Recommended reading charts. (Look here before asking for vague recs)https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/4rAmSZxb>Archive:https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg>Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg>Previous:>>24712823>Thread Question:Is historical fantasy generally treated as worse than regular fantasy?
>>24720851>tqit's more that every fantasy author thinks their totally unique world is better than any old history
Doing a game again https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/23222012-a-quadrilogy-of-quartets
>>24720851TQ: 8 don't know in general, personally feels like a redundant gimmick, though might get schooled with Wolfe's Soldier of the MistRate my haul lit. None of these are available in my country, only Wolfe's BoTNS exists, most are used, 100 ευρώ including shipping
>>24720860That's vanity speaking. I'd say a far more important rational if you're using anything historical is you need serious research unless you like being called out for messing things up.
>Is historical fantasy generally treated as worse than regular fantasy?Yes, because most historical fantasy is just using historical settings as a backdrop to tell a generic story. They just rename a bunch of shit to prop up the “historical” plausibility and justify any inaccuracies/inconsistencies as a consequence of magic or of it being an alternate history. GRRM took inspiration from actual historical occurrences (war of the roses) to drive his narrative and it served him quite well. It’s easier to incorporate historical elements into your own fantasy world, rather than trying to recreate a microcosm of an entire historical period while injecting fantasy elements into it in a believable way.
Is this a hard read?
>>24720964It's a collection of short fiction.No, it's not.
>>24720947Every historical fiction is historical fantasy
Damn, you guys werent lying about this being very very good.
>>24720974Having fun with semantics I see.
>post my work here>people say it’s too easy to read and they can see things coming from a mile away>post my work on Royal Road>people say reading my stuff is like doing homework with everything they have to memorize
>>24720991So go different demographics and expectations. I'm convinced that the vast majority of web fiction readers are speedreading at slowest, so anything that isn't immediately apparent, repeated over and over again, and really drawn out is completely missed. It's really about quantity over anything else most times.
>>24720991Well do you want to be popular or do you want to be declared "okayish" by smelly basement dwelling rejects?
>>24721001I don't want anything. I just write
Post good books with bad covers.
>>24720991I checked out some of the most popular stuff on RR and I thought I was taking crazy pills because it reads like the work of 14-year-old retards.Yet those people are making big bucks from shitting it out and here I am doing nothing so who's the real retard I guess.
>>24721011Very few 'funny' bad covers nowadays, just the title and author's name over a gradient background and a vaguely plot-relevant object silhouette. I'll always remember my old Earthsea cover tho lmao.
>>24721013> reads like the work of 14-year-old retardsWho's the idiot if they know how to target the RR audience?
>>24721033A-Anon you may want to read his full post
>>24721038I did, I was agreeing.
>>24720991I told you Valora anon. I liked your book.
>>24721013Basically my experience reading Sanderson desu. For the life of me I cannot pinpoint whats so special about it. The disc world books are head and shoulders above this slop, there no point of comparison whatsoever. You can feel the intent and intellect of Pratchett pouring over each page with his uniquely weird but somehow extremely precise ways of describing both the action scenes and the mundane. And thats not even scraping the surface, when it comes to moral lessons the gap is even grater. Life feels so cheap in Sanderson's books, and not in a grimdark or "this is a lesson to be learned way, we should know better" manner. More like,there's this trite banality about it, sometimes death seems to be a tool of the author to make characters look "cool", it comes across as puerile and rubs me the wrong way. ASOIAF is always talked about this cespool of degeneracy and cynicism and I coudnt disagree more. Death feels heavy, and tragic, and bleak, but the undertone is always contemplative, rather than for spectacle.
>>24721083I'm under the impression that prose is actually not valued by the average reader nowadays. Sanderson built his popularity on the backs of nerds who care about worldbuilding and magic systems, D&D shit that can pointlessly argue and lorefag about. LitRPG stuff is the extreme end of that scale.
>>24720947Does anyone know what the Wars of the Roses were about or are they just parroting some stuff because ASOIAF really doesn't feel like that.
>>24720907Those are some good condition Lyonesse copies. Better than the used ones I got.
>>24720976>>24720907Love these covers.
>>24720976damn straight. Overshadowed by LoTR coming out same year, but it's the goat>>24721097>I'm under the impression that prose is actually not valued by the average reader nowadaysya no shit, we would have many Broken Swords if people today cared enough for prose. Dark days.
>>24721083Most people read for escapism and enjoyment. The writing doesn't have to be good to achieve this, just "good enough" to let people suspend disbelief and slip away from reality. Most people are not hung up on grammar or word choice, they don't really care how it's written along as it facilitates visualization and imagining things. I'm not a big stickler for prose, so I find Sanderson readable, but I will admit it can be jarring switching from a book with much better constructed prose to one of his books. Sanderson does not have a gift for metaphor, and he tends to describe things in a very rote, formulaic way. Especially people. However, because his books are so long, you get used to his Sanderson-isms before the halfway point and you stop noticing his questionable metaphors and adjectives.
>>24721147It's a very loose historical basis, but it's there. From Westeros being vaguely shaped like Britain, to the civil war between two noble houses Lannister (Lancaster) in the west, and Stark (York) in the North. The northern Yorkists, sorry, Starkists, have a white banner, and the western Lancastrians, I mean Lannisters, have a red banner. It's pretty superficial stuff but he did borrow from history, plainly.
>>24721147I'm not a history buff, but I listen to history podcasts for entertainment, and this 1h episode of war of the roses gave me so many ASOIAF flashbacks when I listened to it that I can only assume the accusations are correct.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wars-of-the-roses/id1257202425?i=1000427370950
>>24721221I'm not a stickler for prose either, but good prose makes a book so much better, and has made me read books that I otherwise would have no interest in. For example, pic related, which started off relatively blandly but was carried by its prose.I find Sanderson's tripe intolerable.
>>24721097>I'm under the impression that prose is actually not valued by the average reader nowadays.It never was. Publishers were the ones gatekeeping prose and standards simply slipped.
>>24721260For me good prose is prose that doesn't get in my way of trying to enjoy the story. There is such a thing as prose that is trying too hard to get my attention, and I find it annoying.
>>24721261>and standards simply slipped.Slipped implies an unintentional slide, it was deliberate. For the simple reason that there are only so many writers capable of amazing prose, and if your business is publishing and selling books then you need to regularly publish new books in order to stay in business. You can't just go "welp there's no genuinely amazing submissions this year, I guess we'll have to close shop til somebody sends in a worthwhile manuscript!" You publish what you think will sell, and as demand for books increased that meant lowering the standards for submissions.
>>24721266Whatever the reason, publishers are the ones who dictated what the industry standard for prose quality was. It's less so today because of self-publishing becoming more influential in the market. I don't think people really realize how much a handful of book publishers have dictated for centuries what "good writing" is supposed to look like.
>>24721252See, when I think about the WotR, I think about two related families fighting for the throne ending in a marriage that united both sort of, not medieval Dune coupled with The Accursed Kings, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and a pinch of The Deep. But yeah, those similarities are awfully superficial and I stopped caring about ASOIAF a long time ago anyway, I don't even know why I started talking about this, so feel free to ignore me.
>>24721221Sanderson is actually open about the fact that he's not a good prose stylist. Which is fine. Different people have different strengths and unless you're a rara avis who is good at everything you generally have to figure out what you're good at and focus on those areas.
>>24721147>Does anyone know what the Wars of the RosesThat's kind of one of those wars were a lot of stuff was happening but short version it was a succession thing. You had the Tudors. It was a pretty big deal.
>>24721281It's why I don't call ASoIaF "historical" or even "history based" because Martin really only borrowed the trappings of history and then did substantial tailoring on them for his own story which bears little resemblance in substance to real history.
>>24721283Sanderson is very successful, far more successful than most authors will ever be, so even though I say he doesn't do metaphors well that doesn't seem to be a requirement to be a millionaire author.
>>24721263There's certainly prose that tries to hard and gets annoying. Worst prose I can think of is probably something like pic related's example.The book I mentioned >>24721260 is close to the opposite, where it tries to say as much as it can with as little as it can. There's an early scene in the first story, where a boy falls in love with a girl on first sight, but the way that is expressed is by how annoyed the boy is by her. After insulting his woodworking for a while, she says she'll return the next day to pain them. Then the boy thinks to himself, how impressed he is that someone could manage to annoy him so much in so little time. He goes on to narrate that the next day she even managed to annoy him without showing up. Well, it's written a lot better than that, I'm not a good writer, but you get the idea.That prose can be a bit annoying as well though, since you have to pay attention all the time. If you zone out during a paragraph, you have to re-read it, because the next paragraph's implications could make no sense without the implications in the one before it. Not good for just reading (or listening to in the background on audiobook) and just zoning out, the way Sanderson's stuff is.
>>24721309I don't mind if you pepper up the dialogue a little beyond simple instructions but yeah that's way to far. Maybe at a little personality but not every thing needs to be a joke. Hell it's not even the jokes. It's the stretching. Like any one of those gags, by themselves, would probably have been okay. Maybe even giggle worthy.
>>24721097Well in all fairness, "good prose" is incredibly subjective. Ironically, bad prose is less so, but what goes from OK to Good is hard to define. Best definition I've found is "good prose has more meaning than words, bad prose has more words than meaning" but then I really like Hemingway so ymmv.
If it reads like reddit then it's bad prose, shrimple as that
>>24720851Historical fantasy as in fantastic stuff ie fairies, witches etc set in a real life historical setting? Or stuff like GG Kay's?
>>24721309That pic is actually an example of bad dialogue, not bad prose. Less to do with grammar, word choice, and overall construction, in this case. The main issue with it is bad delivery of humor due to overwriting and a constant barrage of words by the speaker of the dialogue so the audience has no time to really take in anything being said. What I talk about when I say "annoying prose" or "prose that gets in my way" is writing that draws attention to itself by using convoluted grammar and very unusual word choices. It's not really about using unusual words per se, just unusual choices for words. I've had Sanderson's word choice pull me out of a scene not because it wasn't a word I knew, but because it was a word I'd never seen used in that way before and had me looking up obscure usages in the dictionary only to still leave me perplexed as to what he meant by that. Also when he occasionally uses contradictory adjectives for the same person, or tries to link two traits together in a description despite them not really being related at all, that kind of thing does not flow and disrupts my ability to zone out and visualize.But sometimes it is the author trying way too hard with obscure vocabulary and sentences that last half a page, so that you have to backtrack to figure out what the original subject was when you finally hit a period, or, god save me, an exclamation point.
>yeah I'm an expert on what constitutes good or bad prose>yes my favourite novel IS Blood Meridian and no I haven't graduated high school what's your point
Are there any Awards that aren't just DEI bullshit? I don't mean it has to be all yt men, but actually based on quality not oppression Olympics?I'd also accept websites that reliably post reviews of newish sff and look for quality prose, complex plots, and consistency of in-universe rules. Ones that highlight unique premises or plots are a plus, because I've read plenty "farm boy joins plucky rebels to defeat evil empire."
>>24721324I generally agree with this. Bad prose is sometimes rife with objective errors in grammar and spelling, but even if it isn't, the effects of reading bad prose are usually self-evident: slipping attention, confusion of what is happening, etc. If you read something and then aren't sure what you just read, it might be very subtle or it might just be vague and badly described. This is why discussion about books is helpful.
>>24721333Unpopular opinion, GGK has good prose but his characters are all pulled from a small stable of standbys and lightly massaged dropped into the setting.How many "women who inherited father's craft and overcame prejudice through hypercompetence" has he written?
>>24721342>because I've read plenty "farm boy joins plucky rebels to defeat evil empire."I haven't. Rec me some.
>>24721346>How many "women who inherited father's craft and overcame prejudice through hypercompetence" has he written?Oh so they're all like that? I read Sabriel and was left underwhelmed.
>>24721345If it's easily identified as "tell don't show", it's bad prose, too. E.g. Characters' emotions are stated by narrator.Too many sff do this. Authors should at least ATTEMPT to show feelings through actions or reactions instead of just writing "her words stung, but he couldn't argue" or "his resolved was depended by..."
>>24721352Sabriel is Garth Nix, bruh. Not GGK.Kay writes legitimately good books, but you can't read too many of them. I recommend Children of Earth & Sky and Sailing to Sarantium as your first two, before you start to see the patterns.Lions of Al'Rassan is the best written slop that I've ever read. I enjoyed it but it's objectively a romantasy book with zero characters I hadn't seen in his other shit.
>>24721309I read the "bad prose" example in picrel all in Claptrap's voice. What a horrible experience.
>>24721309The best way to play Borderlands is as a chill out game with audio muted and skipping the story
>>24721366Problem is, BL3 has 10+ minute unskippable cutscenes of "follow the guy while he walks and talks"
>>24721342https://upstreamreviews.substack.comhttps://delarroz.com/blog/https://thepulparchivist.substack.com/https://declanfinn.substack.comhttps://jimbossffreviews.substack.com/
>>24721380Jesus that's bad, I've only played 1 and 2I actually quite like those two a lot, but yeah the writing and dialogue is super fucking cringeFor every actually decent gag like "shoot him in the face" there's a million cringe ones
Historical fiction is just lazy fantasy
>>24721404It's actually much harder to write than fantasy because it requires real research for the setting and any real world characters. The lazier you get with research the less historical it is, until you just wind up writing extremely derivative fantasy.
It insists upon itself
>>24721407Historical fantasy is the real ticket to laziness. Get a detail wrong? Whatever, it's a fantasy, shit ain't gotta be the same.
>>24721407nope, you can embellish whatever nonsense whatsoever in historical fiction and just chalk it up as "creative literary freedom". Ther'es no need to world build in historical fiction, everything is given to you. Even the races, the outline of a story, and even names
>>24721387Thanks anon. You're the real MVP.In return, I offer Cleave the Sparrow (not for everyone but so good) and Seven Kennings as the best sff I've read 2020+. The latter has a gay char and generally tolerant society, but they're not story or character defining, more 2000s liberal "everyone is equal."
Mythic fantasy is the real patrician choice. Shame it's mostly lgbtqp+ bullshit.
>>24721424https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythic_fictionwhat the fuck is this cancer>ummm achtually CHUD the patriarchy is le FEMINIST
Finally got the preview copy in the mail. Very happy with how it turned out, hopefully my slop will be officially able to buy off Amazon in a few days. Big thanks to the anons who gave me feedback on earlier drafts, I can share the epub if anyone would like to check it out
>>24721450This better be better than Knight of valora
>>24721366If that's all you want then there are far better games to play to start with.
>>24721453I don't know what that is, the only other selfpub I've bought from /lit/ was A Knight of Atlantis
>>24721450>not only thisstrange cityI hope this gets fixed for your mass copies.
>>24721464I think it must have been the image compression or something. It has a space on the file on my computer
>>24721345>If you read something and then aren't sure what you just readThe only time I had this problem was when I was reading Chinese MTLs. I can typically understand what's going on, but I start skipping when the prose gets too long. If I were to read something like Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky again I would be skipping half the book, because the prose is just boring to me. I imagine that others see that as very good prose though.>>24721342For whatever reason, DEI-style leftists have taken over so many creative spaces that it permeates through everything. I think it happened because leftists were against censorship a long time ago, but over time these people have slowly morphed to loving censorship.
>>24721468Many such cases! At least you opted for the preview book first
>>24721387>Declan FinnTried reading this guys book and it was just a barrage of shitty ass Whedon dialogue.
>>24721083>finally read what the discworld books are about??This shit is just Undertale/Deltarune for boomers.
>>24721444Nah, as usual Wikipedia is gay and edited by literal pedophiles.The subgenre is just modern takes on classic myths. That's it.
>>24721501You have to be a special kind of crayon eater to pretend to know what a book "is" by reading a plot synopsis, when were are very specifically discussing the impact of prose in how an authors work comes across.
>>24721527I also saw an 1 hour guide by a YTuber (it's a video with 200k so you probably know which one).The explanations of each book sound exactly like the type of stuff that you would see in le ironic Earthbound-like indie walking simulators and RPGs nowadays.>But this one is good because it was made when I was a teenager!
>>24721530>I also saw an 1 hour guide by a YTuber>Video with 200k so you probably know which one>The explanations of each bookAbsolutely hilarious. Anon is the living, breathing prof that court jesters should've never been abolished. There's hebrews out there wreaking their brains on how to write the next episode of their romcom, and meanwhile we are treated to a guy like this who is effortlessly funny.
https://youtu.be/SENzx5-pA9Y?si=fE-jDb7MOCNIn1hnI haven't watched the video but facts. Make fantasy literary again. Topical for the retardation thinking you don't need good prose. You do. We can do better than what we have popular now.
Maaaaan, fuck this author. I was reading this book. And it was fairly average fantasy slop. I was enjoying myself for the most part. Still, I was also getting edgelord vibes from him throughout the book. I was willing to overlook most of it. Then he betrays my trust near the end. I'm about 80% through the book, and he writes something so despicable, that even I can't overlook it. I'm mad, because I was planning on reading the whole series. Now I'm to disgusted to go on. I'm so disappointed.
>>24721814And it's not only what was done that was fucked up. It's how he lead the reader into the trap of hope, only to then take that hope and dash it upon the ground so unceremoniously. Fuck him for that.
>>24721704It is. Fantasy Books are a reflection of a person's childhood. Litrpgs are a manifestation of our times and desires. We believe we're in a video game simulation, hence the idea of "self improvement" which is kind of like leveling up. Then there's the idea of needing to "get" things or "do" things, which are "side quests", and doing things like video games are mini games, like fishing or even eating. We have a very individualistic mindset. Hence why everyone is stuck on our phones and there's a loneliness epidemic. If books open the soul to the lifetime of a person, then Litrpgs are literally the literary Renaissance men have been clamouring for the past 5 years. Dungeon crawling Carl is the best of it alongside solo leveling and wandering inn. Let's not forget the stat building
>>24721828I absolutely hate the LitRPG mentality. RPG stats were always just abstractions to try to convey concrete things, yet now we have a generation of autists who are obsessed with the abstractions and not what those abstractions were actually trying to convey. "Experience points," "stats," "quests,": these were all just mechanical conventions to make the experience of a fantasy adventure work in a gamified setting.
>>24721844It's just a handwave to explain how the character is able to gain so much power so effortlessly. Not sure how much the stats actually matter in any of these LitRPGs. Like, I haven't seen anyone min/maxing their builds to actually break the "game" in intelligent ways. The stats and their benefits are rarely even articulated well enough to make it possible for the characters to min/max. You don't even see simple stuff like, characters choosing one ability that e.g., does fire damage, then another that triggers self-shield when they do fire damage, then another that triggers upon shields to increase fire damage. Or whatever, some basic shit like that.It's just "now that you're lvl 10 and have put most your points into int, that means you can pick the overpowered ability you couldn't pick at lvl 1 when you didn't have enough int" as a justification to give characters more and more overpowered abilities.
>>24721869I suspect that most of the "RPGs" that inspire these vapid are Korean mobile MMOs or other similarly braindead timewasters. Larry Correia does have his own take on LitRPG coming out soon and I like his stuff; maybe he'll have a bit more D&D flavor to his. My bad for accidentally saging in >>24721844; I'm retarded and forgot to change my name between threads.
>>24721869I like how MCs choose a "worthless" ability, but make it overpowered because his intelligence is max and only in another world can his talents truly shine, unlike the modern day grind of today's society. You see, my talents in the modern world is laze and sloth, but if I were to enter a world with magic, I'll be the Greatest mage of all time despite my laze and sloth, and the cutest of girls would finally recognize me. I can't have all of them though, because my great big heart knows I can't love every woman, that's just self insert bullshit, so I have 3 or 5 of the cutest ones only.
>>24721412Nobody expects historical fiction or fantasy to be perfectly accurate, but they still expect some semblance of historicity else it's not really historical at all. It's just lazy fantasy, like what Joe Abercrombie writes.>>24721414>everything is given to youI don't know about you, but I wasn't born with full knowledge of entire historical periods in sufficient detail to write a convincing portrayal of them. It requires study to write historical fiction or historical fantasy, and if you don't do the research you're laughed out of the room.
>>24721814> Then he betrays my trust near the end. I'm about 80% through the book, and he writes something so despicable, that even I can't overlook itCan you explain what happened? Dont worry no one here will read Peter V Brett or care about spoilers.
>>24721844This would actually be kinda rad.
>>24721309One thing i've rarely seen is the awkward talking during an adrenaline dump or nervousness and anxiety. No one is dropping cool lines when they're doing something crazy.
>is the worst thing I've ever read in my path
>>24721949I saw some art on pinterest while looking for inspo and here was some really cool art and i was disappointed to find out that it came from this book.
>>24721814this isn't reddit, you can give spoilers here
>>24721949it's literally just zoomer dragonriders of pern.nothing new under the sun or something idk
After going through 100s of sff booktuber channels and watching many videos, I have now thoroughly verified that for me they're of marginal relevance and interest. I could write another 3,000 character post about why that is, but I've done enough of that recently.
>>24722059ok
>>24721844>>24721869Blame past writers who kept writing wishy-washy magic systems that did whatever was convenient for the plot at the time. Litrpg prevents that to an extent. Your level 1000 wizard isn't going to get beaten by some level 5 thug when the plot says that MC needs to be taken out.
>>24721901>>24722009Here's the explanation. I'm not editing it down. It's in three parts, so bear with me here.There are three main characters in the book. Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer. The the great majority of the book, these characters are unaware of each other's existence. Their respective stories told independently. Leesha's story is largely about her love life. Born in a small conservative rural town, where man and woman "promised" to each other before they eventually get married, all nice and monogamous like. Except for the fact life isn't so simple as that. Leesha's mother was the town whore in her youth. And even today, her mother cucks her father.In one of the edgier scenes, Leesha and the boy she's promised to can hear Leesha's mom grunting while having sex with not her husband. Leesha is distraught, and somehow this turns into Leesha and her boyfriend almost having sex? Because I guess when women need consoling while their mom is taking pipe, the solution is to seek pipe? Makes little sense. But before she's deflowered, she snaps back to her senses and stops her boyfriend from penetrating her.Still, the next day, her boyfriend lies and says he's had her while bragging to his boys, and word spreads quickly. Leesha is so distraught by this, that she breaks up with her boyfriend. But he refuses to let her go, and from then on, becomes a nuisance her in life, harassing any men who he suspects of talking to her in more than a professional manner.Leesha ignores him for the most part and focuses on her apprenticeship as a medicine woman. Apprenticing under a strong willed elderly lady. Time passes, and eventually the old lady gets the ex boyfriend to admit he lied, restoring her honor. But that's still not enough for him to let Leesha go.
>>24722066wrong because he trained his stats better using the slave/companion series so even though he's level 100 he can beat a 300 level loser who didn't earn it
>>24721901>>24722009(Fug, forgot the spoiler tags)Years pass, and Leesha is set to go to another larger town to apprentice there. Traveling is very dangerous in this world, so she needs someone to escort her. As it happens, a messenger is in town, and he's handsome and charming, and him and Leesha have a good rapport.This messenger and the ex boyfriend get in a fight. The messenger upholding Leesha's honor. And while the messenger holds his own at first, the ex boyfriend gains the advantage near the end. Until Leesha stops him by using her herbalist to essentially mace him.So this messenger guy is looking rather trustworthy and king. However, the old lady warns Leesha, that though he might appear charming now, when they're on the road, he'll have his way with her, whether she consents or not. And predictably, that's what happens. He pressures her to "pay" for his service with her body, and tries to force himself on her. But she prevents this by spiking his food to give him a limp dick. For the two weeks or so that they're on the road, he tries repeated, but is always too soft to follow through. She makes it to the city safely, and the messenger gives her a warning to keep what happened on the road a secret before going away.Years pass again. Leesha is in her late 20s now. She's completed her apprenticeship, but instead of returning home like she promised, she stayed to work in the city. We're like 80% into the book now. None of the 3 main characters have interacted before. But Rojer get brutally beaten last chapter, and as it happens, he's taken to the same hospice that Leesha works at. FINALLY, we get to see them interact.But before they do, the author actually spends a number of pages going over Leesha's love life again. She's single, still a virgin, never bothered seeking men, and her colleagues are all worried she'll go barren before long. She thinks about her father, her mother, and her ex boyfriend. She says that she was simply hoping man who fits in her life would come along one day. But so far, all she's found are creeps who want to take advantage of her bodacious body.(The author has let us known how pretty, curvy, and buxom she is)So when Rojer enters the scene, it's like "well, well, how serendipitous". She says she's waiting for a man, and here comes our other main character. They have a common kind of trauma in their past. He's a nice enough guy. Certainly not the rapist types that have been depicted earlier. And he's totally different than her ex boyfriend in just about every way. There could be something here.
>>24721901>>24722009They share a few kind moments. Before Leesha gets a letter, discovering that her home town suffered a flu that took some of the weaker folk out. Like her old master. And her dad's condition is worsening. So Leesha blames herself for not returning to help them. Rojer consoles her rather well, and he offers to escort her to her home town.(Rojer is familiar with traveling) Leesha is hesitant to accept his offer at first. Not out of distrust, but Rojer still has a limp from his injuries, it's only been a little over a month since his recovery.Leesha seeks out a messenger, and runs into that same one who escorted her years ago. He remembers her, and still offers to take her, if she pays with her body. She almost goes through with it, desperate to return home. But then the old topic of her ex boyfriend somehow comes up, and the messenger says he never truly believed her. She gets mad and kicks him in the balls and runs.So now we have Leesha escaping near deflowering THREE TIMES in the story. She's unlucky in love, and she finally takes the kindly and charming Rojer on his offer of escort. Rojer is so glad about the trip, he starts fantasizing about how he can prove himself to Leesha. Perfect. A clear set up to a budding romance.The story fast forwards to them staying at an inn at some random town during their travels. Rojer, an entertainer, fiddles for everyone at the bar, and everyone is happy. A few guys buy Rojer and Leesha a pitcher, and Rojer invites them to share it with them.The story fast forwards again, and the guys from the inn are talking. They've apparently robbed Rojer and raped Leesha. Being told from Rojer's pov, he's too scared to get up, lest he get beaten again. And he thinks about the sounds of Leesha's cries, and the images of the men on top of her, as they took their turns.So basically, all of Leesha's story revolves around her finding ways to retain her own agency. Avoiding her controlling ex, and avoiding predatory men, and I skipped over how controlling her mother is as well. But it was all about avoiding the trappings of what society wants her to be, avoiding being used and abused, and finding her own path that she can be proud about. Then within a mere 2 chapters, the author is like "and then Leesha gets raped by no-name goons, and your heroes are helpless lumps crying on the floor, and cowering in terror"
Anon really did explain in detail.
>>24722083That sounds like the world's longest NTR doujin.Did the author really need 400 pages just for his fetish?
>>24721020this was my first earthsea cover, and I'm sure a lot of other people's
>>24722074>>24722080>>24722083heres your (you)s, thanks for going all in
>>24722114NTA, but imo the books get worse and worse. There is a lot of cuck-shit, involving Leesha's dad, the whore mother and the woodchopper father of Leesha's ex boyfriend (at some point the mother tells Leesha about how her father listened from the closet how she got railed, and also tells her about how she pegged him with the dildo the woodchopper handcrafted for her).Additionally, the main plot of the world (which was interesting at first, fighting against demons with sigil magic) has the arabicsof the world, basically mudslime sandniggers, go forth conquering everything, raping and enslaving the "westerners", but actually all this is le good, because they unite against the demons this way.All in all, Brett likes to suck of mudslimes and be a cuck to big strong men. I finished the main series, and what started from a 7/10 fantasy went down to 2/10 at parts
>>24722114Yeah, all that stuff with Leesha's dad was uncomfortable. But at least her dad eventually stands up to the man. He still gets his shit rocked, because the man is so much larger than him. But he still manages to put a stop to things(With help from the Leesha's old master), and get his wife under control. So while the cuckolding stuff was weird, it resolved positively.Still, later in the book, Rojer being a traveling entertainer ends up cucking a man. It's not written out as a whole scene, just a few passing sentences to explain why Rojer is leaving the town.And Rojer's master was also about to cuck Rojer's father when Rojer was still 3 years old.And there is this other instance, where while it's not technically cuckolding, it has a cuckolding kind of feel to it. Where the main character Arlen's father watches as his wife dies. Because in this world, demons come out every night.(Every night!) Everyone surrounds their homes with magical wards to keep the demons out. But some incident occurred where Arlen's mom was about to be killed by demons. And Arlen's father stayed behind the wards and watching. Which disappointed Arlen to witness how much of a coward his dad was. Arlen ended up putting himself in danger, and vowed never to be weak like his father. But that ends up being one of his cornerstone memories. His dad just watching scared, while his wife is nearly killed.So yeah, it's kind of NTR-y. I was willing to overlook most of it. I wouldn't even have been as mad as I am if Leesha ended up getting raped by one of the earlier characters. Because at that point in the story, things were so dire, there was little to no hope. And also those were actual characters.But then the author toys with the reader by giving us hope, before having Leesha raped by some no-names. Rojer so beaten that he's literally scared that if he makes a noise, he'll get beaten up again. And then Arlen, who throughout the book is set up as this eventually savior character, actually encounters the thugs, but doesn't suspect them of anything, and moves on. Thus we're not even given a revenge fantasy. At least, I don't think we are. I was so angry I stopped before finishing the scene.This is unfortunate, because I wanted a comfy series to read for the next few weeks, and now I have to cancel those plans and find something else.And you know what? The rest of the book is not mature enough to even warrant those themes. The whole things feels like a basic YA novel otherwise.
>>24722148>and also tells her about how she pegged him with the dildo the woodchopper handcrafted for her).You're fucking with me, right? Jesus.
Warded Man series was a big letdown with weird NTR shit. Like the Mageborn series where the MC's wife was kidnapped in book 2 or so and fantasized about her elf captor but nothing untoward happened until way later AFTER the 5-book series was over and in some side series did he decide to retcon the wife being loyal.
>>24722159Sadly no, even though that might've been in one of the sequels and not the first book. Been some time since I read it.And as you can imagine, my post only scratches the surface. As I said, you have the arabs, who play a bigger role the further the story progresses. Those are the saviours using the muslim mindset, being the only ones fighting back against the demons, for they are chosen by not!Allah. There you also have plot points of one of the main characters being raped as a boy in a flashback by someone who was his fighting partner (who despite that becomes one of his subordinates). Ah, the whole thing was a pure letdown, the more I think and remember about it.
>>24722074>>24722080>>24722083we need more used goods cute waifus in fantasy
>>24722191>one of the main characters being raped as a boy in a flashback by someone who was his fighting partner (who despite that becomes one of his subordinates).Then that particular MC sodomized the dude with the butt of a spear once they were older and adults lol
>>24722204Yeah, and cutting of dicks also plays a role somehow
For me, it's Shadow Slave.
modern fantasy has way too much rape, i'll go back to reading dragonlance and forgotten realms novels where they have tasteful amounts of rape
>>24722239How do you feel about torture? I feel like there's a lot of torture in fantasy these days, or at least in the published litrpgs I've been reading lately. Somebody recommended Kaiju Battlefield Surgeon to me, and there's so much torture in that book it's kind of farcical. There's even a scene where the protagonist gets sliced into pieces in a religious ritual (they slice all the shit they can think of diagonally; fingers/toes, then the feet/hands, then the arms/legs, etc; including, of course, his cock and his balls). The scene concludes with the *child* that's performing this ceremony holding the protagonist's sliced cock in his hands as somebody bursts into the room and blows it up, resulting in the kid literally ripping his dick off. The protagonist states at his cock contemplatively as it flies through the air.Don't worry though, it's a litrpg so he just respawns. But still, like, what's the point? Especially when there are no consequences to the torture either, since he just dies and respawns. I read another book too, 1% Lifesteal or something like that, where basically the same thing happens to that protagonist as well. There's a lot of this stuff in these books, man.pic unrelated
>>24722074>>24722080>>24722083Is her entire story about her failed loved life and trying not to get raped? Jesus Christ.>In one of the edgier scenes, Leesha and the boy she's promised to can hear Leesha's mom grunting while having sex with not her husband. Leesha is distraught, and somehow this turns into Leesha and her boyfriend almost having sex? Because I guess when women need consoling while their mom is taking pipe, the solution is to seek pipe?This reminds me of that scene in House of the Dragon where Misaria tells Rhaenyra how she was raped by her father as a child and had his baby or whatever and the natural reaction to that was for them to start kissing when neither had shown attraction to women before anyway. So it was doubly stupid.
>>24722279That's about 75% of her story. the other 25% of it, is learning to be that world's equivalent of a doctor. Learning herbs, surgery, and midwifing all combined.There seems to be a theme throughout the book about women giving life. It might have some kind of lore significance, but it might not. I can't tell if the author keeps bringing up this birthing theme because it means something, or if he's using it superficially. But if he's not a complete idiot, then the fact that she's avoided motherhood for so long might be significant.
I rated 1 book from 2025, and now half of my good reads recommendations are books that released in 2024 and 2025. And the annoying thing, is that they're all starts of a new trilogy. I don't want to start a dozen new trilogies. I want to find material that's already complete. So if I like the first book, I can consume the rest without waiting.
>>24722329just read standalones
>friend tells me to read the name of the wind>back of the book looks interesting>an old warlock telling his life story and all the crazy shit he did>get the book and start reading>first part is just him and his family as a boy>then depression core about him being homeless>rest is just him being at uni and chasing girlsit's well written but i feel cheated
>24721828Bait used to be believable
I want to get into fantasy but I want it to be as edgy as possible (while still being well written)I read online about Prince of thorns, malazan and bakker but I'm not sure if they are a good fit for what I'm looking for.What I'm looking for is things like brutal rape, realistic torture to death to happen while it's not vilified or clearly written to be a morally bad or apprehensive thing, optimally it's even celebrated and treated to be good by the writer/story.Any recommendations?
>>24721844The problem with litrpgs is more fundamental than you think. Imo Why would anyone exercise any degree of suspension of disbelief in a universe which so blatantly rips off troupes that wouldn't exist without the specific mechanical settings of video games. It has a meta which renders the entire thing pointless because you are essentially reading a video game script. No more high stake heroic actions, no more emotional moments. No more jaw dropping awe inspiring magical feats. None of this would hold meaning in a world where a character skill screen pops up with your XP stats on it. Fantasy is supposed to transport you out of the real world. Litrpg does the opposite
>>24722155Hot
What are the best/most famous/foundational space operas?
>>24722499Don't be a retard, just google that basic shit.
>>24722500>google it>bro your should read Hyperion or this novel about a HECKIN disabled guy .
>>24722505Yeah, you should.
>>24721949It's unbelievable how popular this book is. My local library has 40 hard copies of this and that's gotta be more than any other book. Meanwhile Way of Kings, Red Rising, and even book 1 of Harry Potter all have 15 hard copies, though with large hold lists tbf.
>>24721949Romantasy is a drug.
>>24722466>It has a meta which renders the entire thing pointless because you are essentially reading a video game script. No more high stake heroic actions, no more emotional moments. No more jaw dropping awe inspiring magical feats. None of this would hold meaning in a world where a character skill screen pops up with your XP stats on it. Fantasy is supposed to transport you out of the real world. Litrpg does the oppositeYou've also explained the primary draw it holds on some people. They want the story, but don't actually LIKE reading. It's like they appeal to people who read wikis for summaries.
>>24721949Have you guys ever smelled the copies of romantacy books like that at the local library? I shit you not some of them reek like rotten fish. Some nasty fucking women. Similar to nudie megazines having pages that stick together.
>>24722811You pick up books at bookstores for the purpose of smelling them?
Where did the pulp generals go? They were fun.
>>24722854Read the ones you missed, or make a new one yourself.https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search&search_subject=Pulp
>>24722877I've read through most of the ones that I missed. I don't feel qualified to make one of my own.
>>24722155The author is so into NTR that they NTR you out of a decent ending.
can we please be a little serious and stop recommending anything written by women?
Sanderson is trash for kidsdebate me
>>24723087Charlie you’re supposed to be dead. Why are you still asking people to debate you??
>>247231234chan is hell
>>24722387Like?
>>24723087haha got em
What do should i look for if i want a mix of 'animesque' works mixed with fantasy? I dont mean litrpg. I mean... yeah wish fulfillment fantasy where the author doesnt shy away from romance but also has cool ideas and setting.
>>24723278Red rising feels anime as fuck
>>24721814You did not even get to the worst. Warded Man is fairly harmless compared to the literal cuckold fetish stuff later.
>>24722434Bakker is mostly homosexual rape and cuckolding. Malazan does have pretty brutal (heterosexual) rape, but it's not a constant theme of the series. A couple female characters get absolutely ruined by what happens to them, though.As for Prince of Thorns, it's pretty gory and edgy, but the series mellows out a lot after the first book. I don't recall much if any rape, it's more just Jorge being a sadistic little shit.
>>24722412Name of the Wind was supposed to be the setup to the crazy adventures, it is meant to whet your appetite by dangling the mysteries in front of your face and building up to them.The real let down is the sequel, A Wise Man's Fear, which should have been the meat of the story where he does all that amazing stuff, but instead it's just more teenager adventures at university and side stories that don't address anything hinted at in the first book, and it ends without any significant amount of time passing.The poor reception to that book, and expressed disappointment from fans, is what broke Rothfuss as a writer. He hasn't published a novel in almost 15 years.
>>24723278Japanese romance light novels for a young male demographic
>>24723324My issue with them is that they are very low effort.Perhaps i am asking for too much, perhaps i will need to write my own.
>>24723326What about self-published haremlit?
>>24723330I'd be interest on it. Is royalroad the way to go for it?
>>24723332Sure, if you want serialized web fiction. There's also a lot of self-published books. I assumed you already knew so I was making a joke with the light novels because there was a recent discussion here about this. I don't read it, but others do and have made recommendations. The main question is how much sex you want it to have, how frequent it should be, and how many/which fetishes you want.
>>24723339>There's also a lot of self-published booksWhere i find them? Amazon?
>>24723342If you want buy/pay for them, yeah, that's the main place.
>>24723357As opposed to?...
>>24723358Getting them for free by pirating.
>>24723373Not that anon but am i the only one who likes to buy books physically to talk to people? I am so lonely, 26 years old and no friends or gf...
>>24723375That seems like something you ought to fix, if you can.
>>24723387You need friends to get friends so i am cooked.But at least i am starting running and working out so i at least get more confidence. Even if i dont get friends of gf i want to at least be proud of myself and who i am instead of a dude whose pastime is masturbating.
>>24723332Take a look at Scribble Hub (AKA Smut Hub) if you want web serials with those themes.
>>24723375Nobody cared about my e-reader that I carried everywhere with me on campus during my graduate school adventure.
>>24723392>Scribble Hubthanks bro
>>24723375I like physical books because I have been reading physical books for over 30 years. Reading off a screen isn't the same.
Is Philip C. Quaintrell's "The Echoes Saga" any good? It looks like some sort of the DnD novel series.
