Semper Supra edition>Recommended reading charts. (Look here before asking for vague recs)https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/4rAmSZxb>Archivehttps://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg>Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffgPrevious Thread: >>24065712
What are you reading currently? For me, it's Rocketship Galileo by good ole Hiney-hiney-ho.>Bunch of kids building a moon rocket in their backyard>The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission just gives them a truck load of thorium because their uncle asked>Said uncle hands out Garand rifles so the kids can shoot trespassers off their propertyIt was a different time.
I want to thank lit. Looks like you were able to recommend a book for my dying father that he enjoys reading. I gave him a bunch of suggestions you guys gave. He is now readig this one. He's a picky reader, having read a lot of books in his life. Thank you for making his last days more comfortable.As I said, over a lifetime I was only able recommend him 2 books he liked. Thanks to you, it is now 3. It may seem like a little thing, but it means a lot.>>24060862>>24061081
>>24072556Haven't read yet, but it's on my radar. It's got that sweet project rho endorsement
>>24075307started reading six wakes. seems like an interesting whodunit in space + setting where clones are perfectly normal. let's see how it turns out. absolute SHYTE cover, though.
>>24075390Sounds like it could take place in a game of paranoia. Fun concept.
I started Reaper's Gale, read about 50 pages and realized I just wasn't feeling it and wasn't interested in trudging through another one of those books and figured I might just need a bit more of a break before I started feeling the urge again. That was about two months ago and I still feel no urge to continue the series at all and I'm much more hyped to read other things. Should I try to get back in it or should I just drop it at this point?
>>24075162>damn, where can you buy those?They're special editions from The Broken Binding. I'm not sure how you're supposed to even get them. Subscription?
Just finished Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. This was the first time I've read a book since like 2018. I could not put the books down.Are there any recommendations I can look at in the same genre?My cousin recommended Project hail mary. But I would like to get some more books ready for the year.
A hallmark of what good fantasy series is whether or not a stoner metal band has written a song, or several, about it.
Somebody begged me to find his childhood reads, but gave me nothing useful to go by. No names or places. Just shit like:>in the beginning-ish part the main character is undergoing a transformation into a creature, possiblyone that’s insect-ish in appearance. he main character is in a chrysalis or cocoon of some kind, inhis room. He eventually leaves through his window in the middle of the night, flying out>He touched a weird (possibly might’ve been pink) substance (might’ve been a liquid or goop). thatcaused the transformation>after he changes he goes and lives with creatures like himself>There’s some kind of weird wooden puzzle box>most of the book is about what happens after he transforms.another:>There are three main characters- a younger brother, an older brother, and a sister, who was eitherthe oldest of the three or the middle child.>Each of the three had a wish granted>I don’t exactly remember the younger brother’s wish but it had something to do with bringing hismonster figurines to life>The older brother was reading a horror comic book (the same one his younger brother got thefigurines from) and saw a character that looked like his sister about to be attacked by a centipede-like monster. He was very mad at her at the time, and so wished he could be a monster and kill heror something like that??>The sister’s wish I don’t remember, but it might’ve been kept secret till the end of the book>The brother eats activated charcoal to stave off his transformation into the centipede monster (helearned to do this from the comic book)>Throughout the book, cats are disappearing from the neighborhood. At the end of the book, they allreturn and eat someone/something alive- they’re acting under a hive mind influence or something>The epilogue of the book contained some illustrated pictures of the monsters with littledescriptions.Anybody knows these? I'll donate 1 slow clap onto your karma account, if you do.
>>24075557RG is the last good book by Erikson. It is classic fantasyslop: so so first 2 acts topped by a legitimately great conclusion. If that interests you, feel free to read on. Otherwise, eh.
I'm reading Misborn, it's okay
Three quarters of the way done with Wind and Truth and who the fuck thought it was a good idea for half the book to be Dalinar time traveling through flashbacks, with Shallan piggybacking? And then all the time traveling turns out to be pointless because it doesn’t show the thing anyone is looking for, so Honor just starts monologuing? Szeth’s Pokemon League arc is whatever. Adolin’s siege arc is the best storyline (Adolin should divorce Shallan and marry his swordfu), but Sanderson can’t actually write fantasy military stuff well and I keep wishing I was re-reading Shadow Campaigns.
>>24075824We warned you 2 books ago after the shit show that Oathbringer turned out to be. The Joke is on you.
>>24075701I'm just really burnt out by the needlessly obtuse writing, extremely mid end-of-book-payoffs and the ever expanding cast of new PoVs that I can't even begin to give a shit about, and I've read that it only gets worse from here on out. I still enjoyed GotM, HoC and MT, and MoI was pretty good too. DG and BH were real slogs and I've been keeping on going on the premise that it will start paying off hugely starting with BH when all the storylines start merging, but after the snooze that BH was I really lost steam. Having a hard time seeing that it'll all be worth it in the end if I keep pushing through.
>>24075805I also started it. It's a little fun so far. I like Kelsier. Vin's a bit too much of a brooding loner "woe is me everyone is going to betray you eventually" protagonist, but I hope that gets better. I can at see why Sanderson is popular. I read The Emperor's Soul beforehand, which I thought had a strong ending that carried it.
>>24075877the good guys are whatever for me so far but I do fine the Lord Ruler interesting and want to find out more about him
>>24075882>I do fine the Lord Ruler interesting and want to find out more about himYea, that's probably the most compelling thing that keeps me reading as well.
>"We're smoking opium? Neat!"
>>24075307red rising trilogy. it's bretty good
Brukhalian > ItkovianThe whole last Brukhalian sequence is the kino of the highest order and even admittedly great Itkovian scenes cant overshadow it for me.
Cerebral literature masquerading as scifi except not really anymore. Why does severian fuck everyone
>>24075988I just feel like a midwit reading wolfe. Hopefully forcing the inner speedreader to calm the fuck down next time will help. I just dread the second go at long sun a bit. It was fun at first, but after the lake everything kinda goes a bit too non-wolfe for me, but that may just have been me speedreading again. Or maybe its better on the second read when I can focus on the how instead of the what.
>>24075824I expected Szeth and Kaladin's arc to be more Shinovar people and culture involved. More cities, more classic politics, more interactions with other Shin people.Instead it was an equivalent of the RPG quest>Quest: Visit all Shrines>Defeat all Honorblade bearers>Collect all honorbladeAnd this was fucking it!Between that, very mediocre action (BS peaked in the first two books) and tons of therapy shit, i disliked Kaladin/Szeth arc.Upon further inspection, i think none of the arc landed well for me.Dalinar/Navani/Shallan one had too many shit written about the characters we never had time with previously, and we had just the glimpses of them, so no connection was created between me and all those scenes.Adolin was the victim of himself being boring in the previous couple books, so his whole deal felt boring and fillery to read about. Also, i'll never get why BS has dropped the whole stabbing Sadeas thing in OB. It was the great tool to make something interesing with Adolin but he seems to be scared of doing that wrong, so Adolin has remained to be that boring and shallow side character.Jasnah - im just not a fan of her type of characters. Scholars are boring, at least Sanderson's way of writing them makes them fucking boring.WaT deserved the hate, absolutely.
>>24075997NTA. I read Shadow of the Torturer in 2020 but never followed up. I think I'm gonna have to do a reread before I start Claw, but that might just make things a little easier.
>>24075362Sounds like he's more into realism or historical fiction than sf or f.
>>24076014yeah do it. I mean its not like the books are too long anyways. And I found that especially in the first one there was I lot I didn't really get when I read it as a 14 year old ESL ages ago
>>24074833There's a wealth of information in the appendix and glossary. Read that before continuing.
>>24076050no, that's bad writing
>>24076056Throwing the reader into an unfamiliar world from the jump, with resources available to help in the back, isn't bad writing.
>>24076070it is because I'm not reading it
never got complains about lack of descriptions. better than some proust tier padding. if i there are not enough of it, i always trusted in my ability to make shit up
>>24076077Then continue being retarded.
>>24076088>t. glossary slurper
From what I remember the appendices in Sun Eater books didn't really have descriptions of attire or architecture of whatever but were really enjoyable their it's own right. I liked how it expands on details and events of the book from a new angle.The funniest were the parts where the unnamed historian who compiles that account is credulous of MC's narration and does the academic equivalent of calling him out on his bullshit, it's something you often see in actual historical memoirs
...mixed up 'credulous' with 'incredulous' award
>rubs bugs hands together
>/sffg/ now>90% r/fantasy crossposters>/sffg/ 5 years ago>30% r/fantasy crosspostersThis is what happens when you don't gatekeep. Back then if anyone mentioned Sanderson they would be mocked relentlessly. Now you have entire threads discussing Sanderson.
Sandersloppa will get discussed because it's a top seller, warranting discussion. Now, NO one let Rhythm of War slide, but only this board and naysayers started the cries of decline at Oathbringer. I wonder how I will feel on reread/listen. The audiobooks are good for runners/drivers
Just now coming around to Ian M. Banks and his Culture series. I still remember the few who recommended it to me years ago, but for whatever reason I wasn’t listening too closely and only recently gave it a second glance. It has all the basic elements of what I’ve loved in my life. science fiction and philosophy of freedom and the sociopolitical. Ah well, we all come to great literature at our own pace. Thanks to whoever it was, and if they still post here. >>23762644>we miss you Aww. <3
>>24076310>but only this board and naysayers started the cries of decline at Oathbringer.More like Words of Radiance
Recommend a comfy /coom/ sword and sandals with a female mc?
How is Pajeet Rothfuss?
it's okay guys, you can still fit in with the cool kids if you admit that first 3 books of Stormlight archive were good
Dune sucks
>>24076385Only Way of Kings was good
>>24076371>the quest for white vagene
>>24076390lol
For me, WInd and Truth is a divine masterpiece
>>24076305
>>24076371I will enjoy the shitstorm when this dude releases book 3
I keep trying to read Children of Dune but I keep worrying about missing any lore bits as I read and it messes me up, such is the life of a mentally ill lorefag
I’m thinking about getting Starship Troopers (the book not the movie), should I?
>>24076434it's very average, The Forever War is better but I suppose both are worth reading
Four hundred pages of “Chinese Communist Revolution but make it fantasy” with barely any mecha action before a mere fifty pages of flying a mech into a space station. I didn’t think it was possible for this Franxx fanfic to get more boring than Franxx itself but my expectations were subverted.
Someone recommend me a book if I enjoyed1. Way of Kings ONLY2. Will of the Many
>>24076689Why can't chinks write anything but commie and cultivation shit?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCOmkrwQdFc
>>24075296I just finished up the second chapter of the fantasy story I’m writing about a Necromancer’s apprentice, if any of you gents are interested.Chapter 1https://pastebin.com/mF0J1p4JChapter 2https://pastebin.com/V50DuK3iAlso available to read on A03, Wattpad, etclinktree/BornUnderaBlackSunPicrel, some art I commissioned of one of the story’s chimeras. A cross between an alligator and a vulture
>>24076748Anon, do you know how old western style galactic imperialism has been a staple in science fiction? Or the friendlier United Nations in space tropes of Star Trek?
>>24076766This is some of the best writing I've seen shilled here. Which isn't saying a lot, but I think there's potential.
>>24076710A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
>>24076802>>24076806Me personally? I love when characters in fantastical settings speak like mid 2000s sitcom characters (without the com).
Just finished binging Count Zero after really enjoying Neuromancer. I think I liked CZ even more. The ending was pretty touching.I just bought Burning Chrome and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Any reason to read BC first or just leave it after?Also is it worth going to Snow Crash after?
>>24076806Thank you, anon>>24076857Yes, I like that too
>>24075296>Author subtly tries to link his capeshit to Mark Twain
Killing Sadeas was dumb. Sadeas taking up Odium would make a lot more sense for wanting an edgy AU Dalinar to conquer the universe.
>Kaladin the therapist out of nowhereWhat in the actual fuck? lol?Wanting to help and being competent at it are not the same thing.
>>24076317By sheer coincedence I have also started The Culture. Doing it in order of publication.
>>24076766What's with the million cryptic names dropped in the first chapter alone? Also why use such an obtuse writing style? Is it to feel special or something?
>>240752966 of my Thrawn books and my 3 Bane books just arrived, I'm muy excited.
>>24076867yeah read Snow Crash
>>24076998I write like that because I have a schizoid personality disorder
>>24076748they literally burned most of their traditional culture during the gommunist revolution they have nothing left
Rereading Red Rising, I forgot how much of a bitch Eo was. I'm really glad she died.
>>24076018If his tastes were that easily pigeonholed, it would have been easier.
>>24077040Is this your art? It's nice.
>>24077111I commissioned it from a friend
>>24076689>Xiran Jay ZhaoI knew that name sounded familiar.
it's pretty comfy bros
More like this and ASOIAF? Low fantasy character dialogue fests please
>>24077290lies of locke lamora series
>>24077300I'll give it a goRereading Best Served Cold and doing a bit of a series an anon recommended hereTried Prince of Nothing but it did not mesh with me at all
>>24077290The Faithful and the Fallen by John Gwynne
>>24077300>>24077301why read something that will never be finished?
>>24077305I already read ASOIAF
>>24077306im taking about "The Lies of Locke Lamora"
>>24077305I dont think it matters as much for that series in the same way that it does for ASOIAF, lies of lock lamora always felt pretty episodic to me
>>24077313The problem with reddit-tier writers like Scott Lynch, GRRM and Sanderson is that theyre always looking to milk their fans. Plus their liberal minds cant function creatively to finish their series when it they start making money. Just read completed series.
>>24077320How in the fuck is George "Fat Pink Mast" Martin milking his fans if he's hasn't published anything in a decade?
>>24076310I dont get OB hatred. Hands down the most people vs people book and the only book where all three (Kaladin - Shallan - Adolin) were working together, and that was good. And the plot was there and more or less focused.RoW and WaT i agree were dogshit. Parshendi arent people btw.
>>24077329>he doesnt know
>>24077223NO ROBESPIERRE
I read Darkstalker today. Was a way better read than it had any right to be. Tui/Erin is a long ways out from the days of kitty cat books.Ask me anything.
Okay, let's be real for a second: how the fuck did Kelmomas get up there?
>>24077499Remember his scene with Ajokli's statue in the beginning of TJE?
>>24076305Bakker is king.
Bakker sucks
>>24077490how many petabytes of dragon porn do you have saved
>>24077546I suspect my computer memory is only barely over a couple petabytes to begin with so the amount of memory that’s also dragon porn can’t be measured in petabytes save for making it a fraction. And the fraction that would be dragons would have to be of the subset of all scaly stuff in general with some portion of that getting mixed into my desktop memory from my trafficking back and forth to discord and FA. I don’t have a central porn folder to give an easy answer though. Thanks for asking.
>>24077561I regret asking now that I am reminded that I share this website with people so technically inept that they are unaware how much storage space their computer has and don't realise that petabyte is a meme amount for a personal device
>>24077508Vaguely.
>>24077573he probably just confused it with terabytes
>>24077647Nah, I completely fell for it hookline and all. You can’t secondhand cope for me by saying penta and tera are similar when the false byte unit is intentionally meant to trip up the victim by mimicry.
Is Jules Vernes still readable? Or too dated?
>>24077667>He was a man of about fifty, but from his appearance might well have been taken for at least ten years older. Small and skinny, with eyes bright and cunning, a hooked nose, a short yellow beard, unkempt hair, huge feet, and long bony hands, he presented all the typical characteristics of the German Jew, the heartless, wily usurer, the hardened miser and skinflint. As iron is attracted by the magnet, so was this Shylock attracted by the sight of gold, nor would he have hesitated to draw the life-blood of his creditors, if by such means he could secure his claims. You tell me.
>>24077688Based and redpilled.
>>24077688Pretty based if you ask me
>>24076867Don't read Snow Crash, it's reddit incarnate. I would save Burning Chrome until last.
I'm re-reading it now and I'm enjoying it. It sort of feels like ocean's 11. Sanderson does it for me because I just want a straight forward fun quest. Check out "The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England"
Have you ever read a ((bad)) review for a book that either made you like it even more or made you want to read it?
>>24077688Simple yet elegant prose. Why can't modern fantasy authors write like this.
>>240779971 star reviews are always fun to look at, whether it's just people trolling or missing the point of the book entirely.
>>24077920>graphic sex scene with prime jailbait is reddit
>>24077997All the reviews about Ringworld complaining about Larry Nivel being sexist made me want to read it
>>24077997I discovered Anderson before I saw the seething he causes, I liked his Christian prostitute character from A Circus of Hells and I felt bad for her at the end.
>you still want Brandon to finish ASOIAF for you?
>>24076096>t. easily filtered by unfamiliar setting
>>24077223This chink fucked GRRM at worldcon last year and let him rant about House of the Dragon and Ryan Condal to her during pillowtalk afterwards
>>24078286>teehee I can't write ASOIAF, that goes against my religion!>writes in explicit gay romances into Stormlight ArchivesWhat did he mean by this?
>>24078352did he really or is it heavily implied? I checked out after Words
>>24076397Wind and Piss was the most disappointing book I’ve read in my life. I still can’t actually believe how much I’ve invested in the cosmere because of how good Way of Kings and Words or Radiance were to get to this piece of crap and have wasted all these years lol. It’s so bizarre. It’s incredible when Disney and Amazon butcher characters, but to do it to your own…? Not sure I’ve seen that before. Amazing.
>>24077997Gotta love it when goyboys like Daniel Greene (broccoli faggot on youtube) constantly seethe about masterworks like Wizard's First Rule.
>>24078388anon said he wrote chapters of faggots making out that added nothing to story and were easily skippable. i trust anon's judgement.
Is he, dare I say it, the best current critic for sff books?
>>24078437>absolutely demolished Sanderson>thinks LOTR is overrated>hates Poppy War>hates 5th Season>favorite series is ASOIAFpretty reasonable despite calling Harry Dresden sexist
>>24077688Umm, based?
>>24077667I only read two of his books as a kid and only liked one, then read a couple more books as an adult and they were a drag. I couldn't find his characters or stories interesting at all.
>>24078286Only redditors ever wanted this.
>>24078464It's because his ideas have been regurgitated ad absurdum in pop culture.
>>24078441buddy have you seen his Blood Meridian video?
>>24078482No, and I don't even know what Blood Meridian is.
>>24077290You don't know what low fantasy means. Also Abercrombie is a hack.
>>24078482Blood Meridian is shit, he was right about it
>>24078352>>24078388>>24078434it gets funnier when all of the homosex in ASOIAF is implicit rather than explicit. There were people who read the books and completely missed Renly and Loras being gay.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/734af48e-0737-493f-9951-32938608514bAll your shitty books you fags suggested did not even make it on here.
>>24078571Christ that list. Modernity is retarded
>>24078571>RF Kuang TWICE in the first 5 booksI don't think this semen slurping list is for me
>>24078571grim
>>24078571I've only read one.
>>24078286If someone should finish asoiaf for Martin it should be Abercrombie
just finished dune, this is the book people call "impenetrable" or "hard to read"? I had an easier time reading this book than Le carre or even fucking metro 2033, it's a page turner and has a fucking appendix for gods sakes
>>24078605who's people? middle schoolers? redditbrains?
>>24078581she's the Tolkien of this decade.
>>24078611probably the latter, i've seen a lot in real life and on social media of people saying they are glad it was finally adapted properly because it's so hard to finish. I guess just selection bias of retards since I don't hang with people who read books
>>24078496>>24078521
>>24078619it's one of the few books people who don't read try to read so that makes sense. They are barely literate.
>>24078332that sounds like slander
>>24078571>The Only Good IndiansI don't understand why people love this, it ends with a girl playing a game of HORSE with a deer
>>24078571>Leigh Bardugo>Sarah J. MaasWhy are hot blonde Jewesses so good at writing books?
>>24078666Leigh Bardugo is a chick?I'll stop reading Ninth House right away. I kinda liked it, though. It was like less cringy China Miéville.
>>24078605Personally I found the book hard to read because the prose fucking sucks.
>>24078571Niche complaint but the Encyclopaedia of Faeries book annoys me because it's made it harder to find the Katharine Briggs book about folklore
>>24078737thank god no one itt will ever have kids
>>24078740>tfw there are boys named "Kaladin" starting high school
>>24078441>favorite series is ASOIAFMalazan.
NECROMANCY
okay I'm gonna read Dune
>>24078740My boy Croaker is growing up into a fine lad
>>24078740My twin boys Chuck and Sneed will one day take over the family business.
>>24078773I'm in reading children of Dune. It isn't as bad as it was promised to be.
>>24078737It's nice that she lore accurately that her father us mad enough to give her that name and that she has learned to hate him when she grew up.
I’m a new reader and bought Book of the new sun as my first book, problem is that I can’t read. Like I don’t know how to read at all.
>>24078946If you’re a new reader it may be smart to start with something easier first
>>24078441>favorite series is ASOIAFopinions discarded
>>24078958What?
>>24078946Maybe just read something else. The solar circle is my favourite series, but its not something for someone new to reading.And I don't even mean this in an elitist way. Looking back on my start with books I had so much fun with stuff I couldn't stand anymore if I read it right now. But the thing is back in the day they were good enough for me, I had so much fun. So why force yourself to start with something "good"? If you're new to books just go for whatever until you find something that catches you. Find something hard to read/not that enjoyable even though you gave it some time? Just skip it for now.I'd give a lot to be able to enjoy normal books again. And it's not like the good shit is going to run away if you don't read it now.If you get a kindle or some other ereader you can just go through some recommendations, find the stuff that sounds interesting and start reading. If it catches you you keep going, if it's boring you just try another book. Hard to do that with hardcover stuff.
>>24078946
>>24079004What?
>>24078740my boys Severian and Cnaiur Most Violent Of All Men Jackson would like a word with you.
>>24079026it's spelled Cnaiür you illiterate philistine
>>24078958>>24079004You fucking retards.
>>24079026It's oddly satisfying to see how flagrant and unabashedly Indians abuse CGI.
>>24079026
>>24078946The Bible is a prerequisite reading for BotNSIf you're really dedicated, you should also find a history of all saints since the characters are named after one.
>>24078091>muh sex
>>24075296I'm fucked I spend the last 2 years of college only reading xianxia
>>24078737>>24078740I named my boy 孟浩 and I'm not asian
>>24079373Was it in chinese at least?
>>24079388Nope, I'm supposed to be learning Japanese.
>>24079373>I'm fuckedThat depends. Did you read Reverend Insanity or some homo novel like Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation?
>>24079402Neither. I prefer stuff like ISSTH and ATG, DE, RI, ST, MW/TMW and sometimes stuff like Tales of demons and gods or CD
>>24079399Did you ascend?
>>24079417Nah still n3, reading only
>>24077920>>24077014I found Snow Crash entertaining, but it was absolutely 200% Reddit.It was Reddit before Reddit.
>>24076871>Worm and Tom Sawyer both have a prominent character named Nigger Jim
I have a theory that a work of fantasy becomes great if there's some kind of love for reality in it. The most famous fantasy media is Lord of the Rings, which is mostly a linguistic/mythological experiment that Tolkien expanded upon his whole life to justify his conglangs. ASOIAF is a political work, it's one of the deeper looks into feudalism and diplomacy most normies will ever see. The Elder Scrolls was initially generic fantasy slop, until Kirkbride's esoteric love of cosmology and religion took over making it more high-concept. What do you guys think?
>>24079673Pretty passe desu. Stories that last tend to capture some universal experience. A huge part of the (bits that we know of) the Epic of Gilgamesh are about Gilgamesh coming to terms with the death of Enkidu.
>>24077223from what?
>>24078482I can't read this shit, there's no laserbeams
>>24079402>Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivationit's in my tbr, how high is the gay sex index
>>24078437>>24078441Yuck
>>24079744Don't get your hopes up. Just regular ass videos. She was caught up in some review bombing drama and disqualifications.
>>24078441>favorite series is ASOIAFNo, it's MalazanAlso>loves Bakker>hates Conan
>>24080006him liking bakker is the strangest part, just imagining him basedfacing at Kelhus' "teaching" of proyas
>>24079673Most people who read TLOTR aren't really into the languages or whatever, they love the world, the sense of reality of it as a whole, not just a very particular aspect. For ASOIAF they like the characters and their interactions, which includes politicking. In fact, GRRM's "feudalism" is a joke. If people like that, they only like the appearance of it, which is familiar but also gives the illusion of depth enough to be considered "realistic". What I'm saying is that readers like a world for its semblance of reality, whether ours or its own. So we sort of agree, sort of don't. Also, of course, this >>24079708.
I just finished project hail mary.The story was fine, but fuck me it reads like a PG 13 disney movie.
>>24080073>TLOTR
>>24080076 Thanks for telling me, I have a copy that I picked up based on a recommendation here. Might as well throw it in the trash.
>>24080040He seems to be a nice guy, his only problem is his brain got polluted by SJW politics and reddit neoliberalism.
>>24079673Goethe once said that there are no new truths, only the same old ones that every generation must re-discover and drape in the fashion of the times.
>>24080137For context, I haven't read books since like 2016 and I want to start reading more. I finished the 3body problem 3 books and wanted something more to read. PHM was recommend by my cousin and gave it a ago.I see people recommend children of time series so I guess I will start with that.
>>24080151If you want something modern and fun try Eversion by Alastair Reynolds, way better than Children of Time.
>>24080151Adding on Project hail mary> 2021 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel[28]> 2021 Best Science Fiction, Goodreads Choice Awards[29]> 2022 Audie Award for Science Fiction[30]> 2022 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year[30]> 2022 Seiun Award Best Translated Long Work[31]> 2022 Hugo Award for Best Novel finalist[2]> 2022 Xingyun Award for Best Translated Fiction finalist[32]> 2022 Canopus Award for Long-Form Fiction finalist[33]> 2024 Premio Italia Award for International SF Novel finalist[34]Just a question about spacy-scifi. Is this the bar? Surly this can not be the 'peak' of scifi books? If this is the case then I might just stop here.I thoroughly enjoyed the 3 body problem trilogy books, at least it felt like a 'serious' book. But this PHM is feels like an average disney movie.>Bill Gates and Barack Obama added the book to their respective 2021 book recommendations.oh god
>>24080159Thanks, will give that a go.
ok, I will say at least reading the 1 start comments on goodreads and the replies to them are funny. This is more entertaining than the book itself was.
>>24080162Imagine reading books recommended by Bill Gates and Obama.
>>24079673The recipe for mass market popularity is something like 95% bing bing wahoo and 5% reality. Objective greatness is closer to the opposite proportions.
Any norse/viking themed fantasy books?
>>24080162I wouldn't know, I haven't even read hail mary, or three body for that matter. Maybe I'll get to them one day. Still working through Heinlein and C. Clarke. I get most of my hard SF recs from Atomic Rockets, I play little attention to mainstream SF awards.
>>24078437he works for a republican politician and tries to hide it from his audience lol.
>>24080248 How do you know that?
>>24080251he flat out mentioned it on his channel then responded in comments saying he should have known better not to bring it up. today he'll bring up he works in politics but isn't overt anymore. He said there would have been changes to the channel if his guy didn't get re-elected cause of job search stuff.
>>24078747>>24078959I don't keep up with his tastes. Malazan must have dethroned ASOIAF then.
>>24080232The Broken Sword
>>24080232No, none have ever been written. Kinda weird now that I think about it.
>>24080162Andy Weir is very lowest common denominator sci fi. His books are entertaining and very readable so they have very wide appeal but they definitely aren't deep. They are the sci fi equivalent of marvel movies. Lots of people loved Avengers End Game, but is it the best movie ever made? Anyone who says yes is probably a brainlet.
Any good Winter themed fantasy/scifi you guys can recommend? I'm going on a winter vacation soon and I'm looking for books to fit the theme.
>>24080356Thanks for the context. That explains what I experienced
>>24080358Id recommend > The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts> The Terror by Dan Simmons.
>>24080356so he's sanderson of sf?
>>24078437lol wtf is this? First time watching him to see his opinion about 3bodyprobem and project hailmary.> And I am done> I just finished listing to 3 body problem> We have a buddy read where we read the same books and discussed it> First time I've read something like this> It was jarring to read something like thatlol wtf. Do people really do this? They listen to an audiobook and talk about themselves 'reading' it?It sounds retarded.
>>24078437Nope.
>>24075296>read black company>author makes the desire for woman the central theme of the MC>read book of the new sun>autgor barely holds himself during the first few chapters before going on the long descriptions of women bodies and makes sex with them prevalent among the MC involved topicsHoly incels. Was it that bad in 80s?
>>24080393Bad? You mean perfectly natural?
>>24080240I should probably re-read Destination/Explorers on the Moon one of these days. I remember liking them as a kid, and always had the sense they were fairly realistic for the time they were written, but I had completely memory holed the rocket being an actual plutonium-powered NERVA style design and not just some pansy ass chemical rocket. That actually makes the SSTO flight plan kinda plausible.The concept has a lot in common with Rocketship Galileo. I think they were both inspired by Von Braun's ideas on moon flight.
>>24079763I don’t think there’s any sex in the main books, just in the post-series extras. And I think it’s just the library sex extra and the sword sex extra. Could be wrong, haven’t read it in a few years. Grand Master Of Demonic Cultivation’s homos are basically the Pride And Prejudice archetype — a quirky clever one and a repressed stoic one, and the quirky one mistakenly thinks the stoic one hates him for three quarters of the series. There’s a dual-track narrative where in the present the homos are wandering around solving a murder mystery, and in the past they’re fighting a sect war. Honestly the main appeal is that classic Pride And Prejudice dynamic combined with a load of fanfic tropes like “they’re stuck in a cave together” and “the repressed one is only expressive when drunk.”
>>24080388Writer, collector, bookseller in that order?
>>24080232Bloodsworn sagaA tide of black steel
It's pretty great
>greatly enjoying the book I am reading>can't discuss it because it isn't a NYT bestseller and normalfags will have a psychotic fitsucks having no place on the internet to discuss books with like-minded acquaintances.
>>24080567what book>can't discuss it because it isn't a NYT bestseller and normalfags will have a psychotic fitnever in my life have I seen anyone react like that because someone brought a book they don't know
what sf should i start with as a new reader.
>>24080664I thought Three Body Problem was good. Starship Troopers too. t. Not a /sffg/ poster
>>24080664Ender’s Game
>>24080664Rendezvous With Rama
>>24075307On a whim I decided to start reading this. I'm enjoying it so far. It almost makes me want to start writing stories myself.
Who are the most potent and essential authors of short story speculative fiction besides Lovecraft?
>>24080664Dan Simmons Hyperion
I'm giving my space self an unusual future weapon. I'm tore between some sort of laser spear or plasma axe
>>24080689 This. Its as safe as you can get with sci-fi.
Re-read all of Cradle.It's still good.
>>24080741id say M John Harrison, but if you want to go weirder try Thomas Ligotti.
I want a world like Star Wars with futuristic technology, sword fights, and psychic/psionic/psychokinetic powers + occultism/magic. Does no such thing exist and Star Wars just absorbed everything?
>>24080780I only know of Dune though its psychic powers are limited to Jedi mind tricks.
>>24080780Star Wars is just a rearrangement of pre-existing tropes from a pre-existing genre going back decades before ANH, almost nothing about it is strictly new. The most obvious influences are Lensman and Dune. Start with those and you'll be eating good.
>>24080780read early pulp novels. that's where lucas drew a lot of the adventure part of star wars
I really don't think I was ready to read japanese war crimes in Nanjing in details while reading a fantasy novel, but thanks, I guess.image not completely unrelated
>>24080780Locked Tomb if you can tolerate Tumblr lesbian Homestuck humor.
>>24080767They don't have such established legacy or scope. Even Robert Howard and CAS are more relevant.
>>24080714I thought this book was terrible. Good concept terrible execution. Should have been only one perspective
>>24080818I like how these Asian women just learned about nanjing from their high school history teacher then wrote a book about it without doing more research. I bet they watched the documentary then lololol unit 731
>>24080837They're closer to Lovecraft than the two authors you mentioned and have short story collections.
>>24080904I don't want anybody closer to Lovecraft >>24080741
>>24080896That would be my main criticism of the book, desu.Some characters feel like they were created just so bad shit would happen to them and the author would have the chance to tell the readers about things the japanese did during WW2The male best friend of the protagonist? Well, he witnessed the Not!Nanjing Massacre and starts talking about what the soldiers did with as much detail as he canA random female character that did nothing so far in the story? Well, she became a comfort woman for a while and after being rescued started talking about how the soldiers raped women and kids in as much detail as she could
>>24080916Then dont mention Lovecraft.
Why is this general exclusional towards horror?
>>24080962Strut your stuff bro. No one is gatekeeping anything. What are you reading?
this dude annoys me
>>24080977why
>>24080962I mean, give me some modern horror.
>>24080981I don't know why he just does
>>24080977I kinda like him for calling out the YA/Romantasy genremost male youtubers will just say they liked shit like Fourth Wing and ACOTAR so they can get views by doing reading vlogs
>>24080971>>24080982a stunning masterpiece
>>24080982>modern horrorthere was a thread about that oncehttps://archive.4plebs.org/tv/thread/105971039/
>>24080503Yeah big fan of that one, and The Kraken Wakes. Apparently the US and UK versions of the latter are quite different, and I can't be sure which one I read last
>>24080358A lot of the Traitor Baru Cormorant is about the fuckery of waging medieval warfare in wintertime.
>>24080430huh, weirdly similar setup to Husky & Shizunexcept in that one the dual track narrative is the present and a past-future timeline before the regressor MC got reincarnated, where he was already fuckin the repressed stoic love interest. And he's still too retarded to admit to himself that he likes the guy in the present timeline for like 3 volumes.
>>24080761Have you read wight's next series, Last Horizon? I saw there were a few books but haven't checked it out yet
>>24080962I dont like it, too scary :(
>>24079708What about some universal moral principle?https://scifiwright.com/2013/02/illustrations-of-the-tao/
>>24080358Memory Sorrow and Torn have very nice moments of the winter and snowy places.
>>24080358The Left Hand of Darkness.
>>24080990I read this years ago and all I remember was my astonishment when I realised the PDF was 1000 pages long. I found it funny how you could tell the serialisation was artificially lengthened because things kept happening out of nowhere.
>>24081097I've read the first one in the series. It wasn't bad. But it's more fluff than Cradle or The Elder Empire. It was basically, "what if we made everyone over powered, and then had them fight cosmic level threats". Which, if you know Will Wight, you know that's what he's into. So the book reads like his most fanciful ideas, flowing out of him like a stream.I might get around to reading the second book. But I'm not in a hurry. Apparently, he's written another Cradle book. A bonus world building book by the sounds of it. A collection of stray stories.
You anons looking forward to the Cradle short story collection?
>>24080232Isn't that an Anglo-Saxon helmet?
I just want to ask here, since I get not hit on any search engine.In project hail mary, at one point where the main guy goes out of the space shit to fix/do shit, we get the following:> Now I have four different tethers attached to me. And I like it that way. I may look like space Spider-Man, but who cares?What the fuck is the spiderman reference about? I see no one else on the internet brought it up.Is spiderman un-cool or something? I don't know, I thought spiderman is pretty cool? Why the 'who cares'? it implies its a bad look? like What the fuck is this?
>>24081163He may be referencing the spiderweb maybe? I don't think it's supposed to be uncool, maybe just a bit ridiculous.
>>24081170Its the most random reference in the book for me.Its not like there is a backstory of him liking superheroes or spiderman or whatever. It feels like that implies spiderman is not cool, but he doesn't care what he looks like, he likes it.
redpill me on "The Wandering Inn"
>>24081195The inn never stand still, some say it is wondering to this day.
>>24081147Yeah, sure. Can't wait to "consume" it.
>>240811951 volume of it is higher wordcount than all 40 discworld novels added together. if you're a NEET who reads multiple hours a day it's pretty good though
>>24081242What's good about it?
>>24075640based metal head. for me it is of course Cirith Ungol. but beyond that I like Caladan Brood, Summoning off the top of my head for metal bands that have fantasy connections. not sure about specifically STONER bands that have covered fantasty. but yeah pass the bowl and put on some Kyuss and High on Fire just kidding I don't smoke anymore it absolutely rots the everlivingshit out of my brain>>24076317enjoy anon. Use of Weapons is amazing
Why is it still the best one? I ultimately enjoy the series, but the highs of this book promised greatness the rest of the books have yet to replicate or live up to. His writing is getting worse and worse with each release. To top it off, every other cover in the series is awful. Like he just blew his load with book 1.
>>24081301Almost nothing happens in it, you can summarizethe plot in about 100 words
>>24079673>>24080073ASOIAF is carried by its dialogue and the benefit of gardening writing allowing for no good deed to go unpunished. Everything is Chekov's gun, and there's a generally consistent logic of cause and effect that you can always look back and say, "Oh, this outcome was inevitable."
>>24081089Grand Master of Demonic Cultivation is a lot tighter than Dumb Husky -- shorter, more focused, less convoluted, less grimderp. That, combined with its live action and anime adaptations, makes it a pretty good entrypoint for homo xianxia. Scum Villain is the best English-published danmei though.
I detest Egwene
>>24080780The Sun Eater series at least partially has that.The protagonist fights with a lightsaber and later on develops basically godlike powers. And the plot is godlike beings fighting a proxy war involving humans and an alien species.But to give a warning: In my opinion, the series only starts to get good by the third book. The first book is pretty boring and the second is still only okay.
>it gets good after 2000 pages
>>24081245Despite writing an ungodly amount of words per update the author keeps it feeling like a real, living world. The web novel jumps between the perspectives of many different characters, some of whom directly know each other, some of whom are on other continents just having their own adventures and fleshing out more of the world, but it manages to feel like each story is progressing well without asspulls or groping around for what to do etc and it manages to go through a lot of powerful character moments. A lot is about the characters rather than the action or about getting stronger or whatever though which is different from a lot of popular web fiction, so if you don't like reading about that you might not take to it.
>>24081806Not him, but the prose filtered me.
>>24081806do characters die much?
>>24081836I'd say so yeah. It's probably more common among the separated "side story" characters but there are deaths among the main cast too.
reminder
>>24081868I like the mystery motives more.
>>24081868shit list pulp is not shit tier
>>24081868
>>24076871Worm wasn't great...
>>24076317I read the Culture series when I was younger and I loved it.
>>24078407What parts do you dislike? I think the gay romance was unneeded, and Shallan's escapades are always weak compared to the rest of the main characters, but my only problem is the Sunlit Man had a lot of foreshadowing to get us hyped for the future of the Stormlight series and 90% of it gets covered in the last chapter, including Sigzil meeting Aux.
>>24076317Currently reading picrelated and loving it. Have only read Player of Games before this a few years ago but I thought it was a solid 9/10. This book took me a little bit longer to get into but at about the 100 page mark where the non-linear parallel structure became clearer I started to love it. Definitely going to keep on with the series.
>Bakker forced into hiding after glowniggers discovered Second Apocalypse was soft disclosureI wanna know what HAPPENS!
Update for the thread from a few days ago: I DNF'd this. I gave it a solid 400 pages to really get good but I dropped it around the point where Hadrian gets discovered and taken to the count's palace , the pace is just godawful. I know the writer was 22 when he published it and props to him for that, honestly he's not even a bad writer per se and there are some good turns of phrase here and there, but the constant sophomoric navelgazing and faux-wisdom really became unbearable. Strange how some books are 750+ pages and feel like they're just full of nothing while others make a powerful impact with just 100. This could've seriously benefitted from an editor and been a nice, snappy ~400ish pages. Also I heard that it was "inspired" by Dune and BOTNS not directly ripped off from. >"fear is the death of reason" instead of "fear is the mindkiller">scholiasts basically being mentats >doctors with a triangle pattern on their forehead>psychopathic aristocrat obsessed with fighting as a gladiator >protag is basically severian >"hall of bright carvings" directly lifted from gormenghast >"poine" instead of kanly that's not even to mention all of the direct quotations from shakespeare. dude deadass says, "all the world's a stage" at one point without even a trace of irony, compares skulls to Yorick, shit I was half expecting him to start monologuing "to be or not to be". this is 16,000 years into the future and you're telling me dude is quoting Shakespeare? I have too many other books I'd love to read to force myself through the rest of this. That said, I heard Howling Dark picks up considerably and he improves drastically as a writer. I read the synopsis of the rest of the novel and considering giving it a try. Any anons have an opinion of the rest of the series?
>>24082150he should've been forced into hiding after that frankly embarrassing final book. i was hugely into the series up till that point and still love the lore and worldbuilding bakker built up but holy fuck i can only sit through so many descriptions of the air smelling like a mixture of hot unwiped booty and roasting lamb, corpse fucking, and gay orgies.
>>24082175there is literally nothing wrong with gay rape and radioactive cannibalism
>>24081306Is this true, Sandersoys?
>>24082162it becomes more of its own thing after book 1 helped in large part by getting off the planet and into space. and the author does improvethe Hadrian ancient wisdom monologue stuff doesn't go away however if that's your main problem
>>24082150what the fuck does soft disclosure mean
>>24082162I've read all the main books. I would say they are all significantly different from the first. I have heard people who didn't like the first book still enjoyed book 1.5 which stars hadrians brother. It's called The Lesser Devil. Maybe give it a go and see if you like it.
>>24082132Use of Weapons is, unfortunately, the best book in the Culture series.It's amazing, but it's all downhill from there.We could have gotten more Zakalwe but Banks had to waste a quarter of the book on elephant Hell.
>>24082162Yeah, that's what I wrote about the book as well. Most others don't seem to mind though. /sffg/ reviews and ratings Books 1https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=364546672https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=441804103https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=489821444https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=583956735https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=656425946https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=198593892
Read CradleRead Wandering InnRead Lord of The Mysteries
>>24082355>Read Cradleread it>Read Wandering Innwas somewhere partway through volume 6 when I put it on the backburner but lost my progress when I replaced my ereader, now I don't wanna restart from the beginning of a volume when that's like 10 books worth of text>Read Lord of The MysteriesI'm gonna read homo cultivation series first, another lit anon suggested picrel to me
>>24082229Leaking classified information in a plausibly deniable way. Aka schizos claiming shit like X-Files and Star Gate are actually based on fact. The anon is probably being ironic in his usage
>>24082175>descriptions of the air smelling like a mixture of hot unwiped booty and roasting lamb, corpse fucking, and gay orgies.ASOIAF is that you?
>>24082355reading lord of the mysteries currently as my first webnovel glory to the foodaholic empire but I've realized that if I only read it for an hour each day it will still take half of the year to finish it. How does everyone do it?
I started reading pic rel to break my 11 year streak of being a no read zombie. I'm halfway through it and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. I like how it's more of a macro scale political story
>>24082479Nice!
>>24082450I read like 16/20 hours a day only stopping to eat or biosometimes I can finish a 1k pages book in 1 day if the content is light and im obsessedt. neet
>>24082407Based. Remember that Cucumber/Airplane is OTP. Followed by OG Bing-ge dub-conning OG Shen Jiu.
>>24082522how many times have you reread wind and truth
>>24082522what is your favorite book neety
>>24081899kino
I've come to dislike contemporary fantasy which caused me to turn to historical novels for pleasure reading. (Or I just old fantasy). The modern fantasy reads like slop; and BORING slop, or is there anything fun to read --and not necessarily good?
>>24082586reccomend me some historical novels
>>24082590Not that anon, but this is really good.Its not a novel, but the way Levy writes is like hes telling a story (as opposed to just telling facts about history)
>>24082590I recently got The Last Kingdom, Tides of War, Gates of Fire, The Eagle of the NinthI'll also play campaigns with my minis, so it's nice that all come with maps
>>24082649Masters of RomeThe Accursed Kings
>>24082659>>24082671That anon, but these look good.
>>24082522you must be the guy I saw on novelupdates or something that suggested finishing all 1400 chapters within 2 weeks for the best experience
>>24081163It's referencing Doc Ock.
Any good?
>>24082918very solid, yesi like the older sci-fi books, how everyone are smart and gentle
>>24082479>I started reading pic rel to break my 11 year streak of being a no read zombie.Welcome back.
>>24082953Thanks.
>>24082973lil bro has never heard of libgen...
>>24083010I pirate. But sometimes I cant be bothered. The one click buy now sends it straight to my kindle. The cost of convenience eh?
>>24078437AP canavan has a goldmine of a channel on SFF for readers that you should watch before he starts charging for future videos. Some of the best videos I've come across on youtube
>>24081113Thanks. For some reason I always assumed Tad Williams was a woman...
>>24082916> I look like space spider-man> doc ock referenceThe "who cares?" might be because he thinks he looks cool but noone is there to witness/see it?Bruh I feel retarded because I truly do not get that reference.
sup /lit/, i'm going to be honest that i've been here only a few times in all my 4chan career. Treat me how you will.Having said that, i'm in the process of brainstorming some lore for a game that will never see the light of day, basically a way to pass the time and exercise the brain. I was hoping that maybe you could provide some insight or general ideas.My general idea is that of a another-world-inspired setting, where there's a world (a simulation, different dimension, holographic world, etc) that consists of many different settings, basically like a shattered mirror where every piece reflects a different "setting". A bunch of characters are thrown into this world. My first idea was that the world is basically something like a cross-section of various dimensions that got intertwined because of some failed experiment or some such and the characters know this, are there by accident and are motivated to leave it(because of some time constraint). This seems okay on the surface, but i thought everything was a bit too obvious in that the characters already know what the world is and that they have to eescape it.So another idea i had was that the game would have some generic setting like "we got transported to another world and have to defeat the big bad to leave it" but then the fact that the characters are in the game would somehow affect the characters themselves and create some sort of dissonance the further the game progresses, and have the possibility of the characters realizing the game is the game and having all sortts of breakdowns and dillemmas because of that.While writing down various ideas and playing/reading some stuff i realized that i basically want some depressive denpa inspired setting/world, where completing the game objective(such as "defeat the greatevil") isn't the objective that the game characters should be striving forward, or rather that it is a distraction.I would be eternaly grateful if there were some books or other media you anons could mention that would let me explore these ideas more and maybe write some basic lore better. If you have some insight or ideas yourself i'd also be very grateful.
>“How?” Ishar repeated. “What are you?” He gestured toward Szeth. “Are you…are you his spren? His god?”>“No,” Kaladin said. “I’m his therapist.”>Ishar blinked. “…What is that?”>“I honestly have no idea,” Kaladin admitted.
>>24083241>>24083241>>24083241move
>>24081686>Kharn kino>only okaysay fucking what?
