like her.

[Anonymous No.11878165]

>>11875743
Mmm. Tad Williams is comfy. Political intrigue and fairy tales mashed together make for the best books. Except if I start reading them everything else basically goes on hold.

[Anonymous No.11878220]

>>11878106
Yeah, shame there wasn't anymore but lets face it when you try to tack shit onto a perfectly good trilogy you just end up with trash.

[Anonymous No.11878267]

>>11877538
Pullman is an insufferable fat left faggot but if you can ignore the anti Christian tones golden compass and subtle knife were good reads. It all went to shit with Amber spyglass and the conclusion of this trilogy was horrible. Not sure how his most recent release is. I may give it a read sometime

[Anonymous No.11878273]

>>11877175
If anything the series is probably gonna get whitewashed going by what I recall of the character descriptions.

[Anonymous No.11878285]

>>11878273
The characters were all white

[Anonymous No.11878289]

>>11878165
I’ve only read the memory, sorrow and thorn series and it was a long time ago. What’s his best works in your opinion besides those?

[Anonymous No.11878291]

>>11878285
I thought most of them were pakis or ginger arabs.

[Anonymous No.11878299]

>>11878154
i can guarantee someone somewhere literally did this.

[Anonymous No.11878312]

>>11878289
Otherland but like most of his work it's many many times longer than it needs to be.

[Anonymous No.11878402]

>>11873936
>Murderbot
Now I am happy

>>11874093
Some books I love so much that I don't finish them because then the story will end and I do not want that to happen.

[Anonymous No.11878403]

>>11878291
No pakis unless you’re talking about the trollocs

[Anonymous No.11878418]

>>11874141
>your

[Anonymous No.11878435]

Okay so while homos are "discussing" badly written fantasy, is anybody putting money on the Conor vs Khabib?

[Anonymous No.11878463]

>>11878435
Can't wait for you to complain about people derailing the thread 5 minutes from now.
Tenner on Connor round 1 knockout

[Anonymous No.11878469]

James Branch Cabell worth reading?

[Anonymous No.11878478]

>>11877169
Nobody's pretending, there's no such thing as science fantasy, you queer

[Anonymous No.11878481]

>>11878435
Is this like that YouTuber boxing the other day? Go to /asp/ more their speed.

[Anonymous No.11878556]

>>11878463
Yeah but if that happens the discussion will be about something I like. Since it's not, and this being 4chan, I am going to act like a petulant child. Also I too think Khabiby is overhyped.

>>11878481
Not to worry, I am also funposting on /asp.

[Anonymous No.11878678]

>>11877693
>Who do you guys see as the protagonist?
In the first book, Flay. But to be honest, desu, the first book is basically an incredibly well executed information dump.

[Anonymous No.11878690]

>>11877738
>the aunts are pure evil
>but they're not able to act on it because they're retards
>Steerpike enable them to act
>Steerpike is somehow not pure evil
Explain yourself tripfag.

[Anonymous No.11878715]

>>11878285
Of post-age-of-legends people the descendants of Aridhol, Coremanda and Manetheren are unironically the only really white people in WoT. Rand himself is mixed race, half desert gypsie.

[Anonymous No.11878754]

>>11877144
>"hard" science fiction

"lmao guys there's no need to fix our problems when we (30 techbros from California) can just put our minds in computers! elon musk is gonna create the singularity!"

[Anonymous No.11878763]

>>11878715
Nice headcanon you got there buddy.

[Anonymous No.11878784]

>>11878715
The two rivers is filled with pakis

[Anonymous No.11878806]

>>11876771
The racism is from pollies, the "incel faggotry" is from r9k. Don't worry, the ban system works now after that last maintenance.

[Anonymous No.11878812]

>>11878763
Take Tear for example. It's a honour based society rich on oils and seafaring where wealthy men wear pointy beards. They're obviously moors. At best they're a mixed society inspired by late medieval Spain.

[Anonymous No.11878818]

>>11878312
How’s shadowmarch?

[Anonymous No.11878823]

>>11878784
I always took the descriptions to be more Native American than SW Asian/Persian.

[Anonymous No.11878825]

>>11878806
Fuck off back to restetera

[Anonymous No.11878826]

>>11878825
>TRIGGERED

[Anonymous No.11878857]

>>11878823
>differentiating between the various shades of brown

[Anonymous No.11878864]

>>11878857
Do you differentiate between the various shades of white?

[Anonymous No.11878873]

>>11878864
White is white and brown is brown
You seem to be new in town

[Anonymous No.11878880]

Only fucking yanks would spend so much time trying to claim the scotsirish and russians are white

[Anonymous No.11878882]

>>11878873
Then why do we call them racists? Shouldn't they be called colorists?

[Anonymous No.11878883]

>>11878864
My shade of white is the only shade of white.

[Anonymous No.11878890]

ARGENTINA IS WHITE

[Anonymous No.11878904]

>>11878825
>restetera
What is that?

[Anonymous No.11878907]

I think this is one of more retarded fantasy discussions I've encountered here. Just how much of a fuck up do you have to be to try and pin the real life race and nationality of fantasy characters?

[Anonymous No.11878914]

>>11878904
Just another Internet gathering of losers and fuck-ups.

[Anonymous No.11878915]

>>11878907
it's pol.

[Anonymous No.11878917]

>>11878907
>Just how much of a fuck up do you have to be to try and pin the real life race and nationality of fantasy characters?
I don't know, I mean a lot of modern writers love doing it, and a lot of modern fans love getting triggered when there aren't enough blacks in their fictional worlds. Why should we be any better?

[Anonymous No.11878948]

>>11878907
Are ugly women with good bodies your thing?

[Anonymous No.11878961]

>>11878907
>lmao dood its fiction like its all made up why do you even care

[Anonymous No.11878964]

>>11878915
Are you somehow implying you are any better?

>>11878917
>Why should we be any better?
Because you don't wan't to be some uninteresting bore?
I am bored of perma triggered faggots (be they fans or authors) whining about not enough darkies.
And I am bored of hysterical losers whining about too much darkies.
There are so many topics that do not include the quantitative analysis of darkies, spics, gooks, nips, slants, bitches or faggots in the currently popular flaming pile of fantasy shit.
It's all so tiresome.

>>11878948
>>11878961
Don't be a schmuck, you're better than that.

[Anonymous No.11879031]

>>11877923
>You keep shilling this but I read the first two and they're not any different from the usual UNITED STATES SPACE MARINES HOOAH Ian Douglas garbage.
I'm sorry you're retarded, anon.

[Anonymous No.11879046]

>>11878964
If you're that triggered by it, maybe you should make a subreddit so you can have a safe space.

[Anonymous No.11879116]

>>11878964

[Anonymous No.11879150]

>>11879031
And I am sorry you cannot come up with a greater defense of your media being called "as trash as it's contemporaries" than "[you are] a retard!"

But I suppose one cannot expect much more than that from genre readers. Have fun with your Trek Wars fanfiction, child.

[Anonymous No.11879158]

>>11879150
I mean, you're so triggered by faggots that you come over to a thread on a subject you don't care about, just to scream about them. That's a whole new level of seething right there.

[Anonymous No.11879190]

>>11879150
>this fat faggot that responds to five people with his shit taste opinions again.

Why don't you fuck off already.

[Anonymous No.11879199]

>>11879150
I wish the soi would stay in /outerlit/.

[Anonymous No.11879203]

>>11879190
>Why don't you fuck off already.
Maybe because you assholes give him the attention he craves?

[Anonymous No.11879264]

>>11879158
>>11879190
>>11879199
>look at how NOT MAD I am by responding three times!

Your books are trash, get over it and go back to r/oiledspacemarinesforstraightmennotgay or wherever.

[Anonymous No.11879278]

>>11875380
>Rest assured, their will be pillow friends out the wazoo.
Nice
>Rgid Mars-Venus gender division etc- troubling aspects of books. Plans to update/improve these? WoT’s gr8 to discuss gender but it isn’t without problems."
>I’m a feminist and it’s very important to me that the show is feminist in today’s context. So a lot of those things will be changing.

Damned monkey paw

[Anonymous No.11879299]

>>11877412
Lan is fucking tall with pale eyes, doesn't seem Asian to me.

[Anonymous No.11879304]

>>11879299
Nah, but I'll accept Lan being yellowashed if it keeps them away from Rand

[Anonymous No.11879321]

>just finished
>cloud atlas
It was good but I never felt like I got total closure
>space odyssey 1 - 4
2 was good, three and four not so much
>rendezvous with rama
it was good. I hear the sequel is not worth it

>currently reading
ender's game
thoughts y'all?

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11879337]

>>11878690
Steerpike didn't set out to harm the others; he's acting on what the aunts desire in order to better his position. Ruthless, sure. Evil? Maybe not. After all, Steerpike provided good service to Prunesquallor in exchange for the benefit to himself. It's the aunts who want their brother and his wife harmed because they want power and attention: had they wanted potions of peace and goodwill, Steerpike would likely have provided that instead. He's an interesting character study so far. He's more or less the amoral action verb for some of the other characters.

Imagine you're a young guy in Gormenghast's precincts. You can (maybe) join the carvers in their mud huts or work as a serf in the castle itself for apparently no tangible worldly gain, as evidenced by the state of Flay. Now imagine you manage to get the attention and influence of two mouthbreathing aunts of the ruling family. Please tell me just how loyal you're going to feel to the rest of the family that is holding this region is such a deplorable economic state.

I'd jack the silver and burn the joint to the ground inside a month, then go hang out innawoods with the cool hermit.

[Anonymous No.11879339]

>>11879321
>ender's game
a pretty good story that got stupidly stretched out to a series of 10+ books
i liked speaker for the dead a lot tho.

[Anonymous No.11879340]

>>11877700
I've only read Annihilation and for some reason, though I really liked it, I have no real desire to move forward. It's a complete story.

[Anonymous No.11879349]

>>11879264
lol the absolute state of this fucking bugman. Based military sci-fi living in his soi-addled brain RENT FREE.

[Anonymous No.11879356]

>>11877700
I haven't seen the movie but book 2 was mostly unnecessary. It could've been condensed into 4 or 5 chapters. I liked how it ended.
I think Area X was an alien takeover. They were seeding Earth with their own species adapted to our environment. I didn't think it was pretentious at all.

[Anonymous No.11879362]

>>11877700
I feel like all 3 books were a huge cock tease and I'm left disappointed.

[Anonymous No.11879380]

>>11879264
>he tries the samefag tactic to save face
Pathetic

[Anonymous No.11879453]

>>11876373
>there aint ever gonna be another Culture Novel

[Anonymous No.11879459]

>>11877700
Is the first book as shitty as the movie?

[Anonymous No.11879482]

Do you think the Wheel of Time tv show a scene with Tylin pegging Mat?
I'd be willing to stake my car on it.

[Anonymous No.11879490]

>>11879337
>>I'd jack the silver and burn the joint to the ground inside a month, then go hang out innawoods with the cool hermit.
Alright, that's it Donkey.
Imma put your picture up at the castle gates so my guards know not to let you in.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11879531]

>>11879490
That leaves me the carvers. If I devote my life to creating a work of art sufficient to outduel my peers for the honor of being collected by the elite, I get an eminent mudhut and my choice of woman who hasn't yet lost her looks.

Gormenghast is apparently the black pill.

[Anonymous No.11879611]

Any good /sffg/ book about being in the meat dimension?

[Anonymous No.11879650]

>>11877700
The plot of the first novel was decent. The rest was pretty much shit. The writing itself was repetitive and boring

[Anonymous No.11879657]

>>11879611
>being in the meat dimension
Is this a zoomer way of saying 'having sex?'

[Anonymous No.11879684]

>>11879657
No, more like the whole environment is covered/made out of flesh.

[Anonymous No.11879695]

>>11879337
>Steerpike didn't set out to harm the others; he's acting on what the aunts desire in order to better his position.
The aunts desired power. Steerpike convinced them that power came through harm. They wouldn't have thought of it. Steerpike set out to harm Sepulchrave because he believed that harm was the path to power himself.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.11879761]

>>11879695
That's true. I'd forgotten that he steered them in that coversation. Good catch; I stand corrected.

[Anonymous No.11879777]

>>11874350
I mean, that objectively not true. As much as everyone memes about Sanderson he shits out a book each year that sells millions. His advances for books are in the hundreds of thousands.

[Anonymous No.11879861]

>>11879777
Sanderson is the highest earning traditional, working fantasy author, other than grrm and like you said he shits out books at a rapid pace and he's still a light weight in all time sales, >15 million sold. Traditional publishing takes a massive cut from sales(author only gets 5-10% if that) and you don't even get paid from sales till you earn out your advance first. You also have to remember 95% of first time authors never earn out in their life time. 100k is the standard advance on a fantasy trilogy, around double that if you're a known successful author, so a third of that in yearly terms if you can write one book in a year. On average a successful and known fantasy author can expect to make low 6 figures if he works his ass off, some of them even go broke due to bad publisher deals once they stop writing. Considering the amount of work it takes to become successful you could vastly outearn that with a regular job and similar effort.

So the moral of the story is, if you're going to write fantasy and expect to earn the big bucks you better write vampire ya bullshit because trad fantasy doesn't sell or pay all that much.

[Anonymous No.11880057]

>>11879861
>100k is the standard advance on a fantasy trilogy
i doubt this extremely

[Anonymous No.11880095]

>>11880057
I was being extremely generous when I said 100k
If you're a first time author lucky enough to get noticed by a publisher you're probably getting 10k for your first book.

Mark Lawrence goes into detail about advances and how they work on his blog if you're interested.
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2018/09/advances.html

The 10k figure is why a lot of first timers are switching to self publishing but they are usually limited by a lack of marketing their book that a publisher can provide.

[Anonymous No.11880158]

>>11880095
Even 10k is high. I hear more about $5k - $7k average advances from other writers. (But as he mentioned, it depends. Erin Morgenstern was unpublished before The Night Circus.) In regards to self-pub vs publishers, the Big 5 publishers throw most of the marketing burden on their authors these days.

The best solution to all this is to write something brilliant like The Night Circus.

[Anonymous No.11880182]

Are there any scifi/fantasy books with pacing as good as the Hobbit? Feels like it still hasn't been bested. The way it moves along is just so perfect and comfy.

[Anonymous No.11880195]

>>11880158
>he Big 5 publishers throw most of the marketing burden on their authors these days.
It depends on the advance and sales. If they give a book a big advance they're going to put more of an effort into marketing it, or they'll do so if the book is selling well.

[Anonymous No.11880240]

>>11880195
yes of course but the publishing industry has become hit driven like so many others. they're only going to put any real marketing money into the few books they're betting will make it onto the best seller lists. everyone else in their stables are going to have to shill their own books just like the self-pubbed authors.

[Anonymous No.11880402]

>>11876476
based thread indeed

Can someone suggest good gun fantasies, thanks.

[Anonymous No.11880435]

>>11880095
>>11880158
David Drake has indicated similar in blog posts or his afterwards to re-releases.
http://david-drake.com/2011/voyage-across-the-stars/
>Nothing happened for a few months. Then Jim Baen called and offered me a two-book contract: a big book for $10K and a little book for $7,500. I said “Yes!” immediately. (I’ve done a lot of dumb things, but I was never dumb enough to turn that down. I made $6,100 during my year of bus driving).

Which is quite a bit of money, $7,500 in 1980 is worth around $22,000 now. Of course, by then Drake was a established author, he'd already done some horror writing and a series of Sword and Sorcery novels set in ancient Rome, and had published Hammer's Slammers in 1979.

[Anonymous No.11880556]

>>11879482
I sure hope so.

[Anonymous No.11880626]

>>11880402
Jerusalem Man trilogy

[Anonymous No.11880636]

>>11880402
Dark Tower.

[Anonymous No.11880644]

>>11877584
>Rigante
I assume you mean the series by David Gemmell?

[Anonymous No.11880646]

>>11880636
He said GOOD gun fantasy.

[Anonymous No.11880765]

>>11880644
yes, as the nomination.

[Anonymous No.11880774]

Just finished Foundation and Empire and started Second Foundation. I have to say the twist caught me completely off guard and left me blown away, how was your reaction to discovering that Magnifico was actually The Mule?

[/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fan(...) No.11880787]

NEW THREAD

>>11880785
>>11880785
>>11880785
>>11880785
>>11880785

[Anonymous No.11880849]

>>11880095
>>11880435
Maybe you could write at day, like your run of the mill 9 to 5 job, and deal drugs at night.
Like a literary Heisenberg?
"Say my name Sanderson!"

[Anonymous No.11880862]

>>11880849
That could work and drugs do stimulate writing so there's that as well.

Most writers just have a regular 9-5 day job even years after getting published and write during nights and days off.

[Anonymous No.11881605]

>>11878818
G R E A T

[Anonymous No.11881844]

>>11877923
>You keep shilling this but I read the first two and they're not any different from the usual UNITED STATES SPACE MARINES HOOAH Ian Douglas garbage.
I am currently reading the first one and have to agree

[Anonymous No.11881852]

>>11878818
>How’s shadowmarch?
A long, interminable slog