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>Old: >>24902544
malakino
>>24911542>malazanYikes.>Another bland and poorly-written fantasy series that knowledgeable fantasy reviewers have steered me away from (Kelly's Review, Mark's Review)--an endless parade of flat characters filling out a convoluted plot with all the charm of an RPG game guide telling you where to pick up the best sword in order to beat the hardest demon boss.>Even the positive reviews I've read don't make it sound like a book worth reading, comparing it favorably to Martin (whose work I couldn't stomach), and suggesting that the plot often hinges on the reader recalling some apparently unrelated detail from two books ago, which some readers apparently enjoy, though to me it sounds like the worst sort of 'word search' writing. Moreover, most of the positive reviews cite the intensity and depth of Erikson's worldbuilding, but every fantasy book I've heard praised for this has turned out to be dull and flat with poor characterization and an aimless sense of structure for which the aphorism 'murder your darlings' was made.
>>24911583dont know who that nonce is but shite beard
Hows The Black Company series? the first book has old school ludokino D&D artwork.
IT'S OUT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QEu2Mg1R2o
>>24911721>youtubersgrim
I was interested in this series, but some anons said it goes to shit after the third or fourth book. What's the deal?
>>24911757Idk but the author's surname sounds a lot like the Italian word for faggot
>multiple /sffg/ generals sort it out janny
>>24911757I tried the first book but was quite bored with how much of an obvious Dune rip off it was. I have friends that have said it gets better so I'll get into it eventually
>>24911738go back to v incel
>>24911656It's great, specially the first three.
>>24911763imagine if threads could be mergedthat'd be funny
>>24911583I started it prepared for flat characters and was very pleasantly surprised.
>>24911656Starts out great, the first part of it is good, but like most things, the longer it goes on for, the most convoluted and nonsense it becomes. Most people recommend the first 3, and stopping there. Up to you.
>>24911542Chad king based
just finished Golden Son.things really went south in the last pages, huh.I really liked Victra...
>>24912168Great book and great ending. Keep the momentum going and keep reading.
>>24912168You'll find that shit going south is a common theme for this series. Soldier on my goodman
It's breasticaboobical, chesticamammical Pendular, globular fun!Fleshical-orbalal moundular-scoopular?Right-o, that's the one!Is it gluteal maximal, tushital-crackularBunular morning 'till night?Well, you're absito-glandular, fanny-fantasticalMastico-fleshular right!t's an areological, autoeroticalTubular, boobular joyAn exposular-regional, batchical-pouchularFun for girl and boyA latissimal-dorsical, hung-like-a-horsicalCalipyligical ball
>>24912168I thought it was sick when Alex got mogged by the Wise One. Jenna was best girl. Third entry was disappointingly bad.
>>24912188>Soldier on my goodman
Genuinely thought Red Rising was a YA series
Dresden good?
>>24912344it's borderline YA. not as bad as hunger games. it's the fanbase that's the worst thing about it. i thought it was finished and i would have been perfectly happy just blasting through it and moving on, but there's still one book left and it forces you to interact with the fandom if you want to be on top of news about the last book. some of the lowest iq, least read motherfuckers i've ever seen. the other day i saw a thread on reddit that was something to the effect of>hey guys i just saw this sign that says "domina", must be a red rising fan.or another one i saw>hey guys i was playing a game and the other player's name was "aurelian", must be a red rising fanjust the dumbest most ignorant knuckledragging normbots you've ever seen. if this board wasn't anonymous i would never admit to liking red rising, not because of the books, but because of the retarded scum i'd be associated with.
>>24911721>None of his newer videos break 100k viewsWow he didn't recover even after beating the allegations Good
>>24912344it is. the fast majority of people that read sff are manchildren who watch "adult" anime and steven universe, thinking they are highbrow stuff.
Confession - i quite like Stormlight Archive. I'm on Oathbringer. I don't care about the Cosmere and deepest lore planetary shit but I very much enjoy Dalinar, Callidan, Teravangian, and Adylin's developments. The question "is Dalinar a massive hypocrite" posed in boom 3 is a good one. I thought this would be sloppier than it is. Yes i am ignoring shit lile Lift.
>>24912392I fucking hated Lift at first but she grew on me over time. Really painful initial chapters though.
>>24912384>the fast majority
>>24911583it's nothing like that though.
>>24912168Golden Son will look like happy times compared to stuff later. Don't worry about Victra, she lives. So she can suffer even worse in Dark Age.
>>24912392>Callidanaudio book giveaway
>>24912369Red Rising ignoramuses pissing off Romaboos is based.
yo these edge chronicle books are bussin. why did none of you boomers ever hook sff up with this shi? Narnia? The Hobbit? Harry Potter? naw this the goated YA fantasy frfr no cap
>>24912344Red Rising the book certainly is YA. The series evolves the longer it goes.
I recently read Armageddon 2419 A.D., the novel Buck Rogers is based on. It was short and weird but had some surprisingly good action sequences. I need more raygun pulp action.
>>24911043Like Delphine's 'no kill' morality? Or her helping the Merchant Jew because he held the Lance of Longinus? It's a Christian fantasy, elements of that are inevitable. I haven't seen the Muslim I read was in the story, although I'm near the end.
>>24912793no, like the gay priest
>>24912803Lol, yeah that's my bad, I missed the elephant in the room, but that's because I think he fits in the story. First of all I don't think it's unheard of that a fag would protect a little girl, especially if she appears to be a saint in a world where there's actual devils roaming around.More importantly though, degeneracy is consistent with the setting. Thematically it's like dark psychology surfacing in a dark setting where even worse things are being done. It's a common narrative device.To me it has nothing to do with politics, if Buehlman was angling for that then his unintentional evenhandedness is praiseworthy. Compared to whatshisname who wrote Annihilation, and his gay lighthouse keeper in the third book who was utterly abysmal filler.
>>24912793I love her, but why are we bringing up Belle in /sffg/?
>>24912803>gay priestI've got some bad news for you.
>>24912897oh no what is it?
>>24912538I have some very - very - long commutes.
>>24912344The first half Red Rising is legitimately awful, even for YA. It gets better after that for a few books. Then the author gave up and everyoned started talking like they're from 21st century Earth with Marvel quips abound.
My favourite thing about Red Rising is how awful 99% of the fan art is
>>24911953>Most people recommend the first 3plus silver spike as it concludes the northern storyline
>Military SF book ends up basically being Vietnam in space with very little SF.It was alright I guess. Debating whether I should continue. Anyone who read this series care to comment?
>>24911542malaka?
>>24911430He's way better than most contemporary fantasy but you lot just decry him for being a Marxist who (rightly) criticises the economic nature of social ills. City and the City is one of the best novels I have read by him, but I want to reread the Bas Lag series because it rewrote the fantasy genre with its limitless imagination.
>>24911656>Hows The Black Company series?Great military fantasy that's nowhere near as grimdark as some people like to portray it as. It also sadly lead to people basically overlooking everything else Cook wrote.
FUCK he is good
>>24913108the prose... holy...
>>24913094>>24913108>>24913112M. John Harrison, Mary Gentle, Michael Swanwick and Michael Cisco mog him HARD.
>>24913138>Swanwick Mieville BOWS to Swanwick. He has humility.>Nor would I claim that it's impossible to write a good fantasy book with elves and dwarfs in it—Michael Swanwick's superb Iron Dragon's Daughter gives the lie to that.>Great work that completely destroys the sentimental aspects of genre fantasy... From within the genre—fairies, elves, and all—Swanwick examines the industrial revolution, the Vietnam War, racism and sexism, and the escapist dreams
>>24911430Unsurpassed in fantasy, let alone dark fantasy. When will our messiah retvrn?
>>24913094 I've read two of his books Perdido and the Kraken, and wasn't a fan either. I don't even really know why other then the fact that I simply found them boring despite all the cool ideas.
>>24912392That's because the first two books are good. The series goes to shit in Oathbringer and never recovers.
>>24911430FUCK it is good...
>>24912344It is a YA series.
/sffg/ would rather read YA slop than the GOAT in fantasy...
>>24913299I am /sffg/ and I don't read either.
>>24913299If there was any doubt /sffg/ was full of homos...
>>24913334>>24913340t. Tolkiendrones
>>24913375Unfortunately for you, I agree with Mieville's general ire.
>>24913375I think this guy has just been too ideologically compromised to be able to understand LoTR.
>>24913094Upvoted!
>>24913094He has a very active imagination and I commend him for that. But he just vomits the products of all this imagination all over the page in a true onslaught of words, which is not helped by his apparent abhorrence for commas.
Just started this, written in 1930. This guy's predictions are worse than the average cyberpunk shitpost ala "in the future, the mafia delivers pizzas", but then from time to time he hits you with something that leaves you shook like "the world is flooded with the worst aspects of american culture via mass media"
>>24913529Why would that leave you SHOOK? It was already happening at the time. Science fiction is a reflection of the present. It isn't a projection of the future.
>>24913529Also Snow Crash is parody/satire.
>>24913553in 1930? i don't think so. maybe in the 40s and 50s that would have been an easy call to make.>Science fiction is a reflection of the present. It isn't a projection of the future.kys>>24913556that's why i called it a shitpost, cocksucker
>>24913144>Swanwick examines the industrial revolution, the Vietnam War, racism and sexism, and the escapist dreamsWow I bet he used this analysis to come to a conclusion more piercing and less sentimental than Forrest Gump, I can't wait to see what his opinions are
>>24913094>Bas Lag series because it rewrote the fantasy genre with its limitless imagination.desu classic fantasy writers were doing this, New Wave writers were doing this, it's limitless imagination compared to D&D tie-ins but not really if you are actually widely read in the genre
>>24913299Did you like the part where the elf king rapes a baby into a chained troll or where the human hero sleeps with his sister better
>>24913394I can guarantee he has never given it any kind of close reading.
>>24913375Doesn't hold a candle to Moorcock's hate
>>24913581what is it about the lad tolkien that causes this amazing amount of seethe?
>>24913581quite an ego on this guy, i've read all his elric works and they don't really justify it, but through the elric works i gathered he has a much more expansive mythos. are his other works more impressive than elric?
>>24913299Not only in fantasy but in SF as well.
>>24913375is this just a long winded way to say>there are no strong POC women in toliken so i hate him>thankfully the new generation of writers like me or jeff vandermeer make sure every strong character is a POC womani get the feeling it might be
>>24913594I liked Fire Time and Orion Shall Rise quite a bit.
>>24913590https://archive.org/details/critical-response-to-tolkiens-fiction>Shippey (2000a, 316) argues that “at the heart of the critical rage, and fear, which Tolkien immediately and ever after provoked” is the fact that he “threatened the authority of the arbiters of taste, the critics, the educationalists, the literati. He was as educated as they were but in a different school.”
>>24913094He's a worse character writer than Lovecraft, and that's saying something. Actually Lovecraft mogs him across the board. And you can't really say he rewrote the genre. Where are the Mieville imitators? Even if you can find any, no one gives a shit about them, just like no one fives a shit about baldylocks himself.
>>24913773Where's your new weird fantasy series that rewrites the entire field of fantasy, anon? Oh, that's right, you just sit in /sffg/, twiddling your little thumbs, pretending you have mastered the written word by passing judgement on better men. Lovecraft was a horrible racist, don't even try to hide it, but Mieville salvaged what works in weird fiction and made it anew.
>>24913593>are his other works more impressive than elric?Gloriana, Mother London and The Eternal Champion are FAR ABOVE his usual Elric stuff, just don't expect something similar to Tolkien, both authors are way too different.
>>24913797I rewrote the field of fantasy for myself in my daydreams, Mieville rewrote it for a statistically similar amount of people, we're pretty similar.
>>24913797>horrible racistAs opposed to what, an upstanding genteel racist?
>>24913797>pretending you have mastered the written word by passing judgement on better men.Oh you mean what Mieville was doing to Tolkien
>>24913812delete this
I didn't enjoy my time reading shadow of the torturer, it does not feel fun to have a dictionary open all the time just to understand what I'm reading.
>>24913808You wish you could have written Bas-Lag in all its fresh, new glory. You couldn't even try to touch the heights Mieville summoned, seemingly from the magic climes of Xanadu. A true wordsmith.
>>24913375>Frodo's first experience of combat leaves a scar on his heart that makes his life hellish till he Gensokyos>glorying in war>Dramatis Personae of epic heroes from various cultures succeed in inverse relation to their positions until the world is saved by Gollum>love for hierarchical status>author of Leaf By Niggle>mollycoddling the readerHe certainly is expressing a fantasy lol
>>24913838You're not meant to understand what you're reading, you're meant to be disoriented by words that sort of feel like you should know them while Sev gaslights you.
>>24913811To be upstanding and genteel you must believe that ooga-booga cannibal tribes have only been kept from making Wakanda by the original sin of white curiosity.
>>24913840You're trying to appropriate your hero's glory to win an internet fight, anon, this isn't healthy
>>24913773You're not really wrong. Mieville doesn't seem to care that much about characters or even stories so much as for worlds themselves.
Just finished The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd. Didn't know anything about it, I just gave it a chance on a whim, I was overall pretty disappointed.>A big part of the book's mystery is caused by characters refusing to tell the protagonist anything on purpose, which is obviously part of the whole song and dance but it gets grating after a while>Big twist at the end of the book is obvious very early on>Magic element is fairly simple to grasp even before they explain it, but it gets muddy by the end>Main villain's motivation and the main characters' plans really made zero fucking senseThere's good bits but as usual they're mostly at the start when it's still fresh and you haven't figured out the rules yet.
>>24913773Lovecraft was a great writer and only someone brown would disagree.
>>24913581So his ideology has rotten his brain and he likes to smell his own farts.
>>24913958well we are talking about him almost 100 years after his death so he must have done something memorable
GRRM is suing OpenAI for training their LLMs on people's work without consent, but his anniversary editions of ASoIaF use AI art, stolen from fanart. Kek!
>>24914036my name is trixy cherry and as anon's representative (when he has time for me), i'd like to say we think this shit is cringe, fake, gay and retarded
>>24914045Sure thing, unc. Tell me this isn't AI...
Gave into the black Friday deals for these. Had to hide my face as I was scouring over the #BookTok table
>>24913958Lovecraft’s biggest fan, S. T. Joshi, is Indian (dot).
>>24914077Joshi said in interviews he is bored of speaking about Lovecraft. He has many other topics and writers that he critiques, particularly the history of atheism or weird fiction more broadly (like CAS, Dunsany, Hodgson). But Joshi hasn't stopped writing about Lovecraft for over 4 decades; it must get annoying.
>>24914036Are they still denying that they used AI?
>>24913005Being a Cradle fan is suffering in that regard.
>>24914065nta, but it's hard to say with such a low resolution.At a glance, the overall style feel kind of generic in that AI way. However, a lot of artists paint like that. Which is the style the AI trains off of. So maybe the artist just has that generic painterly feel to their work.I would have to look closer and more nuanced inconcistencies in order to give a more confident judement. But that image's resolution is too low
>>24913299For me, it's High Crusade.
>>24914077Lovecraft probably would have approved, not that I've deep-dived his letters but there was a lot of sentiment among Western writers about India being a similar and in some ways more enlightened civilization
>>24914160The stuff I’ve seen that makes it look ai is that there are crucifixes on the walls in some sets in place of in universe religious symbols and pretty much all noble characters wear blue regardless of house.
>>24914213>>24914160Attached the wrong pic but this is the one with a crucifix in it
>>24913581Morecock has always been a faggot. Probably stemmed from when he met Tolkien and Big Dog no doubt made fun of him for being a retarded, smelly hippy.
>>24913094>Taiwan Melvinlol no thanks.
>>24914222portrait on the wall looks like it has a snake head
>>24911430Where do I start with Philip K Dick?
>>24914213I'm seeing a lot of small inconsistencies here that are adding up to mast likely AI.So I'll just assume it's AI until I encounter evidence to the contrary
>>24914292https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bliFkRnN6e4
finished The Tainted Cup earlier today.It was great, looking forward to continuing the series
>>24913098>everything else Cook wroteanything you can recommend? i liked the first black company a lot
>>24913094he has huge arms
would an authors political views ever put you off reading their books?
>>24914446The Dragon Never Sleeps. It's military SF and standalone novel I wish he returned to. >The Guardships don't defend Canon, they exterminate Canon's enemies. There's a difference.
>>24914500Yes if they were a cockslurping MIGA retard. Thankfully most of those people are stupid and have no imagination or creativity so they cannot write science fiction or fantasy.
>>24914500Possibly but not those views
>>24914330Idk, I'd prefer to read a book that hasn't been adapted to a movie yet Also, was Substance D supposed to be meth? Or fentanyl or something?
>>24914500Not really, especially not those views.
>>24914500They would have to be so obnoxious as to be obvious in their writing for me to even be aware.
>>24914292Go more or less chronological. Eye in the Sky (1957)Time Out of Joint (1959)The Man in the High Castle (1962) Martian Time-Slip (1964)
>>24913529>written in 1930 while Americans churned out pulpBased bongs.>>24913581Leave Adams alone, 'cock!
>>24914077Confirmed.>S.T. Joshi, the noted and occasionally controversial authority on Lovecraft,allowed himself to be loftily entertained: ‘Meanwhile, the antics of myenemies continue to provide rich amusement. Their staggering inferiority tome, in intellect and achievements, is becoming more and more apparent witheach passing day; but what is now becoming increasingly obvious is that theyare really not very nice people. Stupidity is one thing – a condition that isperhaps unalterable, and one that is more deserving of pity than anger; butduplicity, mendacity, hypocrisy, petty vindictiveness, and a host of othermoral failings – well, I suppose these can only be attributed to badupbringing and an insufficient exposure to civilised values.’ (stjoshi.org, 22November)
>>24914556(D)ick
>>24914500>Right-Leaning Libertarian Views Asher has described himself as libertarian and has expressed skepticism toward big government, bureaucracy, and political correctness. He’s critical of collectivist ideologies and often emphasizes personal responsibility.>Climate Change Skepticism He has voiced doubts about mainstream climate science and environmentalist movements, framing them as politicized or alarmist rather than purely scientific.Blocklisted.
Try another one.
>>24914500I don't follow authors' private lives so I'd probably never find out if it's not present in their books. I simply don't care about people, I only care about stories.
>>24914556A Scanner Darkly is his best book nowadays.>>24914634>I agree with his fascist ideology but I don't dare saying so
>>24914570Thanks
>>24914643Oh I agree with their fascist ideologies but I don't care enough to check if they have one
>>24914449Yeah and he'd pummel this little Nazi twat >>24914500 worse than the Red Army raped Berlin.
>>24914658Now that's better, thanks.>>24914665>EnglishNow that's a genetically inferior race.
>baiting this hard on /lit/ on a SaturdayLiving the good life eh?
>>24914665>fail to bring others around to your ideology by argument>desire their brutal forced alignment>be communistChecks out
>>24914397Let's hope he doesn't fumble the follow up
>>24914500our sister site know how to deal with his kind
I've just started reading fantasy novels and there's too much to read bros. I'm suffering from success
Achamian is the most boring character and I feel like he's there just for infodumps. When does Kellhus come face-to-face with the knife-dick?
>>24914747Do you mean A Drop of Corruption? Supposedly it's on par-even better
finna read prince of thorns
>>24914782It's amazing.
>>24914782its bloody awful
>>24914779Oh, it came out already. I didn't realize. Well now I have something to read.
Thinking about reading pic related. Always wanted to read about Arthurian legends and see what all the fuss is about
>>24914799Enjoy! Keep me posted
The Inchiroi are described as having big "phalluses" for heads... holy...
>The creature stood naked, as was his wont... his great skull, which would have been cumbersome, had it not curved into a crest, narrow and deep, like an oyster set on end. A proportionate face hung from the fore... A second face filled the mouth, sheathing a second skull fused within the crocodilian jaws of the greater.Bakkersisters... we won...
>>24914802That's a good place to start, it's a Modernist "grappling" with the mythos but it's still plenty of fun even if you never go deeper into Arthur.
>>24914619Well at least he's not a zionist.
>>24914842Fascists are the biggest Zionists.
This machine kills fascists.
>>24914779>>24914799A Drop of Corruption https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=213618143
why is the rector at the university of cologne named joybrato mukherjee
>>24914850I really prefer to read authors who are dead so I dont have to hear them making annoying comments on current events
>>24914823My favourite take on Grayliens tbqhwyfldd.
>>24913375Huh, sounds like he didn't even read Tolkien kek
FUCK Lovecraft is good
>>24914845not really , true right wing fascists hate the jews.
>>24915175He's also good at drawing kittens.
>>24915314Those are cute, did he give them names?
Is all cosmic horror “fantasy”? Are novellas of Algernon Blackwood (“The Willows”, “The Wendigo”, “The Man Whom the Trees Loved”, etc.) works of fantasy?
>>24913148Nevermore
>>24915402Fantasy meant something different before Tolkienslop. It was closer to poetry and Romanticism.
This thread doesn't have anywhere near as much appreciation for pulp / golden age era sci fi
>>24915413https://archive.org/details/100greatsciencef0000unse_s0t1Great stuff in that time, for some reason novels are easier to start conversations about though
>>24915418Novels are peak consoomer slop. It's designed for people who want to spend their money for a timesink, rather than enjoy literary permutations par excellence... There must be some economic phenomenon where people only use something BECAUSE it costs exactly $23.99 RRP
>>24913604Pussy Crushers
>>24913590It's not Tolkien, but the authors who imitated him.All of their anger is misplaced.
>>24913604>POC womanIt's called woman of colour, chud.
>>24915430The novel is the act of storytelling perfected.
>>24915447Short stories, especially horror short stories and science fiction shorts, are superior. Nothing beats slipstream short prose.
>>24915330Not sure, can't tell what the writing is.
>>24911757the first book is terrible, the second one is competent so far I'm about 62% in
>>24912392it's good until oathbringer. it meanders in RoW and WoT barring a few scenes, terribly bloated and mostly forgettable.Bridge Four arc and Kaladin's rise from slavery is the peak of the series and never comes close again.
>>24911583I think people oversell it because they want their ten book journey to have more meaning, but it's just a fun series.
PKD wrote the premise for Body Snatchers a year before Finney, when he wrote "The Hanging Stranger"The only difference is that PKD uses insect aliens that try to bait whoever is not mind-controlled yet by lynching people, but it obviously has a subtext of conformism and enculturation https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41562/41562-h/41562-h.htm
>>24915734He really fucked up when he introduced Shallan and the idea that his characters should be not just "flawed" but just straight up mentally ill. That sent him down a spiral and the story will need much more to recover
>>24911430Fnord
>>24914823>You now realize Bakker is just some fag writing fap fics about xenomorphs
>>24915996>muh originality
How did he consistently innovate science fiction for decades?
>>24915444pretty sure they are called BAME in the uk
>>24916127That term is problematic and overmines visibility.
>>24916127>>24916144
>dude what if magic spent your lifeforce lmao
>>24916222Sounds like they played that in a video game, or even a board game. lol
>>24916066Drugs
>>24915402Why is it that a thread dedicated to fantasy on a board dedicated to literature doesn't know how genres work?
>>24916245None of the boards have users that know anything about the dedicated topics
>>24914072Redpill me on this Jimmy Islington feller
>>24916245Genre is abritrary
>>24916270No they aren't. Genres serve a specific purpose, they're not just arbitrary or meaningless categories. They only appear that way if you're an ignoramus who knows nothing about the publishing industry or bookseller business.
>>24916291Genre is completely arbitrary. Deal with it.
>>24916270>>24916311It's more like specific (sub)genre categorizations only matter to people who are already pretty deep into that shit. Fantasy or SF is all your average person wants to know.
>>24911430So this turned out to be shit.
>>24916264 > IslingtonHe's an okish 5-6/10 fantasy writer by modern standards. He handles the multiple viewpoints fairly well and isnt pozzed. Dont expect to be blown away by anything he writes but he's better than 90% of the current fantasy authors.
>>24916311Who arbitrates the definition, then?
>>24916391> SenLinYu is nonbinary and uses she/her and they/them pronouns.Dropped
>>24916333Wrong. Genre fans are consumers of genre, they don't define it.
>>24916467Oh I'm sure you're beginning to guess who controls these market forces
Why aren't there as many science fiction stories that focus on biology?
>>24916503Greg Bear and Peter Watts if you were asking
>>24916475You didn't answer my question: who arbitrates it?
>>24916503There are probably a lot. Ask some gay ai for recs
>>24916503Children of time
>>24911656speaking of which, how is the new book?
>>24916612Every time I see the name and title formatted like that it makes me think Glen Cook's been raped
>>24916616>Glen Cook lies weepingOh no
>>24916391 Saw it in a bookstore, the page borders are colored to form the same picture as the cover, I thought that was pretty cool. But chink author and boring premise on the back made me put it down again
>>24916503Because you need to be smart to write this and not just a smartass. Read Cyteen by CJ Cherryh
>>24916612Depending on how much you like valley girl Arkana and Shukrat as new annalists. Also, it ends on a HORRENDOUS cliffhanger mid-fight.
>>24916612>mfw they didn't get Marc Vietor to reprise Croaker
>>24916503There is plenty. It's harder to find good stories that aren't about intelligence in other species.
>>24916503Robert J. Sawyer, Stephen Baxter, David Brin
>start reading Errant Mage series after getting interested in the emerging "progression fantasy" subgenre>first book is pretty decent, although in dire need of more professional editing>second book starts to introduce romance plots and drama for teen protags, and it isn't the worst thing ever>sudden "oh wait, everyone is gay" at the end of the book with absolutely zero foreshadowing, done intentionallyI don't usually complain about gay characters in fantasy because it'll be a slight overrepresentation in an epic fantasy novel that has dozens of developed characters, but this just feels like a bait and switch. I probably should've done more research ahead of time to avoid this type of thing, but then I also only picked this up because I was looking for something along the lines of what I consider to be modern "digital pulp". Honestly, I might keep reading and it probably wouldn't have bothered me if I knew ahead of time; it's just strange to me to have that kind of cast and not reveal it for almost two whole books.
>>24916638I see more and more books in the store where the pages are colored in a certain way so that when the book is closed, you can see something like a particular color or a pattern.I think it's ugly as shit desu. It looks like a toddler drew on my fucking book
>>24916222I honestly like that mechanic, and the magic systems of those two books are by far the best parts.
I saw this and figured since my series is sci-fi I'd try throwing my hat in the ring here since my own post got buriedhttps://archiveofourown.org/series/3936502
>>24916776>zero foreshadowingthe author is a redditor...
Best TTRPG novels besides Drizzt, main DragonLance series, Gotrek & Felix and maybe I, Strahd? Something worth reading in Eberron, Greyhawk, Mystara or Birthright? Das Schwarze Auge (I can read in German)?
tired of seeing all the american author wank
Going to read Malazan 6 soon.
>>24916928It's time for Estonian author wank
>>24916975kino art
>>24916222>dude what if your love interest had sex with other men
>>24916975>ZAUMIs this before or after they went insane and ruined their company
>>24917149Well before, this is the novel he was shopping around before he decided on making a game. It's also about Communism destroying the world though.
>Book 1: The Magician's Nephew (1955)>Book 2: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)>Book 1: The Last Wish (1993)>Book 2: Sword of Destiny (1992)>Book 1: Elric of Melnibone (1972)>Book 6: Stormbringer (1965)
>>24914213>random metal spaulders and vambraces with a formal dressEven if I believed it wasn't proompted, what the fuck.
>>24913529>hits you with something that leaves you shook like "the world is flooded with the worst aspects of american culture via mass media"oof that's violence against the reader I felt that slap in the face and I'm hearing about it second hand
>>24916776Hello.I have read all 7 books of Mage Errant. The author is a jew and DOES NOT stop the weird underage homosexuality at any point.P.S. Book 6 is a sidequest that involves his multiverse and is ultimately unrelated to the main plot of Mage Errant. That said, Book 5 has a kickass battle featuring a LOT of kaiju.
I need Ariane Emory II to peg me
>>24914500It might. That's why i don't want to know anything about authors, or actors, or directors.This is another reason why i love animations. If i don't know who is voicing the characters then they are just the character and nothing else.
>As for New York—there is no question but that its overwhelming Semitism has totally removed it from the American stream. Regarding its influence on literary & dramatic expression—it is not so much that the country is flooded directly with Jewish authors, as that Jewish publishers determine just which of our Aryan writers shall achieve print & position. That means that those of us who least express our own people have the preference. Taste is insidiously moulded along non-Aryan lines—so that, no matter how intrinsically good the resulting body of literature may be, it is a special, rootless literature which does not represent us.Hmmmm....>[Hitler’s] vision is of course romantic & immature, & coloured with a fact-ignoring emotionalism … There surely is an actual Hitler peril—yet that cannot blind us to the honest rightness of the man’s basic urge … I repeat that there is a great & pressing need behind every one of the major planks of Hitlerism—racial-cultural continuity, conservative cultural ideals, & an escape from the absurdities of Versailles. The crazy thing is not what Adolf wants, but the way he sees it & starts out to get it. I know he's a clown, but by God, I like the boy!Hmmmmmmmm....What did Lovecraft mean by this?
>>24916826It's always book for/by women too
>>24917421She could fix me
>>24914500Neat. Imma check him out.
>2025 almost over>still no news about Winds of Winter>no news about Doors of Stone>it's been a year since Scott Lynch announced the Gentlemen Bastards novellas but they haven't come outThese three assholes are never going to work again, are they?
>>24914292By Phillipin' this Dick, K?
>>24916222Doesn't Eragon's magic system only risk killing you if you overuse it?
>>24917929add this cunt too who is doing GRRM side quests instead of his actual book
>>24917965>last book in the series came out in 2023>next is coming out in 2026Yeah no, he doesn't belong in the decade+ procrastination club
so red rising good or these books just YA shit
>>24918181No it isn't YA. It has a YA protagonist and the first book feels YA because it's hunger games in space but it's an adult series. It's dark, violent, brutal, adult in themes and plot and is similar to gladiator/game of thrones with it's violence and politicking. Not sure why it keeps getting called YA. It's not marketed as YA either.The series improves and matures massively over the first book anyway and yes they are good books.
>>24918196Delusional cope. It gets called YA because it is.
>>24918198>It gets called YA because it is.by /sffg/ I never hear it called YA outside of this shitty website. Tell me why it is YA then and also why it matters? The books are good.
>>24918200Because they're juvenile and simplistic>why it matters? The books are good.lollmao
>>24918207no points made, thank you for conceeding
Began reading this a few years ago but never finished it. I think I might pick it up again. It's basically The Matrix 40 years before The Matrix.
>>24917965compared to the others he's putting out slop rather consistentlyat least he hasn't reached brian herbert tier
>>24918220FUCK he is good. I will post an essay I wrote on Man in the High Castle.
To treat 'The Man in the High Castle' merely as a speculative exercise in 'map painting' is to fundamentally misunderstand the author’s project. While the genre of Alternate History is typically preoccupied with the divergence of timelines, the "parlor game" of moving armies and altering battles, Dick utilizes this framework for a far more radical purpose. He is not asking us to look at a different map of the world; he is demanding that we look inward at the architecture of our own consciousness. The novel serves less as a revision of 1945 and more as an interrogation of the "Real" itself, challenging the reader to recognize that History is not a static museum of events, but a living, fluid entity in which we are inextricably bound.The central error of the modern subject is the belief that we are passive observers of time: mere driftwood floating on the river of events. Dick shatters this complacency. He proposes that we are not victims of the timeline, but active participants in the "flux" of History. We exist in a state of constant negotiation with the momentum of our era. While Hegel famously suggested that understanding only arrives at the end of an era (he famously related this to the "Owl of Minerva" taking flight at dusk), Dick argues for a more urgent, immediate awareness. We cannot afford to wait for History to conclude before we understand it; we must recognize our complicity in the structure of reality while the tang is hot and the concrete wet. Steel must rust; stone must turn to dust.This perspective strips away the comforting, binary myth of "Good versus Evil." It is tempting to view the Axis victory scenario as a simple dystopia and our own timeline as the corrective 'Good' path. However, Dick refuses to offer this moral tranquilizer. By alluding to the atrocities committed by the 'winners' of our reality (when America undertook the firebombing of Dresden, the atomic incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), he suggests that the nightmare is not specific to Nazism or Imperial Japan. A world dominated by a victorious, imperialist America could be just as spiritually grotesque as the High Castle universe.Therefore, the true antagonist of the novel is not the specific regime, but the human tendency to surrender to Power. The swastikas, the secret police, and the propaganda are merely the aesthetic trappings, the 'costume' that tyranny dons. Beneath this superficial veneer lies the true metaphysical prison: the systems of human relation that allow domination to exist. The ultimate enemy is the internal mechanism within the individual that accepts the unacceptable, the psychological capitulation that allows a person to be governed by a lie.
>>24918294This is where the novel transitions from a political critique to a spiritual instruction manual. If reality is manufactured by power, then the only authentic rebellion is the reclamation of Truth by the powerless. The resistance does not require armies; it requires the 'Everyman' (the jewelry maker, the bureaucrat, the salesman). By maintaining their humanity in an inhumane world, these sidelined figures become the true architects of destiny.Ultimately, the novel posits that we are already scripted into the grand narrative of History. We are part of the text already. The question is not whether we are in the story, but whether we will play the role assigned to us by the state, or whether we will seize the pen. To resist is to realize that the walls of the prison are made of our own acquiescence. By refusing the counterfeit reality and insisting on the primacy of individual conscience, we do not just survive history; we re-author it. We replace the passive acceptance of fate with the active creation of the future.Remember that only you can realise your own responsibility, only you can write your own story, and only you can understand your place in History. No one else. To read PKD is to realise that you have sole control over who has power.
>>24918294>>24918297Whoa, cool it with the anti-Semitic remarks, anon.
GOATED SF BOOKS:>2001: A Space Odyssey>Childhood's End>UBIK>The Time MachineThere are a great many good, great or even exceptional science fiction books, but none surpass these in quality.
>>24917965You alwyas bitch about the release every thread and it hasn't even been five years since Lightbringer. Calm down.
>>24917929You have a GRRM thread to take your celeb worship to. How does this thread always manage to stay cancerous? Thanks newfags.
>>24918319>2001>Childhood's EndBait
>>24918367I think that post might be shitting on those guys actually
>>24918423Eceleb fags post negative threads as much (or more than) as positive threads. It's all about keeping discussion focused on them, regardless of the quality or nature thereof.
>>24918435Eye C.
>>24918297>To read PKD is to realise that you have sole control over who has power.No it's not, not even High Castle says this. The power figures that are boogeymen in our timeline and world leaders in his don't even have power, power flows from incomprehensible forces the High Castle characters access through the I Ching, which gives them revelation about their situation but ultimately denies them control.
>>24918445Power is an illusion generated by systems humans cannot control.But the human perception of that illusion (the moment of seeing) is itself the radical act. You can see through the thin veneer of power, see where it flows, and know the hand that controls it.
>>24918448And then you find out it's "God" or "the author of the novel you reside in" and it's accurate and worthless. Seeing it feels like a radical act but that act is itself circumscribed in the environment it created. This isn't Le Guin, this is PKD, there's no hope for a revolution here only despair.
>>24918456>there's no hope for a revolution here, only despairWell, the revolution part is what PKD is so cynical about; we very well could become our own dictators by revolting against what we see as unjust, as power, as totalitarianism, and usher in new forms of these. That's why PKD was never a communist despite writing a novel about China and being in a literary scene with Marxists. I think PKD is so critical of power as to think that everything we think to be true, including truth itself, or power itself, is mediated by such power, by the flow and flux of History. But he goes against the idea Hegel had that we never understand something until it is over; instead, he thinks that we can understand History as a multi-headed hydra that diverts and converges. We are not merely passive victims of events; Dick does think we coexist with all forms of History, in all its mad variations. He doesn't seriously think that you can do nothing against Richard Nixon or Adolf Hitler, but he does view them as coming from a source of power (Black Iron Prison). The gnostic nature of PKD's Valis doesn't contradict my idea that we are active agents in History. In fact, it shows that even when we think we are in full control, there is still more to do. It escapes the lower-minded determinism of Marxism and wants us to embrace the flux and flow of a hydra-headed History, of multiple divergent Timelines.
>>24918465>Richard Nixon or Adolf Hitleryeah exactly the same people lol #Resist
>>24918480Have you ever heard PKD talk about Nixon? He thought he was an incarnation of the Demiurge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQbYiXyRZjM
>>24918486Yes he was a pathetic crackhead and it shows through in some of his writing but we don't need to become pathetic crackheads ourselves to enjoy his work, we don't need to drink the whole New Wave pseudocommie koolaid especially with High Castle which is very clear on the cosmic horror, on our own works being able to create a little beauty and maybe even change our trajectory some but ultimately being caught in wheels within wheels.
>>24918465>embrace the flux and flow of a hydra-headed Historywhat does this even mean, practically what does it imply
>>24918494That you have to make conscious choices and engage in critical thinking about all sorts of things, knowing that it could have disastrous effects. The catastrophes in the parallel timelines are still catastrophes, as horrible as the holocaust or nuclear bombing of Nagasaki. And you bear responsibility even if you aren't int that world or history or timeline. I don't think Dick was overly literal, in a strict sense, about how a timeline exists with Richard Nixon as the next Hitler, but I think he wanted us to think critically about how power is constructed. You need to do this in spite of the huge amount of philosophical pessimism and Gnosticism that permeate PKD's universes.>tl;dr: practically, you need to think about how events could lead to other events, even when you don't feel you have power or responsibility.
>>24918514>you must worry and stress about politics even though you are objectively unable to affect itIf this is really what he's going for it's heartbreaking, it's an incredibly anxious man trying to find some reason, some good in him being how he is.
>>24918519Even refusing to engage in politics is how elites control people.
>>24918535But they control you even if you engage, so what's the point in worrying yourself over the dog and pony show?
>>24917963NotW's magic system doesn't even run on life force, it runs on heat. If you use too much of your body heat you get hypothermia.
>>24918550Well, I do have anxiety, so maybe you're right to pathologise my reading of PKD. I just view it as morally good to question authority, and that seems to be a central tent of PKD's work, not even on a superficial level, but a metaphysical one. That's the point of being a Gnostic, to accept the beauty of the true God over the false Demiurge. I get lots of people find this aspect of PKD off-putting or cultish or outright insane, but I think it's what makes him the greatest ever science fiction writer and on the level of Dostoevsky, who also examined the literary trope of a Holy Fool.Dick does think we're pathetic and miserable, but he thinks only a pathetic and miserable person can challenge the reality made by power. After all, it was the common man who toppled the Nazi regime, not Stalin or Churchill as individuals.
>>24918568I wasn't pathologizing you, I was pathologizing him, and he was off-putting, cultish, and downright insane, and it's a tragedy that MKULTRA sent Ursula K. Le Guin to his high school to personally ensure he came out like that.>After all, it was the common man who toppled the Nazi regime, not Stalin or Churchill as individuals.It wasn't a peasant's crusade, it was conscripts killing conscripts on the orders of Stalin and Churchill as individuals. "Challenging the reality" is college essay babble, the idea is that you say brave words The Man can't censor and The People rise up and do street protests and The Man gets embarrassed and hands your rights back and do you honestly believe PKD believed that worked?
>>24918594>"Challenging the reality" is college essay babbleIt's also what Plato believed in, but I guess it's my fault for not specifying how PKD challenges reality. I don't believe in questioning everything for the sake of fashionable flavours of neoliberal politics. I mean actually coming into dialogue with the history of western and eastern thought, and not minding the idea that all your preconceptions are wrong or misled.>the idea is that you say brave words The Man can't censor and The People rise up and do street protests and The Man gets embarrassed and hands your rights back and do you honestly believe PKD believed that worked?Wouldn't he believe common forms of politics, particularly street protests, are controlled opposition or some form of The Man?
>>24918616He would, which is why he challenged the reality as a hobby and not an intervention.
>>24918627I guess. Have you read the Exegesis? It's way deeper than I made PKD out to be. It's brilliant despite being borderline schizobabble.>13. Pascal said, ‘All history is one immortal man who continually learns.’ This is the Immortal One whom we worship without knowing his name. ‘He lived a long time ago, but he is still alive,’ and, ‘The Head Apollo is about to return.’ The name changes.https://dickiangnosticism.wordpress.com/2017/10/28/tractates-cryptica-scriptural/
>>24918673Right if PKD is saying we need to do good works because that sways the balance of personality of the group mind we're all a part of that is actually much more respectable, it's really an encapsulation of a lot of the New Wave in itself, but it is, I feel, much more of an Essene renunciation thing than actually fighting power directly.
>>24916242Plus religion.
>>24916222>lifeforceThe movie about the nudist extra-terrestrial girl?
>>24917211>>Book 1: Elric of Melnibone (1972)>>Book 6: Stormbringer (1965)In fact, the first Elric story ever tells the end of his quest to save Cymoril...
>>24917272That hack Gregory Benford wrote the intro to the book and man was he butthurt.
>>24918778Funny I watched this recently.It was a strange movie.
>"meaning, I suppose, that the water vapor has frozen out, but not the carbon dioxide.">stormgren did his best to smile at the well-worn joke???? That was a joke?
>>24918319>2001: A Space OdysseyI just reread that for the first time in many years: it's horrible all the way through. Clarke was a crappy author.
>>24919439Agreed, how come Bowman never made any wacky 4th wall breaking quips, how come Moonwatcher never said "ouch dats gotta hoiwt!" when they invented violence, how come Bowman never said "well that just happened and what an odyssey it was"Fucking garbage book and it didn't even have any spicy scenes for booktok
>>24911766Your friends are right; it does get better.
>tfw I'm doomed to self-publishing because the duology I've outlined features a white civilization being attacked by a black nation's crazed theocratic tyrant, and the whites rightfully decide to go topple his little kingdom and cut off his head.
>>24919600this is /sffg/ we're not here to read biographies
>>24913590Think of how people view GRRM. He should be a fantasy author's greatest friend, really: he got a ton of people into books, and fantasy in specific, and then he fucked off to go plow an endless line of convention strangeBut a lot of people really despise the guy, and the reason is because his work defines expectations. If you don't like grimdark, or long books, or long series, then his legacy is a nightmare to contend with. Worse, even if you do like those things you probably feel compelled to one up GRRM and all the other copycats, because how else do you stand out?Of course these days GRRM is being supplanted by romantasy and to a lesser extent litrpg, but back in the day people's legacies lasted so much longer. In Tolkien's case it took until the 90s before his gravitational force on fantasy was lessened.There's a reason your favorite author's favorite author is some literal whom who likely had zero impact on the industry, because they didn't reach that tipping point of being hated
>>24911757IDK. I’ve tried twice to read this book, because people claim the latter books are good and the author is an obvious Wolfe fanboy. Problem is that the book is pure trash. I can’t read it! I don’t mind the Dune stuff, I always though Dune was overhyped and I’ve read it till GEoD. The problem is the poor aping of Wolfe, like the forms of obedience, prose and the whole narrative form. I try to read it and I am only reminded that Wolfe is so much better.
>>24916264I think he’s a decent writer. I liked Will of the Many, especially thanks to the twist at the end. Recently read Strength of the Few. It wasn’t mindblowing, but I liked that he appreciates mystery in writing and that his protagonist isn’t some generic savior, which has caused seethe among redditors.
How can a novel I love so much be cringe slop to someone else? Eye of the beholder?
What's with contemporary artists making fanart of cthulhu? It's kind of cringe when it's not supposed to be visually represented outside of a bas-relief.
>>24919777The Broken Sword is objectively one of the best fantasy novels. What retard said it's cringe slop? Sadly fantasy novels are mostly series now. We must reject modernity and embrace the past.
>>24919855Just people IRL I try to turn it onto. But maybe it's my autism and the fantasy label scares people away. Also anons ITT said it's only a coomshit novel which is false obviously.
>>24919857in real life is the problem. All normies only know of sanderson. don't even try with them
I’ve been seeing this a lot. What do we think of it?
I'm reading A Song for Arbonne and GGK is so good I feel like a fool for not having gotten into him soonerYou guys better be reading this motherfucker
>>24919901It's mediocre and very disappointing as it's far worse than the first book.
I just finished this and loved it. I want more like this.
>>24919901I'm reading it right now. It's alright. I'm going to reserve judgments on it til I finish the book. For now I'm trusting the author to fill in the gaps and answer questions I have. >>24919929But that is the first book.
>>24919956>But that is the first book.Maybe "Hierarchy, Book 1" is part of the title
>>24919956Oops. I suppose I just assumed it was the second since it just came out and mixed up the titles.
KINO...I thinkI was kind of lost for the last 60 pages or so, so humanity has evolved into a new form of consciousness, but this is to be absorbed by The Overmind who is trying for total galactic control? this is opposed to the evolution seen in 2001, which seemed more benevolent, in CE the evolution seemed to be almost forced, to be honest I kind of didn't get it
>>24919901Good pacing and decent writing. Ending has a good twist that opens up the world. >>24919929Well, the second book is different, not necessarily worse. In some ways I thought it was better, in some ways worse. I think it’s still a decent book, better than most modern books.
Haнeciть щe paз. Hacтyпнoгo paзy дoтpимyйтecь iнcтpyкцiй.
>>24920667>>24920667>>24920667NEW BREAD
