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/lit/ - Literature

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1998472 No.1998472 [Reply] [Original]

/lit/ fantasy general

Everything from Abercrombie to Zelany ITT.

>> No.1998475

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well_at_the_World%27s_End

Anyone read this? I've been thinking of checking into it, as I'm sort of interested in early works of speculative fiction, but I thought I'd ask if anyone else has opinions on it.

>> No.1998488

>>1998475
Me again, to say I'd love some other pre-Tolkien fantasy recommendations if anyone has them. The Worm Ouroboros is another I'll be checking into soon.

>> No.1998498

>>1998475
William Morris is a fascinating character, but I wouldn't read him for entertainment. Still interesting if you want to see where the likes of Lewis and Tolkien were coming from. And as a socialist fantasy writer and wallpaper designer he represents everything I aspire to be.

>> No.1998501

>>1998488
Check out some of Lord Dunsany's works on gutenberg. He's kind of the prototype of Jack Vance.

>> No.1998528

Recently finished book 5 of Malazan, Midnight Tides, and I absolutely loved it. My favorite in the series so far.Tehol & Bugg were amazing and the Sengar brothers where goddamn awesome.

>> No.1998532

>>1998528
Yeah, I lost all patience with Steven Erikson years ago, but Midnight Tides remains a great stand-alone novel.

>> No.1998534

Erikson = why use five words when I can use 500

He's full of great ideas but he can't write for shit.

>> No.1998555

I'm stuck in the middle on Erikson, after three Malazan novels.

GotM - really good start but the final section was shit
DG - the Chain of Dogs is a nice idea but too much is going on and nothing gets developed enough
MoI - Truly awesome set piece sieges but, yeah, there's always too much going on and not enough focus

MoI was me giving the series a last try and it was good enough to make me want to read on. The Malazan saga has various flaws (as above, Erikson tries to do SO much that even in 1200 pages he can't pull it off entirely successfully) but the overall threat - now it has come to light after about 3000 pages - is interesting and I'm keen to see where it'll head and more awesome set pieces like the siege of Capustan.

>> No.1998576

Skip Erikson, move to R.R. Martin.

>> No.1998594

>>1998576

Eh, Erikson offers something very different to Martin. Mainly high fantasy with a healthy dollop of cynicism.

Although ASOIAF seems to be heading further and further down the generic sort of high fantasy route all the time. What was once a historical-fiction novel with fantasy baubles has become a tale of the undead, dragons, witches and assassins.

>> No.1998682

>>1998488
Check Ouroboros certainly. Other recs might be the American pulp writers (reh, hpl, cas), phantastes, lilith, kai lung books... The forgotten classic fantasy thread of sffworld is a goldmine of that stuff. You might want to peruse owlcroft's sff site as well. That's a great resource.

I'm actually kind of ashamed I haven't read more of those works... Not because I haven't read 'em, but because I said to myself I would years ago...

>> No.1998695

Going back to Erikson, I really really REALLY enjoy the first part of House of Chains with Karsa Orlong. It felt like a simple pulpy adventure focusing on one character for 150 pages or so.

>> No.1998715

>>1998695

I'm sorta bummed out looking ahead in the Malazan series. As I said above, I read MoI earlier this year and thought it really good. Now I see we're heading back to the Seven Cities (meh) and then book five is off to the Tiste Edur...

Goddamit, it's going to be another 2500 pages before we (I assume...) get back to the whatever the hell happens on Genabackis and Rake and that lot. Fuuuucking Erikson!!

>> No.1998749

>>1998472
Hah, the girl sure is pretty.

There always is one moderately pretty girl in every small larp comunity, and every single nerd in it lusts for her. It occasionally produces such painful scenes.

Maybe these girls become parts of such communities for these specific reasons to begin with. You know the hambeast is here for MTG (she's probably maried to a really sickly-looking neckbeard anyway), but a cute charming one that's always smiling to everyone, is a bit superficial in every hobby practiced in the club/group/whatever and is quite obviously the focus of fantasies of every single male - I wonder about her sort.

>> No.1998754

>>1998749
I sure hope you're trolling.

>> No.1998755

>>1998754
Why? Does this make you nervous? Because I'm not trolling. Are you in love with such community cutie? Drop it.

>> No.1998756

>>1998715
I enjoyed book 5 so much that I'm will to give the rest of the series a go, especially book 7 since that picks up where book 5 left off.

>> No.1998760

Read R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy and the sequel trilogy's (The Aspect-Emperor) two released books this summer. It was fucking magnificient, full of grey and flawed characters. And the most interesting character to date in any books I've read of the genre, Anasûrimbor Kellhus. The writer doesn't really hold back and tells a disturbing (in many a way) and interesting story. Anyone who enjoyed George R. R. Martin will probably love R. Scott Bakker. If you're looking for something to read I'd definitely recommend the five books.

>> No.1998766

>>1998756
Isn't Book 6 supposed to continue the normal writing style? ie no more splits.

>> No.1998769

>>1998755
Those are actors, not LARPers.

>> No.1998775

>>1998755
You must be trolling, but in case you aren't: the picture is from the set of the hbo tv-series game of thrones.

>> No.1998786

>>1998760

Have you recommended Bakker on /lit/ before? I read something somewhere that pimped him. Or is he just trending in general?

>> No.1998788

>>1998786
Haven't talked about him here at least. Think I might've mentioned him to someone on /tv/ though. I'm willing to bet he'll be trending soon though, since A LOT of people are picking up A Song of Ice and Fire nowadays and a lot of people, especially on westeros.org, recommend him when 'What should i read after GRRM?' is asked. They're very similar in tone if not that close in style.

>> No.1998792

The big problem with OP's pic is that Bran's face isn't facing the camera.

>> No.1998798 [DELETED] 
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1998798

>>1998760
Read Prince of Nothing, loved it. Haven't started on Aspect Emperor just yet but I'll get to it eventually.

>mfw Achamian finally unleashed the full force of the Gnosis

>> No.1998812
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1998812

Simply the finest Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel you haven't read.

>> No.1998832

>>1998812
WRONG.
I have read it

>> No.1998837

I'll second/third/whatever Bakker. Great author, though he's a bit more polarizing than most current epic fantasists (not as polarizing as Donaldson, but near there).

>>1998812
I second this also. It ranks pretty high up on the "have read" list as well.

>> No.1998852

>>1998812
I think most sci-fi/fantasy nerds have read this

its good, but I don't know where the reputation for an unknown classic comes from

>> No.1998885

>>1998852
>its good, but I don't know where the reputation for an unknown classic comes from
I have never known seen another person suggest it before. I only discovered it because I had stumbled on to a couple of Zelazny's short story collections, then read Amber, and started looking for more.

>> No.1998894

>>1998775
>the picture is from the set of the hbo tv-series game of thrones.
Ha ha, what, really? No, I didn't know and wasn't trolling. The show is that fucking cheap? It looks like a fucking larp to me.

>> No.1998903

>>1998894
It's not exactly cheap. The first season was around 60-70 million I think, which is a lot for a tv-show.

Here's the first 15 minutes of the first episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AahoH9r1zKY

>> No.1998976

Lord of Light is actually good? I thought Zelany was all about Amber and that Lord of LIght was all high on Buddhism or something like that.

>> No.1998982

>>1998812
I've heard this authors name mentioned a few times around here and this exact book has been on the shelf at my local second hand bookshop for a while. Think I'll pick it up next time I'm there.

>> No.1998993

>>1998894
It's parts of the younger cast playing cards in a rest area, what the fuck do you think?

Go look up clips.

>> No.1999037

>>1998976
Without getting too much into it, it's a sci fi story where colonists from Earth settle a new planet, and after populating the world with clones set themselves up as gods to rule over them, using the Hindu pantheon as their model. One of them eventually decides what they're doing is completely fucked, so he rebels, styling himself as Buddha in opposition of them and their caste system.

It's all pretty crazy. Give it a shot.

>> No.1999154

Epic discussion of Epic Fantasy with the likes of Terry Brooks, Steven Erikson, Ian C. Esslemont, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, etc

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/epic_interview1/

>> No.1999301

if you want fantasy read Brandon Sanderson

anything
Stormlight Archives will be a legendary series if he keeps up his quality of writing

>> No.1999306

>>1999154
nice link

>> No.1999678

bump

>> No.2001028

fuck all this intellectual bullshit