>>24712823
>"If the leaders knew, why didn't they tell us? Why didn't they tell the truth!"
>The alien pointed a tentacle at Arthur's tears and said, "Because the truth would make everyone very, very sad."
...damn.

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space cats

The charts have been put in folders and a few have been removed for being updated versions rather than different books. Argue about their placement and other issues as you will.

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>>24712903
I don't know why scifi authors are allergic to furries. There are absolutely gonna be furries in the future, a huge amount. Between genetic engineering, body modifications, and fulldive VR, there should be furries out the proverbial ass.
Remember that one furry in Ready Player One? The catgirl with huge boobs who takes the selfie? That should've easily been, like, over half of the players in there. Not those weird elfin humans.

Sevro really is the worst character in these books
Lightbringer: His quirky reddit speech after Volga kills Fa is one of the worst moments in the entire series, second only to the reveal that Lilath wasn't dead and we still have to deal with Adrius because clooooones. That itself lost the book a star

>>24712823
>Post quotes or highlighted passages from books you've read (so we can admire or make fun of it)
...and thus it began.

Quantum Night (Robert J. Sawyer)
P-zeds of the kind we’re talking about have no conscious defense against ideas, no matter how stupid they are, and so are easily infected by them.”

Helm (Steven Gould)
the French dropped Mag Bottle Seventy-four on Tehran because the Iranians were using the imprinter to forcibly convert Muslims and non-Muslims to their particular brand of Shiite fundamentalism.

Lilith's Brood (Octavia Butler)
That’s what Humans are, too, don’t forget. People who poison each other, then disclaim all responsibility.

Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (H. Beam Piper)
The job of policing a near-infinity of worlds, each of which was this same planet Earth

The Snail on the Slope (Arkady Strugatsky)
everything will be full of deep meaning, in the same way that the behavior of any complicated system is full of deep meaning, and it will all be strange, and it will therefore be meaningless to us, at least to those of us who still haven’t gotten used to the meaninglessness and accepted it as the norm.

Uller Uprising (H. Beam Piper)
The Kragan kings have always provided their own heirs, by self-fertilization.

The Left Hand Of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin)
Cultural shock was nothing much compared to the biological shock I suffered as a human male among human beings who were, five-sixths of the time, hermaphrodite neuters.

The Dispossessed (Ursula K. Le Guin)
He gripped her to him, and his semen spurted out against the white silk of her dress.

The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu)
so many people had abandoned all hope in human civilization, hated and were willing to betray their own species, and even cherished as their highest ideal the elimination of the entire human race, including themselves and their children.

A Memory Called Empire (Arkady Martine)
“Don’t believe her,” Twelve Azalea said. “Ice cream in the public gardens is what she used to do after she stayed out all night clubbing.”

Ship of Fools (Richard Paul Russo)
There were still no revelations, no mysteries solved, no understanding of the function of anything, but we all sensed a growing complexity, or variety—something different.

The Drowned World (J. G. Ballard)
Did I or did I not try to kill myself?' One of the few existential absolutes, far more significant than 'To be or not to be?',

Man in the Empty Suit (Sean Ferrell)
“How can you be so sure you’re not killing yourself?”

Immortality, Inc. (Robert Sheckley)
“Kill yourself now and save us all a lot of trouble.

Gift of the Manti (J. F. Bone;
"It’s the strangest suicide I ever saw. He really didn’t want to shoot himself, but he couldn’t avoid it.”

Too Like the Lightning (Ada Palmer)
“Then why didn’t they all just kill themselves?”

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>Romeboo Isekai is back on the menu
Anyone else reading this series? Just finished book two. Things are moving quick…too quick I felt at first, but the author included a note at the end of the book explaining why he thinks technology would progress so rapidly once steel could be mass-produced. By the end of the novel he has mounted steppe tribespeople slinging lead with six-shooters lmao. I was glad he didn’t spend too much time on the Chinese team, would prefer the focus to stay on Rome.
Hopefully he’s able to wrap things up in the last book in a more satisfactory way than Island in the Sea of Time’s disappointing ending.

>>24713048
nice

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>>24713048
>The Kragan kings have always provided their own heirs, by self-fertilization.
explain

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Anybody here remember the 2006 game Prey? I'm wondering if there's any science fiction stories in existence that are moderately similar to it, or could of at least been inspired by it.

After 200000 Leagues and Journey what else from Verne should I read?

>>24713289
How tò troon out

>>24713334
huh

>>24713334
Julia Verne - I'm Gonna Rope in Eighty Days

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>“What 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.”


I should add that I'm a sandofag and enjoy his works but this writing was terrible

I take back my recommendation of the Ard's Oath series from the last thread with the anon asking for haremlit. I'm reading the latest book now and it's like it wasn't edited at all. I'm talking glaring continuity errors, sometimes conflicting with statements on the same page. You'd think one of the most successful authors in the genre could afford a little more care and review before publishing

>>24713495
This is a fucking funny but it would infuriate me to read this in context lol. Vibe writing at its finest, what the fuck are his editors doing?

>>24713663
>what the fuck are his editors doing?
He doesn't use the editor he used for his earlier books, especially way of kings any more and it's evident. I think that he's a big enough name now that he can push back against the publisher and resist any editing suggestions.

>>24713663
>Vibe writing
Stfu

>>24712823
Comfy OP image. Pretty sure it's from Pillars of Eternity.

>>24713775
no, look at the character sprites, it's an infinity engine game. one of the icewind dales probably

>>24713784
You're right. I didn't see the characters. Icewind Dale is also a great game.

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>>24713775
It’s not but pillars is so fucking comfy. I did another big playthrough of them earlier in the year and had a blast.

I liked avowed too

>>24713797
>I did another big playthrough of them earlier in the year and had a blast.
The level design in both games is fantastic. A shame the story is garbage.
>I liked avowed too
Cringe.

>>24713052
Stirling always accelerates tech advances in his alt history stories. His books more about fun than plausibility, which has annoyed some of the more autistic alt history fans ever since the 80s.

>>24712823
The Logos is without beginning or end.

>>24712823
>Post quotes or highlighted passages from books you've read (so we can admire or make fun of it)
Good question but I'm too lazy right now to look for my books. Will come back to this, though

>>24713495
What even is the context for knowing what the word therapist means? Is this supposed to be a le epic moment? Why does this world even know what a therapist is? This reads like a parody.

>We practiced everything in that office: How to walk, how to smile, how to sidestep tough questions by circling back to an unrelated, indignant defense of Israel—you know, the basics.

>>24713946
Obsessed.

>>24713495
>>“No,” Kaladin said. “I’m his therapist.”
KINOOOOOOOO

>>24713495
I'm sure there's other context to the scene and line

>>24714030
Not really. Kaladin, the main character, has had an arc going from war hero to ptsd to war survivor and training as a surgeon but wanting to specialise in mental health. A character in the series who travels to different worlds called Kaladan a therapist which he had no idea what it meant and then he used it during this scene when he was basically acting as a therapist for one of the characters.

>>24713048
The Oracle Year (Charles Soule)
A Reddit thread popped up on her screen, with a single post pinned to the top.

Providence (Max Barry)
they had sex. It was, let’s say, how to put this, because she didn’t want to sound conceited, but it did redefine her whole reality

Little Eyes (Samanta Schweblin)
“Which of the three of us do you think has the best tits?” asked Katia. The bear moved quickly over the board’s letters.

Perihelion Summer (Greg Egan)
“I’ll feel bad for not feeding my family sleeping pills and dragging them out here against their will.”

Golden State (Ben Winters)
My personal hope is that you can go fuck yourself

Harmony (Project Itoh)
I lost all hope in the world and, at the same time, learned how to live without hope.

Shovel Ready (Adam Sternbergh)
And how old are you? Look, you can’t fuck me, if that’s what you’re asking. That’s not what I’m asking. Well, maybe you can. Don’t give up too easy.

Space Viking (H. Beam Piper)
they have a democracy, and they are letting the enemies of democracy shelter themselves behind democratic safeguards.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Andrew Rowe)
I really hate color coded tile puzzles.

Hell's Gate (David Weber;Linda Evans)
The consortium's main income, of course, would come from portal-usage fees. Once a survey crew discovered a new portal, the company which employed them earned the right to charge fees for every person and every load

Market Forces (Richard Morgan)
cupped her breasts as if offering them. ‘Nothing like a cleavage for reducing professional respect.’

Icehenge (Kim Stanley Robinson)
I ran the cold spurt from the hose over my cock, felt nothing.

Calamity (Brandon Sanderson)
You sure you can love a giant robotic toenail clipper?

Six Wakes (Mur Lafferty)
Principles are easy to have when you have a place to live and regular meals.

Infomocracy (Malka Older)
Elections are sugar-coated oppression.

Senlin Ascends (Josiah Bancroft)
Death was not an end. It was an ellipsis.

Lock In (John Scalzi)
The rest of my brain was going ow jesus fuck ow ow.

The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K. Le Guin)
I have had dreams that…that affected the…non-dream world. The real world.

Binti (Nnedi Okorafor)
It’s been intimate with you enough that your body has changed

The Sacred Book of the Werewolf (Victor Pelevin)
Do you know that game on PlayStation - Final Fantasy 8?

The Fifth Season (N. K. Jemisin)
I finished menstruating a week ago.

Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (Bradley P. Beaulieu)
She felt him release as well, felt his throbbing slowly ebb, felt his seed slick her thighs.

A Desolation Called Peace (Arkady Martine)
This person has had their hands inside you

BleakWarrior (Rennie, Alistair)
“It’s her pussy juice.” “It’s an elixir.” “An addictive elixir.” “A very addictive elixir.”

An Unkindness of Magicians (Kat Howard)
Then a YouTube video. Twenty-seven seconds long and uploaded with the title “Sxxxy Hogwarts.”

>>24714103
>Do you know that game on PlayStation - Final Fantasy 8?
picked up

>>24714103
>>24713048
>I can't believe you read fanfiction and webslop you should read REAL fiction
>meanwhile, actual published fiction:

>>24713048
>>24714103
this is why you shouldn't listen to the legwin shills
NEVER READ ANY FEMALE ""AUTHOR""

>main character becomes gay on page 512

>>24713048
That Ballard line was great, what books of his should I read?

>>24714103
>i ran the cold spurt from the hose over my cock, felt nothing
KINO

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>>24714540

You should all read Project Hail Mary.

>>24714623
What makes it better than any other heavily marketed large publisher book? It's been on my long list for a while but the blurb hasn't excited me.

>>24714623
more like project reddit

>>24714623
I did. I thought it was really fun.

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>>24713495
I haven't wept from a book as much as I did during WoK/WoR/Oathbringer and I dropped the series after Rhythm of War since it just didn't hit me as hard.

Do you have any book recommendations that are similar to the first three books?

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Anybody backing the pajeet science fiction, fantasy, spiritual mysticism, and technological futurism trilogy? I read the first two chapters they put up and it was interesting

Okay I will now read lord of the rings for the first time
t. Big fan of the series

>>24714833
lito post

Besides King Solomons Mines and She, what else from Haggard should I read?

Any good dark fantasy come out this year? Been reading through all the old stuff.

>>24714682
How many times are you going to post this?

>>24714699
the science fiction of a working toilet

>>24714880
Nothing good in dark fantasy has come out in nearly a decade, anon.

>>24714972
It doesn't need to be perfect so long as its interesting. I enjoyed Pilgrim and The Starving Saints for their horror aspects even if the former dipped into reddit atheism too many times for crusader characters and Starving Saints was as much about lesbians as it was about cool evil fairies. You gotta take what you can get. I also run tabletop games so even an imperfect story is worth it if I can mine it for good ideas. If it flubs the ending it doesn't matter, I've already stolen their best creature for my own nefarious purposes.

Went to the library today, picked up the first volume of the Powder Mage Trilogy, as well as some Phillip K. Dick and Michael Moorcock.
Going to read some Marrow tonight. The really big planet-sized ship has been hard for me to visualize.

>>24715042
just plain awesome

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>>24713123
Footfall maybe?

>>24714031
>has had an arc going from war hero to ptsd to war survivor and training as a surgeon but wanting to specialise in mental health

Thank fuck I didn't waste time with this series after book 1

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>>24712823
Do the Xeelee books get better as they go along? I mostly enjoyed this but it read like a Larry Niven novel with all the humor/fun sucked out of it.

>>24715089
read vacuum diagrams and if you like it then start with timelike infinity
raft, as im sure you know by now, takes place in an alt universe and is largely irrelevant to the overall larger xeelee sequence

>>24715042
Great choices. I just finished book 2 of the Powder Mage trilogy and thought it was even better than the first, so definitely keep going after the first one.

What should I read from Asimov?

I NEED Red God news.

Why the FUCK is Lysander this way

>>24714103
Aching God (Mike Shel)
Have you ever been to Aem’al’ai’esh?

Black Leviathan (Bernd Perplies)
A dragon produced barrels full of meat, but no trader would touch it after it festered on deck for a week.

The Sword Defiant (Gareth Hanrahan)
Healing potions could only do so much, and every jolt of the wagon sent a fresh shock of pain through his spine.

Wild Massive (Scotto Moore)
I lived in one of those Americas where they printed textbooks with blank pages so that school boards could just decide on the fly what repressive bullshit they felt like teaching.

Beggar's Rebellion (Levi Jacobs)
Ella rolled the ball of moss in her mouth

Nona the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)
Everyone wants to believe that God’s randomly made them one of the X-Men.

The Raven Tower (Ann Leckie)
Excuse me, Mother, I don’t think I’m the sort of man Lord Mawat might be interested in that way.

Theft Of Swords (Michael J Sullivan)
That must have been awkward at family gatherings—raping your own daughter and all

Falling Bodies (Rebecca Roanhorse)
You just gonna leave like that? After screwing my sister?

The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch)
I’m willing to spend about three coppers and a bowl of piss for a mystery boy.

Priest of Bones (Peter McLean)
A hole was a hole as far as he was concerned, and if he could stick his cock in it then it made him happy.

Seven Surrenders (Ada Palmer)
I tasted at last that easy affection which only dolls and dildos had enjoyed before.

Seveneves (Neal Stephenson)
He was already thinking about the videos he was going to make to teach his baby about calculus when he climaxed.

The Wise Man’s Fear (Patrick Rothfuss)
Each woman is like an instrument, waiting to be learned, loved, and finely played, to have at last her own true music made.

Dare to Know (James Kennedy)
I had wondered if Renard’s occasional nakedness was some implicit gay invitation.

The Water Knife (Paolo Bacigalupi)
You’re the one who had sex with me just because you wanted to see whether women were any good.

Neuromancer (William Gibson)
Lonny Zone, the bar’s resident pimp, was observing with glazed fatherly interest as one of his girls went to work on a young sailor.

Ten Thousand Thunders (Brian Trent)
He felt greedy suction around the head of his penis.

Station Eternity (Mur Lafferty)
she was on her period.

Consider Phlebas (Iain M. Banks)
I'm pregnant.

Roadside Picnic (Arkady;Boris Strugatsky)
And stop ruining the girls, you animal!

Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson)
I enjoy really violent, abusive sex acts.

The 22 Murders of Madison May (Max Barry)
you’re just kind of a slut.

Leviathan Wakes (James S. A. Corey)
less than mind-blowing sex somehow meant something different and funnier and gentler than what they’d already done together.

Chasm City (Alastair Reynolds)
It was a time of horror. It is not yet over.

Black Stone Heart (Michael R. Fletcher)
She grunted and loosed a gut-churning fart.

>>24715318
Pandemonium Chair mind fuckery / Atlas au Raa actually being his father instead of pixie reformer Brutus

>>24712823
>"You have a fine voice. Remember that music is a noble charge, even a dangerous charge, because it can pierce a man’s heart when a spear or arrow cannot".
The Witchwood Crown, Tad Williams.

His prose is so tasteful.

>>24715302
I join your wait, just set down Lightbringer
Lysander MUST die

What are some good fairy tale type books that have a sinister atmosphere? Like the movie Pan's Labyrinth? Something that will make me feel like the woods behind my house are full of whimsy but also foreboding.

Lysander shall triumph.

This isn't a quote from a book but in an interview Tolkien surprisingly quoted Simone de Beauvoir and said that's the "keyspring" of LOTR.
>There is no such thing as a natural death: nothing that happens to a man is ever natural, since his presence calls the world into question. All men must die: but for every man his death is an accident and, even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable violation

Here's the video where he quotes her - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JF_COdf5Zg

>>24715302
For me? Its No-God news.

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Read "Corpus Chrome, Inc"

>>24713123
Walking to Aldebaran is all I can think of that even has a remotely similar vibe to Prey.

> got recommended Mistborn throroughly in 4chan
> 200 pages in I realize it's a fucking book for kids and teenagers
> feels like shonen manga
> literally everything Sanderson is for fucking kids

what are you guys playing at? do you even read adult fantasy?

>>24715673
You have retards actively gushing about REDdit Rising on a daily basis here. You should have known better.

>>24715673
I've never read Sanderson, but what is "adult fantasy"?

>>24715673
When gave you get the idea that 4chan was filled with something other than edgy teenagers and weebs?

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>>24715673

>>24715675
well now I know that's for sure. Same goes for Red Rising, yeah
>>24715677
well certainly not Sanderson. Sanderson writes for teenagers and kids, period.
>>24715679
well I thought we were in a sffg general and other recommendations here have been pretty sound

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>>24715302
Red God bros... it's nearly time. From Brown's instagram

>>24715696
But what is "adult fantasy"? Well written? Mature themes? Sex? gory violence? Philosophical?

>>24715673
> literally everything Sanderson is for fucking kids
Yes, this shouldn't be news to you if you did a few seconds of research. He writes popular and easy to read fantasy, i.e you don't need more than a highschool level vocabulary.

Red Rising better be filled with waifus.

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>>24715715
Yes

>>24715715
>>24715722
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU FUCKING SPAMMING COCKSUCKS!!!

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>>24715727

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Thoughts on these?

Science Fiction is superior to Fantasy.

>>24715703
More dialogue scenes than action scenes. The ratio should be at least 15:1

>>24715714
well that's my fault indeed

>>24715703
- Adult fantasy doesn't necessarily have rebel teenagers as MC
- YA usually involves teenagers, rebellion against the authority, teenage love, etc as a central plot. Actually most of the 2010's hunger-games knockoffs are exactly like that. Mistborn is exactly that.
- YA is usually simple-worded, fast paced and with pretty straightforward plots. Adult fantasy tends to have much more intricacy and complexity. There is no hand holding required, or at least not as much YA does have
- in YA romance is usual central to the plot
- YA has no sex. There is no problem to depic the most gruesome violence but god forbid that a young adult reads something about sexual relationships, particularly if they are explicit


This on top of my head, but one thing YA has that makes it unmistakably indetifiable is that they are all exactly the same shit with a different smell.

mistborn is exactly the same as hunger games, red rising, divergent, etc... see the pattern?

>>24715807
>see the pattern?
I haven't read any of those. And although I wasn't asking about YA, but about "adult fantasy", I think I understand your answer; its complex plots, adult concepts, mature characters.

>>24715816
yeah, the thing is, it's easy to identify YA because they are all pretty much the same. Adult fantasy comes in many shapes and forms but if you are an adult, you will certainly realise when you're reading YA

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>>24715816
>I haven't read any of those
but you know the Hunger Games, the movie, right?

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Why is there a snobbery towards books that are considered YA? Reading is not, and shouldn't be, some elitist thing where you're considered more cultured because you read classics or more high brow stuff. Reading is entertainment and if you enjoy what you read, that's all that should matter especially as we're in a world where reading is on a decline.

Yes YA is easier to read and is probably more akin to McDonalds than Michelin Star at times but at the end of the day a big mac can still be enjoyable.

>>24715823
I see. So "adult fantasy" was just bad wording--"good fantasy" is probably better? Your main point was more that YA is shit.

>>24715832
yeah, basically

I never heard of "YA" fantasy when I was a young adult. I read Tolkien and Moorcock and Zelazny and whatever I didn't understand at 13 I re-read it at 18 or whatever. I never needed any hand holding.

But whatever

>>24715831
But I do consider myself more cultured for enjoying, for example Robert E. Howard, and not YA trash.

>>24715840
Conan was YA for early 1900's.

>>24715840
and you're more cultured how?

>>24715844
pulp magazines were targeted at adults

>>24715831
theres nothing derogatory in a book being YA. But don't fuckin market a book like literally anything from that mormon Sanderson as adult fantasy when it's YA fantasy and not awesome at it anyway

Does a book exist were you're the guy in charge of the portals at the portal hub?
Like the nexus in demons souls but you just take care of portals and make sure they go to the correct dimension/location?

>>24715893
sounds like a slice of life

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What do we think of Chinese Melville and his work?

>>24715913
Too pretentious.

>>24715913
tankie moron

>hide anonymous user by ip address (user ID)
If only it were sitewide.

>>24715913
Henry Rollins is cool.

>>24715934
not your boogeyman

>>24715850
NTA, but Howard is actually good.
You can't be a heterosexual man and hate REH.

>>24715954
>REH
EH REH EH REH EH REH
doodoodoo

>>24715831
Same reason there's snobbery towards children's cartoons or pop music: they're usually media that has nothing of interest to say once you've consumed two or three of the same type. If you keep reading the same slop with different names after a normal person would have said "no thanks, I've had enough of that", it's considered socially as a sign of retarded growth, in one manner or another.

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Do you guys know of any good, self published, lesser known books?
I see tons of dirt cheap ebooks browsing the Kindle store, but even just checking the pages (to usually find out it looks like poorly written slop) can be time consuming.

(I bought pic related, since it was 99 cents, but haven't started it yet to know if it's even decent )

>>24716059
>The world ended—twice. Only Esther, the Eternal One, saw it all happen. As head of the powerful Revenant Sisterhood
stopped reading right there

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>>24716059
Paternus is a good series. It's sort of like an adult/mature version of Percy Jackson and an urban fantasy with mythologies

>>24715331
One more to go after this.

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England (Brandon Sanderson)
What about Christianity?

The Captain (Will Wight)
“Absolute Burial,” I said. My strongest sealing spell responded to its name and surged into being, surrounding its target with swirling white discs of Aetheric sigils.

Infinity Gate (M. R. Carey)
So the Demshoi fucked a volcano, and nine months later out we came, spitting boulders and pissing lava.

A Debt to the Stars (Kevin Hincker)
Only capitalism will set us on the path to our ultimate goal. For that, we need scarcity. We will dominate these aliens. The Director will lead humanity back to sustained GDP growth and we will triumph.

Terms of Enlistment (Marko Kloos)
Part of me realizes that I just blew up twenty apartments, with everything and everyone within. I may have killed the machine-gun crew, but I have snuffed out the lives of lots of other people, too. Men, women, maybe kids.

The Light Brigade (Kameron Hurley)
While you were all upgrading your immersives and masturbating to some new game, we were fighting the real threat.

The Artifice of Eternity (Aaron H Arm)
call environmentalism what it really is: needless regret for being the superior species that we are.

Prosper's Demon (K. J. Parker)
Sometimes I’m so stupid, I’m amazed I manage to breathe.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (Brandon Sanderson)
Like a man with diarrhea in a sandpaper factory

City of Truth (James Morrow)
my erection broke free, a priapic jailbreak. I’d done it, by damn. I might have a Veritasian penis, but I’d finally acquired a Satirevian tongue.

Acadie (Dave Hutchinson)
Tolkien geeks got the power of life and death over an entire solar system

Press Enter (John Varley)
I don't believe it. An interactive suicide note.

Comrades in Arms (Kevin J. Anderson)
We will implement a post-mortem interrogation

Walking to Aldebaran (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
I cannot cross that river twice because I’m in a horrible dark place that doesn’t have any rivers.

Rose/House (Arkady Martine)
I’ve got twenty open cases, two of which involve people getting killed for their water rations at the checkpoint on Route 178.

Sunset Mantle (Alter S. Reiss)
As the proverb said, fruit tastes its best just before the rot. Life was best when standing in the shadow of death.

Light Chaser (Peter F. Hamilton)
The medieval stability of Winterspite was ruthlessly enforced by its savage rulers, who saw progress and democracy as a threat to their primacy.

Servant Mage (Kate Elliott)
Outrageous! To teach you to hate yourselves. And then stunt you with ignorance.

Burn (James Patrick Kelly)
“You have dead people . . . inside you?” “Not dead,” she said. “Saved.”

The Warren (Brian Evenson)
I am working against myself. There are parts of me ready to betray me, and I no longer have clear control over them

The Voluntary State (Christopher Rowe)
“Fuck you, man!” said the monkey.

>>24716074
good contributions

>>24716059
Sure, I've really enjoyed some, but that doesn't mean much. I'm not one to go through the slush pile that is the Kindle store though. I know very well how how time consuming it can be, which is why I stick to more curated sources. Browsing the Kindle probably isn't all that different from browsing through a web fiction site.

Lesser known is relative. Almost all books are. Even books that have a few hundred readers are relatively well known compared to those that have in the single digits.

Obviously you can't know about something if it doesn't have a reputation. All you have to go by is its premise and your assumptions. No matter how well known or good it's considered to be, doesn't mean you'd like it either. If only it could be so. It's definitely possible, just not possible for most anyone.

>>24716072
I'm amused by how it clarifies that he's "Mike". As to why he is, is a matter of speculation.

>>24716084
I may do more in the future after the fifth and final one. I still have my highlights from the last 1.5 years or so that I haven't moved to the computer.

>>24716059
>Cute girls and mecha
Picked up.

>>24716072
That's actually a pretty nice cover. I'm not an author, self-published or otherwise, but it seems pretty foolish how many people on there don't even invest in a halfway decent cover.

>>24716136
In the era of e-readers, a good cover isn’t needed anymore. You never see it and it’s unlikely to attract you on the storefront.

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>>24716188
A bad cover is poison, a good cover draws eyes. In a storefront that lets you see hundreds of covers per minute, a good cover is as important as ever.

>>24716188
A good cover is important because the only way a meaningful world will ever be built is if people care about craft and try their humble best to produce pleasing thoughtful things.

>>24716059
Looking at what I've read based on lowest # of goodreads ratings:
>Dawn of War (Tim Marquitz) - dark fantasy with non-stock fantasy races, written pre-culture war
>After the Downfall (Turtledove) - not actually self-pub but sub-400 ratings, Nazi pulled from Fall of Berlin ends up in fantasy world, picks a side in a war and uplifts, learns the real jewiest catch is Man
>Cleave the Sparrow (Jonathan Katz) - recommended by an anon here, really weird absurdist scifi set slightly in the future, too weird at points but quick read and pretty good
>In The House of Five Dragons (Lindquist & Christiansen) - semi-dark fantasy, hero sacrifices himself then time jumps forward and everything is all fucked up

>>24716188
This is entirely wrong. You may not look at it when you're reading, but before you started reading you almost surely saw it. If you went from the seeing the title, somehow never seeing anything else, then you're surely an outlier.

As for the storefront, it's probably the primary attraction, especially for standalones and the first books in a series. People have tried to figure out what's the important thing thing for someone to read your story on Royal Road, and one of the most important aspects is the cover. That's just how it is.

For example, the cover for The Shadow of the Gods has been very effective in drawing in people who wouldn't have otherwise tried it. Have many been disappointed? Yes, but it still allowed for a chance to be otherwise.

>>24716221
>>24716202
>>24716193
Fair enough. You make good points. I concede

>>24716188
>>24716221
Also, physical books still heavily dominate overall. In terms of sales, it's physical, audio, then ebooks.

>>24716136
Yeah it's nice and also refreshing because it doesn't look like obvious AI slop which most of the cheap ones do.

>>24715679
>filled with something other than edgy teenagers and weebs
holy newfag

Recently I briefly looked at 40+ books published in 2025.
My primary resource was the weekly new titles listed by Locus, which also includes a few self-published works.
This is where I saw the John Ringo book I posted about, among various others I considered singling out but decided not to.
https://locusmag.com/category/newtitlesbestsellers/new-books/
There are potentially interesting books yet to come, but unless there are more that aren't included here, I believe I know what I'll be trying out of what's releasing this year.
https://locusmag.com/forthcomingbooks/

An anon here posted some threads ago in response a post I made
>That korean epic fantasy series is getting an english release in december, "The Bird That Drinks Tears"
Which sure, I can look at it, as I often do for what's posted, but it doesn't often lead to much, which ought to expected. May as well keep trying though.

I skimmed various other sources, because they either were simple lists or included too much that I wasn't interested in.
https://www.risingshadow.net/upcoming-book-releases
That has a lot, but the vast majority are books with unknown release dates, some of which are literally decades into the future.
I enabled many filters to skim through that and
https://www.risingshadow.net/new-book-releases

Maybe sometime next year I'll try another dive into self-published books and web fiction, but you shouldn't expect anything, because even if I do, I may not publicly do anything with it.

My most common problem when looking through the books was the writing. Not so much the technical proficiency, as the elusive subjective quality that makes me want to read it. It's more a feeling than anything else and it isn't a constant. There certainly have been far too many that I've come back to and given a second chance that I greatly enjoyed. That's one of the perils of looking at so much at once though. So many books have interesting premises, but then when it comes to reading it, I don't find myself caring enough to commit. Overall, this is a good thing, as otherwise I'd spend even more time with books and whatever else that I only somewhat enjoy.

>>24715530
This is actually interesting when you put it in the context of Elvish immortality and the afterlife of Men. Of course, you can also get into the way they die, but yeah, interesting.

>>24715913
>>24715915
>private school twat son of british aristocracy LARPs as working class
he needs to be sparked out

Sun Eater or The Expanse?

what say you

>>24716347
Expanse because it’s complete

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Is casual impregnation normal in dark fantasy? I was enjoying the fun and trippy adventure in the dreamworld and the massacre afterwards only to be blindsided by this in the epilogue

>>24715336
>Atlas au Raa actually being his father instead of pixie reformer Brutus
Wtf did I miss this or are you talking out of your ass?

>>24716392
out of his butt

>>24716347
>>24716352
Last Sun Eater book releases this November. For all intents and purposes it's complete. I enjoy its blend of genres. Haven't read Expanse.

Wait a minute, why are (((marketers))) calling 13 year olds young adults? Hmm...

>>24716398
>blend of genres
which genres?

What book has the most well-thought out and complicated magic system?

>>24716474
Malazan is good and is explained over the series. Doesn’t make sense at first but it gets explained throughout the series. It doesn’t have rules as such and isn’t as technical with how it’s done like in stuff like stormlight/mistborn. That said, I do like surgebinding in stormlight.

>>24716403
At root it's epic fantasy in a far-future scifi skinsuit. It also has elements of cosmic horror.

>>24715934
wouldn't even work against phoneposters who get assigned a new IP by their provider whenever they make a post

>>24715840
Conan books have a lot of action (certainly enough to not have a 15:1 dialogue to action ratio), have fast-paced and straightforward plots, and easy to understand prose compared to mainstream fiction of its time. Also, in a few stories Conan is very young. (Though in most of them he is in his 20s/30s yes) Also, there's almost always some random pretty chick for Conan to pick up, though it's not often very romantic. Sounds like YA, according to some posts in this thread.

>>24715762
Loved the Corwin series. It's vague enough for you to think about as many worlds as you like but it also feels complete at the end. There are some very beautiful passages that evoke a sense of wonder, my favourite being the unicorn. You come to like the characters before you even know it and it's nice to see them change before your eyes. Also a lot of nice references if you know your mythology.

>>24715831
Because they suck ass and are for room temp iq?

>>24715913
Sadly he's good enough to have wasted his talent on Commie bullshit instead.

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>>24715831
Everything you think about YA others assume about genre literature in general. Not reading the classics or philosophers? Get out.

>>24716526
oh well that sounds like something I might enjoy. Thanks anon

>>24715762
I have recently finished the first one (Nine Princes in Amber) and well.... it's a classic for a reason. Zelazny was a fucking hippy who probably wrote all this while on drugs, but they are very very good. Definitely a must read.

>>24716604
There's always this chain in every fanbase with a group of snowflakes being more snowflake than the larger one
>Moe anime? Get out this shit is gay, we only watch mature anime > Mature anime? This shit doesn't exist, go read actual books like Mistborn, etc > YA fantasy? This shit is cringe, go read some Malazan, etc > Literature in general? Come on you still a kid or something? Go read non-fiction, war, history, etc > Stop reading, humans are faulty and all our theories are based on misinformation and erroneous theories, you can't trust anything written so go experiment in the real world, observe it for what it is, words don't matter

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Should I read this?

>>24716743
Yes.

>>24716743
ya you should read everything he has written especially The Deep and Engine Summer

>>24716074
Permafrost (Alastair Reynolds)
Shoot me now, I’m not sure I’d really care.

The Surviving Sky (Kritika H. Rao)
Could this dust be… pure possibility, independent of an attached consciousness?

Emergent Properties (Aimee Ogden)
You just hate the Orthodox Republic because of the time they infected you with that NFT virus

Red River Seven (A. J. Ryan)
The entire human race is facing an extinction-level event. Norms of ethics and morality are no longer relevant.

Planetside (Michael Mammay)
At least five soldiers checked out her ass as she walked past. I doubt that was an accident on her part.

The Anubis Gates (Tim Powers)
She was naked except for a pair of shorts, and reaching up to brush her hair back she noticed that her moustache had pulled away with the beard.

Steel Frame (Andrew Skinner)
I look down at mine, loose in my bunker-shirt. I can’t help the chuckle. “What? They don’t have tits where you come from?”

Empire of Silence (Christopher Ruocchio)
You know she’s got a homunculus now? Blue-skinned. You wouldn’t believe the hips on her.

Promise of Blood (Brian McClellan)
It was common knowledge that their constant interactions with the Else gave them incredible sex drives, so few Privileged, especially the males, went without a harem.

Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay)
naked above him, impaled on his sex, her mouth descending to his own as the two of them surged together through the arc of an act that strove to cast the world away.

Ironclads (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
murmured in a breathy female voice that seemed to be constantly on the point of orgasm.

LIGHT (M. John Harrison)
She moved against him, made a small noise and began to come immediately.

Misspent Youth (Peter F. Hamilton)
By the time he finally worked her to an orgasm she wasn’t even rational anymore.

The God of Endings (Jacqueline Holland)
Most women ended up as the property of drunken, filthy fools, why should I be any different?

The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester)
Bitch. Bitch. Bitch. No. She's the dream just as I dreamed her. The icy pinnacle to be stormed and taken. To lay siege... invade... ravish . . . force to her knees

Lessons in Birdwatching (Honey Watson)
Blood everywhere, deafening her, choking her, she vomited bone and blood back onto the corpse and kept stabbing, kept burning. She wanted to crunch it to pieces, that body. Beautiful, beautiful. She lay there, drinking and gasping in the blood of the diseased until she could not breathe and so she sat upright, straddling the demolished corpse.

END

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>>24716796
>Most women ended up as the property of drunken, filthy fools, why should I be any different?
-My 17 year old future wife when I asked her dad if I could take her snowmobiling.

>>24716216
Thanks, I was hoping for more of these types of posts. If you have more suggestions or experience feel free to share them.

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>>24716059

>>24715701
No anon
This is the official announcement of the lorn prequel
It is hazard bedlam
It is not red god