Recommended reading charts (Look here before asking for vague recs).https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/4rAmSZxb>Old:>>24846281>Archive:https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg>Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg>Thread Question:Why haven't you read Malazan yet?
Round 3 of 4 has begun. The points have reset again. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/23222012-a-game-of-quartets
>TQJust started it actually. I'm someone who reads D&D setting books for fun so I figure it might be up my alley.
The Scour: An Empire of the Wolf Novella - Richard Swan (2025)Set roughly 15 years before The Justice of Kings, The Scour relates a story of Justice Konrad Vonvalt that may have been a turning point in his service to the Sovan Empire. What happens gives context for his disposition in the first book. Konrad states that it's been 15 years since he became a Justice, which mean it's the midpoint between when he began and where the trilogy starts. This can be read by itself.Justices are judge, jury, executioner. They travel on a circuit throughout the country to listen to accusations, judge based on the evidence, and then mete out the appropriate punishment. Normally this takes places through a courtroom trial and follows the rule of law, though summary executions are also allowed under certain circumstances.Konrad hears rumors that a Justice has been imprisoned and immediately travels to the town to investigate. He believes that surely this is case of a conquered people rebelling against legitimate authority rather than a Justice having gone rogue.As they come to the town they discover a greater problem, that the town's lighthouse is haunted and is destroying the town because no one will use the port any longer. Is there a connection between the accused Justice and the haunting?Konrad has doubts about both, but he will follow wherever the evidence leads him, no matter where it goes or what result it reaches. The rule of law must be upheld regardless of the consequences.Unlike the trilogy, this is told from Konrad's perspective, which provides a different experience that is more intimate and aware of his shortcomings. He comes across as being considerably more human and fallible, for better and worse, depending on your how you felt about him in the trilogy.This novella was commissioned by Grimdark Magazine and was sold by itself, rather than running in the magazine, as I assume they believed it was both too long for the magazine and it wouldn't be appropriately priced at its normal price if it were included. I don't believe that authors are commissioned all that often like this for established series, or at least it's not something that I've heard of happening with any sort of regularity. I have no doubt that there are many reasons why this doesn't usually happen, so I wonder about the circumstances that led to this.As this wasn't published by Orbit, that means that Swan had a different editor than from his novels and I noticed that in the writing. There were several times where the writing seemed out of place compared to the novels, though I don't know how much of that is editorial influence versus all other factors. These differences were observations rather than problems.There's potential here for this to be like Bujold's Penric and Desdemona novella series rather than a one-off. However, this seems to have been written more for fans than anything else, so it definitely shouldn't be expected.Rating: 4/5
>TQNo, and I'm waffling on whether I want to. It seems long and meandering, and from what I've heard the prose is not particularly fluid or brisk.
>TQRead the first book. I can't believe people are saying this is better than webnovels. The only thing it got going was Kruppe , a cool magic system and a few decent ninja fights on the not-arabian rooftops
I like fantasy. I like harem. Therefore I should like haremfantasy, but I don't.I don't know what it is. For whatever reason when I pick up a (western) haremfantasy story I just get bored at the start. Even if I continue reading the story rarely catches my interest. Meanwhile stories like He Who Fights With Monsters and Jackal Among Snakes grabbed my interest early and didn't lose it for several books.I've liked many fantasy stories with harems in them. Eg Mushoku Tensei, many of the Chinese stories, Arcane Emperor etc. Because of this I don't understand why I can't get into these stories.
>>24857621>>24857621Where is the pirate version
>>24857712Wish fulfilment fap fantasy isn't what makes for an interesting story.
>>24857724Then how come the Chinese stories don't have this problem?
Was this thread just non-existent for like 12 hours lol
>>24857732I mean , it's just a Bakker/Malazan general these days. Nobody missed it.
>>24857730Because they're Chinese so they're the exotic other that you've pre-emptively decided you like.
>>24857732Yes. SFFG is dead
Horse shall save /sffg/
>>24857762Victra best girl>TQAuthor is a scrawny fat fetishist. I'd rather read books by fat men who like skinny women.
It started stupid, it remains derivative but now I’m over half way through it’s actually more enjoyable than first thought. It’s the McDonalds of books. Good in small doses but not fine dining.
>>24857621>two sisters call each other airhead bimbosI'm gonna like this one.
>>24857801DUDEdrugs and gays
There's too much to read. Always has been and always will be.
>>24857810problem chud?
>>24857663your """reviews""" are SHITFUCK OFF
>>24857663your """reviews""" are GREATDO NOT FUCK OFF
>>24857807Crazy that Cook decided it was a good idea for them to lead the Black Company when probably more than half of the company raped them into submission.
I read the first trilogy of the Black Company some years ago and wasn't that impressed, does it get better after that or is it just another case of something not living up to hype?
>>24857621I'm some 200 pages into the fourth book and I'm actually enjoying it after struggling with the fourth. Erikson can be surprisingly good when he doesn't write fantasy army humour which I found incredibly grating. I'm also very pleased with the sharp decline of "uh", "none the less" and "...".
>>24857948what
>>24857948Most of the Company is basically gone. And by "most" I mean almost all of it.
Any books where elves have canonically bigger boobs than humans?
Rec me some kino that has pic related vibes.
Reminder to report and ignore newfags like >>24857838 who have been spamming off-topic for literal years.https://warosu.org/lit/thread/21311319#p21323327
I finished my reread of In Other Worlds. Now with LLoE and IOW behind me, I believe I am now ready for my reread of Radix's finale.
Reminder that the newfag circlejerk /sffg/ goodreads clique get mad at based posters like our review hater and bakkerfag for exposing them
>>24858044
What's the greatest alien invasion story ever written? Do NOT say War of the Worlds
>>24858044Rogue Trooper comics
>>24858168Tripod trilogy is one of the best YA books- post alien invasion stories that was heavily inspired by war of the worlds.More hard sci fi maybe Childhood End?
>>24858181>No WotW>Posts tripods anywayCheeky cunt
What do our Anons think about the work of Stephen Baxter?
>>24858168It's an inherently dumb concept, why would aliens invade instead of just dropping shit on us from space where there's nothing we could do about it?
>>24858227Not what I asked, jerk.
>>24858168Not a book but District 9 is one of my favourites. It was a different take on it which I enjoyed.
>>24858250Anon, that's just a commentary on Apartheid. Stop trying to make blue board threads political.
>>24858257You brought up politics, not me.
>>24857948They were unironically rape-corrected.
>>24858257It's not about apartheid, its about modern immigration of non South African black people like Nigerians into South Africa
>>24858334No, it's... it's definitely about Apartheid.
>>24857621>Recommended reading charts (Look here before asking for vague recs).>https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/4rAmSZxbseriously guys you need to review this, some of the recs are absolute and UTTER HORSESHIT
>>24858373>NOOOOOO.... LE.. TASTE OF ANONYMOUS RETARDS ON LE INTERNET IS.... SHIT!? Yeah, no shit.
>>24858373It's whatever has been posted. It's not curated at all. If anything it's a practical joke on you, to encourage you to find better ways.
>>24858377well one would expect /lit/ to be a bit more knowledgeable than the faggots at reddit
>>24858402>well one would expect /lit/ to be a bit more knowledgeable than the faggots at redditLMAO, haven't been here very long, huh?
>>24858405the fun thing is, I have, and I have got very good recs sometimes here, far better than the shit you see in plebbit
>>24858402Reddit immigrated over here around 2011. There is no difference in userbase at this point. Normalfags have been destroying /lit/ and /sffg/ since the start. It's all endless discussion of the same megapopular socially-approved books with sociopathic torture fantasies toward anybody who dares read beyond the same three books. Or anti-intellectual drones who try to stop all book discussion in totality, or who expect you to read only their favorite book and nothing else.
>>24857663I read Empire of the Wolf earlier this year and greatly enjoyed it, although the ending felt a bit flat. Intending to dive into his other book he has out now and probably this. Thanks
>>24858492I'm never going to read Reddit Rising
>>24858642I don't know how you read my post and took it as an endorsement for a megapopular book series. You're probably not going to read anything at all with that comprehension.
>>24858492Man it's low-key autistic to have such a melty just because some anons said they disliked Malazan.
>>24858689>newfag babble>random book you don't likeYou don't fit in :\
I finished The Spear Cuts Through Water. Greatly enjoyed the narrative style, even though it was a tad confusing and unexpected in the beginning. It didn't feel like a play, but more like being part of a play about a play, if that makes sense. The transition between the various points of view was unexpectedly smooth and being able to hear random thoughts of passers by was appropriately chaotic and a bit of a foreshadowing for the telepathy part later. The book felt considerably slower during the Empress part, probably also due to her being alien to almost anything human and more difficult to sympathise with.Anyway, seeing the continuous thread between myth, legend and history which finally reached the listeners ie all the descendants in the Inverted Theatre was touching, not necessarily because of the story itself, but because it's something that could apply to anyone. A sense of belonging.
>>24858839Forgot to mention that I was surprised the book didn't shy away from some really gruesome stuff. Genuinely did not expect ritual cannibalism, torture, poetically described extreme violence and some sort of weird magic mutilation.A bit of a change of pace from the few serene moments.
Well /sffg/ how does reading affect your brain?
>>24858869Could you fix her /sffg/? Or will she be reading xianxia/litrpg in 5-10 years?
>>24858875>100+ onepiece related videosinsert rubber related joke here
>>24858839>>24858853Wokeslop
>>24858839>Simon Jimenez
>>24858875She's already reading that.
>>24858968hmm I guess that tracks I read ISSTH 10 years ago
>TQI don't have time for a series that large.
>>24858875>>24858869good morning sir I hate women and fat fuck morman sanderson I rape you later thank you
>>24859012Yet you will read 10-20 xianxia webslops concurrently. Why?
>>24859050Nah I don't read webshit. WoT though...
>>24859063There are only 15 mainline books though? The longest is 400K words so only 6 million words max. That's only twice as long as ISSTH at ~3MMalazan is probably only ~4M wordsIn terms of quality ISSTH > Malazan > WoTSo just read ISSTH already
>>24859087>>24859063how about you fucks read a dozen standalone sff novels instead jesus christ. I could name 10 novels that each have more to say then whatever bloated milked series.
>>24859096>more to sayIf I wanted some s_o_y faggot to repeat their college professor's talking points at me I'd go on pol. I read for kino only
>>24858220Xeelee Sequence is pretty good.
>>248577171lib.skreading it rn
>>24858373The fact that you realize this means you've graduated beyond the need for charts.
Any good pedolitrpgs?
>>24857957I wasn't impressed either but I still enjoyed it.But it also wasn't good enough to where I was interested in reading the side-books or other stories.>anywaysShould I finally pick up a brandon sandermeme book or reread Malazan...I feel like I've read most of the popular authors' series already except for sandermeme...not to say I've run out of books to read but I think I've run out of exceptional books to read
>>24859311>I feel like I've read most of the popular authors' serieswhich ones have you read? Then maybe we can find you something less popular because sanderson you don't want to read.
>>24858492True, they always recommend women and jewish authors.
>>24857621ArmorLife During Wartime
>>24858689Malazan is shit, I think that's pretty much the consensus unless you are a woman, a 12yo, or a homosexual
>>24859242The problem is, at this point I am in need of GOOD and SOUND recommendations on sffg because I'm out of ideas and I refuse to fall in the trap of some pulp shit I don't want to read. Granted, I can start a book and if I don't like it, just drop it but that's not the point, I'd love to have good recommendations and not being hit&miss all the time. So my alternative for getting sound recommendations for what I like are: reddit (I will get shit advice, mostly women there so go figure), /lit/ which has been most of the time my go to place to get what I really like and some stupid AI if the latter fails to accomplish its purpose (which it is as of late), so in the end I'm stuck with some stupid AI recommendations
>>24857957it's a book from 1992, it might sound lame to today's 'dark' fantasy standards to be honest.It's important to think of the time reference when reading a book. That's what helped me trudging on with the dreadful Atlas Shrugged
>>24859561>19921984 sorry, got the year wrongdamn it's old
I finished Citadel.Do I read New Sun again?Do I move on to Urth, or Long Sun?
>>24857957It largely keeps doing the same thing, so if you didn't like the first three, you won't like the rest.
quick tell me what to read my brain can't handle making decisions
>>24859746Red rising of course
>>24858168The Kraken Wakes
>>24859218I can't download It wtf
>>24859817works fine to meyou have to log in i think
>>24859659Either just Urth or the whole Solar Cycle, then you read New Sun again.
>>24857621I told my therapist about all you faggots. She said I shouldn't listen to strangers on the internet nor let them change my view that Poul Anderson reigns supreme.
>>24859559What kind of sff are you looking for? All you've done is bitch. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say.>>24859847Based, Poul Anderson is one of the GOATs.
>>24859559>>24858373/ssfg/ is a containment thread for bots not a legitimate venue for discussionif you would like to read actual /sffg/ you are limited to reading male authors edited by Gardner Dozois or Ellen Datlow published no later 1997 and winning some combination of hugo, nebula, and pkd no later than their second publication. that's it. it's not a large pool to pick from and nobody should have to give you recs.
>>24859973>/ssfg/ is a containment thread for botsNormalfags are no different than bots. I agree.
Should I write a fanfic of Boromir's journey from home to Rivendell?
>>24860015Why are you asking us?
>>24857732Yes. Like other have already said /sffg/ is sadly very much dead.
>>24857732Threads need to be moving to bump limit on a near-daily basis or the thread is dead.#thingsnewfagssay
Finally finished this. Incredibly derivative with edgy prose and writing. It’s the last of us meets the Witcher meets the nights watch. That said, it was the good amount of stupid fun edge and I enjoy the vampires being these ancient power freaks. 4/5
>>24860233>Incredibly derivative>4/5normalfags lmao
>>24860241And I said I enjoyed it so what now faggot? It’s not original but still fun in its own way.
>>24860233>>24860247Good review, I've heard so much about this series that it's jumped to the top of my list. It's so divisive here but decently rated everywhere else.Are you going to continue the series?
>>24860520Yes I will. I take breaks and read stand-alone between multi book series but I will continue and see how the story goes. I did grip me towards the end. With it being divisive, I can understand why because it's not high brow literature. It's easy reading but that's not always a bad thing. The book is illustrated as well so every now and then it has drawings of characters and scenes which I liked.
>>24860529Based slop enjoyer, sometimes you need that slop every once in a while.
>>24859871well I'm looking for actual dark fantasy or sci-fi I wouldn't care, that for starters. Something away from your Abercrombies if possible>>24859973well now we're talking, you've given me something to start looking for pretty specifically, thanks anon
>>24859973how does this sound to youGene Wolfe – The Shadow of the TorturerDan Simmons – HyperionLucius Shepard – Life During WartimeMichael Swanwick – Stations of the TideBruce Sterling – SchismatrixGreg Bear – Blood MusicGregory Benford – TimescapeClive Barker – Books of BloodThomas Ligotti – Songs of a Dead DreamerIain M. Banks – Use of Weapons
So, I read the 3 Battle Brothers novels, mainly because I enjoyed the game and its writing. Overall, they were competent, if derivative, pulp-ish stories with a similar tone and scope to the game, which is to say very cynical but also humorous without being farcical, and without “fate of the world” type stuff. 4/5, would recommend if you liked the game.
>>24860551How dark? Thomas Covenant is dark without being edgy, from the 80s and kino. Hammers Slammers is gritty tank warfare in spaaaaace. Sailing to Sarantium has some dark parts to it but mostly is grounded low fantasy set in dark ages not!Byzantium.
>>24858373>>24859559>>24860551Gollancz Scifi MasterworksGollancz Fantasy MasterworksBallantine Adult Fantasy serieshttps://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists.asphttps://www.goodreads.com/list/show/40744.Classic_Science_Fiction_1940_1949 (there's a list for every decade)https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/79774.Best_Fantasy_of_the_30s (same as above, a list for every decade)this is a good starting point, with this information you can find what books fit best for (you)
Sharing your work is funny. You’ll get no reviews/discussion for two weeks and then on the same day someone will message you saying they liked your prose, and someone will say on 4chan that your novel was nothing but rape scenes and Christian allegory
any books that have third eyes? physical eyes characters have or insert that feature into the plot
>>24860735Warhammer 40000 books with navigators.Rites of Passage by Mike Brooks, Blackstone Fortress by Darius Hinks, and the Night Lords novel series by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.
>>24860730Cool story BUaBS.
>>24857712>He Who Fights With MonstersI just started a thread on that and all I'm getting are wankersTell me about Jackal Among Snakes. He's not a socialist is he? And I literally just picked up my first harem book because I'm hoping some male book about having sexy time with women won't contain all the retarded progressive tropes I'm getting tired of even though like I said in my thread I don't really care for haremtardation.
chink webnovel slopdo not engage
>>24859298Quick someone answer this so I uhhhh... know what to avoid? Or does he mean 25 year olds or something?
You guys told be Perrin Aybara becomes a based wifebeater yet Im on the 4th book and he's letting Faile push him around like a bitch
>>24860893> Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.How new are you?
>Why haven't you read Malazan yet?Only thing worse than modern space opera is modern epic fantasy.
>>24860916This isn't /b/ you are definitely new.
What's the comfiest science fiction novel you've read this year?
Is it a cop out to have AI be eradicated or massively curtailed in your sci fi?
>>24860937bro, that applies to the entire site.
>>24860983No, that literally only applies in context to /b/. Stupid fucking newfaggot. Why do you think that message doesn't appear on any other board?
>>24860958AI in my setting just evolved to become normal people who want to play video games and jerk off
>>24861002Stay mad that you got trolled by this general.
>>24861022>I WAS MERELY PRETENDING TO BE RETARDED!You got outed as a newfag!! LMAOOOO YOU ARE NEEEEW!!!
>>24860015Nahh you should write a book about him floating back down the river when he's dead. His corpse can get captured by beavers who are going to build a dam out of him.
>>24861002So if /lit/ has a cool recipe to make crystals it's okay to try it?
>>24858340Was it... Supposed to be Pro-Apartheid?
>>24861139It's... uhhh... It's anti-Apartheid.
>>24861055Have you got a crystal making recipe for us to try?
Modern books that accept that colonialism is a good thing since the stronger party wins and the weaker one stops wasting resources on building wooden shields and killing each other with arrows?
>>24861171
>>24861171last I checked pretty much every former colony is overrun with violent retards and is one power outage away from mass human sacrifice and widespread cannibalism.
>>24861202Because they got rid of the people who actually knew how to run a society and did not practice the one human skill even the dumbest retard has: the ability to observe things and learn them.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsyHbj_SHGA
>>24857717>The Tales of Witness is a four-volume epic fantasy series by Steven Erikson that serves as a sequel to the Malazan Book of the Fallen.>Taking place about ten years after The Crippled God, it features Karsa Orlong and his legacy, and was for a time unofficially referred to as [...] the Karsa Orlong Trilogyaaaaand I've immediately lost any and all interest.
>>24861242>and did not practiceBold of you to assume they even have such capacity
>>24861268More proof, again, that colonizing them was correct: the error was freeing them.
>>24861273
>>24860893I think he reaches his first tipping point when the big titty bitch chases him around the tableThe wife-spanking I think comes when he becomes the Hammer much much later
>>24861242it's not like the colonial powers are doing so hot either
>>24861254>he doesn't want to read a 4 book epic about Not-Conan being a godwhy are you gay? this is the closest we will ever be to have modern sword & sorcery.and no, self published amazonslop is not S&S it's just chuds writing about their incel fantasies
>people DNF books because it triggers themwhat? Do people actually get offended by words in a book?
>>24860941Project Hail Mary. Despite being quite reddit it goes down smooth
>>24861291>the only books worth reading have been approved by Jews and womenJesus christ anon
>>24860941Bobiverse or Murderbot. Both are good - Bobiverse is better.
>>24861291I love REH and especially his Conan stories, and it has been a decade since I read Malazan so I might be failing to remember a lot, but Karsa Orlong didn't impress me in the slightest. He struck me more as a D&D barbarian stereotype, going around and randomly killing people because he felt slighted or whatever, rather than the actually interesting character that Conan is.
>>248608721-9preferably child femc but boys are fine too if they receive.Something like "Tricked Into A NewLife, God Must Be Screwing With Me!" but more time spent as a ToT and more eroticism
>>24860247>does nothing new>almost goddamn near perfectnormalfags lol
you know what? i'm going to read old scifi novels written by women.and you can't stop me!
>>24861365there is no shortage of awesome scifi written by women, you're missing the point entirely
>>24861297I got triggered by how offensively boring and bland John Gwynne's latest series is. DNF hunger of the gods.
>>24860553seems plausible
Why can't we have an on topic thread and not have people derailing it with real world politics, there are other places to talk about that shit.
>>24861390Such as...?
>>24861291Speaking of S&S, I heard that allegedly, there are still magazines that publish stories in the original vein. Is that true and are there any good ones
By the time the typhoon hit the Old Fort, the beggar’s banquet was well underway. Clouds had rolled in like ink spilled across the sky, bringing an unnaturally early evening to Nassau. The ocean had turned just as dark and stormy, a mirror of the false night that had taken the island. Frederickson loved it. He loved the wind. He loved the way it blew through the trees, and sent waves crashing on the beach. It was destruction, yet it was also salvation– a windless sea sailed no ships.
>>24860233Is this a women's book? The cover is throwing me off.
>>24861421vorkosigan saga, last book excepted
>>24861291>this is the closest we will ever be to have modern sword & sorcery.
>>24861421such as the point that other non-human writers are wildly under-represented by the publishing industry. where the fuck are the... uh... dolphin fantasy publications?
Warhammer Fantasy > Elder Scrolls (Morrowind era) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> LotR = Post-Morrowind Elder Scrolls
>>24861586warhammer does not > TES lol
What should I read next>anathem>mars trilogy>2010>fall of moondust>i Robot >city and the stars >foundation >tau zero>valis>ubik
>>24861618VALIS is autobiographical and unlike any other Dick FYI
>>24861618Cryptonomicon
>>24861618Ubik
>>24861390Ok Shlomo
>>24861300probably the worst book I tried to read this year, I dropped it at page 50 from how reddit and burger-centric it was.
>>24861291ermmm...he has not appeared for like 2 books
>>24861365Yeah like Frankenstein and uh.....um.......
>>24861732> FrankensteinIt was most likely written by a man (her husband) and her name was used as a selling point and a vanity project for her ego.
>>24861895Yeah we all know this kind of books written by women were all the rage back in the 1820s. When did /ssfg/ get so retarded? Go back to your woman hating cloister and practice your circlejerks over there.
>>24861434No. It's male power fantasy of a guy fucking vampire women and killing vampire women
>>24861895crazy what not being able to put your pp in a woman does to the brain
>>24861291>the protagonist is a big guy with a sword>"OMG GUISE THIS IS LITERALLY CONAN THE LOST ART OF SWORD & SORCERY DON'T YOU GET IT ARE YOU GAY"Why are they like this?
>>24860607>>24860711thank you very much both, you've given me something to start with
>>24861416Americans can only talk about politics or race
So I tried reading Prince of NothingThere is a lot of stuff I like about the books, but the titular prince of nothing ruins it by being a total Mary Sue.What could be otherwise an interesting story gets completely ruined because everything has to revolve around him. It’s like reading a fanfiction.I finally gave up when the author delved deep into his cuckold fetish
>>24862130How many Americans do you actually know?
when does he fuck the dragon?
>>24857621How in the FUCK does so much of fantasy draw from Elric?
>>24862471Is there really that much that does besides Warhammer and D&D?
>>24861154Yeah I made these for Halloween they were pretty sweet. I bet /lit/fags are too lazy and nebbish to even try it which means more crystals for me!
>>24862564Cool! I'll try this and let you know how it goes.
>>24861618I really didn't care for the Mars trilogy but /lit/ seems to like gay retarded shit so you should read that one..
The new Black Company book has me feeling a certain way. What are other fantasy or scifi books that feature sexy bimbos?
>>24861643Didn't you read *and* enjoyed Dungeon Crawl Carl?
>>24861618None. Read "Hyperion" instead. Tis the season for it.
The Deed of Paksenarrion is one of the greatest fantasy novels ever written and I'm tired of pretending it's not.
>>24862610The Dick on that list is orders of magnitude better than Simmons' bullshit.
>>24862537If we count non-books Yoshitaka Amano did art for the japanese translation of one (or more) of Elric's stories and that predates every tragic white hair pretty boy with dark powers in Final Fantasy.
>>24862610>>24862674Unrelated, but why do I see Hyperion on lists of hard scifi when the Shrike is a terminator sent back in time by God the Father and the AI ultimate intelligence to inflict enough pain on humanity to flush Jesus out of hiding so they can get back to fighting their intergalactic hyperwar?
bros, why is Gene Wolfe so godlike? does anyone else even compare?
>>24862604Is it worth reading the entire black company series just because the blondes sound fun?
>>24862768Because he writes literature and not genreslopBorges
>>24862170Khellus is the villain of the story. His mistretment of Akka should make this obvious, but it becomes 10,000x as apparent later.Series 2 basically never has him as a viewpoint character which makes it a bit more interesting. Stick with it, it's good.
>>24862769 No
Any recommendations for character focused fantasy? No big wars or giant dragons, give me dwarven veterans struggling to reintegrate into peaceful society and subsequent axe murders to feel alive or something.
>>24862912Realm of the Elderlings, First Law, Goblin Emperor
>>24861332He starts out as the mindless edgy barbarian, and then his character develops in a really interesting way as he gradually learns about civilization, rejects it, but still grows from it in his own way
>>24862537The entire Targaryen bloodline and Geralt too
just finished pride of chanur, first i've read by cj cherryh. it was fun but i'm not super motivated to continue with the series. does it get really good or anything? i might also give cyteen a try.
>>24862769No they only appear and have small roles in like the last two books plus the new one I guess.
>>24857621SciFi and Fantasy are two different genres with two different histories and shouldn't be lumped together. This isn't a book store with limited space. It's an entire discussion board for literature. There's room to be respectful.
>>24863009So is it worth skipping to the last two books?
>>24863023Sci Fi is just fantasy with space ships and laser guns.
>>24862984I haven't read that series but I'm familiar with it. Cherryh's longer series tend to be lighter fare, more digestible, and quite repetitive. Cyteen is more cerebral; there's more meat on the ideas and the prose is more like literature and less like pulp. You might also want to try the faded sun trilogy.
>>24863038Incorrect, and confidently so.Each genre touches on vastly different narrative themes and aspects of the human experience.To boil it down to simple set dressing is the height of buffoonery.
>>24863061Posts like this are why it was a mistake to "split" speculative fiction into different genres.
>>24863068Posts like this are why it's important to gatekeep morons.The two were never split. Fantasy solidifed as a genre in victorian era, while SciFi came to be in 1818, with Frankenstein touted as the seminal work.Read a book.
>>24863068All fiction is speculative. As is most non-fiction.
>>24863125Nobody called it sci-fi then you troglodyte. Scientific fiction was a fabrication of magazines in the late 1930's to market better to pseudointellectuals like yourself. All later reclassification of works is a recent construction.The chick-lit you suggest as evidence of sci-fi was generally understood to be a horror story in the same vein as dracula.All works we understand as scifi and fantasy are simply speculations, Sci-fi speculates of what could change in our own world while Fantasy speculates on entirely new ones. The only difference between now and then is that unknowledgeable oafs like yourself forget this context and attempt to assign additional meanings where there are simply none to be had.
>>24863172I think you're dumb and wrong and you've hurt my feelings.Still a good guy though, despite our semantic differences.Wanna grab a coffee and yell about speculation sometime?
>>24863220I'm a lesbian.
>>24863172this nigga speakin fax!
>>24857724this is also my problem with more visual novelsconflict and challenge go a long way even with happy / wish fulfillment stories and hack authors (and their audiences) don't realize it
Should Sci Fi be serious social commentary or just really cool shit like laser swords and plasma shotguns?I don't give a fuck about modern social commentary or I'd be a pundit or journalist.
>>24863362I like the philosophical ideas explored in science fiction.
>>24863362It SHOULD be whatever you want. But you can have both extremes which would be something like BoTNS
>>24863386>BoTNSBrotherhood of The New Sith?
>>24863386>BOTNS>serious social commentarylol
>>24863407Must be, since "really cool shit like laser swords and plasma shotguns" don't appear at all in Book of the New Sun except for some passing references in the final book.
>>24863362SF is at its best when it examines humanity as its exposed to new, speculative technology. What changes? What stays the same?Sometimes that veers into social commentary, but I doubt anyone would have a problem with it unless they're looking for something to get mad about.There's a time and place for the cool laser swords but it's generally for people who are younger or not really into reading. When people turn their nose up at genre fiction that's what they're probably thinking of
>>24863362I appreciate Dune's take on water and resources for example because it is timeless, I care not for Stormlight having a character insist "ladies can do XYZ too!!" because it's fairly trite and of the times. So I like timeless forever ponder-able questions and conflicts
>>24863444>ladies can do XYZ tooIronically, it just points out how useless most women are when merit is enforced.
>>24863428>In the first chapter, mc sees a man shoot an evil green light and refers to it first as a “radiant wand” before realizing it's a laser gun>Laser whips and alien bats attack mc in book 2>Baldanders mech wingsuit and plasma axe fight in book 3>Angels with machine guns in big war against Orwellian hivemind in book 4these all just off top of my head so ya really cool pulpy bullshit
>>24863678BotNSfags are disingenuous newfags who spam their book in every fucking thread. You're not going to get a good faith discussion from those niggers.
>>24862464He doesntHe cries like a bitch after his oneitis for 4 books straight until she pity fucks himThen his dragon gets fucked by her dragon
>>24863362The latter, I read to be entertained not to be preached at.
>>24863577I bought this over 20 years ago when the local library was getting rid of books for a dollar each, never did get around to opening it.
>>24863678I liked the pile of unearthed cryo-tubes that are just busted open and leaking.
>>24863822It's a fun universe to read in that the author has been fleshing out significantly more over the past several years thanks to Amazon Kindle.
Shadows Upon Time released a week after Strength of the Few is insane.
>>24862984they get better but the second book is the start of a 3 books story arc, so if you start book 2 you're not going to get a resolution until book 4.and yes Cyteen is miles better, Downbelow Station is great too
>>24858080>tfw Dying Earth faggots won't touch anything written by somebody inspired by Dying Earth/r/sffg
