Unpleasant professions edition>Archive:https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg>Banned Authors:Joe AbercrombieA.A. AttanasioR. Scott BakkerC.J. CherryhGlen CookSteven EriksonR.A. LaffertyMark LawrenceGeorge R.R. MartinPatrick RothfussGene Wolfe>Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffgPrevious:>>25596399
>desperately want to write>so in love with the idea of what I'm going for, I keep plotting out weird shit and adding stuff to a world irrelevant to the plot itselfhelp me
Teetering on the point where Fantasy as a genre is near equivalent to Shonen. And by that I mean, It is nearly impossible to find any seriously good writing because of the inherent tropes that tie the genre down.
>>25604651Dungeon Crawler Carl
>>25604651>expecting explicit genre shit to not be like explicit genre shit
I started this Light book and what the fuck.>first scene is the MC and his current girlfriend girl he's dating whatever at some party>crowd joke about fucking people as young as their children>MC literally kills the gf in an empty room a few paragraphs later when they've left and is revealed to have killed other women>then turns out he's a physics-wiz working on some experiment with another dude>chapter 2 cuts to some random spaceship out in (you guessed it) spacewhat the actual fuck
>>25604693Now I want to Read it
Any of you read this yet?
How do you define "far future"? I would say any narrative exceeding more than 10k years into the future would be defined as "far future."
>>25604693I read that. It was weird as hell but actually so good. I need to read the others
>>25604586>OP is Heinlein>C.J. Cherryh bannedSmol brain can't cope
>>25604586love Heinlein>>25604615treat it as a design doc, or bible. it sounds like you want to worldbuild, so put all of that into a document, then eventually you can write a story (no need to reinvent the wheel here, steal a plot you liked) and use your design doc as a guide to color it in.
>>25604772Nah, I'm not falling into that trap. It's shit like the protagonist being resurrected by necromancers several hundred years after his actions and, due to setting rules relating to people becoming more a concept of themself and floating energy when they die, is raised as a living god in the flesh. His bastard son who descended into the underworld seeking knowledge and became its ruler has to come back to rectify a cosmic mistake. One living god to another. Father and son. It's a sad conversation about how both are no longer human and respect each other. The son still loves his father but his father is so divorced from what he originally was he can't feel any love towards to him.
>>25604615Plotting isn't writing. I keep plotting because I think my plot is ass and isn't worth writing yet but I also know that I come up with good new ideas when I actually do write. Which is mostly never.
>>25604789god fucking cursed me with both
>>25604651Whatever you need to get you to stop as quickly as possible, pagespammer.
Test
>>25604693It gets a lot crazier in every way, especially the later books.>>25604763I don't think it's really worth it.
>The Stars My Destination>The protagonist has a love interest named Jiz.Talk about names that didn't age well.
Why didn't anyone tell me King's The Running Man was more cyberpunk than Neuromancer? This shit came out 2 years earlier and he predicted so much. That shitty Arnie movie and even shittier adaptation last year really fucked over the novel's reputation I think.
>Up for three hours >Only nineteen repliesIt's beyond over for this general.
>>25604860Idiot, troll, or both? There's very little activity outside of US hours.
>>25604866Shut up, tranny.
>>25604818>I don't think it's really worth it.It's been awhile since I read the first one so I'm down to read more weird sf
>>25604855I like that the ending of the book is literally 9/11.
>>25604615>>25604789Set a timer and make yourself write for 30 minutes a day, use any prompt, it can be a scene from your plot or anything you want. It might not be progress on your story in question but you aren't writing that anyway, and it might seem pointless, and it might suck, but if you don't practice you'll never get more comfortable.
>>25604916dude, i wrote 2.5k words a day for like an entire fucking month oncei'm seriousif only i was writing a real book
>>25604860Almost like the site was down for hours before the thread was made and people still haven't fully checked back in.
Now that I am almost done with the 3rd book here is my verdict:Misery slop
>>25604950>sci-fi dystopiasay it ain't fucking so
>Almost like the site was down for hours before the thread was made and people still haven't fully checked back in.
>>25604917Well good on you, what made you stop the habit?
>>25604967Life. Other hobbies. Feeling like shit. I don't know how to describe it. I had such drive and purpose. I knew every little thing I wanted to do and where I could go. Pure, unadulterated, flow. I still can't believe I was capable of that. I still can't believe I'm the same man. It's like I stopped being able to see or feel.
>>25604950>tagnever heard of Darrow.
>>25604973for me it was weed. i wrote music but got into weed big time and didnt really care anymorei mostly dont care at all now
>>25604950Morning star was ass
>>25604866Burgers don't read.
>>25604763>>25604818It does not feel worth it. I have better scifi I can rerereread for weird shit and abstract manipulation of maths/physics without the bizarre likely longnose-influenced snuff on like page 2.I am CRAVINGCRAVINGCRAVING scifantasy at the moment.
I am worldbuilding a technocratic future dystopia. The villain wants to create an AI God and AI Afterlife, calls it the singularity, and he enslaves people’s souls inside a fake digital world. But in order to manufacture their consent, he has a well-oiled propaganda machine, shilling this false Heaven as a wonderful digital paradise.Well, I’ve never written sci-fi before. I wonder if this idea was done well by someone else.
I only read popular books
>>25605086I really liked Light tho, so I'm into his brand of weird. I fell off Radix but I'm willing to try it again later
anyone have any "alternate" history recs? And I don't mean really alternate history, just history wound up different compared to when it was written. 2001's sequel, 2010, still has the USSR existing and going to war with the USA over some tomfoolery in Nicaragua, that's what I mean.
>>25605104https://archiveofourown.org/works/47311846/chapters/119214523written by 4channucks too.
>>25604586How is L. Ron Hubbard sci-fi?
I want to read some misery porn, shit like Thomas Covenant or Second Apocalypse, any recs?
>>25604855>cyberpunkThat genre is a little hard to define but I think The Running Man is a classic dystopian novel. Not every dystopia is automatically cyberpunk just because it's relatively modern or futuristic.Never seen the movies but the novel is great. I also really like Roadwork and The Long Walk.
>>25605104Sounds like one of the plots in The 100, specifically season 3.
>>25605215If you can get past the mediocre prose, Turtledove's "South won" series are pretty good. They get worse as time progresses, though.
>>25605104Otherland has a similar premise, but it's rich old sociopaths creating artificial Heavens because they are all terrified to die. One larps as an Egyptian god.
>>25605298Hard to top Robin Hobb's works when it comes to misery porn. Similar to all those "woe-is-me" fanfics on AO3, but well written.
>>25605086you may also enjoy >>25605229
>>25604772>love Heinleinbased, me toothank you for posting truth and have a continued good day, friend
>>25605494>>25604772>I love a guy who wanted to have children so he could engage in his incest fetishB A S E D
>>25604693Welcome to British SF.
>>25604855Even S. T. Joshi liked it.
>>25604693>this Light bookWhat are you talking about, vagueboi?
>>25604702I worry that I would cut myself on the edge.
here's your neopulp bro
Quick, someone write a book called Jesus is Back... But he's PISSED!so I can read it.
>>25604855It's only cyberpunk at the beginning, when the game starts it mostly sucks although I did like the smog conspiracy and when he has to crawl through a tunnel.
>>25605555It's literally called 'Light'. Congrats on showing both your ignorance and newness.
>>25604992I agree with Bukowski that weed makes you effete, that shit caught me up for years which is gay as fuck just saying that, drug that can't even hurt you is weaksauce.
/r/ing any books with elongated day/night cycles or permanent day/night.I have some ideas for a story, but I'd rather just see what was already done before I commit to anything besides it's easier to steal than to reinvent the wheel
>>25605650The words of a true slopper.
>>25605659to be fair I'm one of those autists who couldn't accept everyone in Westeros just magically surviving a 5-10 year winter
how is the culture series by iain banks? i was thinking of reading it, but then saw it's 9 books long and i don't want another malazan length series.
>>25605639And I'm supposed to guess the author, I take it?
>>25605663 Maybe you mean "anyone" rather than "everyone". If everyone survived it wouldn't be an issue.
>>25605674you will regret it at the end of your life if you have not read them
>>25605704https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_(novel)
>>25605674>9 books10 if you include State of the Artjust read them in threesphlebas/games/weapons (my fav)excession/inversions/windwardwindward/matter/surface detailstate of the art
>>25605726Thank u.
>>25605739>windward/matter/surface detailyes I had windward in there twicematter/surface detail/hydrogen sonata
>>25605722ntaFOMO scare tactics are a bad way to promote anything.
i just read Authority anything similar to that?
>j.r.r.t>g.r.r.mBRAVO kojima
Commonwealth Saga is fun.
>>25605993Yes it is.
>>25605650i wrote a high fantasy that takes place in a geocentric, polytheistic, and flat world where half the year is bright and half is darkthat said, its webnovel tier i dont think anyone here would fuck with it
>>25605650Look into tidally locked planets. I read a fantasy series where that was the case, but it was only background and didn't really play any role. It was just how the planet was.
I'm scared to read another fantasy book honestly.
>>25606109have you tried magical realism? it's literary fiction but they also have magic shit in it.
Age and Birthday seems to have been removed from Goodreads profiles and the group is no longer designated as being 18+.
>>25606118Well, it still says that for some stuff but it's not in the group setting options any longer. Probably just a holdover.
>>25605674the books are all standalone. no need to go through them at once. no need to go in any special order.most people think Consider Phlebas to be a bad starting point and recommend Player of Games instead.
>>25606114Sounds interesting, weirdly enough. I've been so put off by fantasy that I have been debating shifting over completely to more modern/contemporary settings, because atleast then, its harder to fuck up world building. But I still like and think there is a lot of potential to do deep and interesting stuff with fantastical elements so magical realism sounds nice. What are some top recommendations for it?
>>25606154"100 years of solitude" by garcia and other stuff by him is usually recommended.here's some random list i found on google:https://parade.com/books/best-magical-realism-books
>>25606154No matter what you read you'll have the same complaints and never be satisfied.
>>25604651Guy who discovered reading 2 weeks ago
hello naughty readers today we are posting 6,000 words of cultivation system autism interspersed with the author being horny about the muscle woman barbarian mc's muscles and constantly mentioning how she has huge tits and thighs and how impossible it would be for normal foids to achieve also did i mention cultivation system autism jingle jangle jingle muscle woman pay attention retard
Should I write a Marlfox review?>>25605183In Other Worlds is weirder in a shorter time, by the same author. On reread, my favorite of the tetrad (not that you need to read all of them as a linear connected series) was LLoE.>>25605674Stuff like Excession and Player of Games were fun.
>>25605650Book of the New SunUrth still technically has day/night cycles but the sun has decayed so much that daylight is sunset-red and the stars are always out
>>25604651lmao
>>25605650Asimov and Silverberg co-wrote a novel called Nightfall about a planet that's in perpetual sunlight due to being in a six-star solar system, but every 2000 years there's an alignment that throws the planet into darkness, which nobody enjoysI can't remember if day length played a part but there was that book uhhhhh what was it called, it was the name of the planet, I think it had a K in it uhhhh it's about civilisation developing in cycles on this planet over centuries, there's like a cold period, then a hot period, and the physiology of the creatures is adapted to that, there's like a wasting plague that makes them thin when the weather gets warm and shit uhhhhh fucking uhhhhhhhhh there was this cool idea of a prison built into a mountain, where it was like a cylinder that turned, so you went in your cell and you pushed with all the other prisoners and turned around this huge rock cylinder cut out of the inside of the mountain, and there was only one entrance so once you were in you were stuck for a year until your cell came back around to the entrance uhhhhhhh FUCK FUCK WHAT IS IT AAAAAaAAAAAAAAAAA that's my evening fucking ruined unless I can figure it out
How did dudes like Robert Jordan and Steven Erikson churn out fantasy epics on a yearly bases? How the hell did they write that fast?
>>25606297They were talented professionals, and they did the groundwork. There was none of this retarded "I don't know what happens next" or "I know what happens next, but I don't know how to write it" GARBAGE. There was a plan, there was notes, they got up in the morning, looked at the plan, looked at the notes, and turned it into words, because that was their job.
HELLICONIAIt was HelliconiaAnd I don't remember how much day length actually played into it, it was more about temperature, but the premise is: there's this planet that experiences a 'great year', where basically its seasonal year takes place over 2500 years. So there's hundreds of years of winter, then hundreds of years of spring, and then, like summer, probably autumn next. So for the hundreds of years of winter it's twilight all the time, because it's like entire lifetimes are lived out during the depths of winter, when days are short or nonexistent. And then in summer, the opposite is true as you might surmise.
>>25606302I am hung up on the how, anon. I would love to do this. There has to be something wrong with my process.
>>25606309Refining your process is what writer's workshops are for, I'm afraid. I don't think you get to really be a good writer and asocial, unless you're insane in just the right way.
>>25606213He's been reading for months now actually ironically probably read more than most in here
>>25606309have you considered getting a whiteboard
>>25606333I have two. Sometimes I just sit down and feel like a fucking retard and nothing comes out right.
>>25606338You have to write a ton of garbage before you figure out it's garbage. I can't think of many debut novels that were great. Vonnegut's Player Piano maybe, but he's special.
>>25606338what about short storiesim still at the just writing scenes stage, plot is beyond me. i will end up stealing one eventually.
>>25606344There's a lot of good debut novels. Tolkien, harry potter, etc. This isn't meant to counteract your point, it just means there's a confirmation bias where all the garbage the author initially wrote failed to become published. Only when they finally write something good does it become published into a debut novel
>>25606309it's simple economics, anon: You don't get a book out this year, you don't eat. It worked for GRRM until he got the TV deal.
>>25606353I don't think you can count Tolkien, since he was a literature academic, he got to skip the learning not to be shit stage by becoming highly educated in storytelling as a cultural phenomenon. He didn't need to do any on-the-job learning. But I concede your point.
>>25606362the tv deal(s) let him eat forever, which is all he wanted.the people who lose are his original /lit/ fans. he will never finish the books because he no longer needs to, and the idea he laundered for an ending through the show resulted in mass mockery so now he really doesnt want to.
>>25606344I think the last mass success debut novel was The Name of the Wind. All others have been improvements from other authors.Frank Herbert wrote a bunch of short stories and one other book in the 20 years leading up to Dune.
>>25606118So next month we read Magic Treehouse?
>>25606369>he thinks Martin doesn't constantly crave more food like a dragon building its horde
>>25606458he has that HBO money.HBO buys a whole lot of fucking hamburgers, like many reasonable amounts I'd say.
>>25606370The Expanse was a big hit.what i heard was those guys were originally planning a game, but decided on a novel instead and it was a sensation.
>>25606370There have been several since then. For example, Red Rising.>>25606465The Expanse/Leviathan Wakes wasn't a debut.
>>25606492>Expanse/Leviathan Wakes wasn't a debutI like their new seriesthese guys working for GRRM probably helped get them noticed by publishers
>>25604950>filtered
>>25604950how are the sex scenes? are they hot? or is it like "her lovely breast was like a full moon" and then next chapter.also do they curse like in Spartacus. "juno's cunt!" and such.Serious questions.
>>25604950Only book 5 is misery slop, even then it's not that bad if you can read between the lines and see what the author is setting up. >>25606523There's one sex scene in the first trilogy and it's pretty tame. The major exclamation the characters use is "By Jove". I don't remember a lot of profanity and cursing until like book 4.
>>25606461But not all. There are always more.
It feels like Vogunutt is pantsing his way through this and writes whatever comes to his head
>tons of hints something is off about the protagonists>some sense of pre-destination>almost cosmic feeling of greatness>ACKSHULLY, he's just really good at killing people and possesses vast amounts of magic potential he can never realize and everyone's been driving themselves crazy rationalizing itis that really subversive or just a neat little twist?
>>25606608Gibberish
>>25606612rude
>finishing the unholy consult>finally get to the part where we are meant to meet the cool aliens that have been manipulating things behind the scene for millennia and are the cause of 95% of the world's problems>they're immediately killed in the space of paragraphs and it's revealed that it was Bakker's pet self-inser--i mean the dunyain that were actually controlling everything and the aliens were puppetsso incredibly retarded and disappointing. why would i ever want to hear more about Bakker's pet mary sues when this part of the story is meant to be about the consult? and why can dunyain casually overcome ten thousand year old space aliens with magical powers with nothing more than talk? just because they're really edgy and smart and stuff? what an utter disappointment. author's pet nonsense
>>25606704it reminds me of what peter watts did in echopraxia. he has an infinitely less interesting vampire easily outsmart and kill a god-brain hivemind halfway through the story. because apparently a naturally evolved and completely unoptimized caveman that couldn't even survive right angles can defeat an enormous genetically and physiologically optimized hivemind with a thousand times the processing power, that had decades to prepare while also having exponentially more resources compared to the vampire who literally escaped from prison yesterday. but like the vampire is less conscious or something and therefore any fight between the two is an instawin in the bloodsucker's favor.
>>25606118>>25606126The higher number than usual join applications recently may be related to this. Getting to 1,000 members by the end of the year is possible at this rate. By which I mean 7 more currently.
>>25606704Sasuga Bakker. >>25606721> he has an infinitely less interesting vampire easily outsmart and kill a god-brain hivemind halfway through the storyWas it even Valerie not kill the Bicamerals? I seem to remember both ending up trapped on Icarus as Portia goes nasty, and then Moore sends the station into the sun, assuming he kills everyone there, but Valerie ends up surviving. >like the vampire is less consciousThat is literally it regarding Valerie's fucking capeshit superpowers, and it certainly is extremely lame.
>>25606910>Was it even Valerie not kill the Bicameralsyes. they somehow failed to anticipate her using her army of muder-zombies to... murder them.>That is literally it regarding Valerie's fucking capeshit superpowers, and it certainly is extremely lame.i was only able to continue reading because i found the wider world intriguing (and because i want to bone valerie, as terribly written as she is)
This book is amazing. It's astounding the guy who wrote Dracula wrote this. It's like someone literally built a time machine and transported a black and white Peter Graves B movie to the 1800s. Everything about it, the plots, the pacing, the utterly dry and pointless dialogue, the fainting womenfolk, the low technical cost of the monster, which barely appears, as if they were already considering how hard it would be to film, it's an anachronistic masterpiece.
>>25606297Because it was their job. Same reason classical composers composed insane amounts of music.
Ok so now I have read the SilmarillionMorgoth makes no fucking sense
>>25605674The beginning of the end of British SF.
>>25606308A masterwork.
>>25607108how so
>>25605674It's ok but I don't like how half the books imply bad things only happen because capitalism badSurface Detail is amazing only to fall completely flat at the end because of this
>>25607118He gets his ass kicked by everything and everyone and gets launched into spaceWhy are there literal maiar who seem more powerful than him
>>25607120Then don't read his books. Stick to pulp.
>>25607123he's satansatan isn't strong against any force of god, only man
>>25605674it's just communist religious fantasy, with ai-gods in place of God. these ai-gods are omnipotent and omnibenevolent and somehow come to the exact same set of general moral principles a modern day marxist possesses despite being unfathomable intelligences quadrillions of times smarter than any man, (which should in any logical scenario perceive the universe in ways we cannot fathom and possess utterly inscrutable and alien goals, but this is a religious fantasy so don't think to hard about that). they then spend all of their time and 100% of their resources creating and babysitting a hedonistic communist utopia where people just do drugs and bang until they get bored of living and commit suicide. human beings are explicitly utterly powerless in the face of these minds and don't really have any say at all but don't worry about that because the culture minds all somehow agree with Marx on everything and possess a totally human sense of morality and therefore we don't really have to consider the scary implications of trillions of souls being absolutely in the sway of god-minds and having no self-determination
>>25607126It's just a really shallow take in what otherwise are well written books>>25607127See, but he gets his ass kicked by people too. The power levels in general are pretty all over the place
>>25607134they believed in god>power levelssee, there's your problembefore modern medicine, you could kill anyone by smearing a toothpick with shit and stabbing them with it
>>25607133Orion's Arm, while being terrible in a number of ways, is a far, far better take on what a society ran by AI Gods would look like. Some of them set aside 0.1% of their resources to create enormous utopias for humans and other lower life, while dedicating the rest to dismantling stars, building and designing incomprehensible technologies and structures, and just generally doing god things humans have no business understanding. Others have no time for babysitting organic lifeforms, and any human being that travels to space owned by them will be either swiftly obliterated, captured and used for experimentation, or if they're nice simply told to leave or ignored. The more benevolent AI Gods of course do absolutely nothing about this. After all, would you wage war against your neighbor for stepping on a few grasshoppers, just because you keep one as a pet? Probably not.
>>25607137First Age Arda had fucking trees and lakes with healing power. I think Eru just knew evil was inevitable and Melkor was the vessel that would bring it to and keep it in ArdaBeren and Luthien in general is such a bizarre tale I wonder if it was written way before the rest, what with the epic song battles with Sauron (and Morgoth) and all
>>25607123Remember that he nearly exhausted his power by pouring it into Arda. He's so diminished by the time he steals the Silmarils that he remains stuck in one shape and can sustain permanent wounds and at the end of the First Age Sauron is about as strong as he is. Morgoth's final and greatest strength was poisoning the world.
>>25606569That doesn't mean it's not great. Some peoples' stream of consciousness is still vastly superior to other peoples' meticulously planned narrative.
>>25607238>Morgoth's final and greatest strength was poisoning the world.I mean yeah that's like his only power. I feel like the existence of dragons post Morgoth being launched into space was a bit poorly explained, I mean he could only create creatures that would obey his direct will like Aulë, right? The other big boys are all maiar because something something who cares there's as many maiar as the plot requires
>>25606704>>25606721You know, this has me thinking; how would Blindopraxia vamps react if they were somehow dropped into Bakker’s world, and what would the Dunyain do if they were thrown into Watts’ world? Vampires would definitely be automatically damned (if they possess souls at all), but I wonder if they would even care given how utterly alien their unconscious minds are. I suspect Vamps would probably swiftly eliminate the Consult even if they gazed upon the inverse flame. They are after all unfeeling biological robots who exist to simply act out their own nature, to reproduce and hunt, and burning in hell is something that interferes with that not at all; it only happens after they’re dead. While closing off the outside would kill their food source and eventually probably the vamps themselves. The Dunyain though I have no idea how they would react to Watts world. The choice there is to either remain human and be obsolete or cast off their consciousness to try to compete, but would they do that? Dunyain seek mastery of both the self and circumstances, while throwing off their consciousness will utterly eliminate the self and render them helpless against and unable to master their own instincts, instead rendering them nothing but instinct
>>25606721Why did you conveniently leave out multiple vampires working in tandem?
>>25607552They just magically predicted exactly that every other vampire was thinking about breaking out at the same time, and magically predicted exactly where they would go so they didn’t see each other and wouldn’t be compelled by instinct to fight to the death. …and that’s it. They don’t work together at all beyond that. They don’t discuss anything or communicate or coordinate. Even the breakout is really just multiple vampires coming to the same conclusion based on current circumstances with no actual intended cooperation. Everything else is literally just Valerie solo outsmarting the godbrain hivemind of thousands, which is so sophisticated that every single individual is itself many times more intelligent than a human being even before the networking takes place, because qualia leh bad or something
>>25607563>higher intelligence = magicOkay. Excellent conversation.
>>25607570Yes, actually. Peter Watts does write higher intelligences like they have magic powers. Did you not read the part where Valerie wrote down invisible symbols and made inaudible sounds in exactly the right pattern to induce paralysis in two humans, one a genetically augmented superhuman and another a random baseline, just by her saying the words “Christ on the Cross”, with her somehow how also being able to immediately turn off this paralysis by saying “the tomb of aramathea” or whatever the other one was. Again, just by writing invisible symbols and making inaudible sounds.She is also able to ignore seizures just by using her super intelligence to trick the seizure into only manifesting in one tiny part of her brain, which she can apparently ignore without severe issue. Because that’s totally how seizures work.
>>25607607I do understand how pattern recognition may be seen as "magic" to the common dumbed-down normalfag of today's world.
>>25607612Ahh you’re baiting
>>25607618>new to 4chansasuga
>>25607570>>25607607>>25607612Was just listening to a goycast about this!https://youtu.be/tLllsLF90bE?si=l7cLFUr84DC25HWD&t=4103
>>25604586Has the quality of fantasy writing declined?
>>25606704It was thoroughly foreshadowed by the fact of Kellhus being their biggest threat, moreover by the dichotomy between the Dunyain and Inchoroi (they're both soulless 'robots' who arrived at that from opposing directions).Kellhus also has a cool fight with the general where he spins him in a bubble lol then the faggot tries to be sexy as a hail mary. And there's only 2 Inchoroi alive anyway. Well, you got filtered. It's not just entertainment it's an intellectual story that you clearly couldn't follow.
>>25607859Name of the wind is far better written
It's getting a Neill Blomkamp series adaptation in case you missed it, lads.
>>25607930>Neill BlomkampDidn't he get blackballed by Hollywood? This won't have the funding to get off the ground.
Caring about Rothfuss is a conspiracy.
>>25606309Your process doesn't involve enough writing, clearly. You need to actually WRITE every single day. >but I'm not "inspired"!Doesn't matter, go write anyway. Describe things. Write dialogues. Write histories. Every day. Putting words on page should become second nature to you, because if you want to write a huge epic series you need to write A LOT. You boggle at the size of these series? The published books are a fraction of what both men actually wrote down. The books we have are what remains after laborious editing and paring down of the original manuscripts. You are simply not writing enough.
>>25607918Maybe for a certain type of person.
>>25607859reminder
>>25607698this looks like retarded garbage
>>25608006What the fuck? Is that real?
>>25608141it's real and official from rothcuck himself yeskekw
Thoughts on Sword of Shadows by JV JONES?
Any books with this feel?
>>25608420The "Omega Force" series.
>>25608420The mass effect novels.
>>25607859>Kingkiller ChroniclesI want to punch every author for misusing the word chronicle
>>25608420Dark Moon
>>25606218700 words of nothing but explaining how a Penetration Step works in autistic detail
>>25608639Gemmell is so underrated. The Jon Shannow series is literally just the Dark Tower series but better.
>>25608420the story ripped off revelation space
Gonna try writing a fantasy book again. Been a couple years since the last turd novel I sharted out and never posted. Now that LLMs are here and the money is completely gone, the stakes are so low that it sounds kind of fun. I can't decide if I want to write fantasy that rips off Snow Crash or fantasy that rips off Worm this time.
>>25608857>I can't decide if I want to write fantasy that rips off Snow Crash or fantasy that rips off Worm this time.Do both. Corpo-dystopia where people can download superpowers off the Internet if they are rich enough to buy the license or good at hacking.
>>25608863I was thinking more like hyper-capitalism but in a (recently) medieval society that just found magic or teenage superhores in DND world, which I guess would maybe just be YA Malazan now that I think about it. But nothing matters anymore, so I could do it.
Light Day tomorrow bros <3
>>25608909I exclusively pirate.
>>25608915Oh man I wish you didn’t but I understand. It’s tough, inflation is high because of DumF(short for DUMB FUCK) and his illegal war.
"Coworker that finds out you read fantasy" final boss
>>25608930what's wrong with pirating?>>25608857i had an idea for a post-apoc civilization that has recovered to a form of mostly peaceful feudalism; the civilization was extremely advanced and left behind all sorts of devices that work. and because the history of that civilization is lost, most people think those devices are magical items. just seems like a fun starting point. i'm about 100% sure this isn't original in even the slightest.one day i'll get around to writing it, surely.
>>25608965i don't recognize any of these.
>>25608965In terms of what? Money spent?
>>25608966It's not original but nothing matters anymore. Book of the New Sun is a strict example where everything* is supposed to have technology powering it, even though it's described as magical. Prince of Thorns is one where it's revealed that atom bombs tore open the world of the dead and that's why there's magic. Dying Earth in general uses it as a setup for various plots. But it doesn't matter. You can write anything again. Nobody's going to notice
>>25608984nta delusional nihilism as coping
>>25608984>Prince of Thorns is one where it's revealed that atom bombs tore open the world of the dead and that's why there's magicwhat the fuckhave faggot wannabe unique writers tried not being retarded and just write fantasy if they're going to do fucking fantasyit's like they're fucking embarrassed by it and do something even worse
>>25605578>Hitler is back...and he's PISSED!Much better idea.
>>25608984Yeah, I've read The Dying Earth and it probably germinated the idea, but it was really clumsy and read like someone from the 50s idea of the future, which I guess it is. Past due for an update taking into account newer technologies and what we expect of far-future tech. Bubble cars are out; semiconductors and nuclear rockets are in.
>>25608989https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Who's_Back
>>25608994Yes I've seen that. He wasn't nearly as pissed off in that movie as he would be if he was resurrected in real life.
>>25605578Isn't that just Battle Pope.Granted Jesus is a stoner in that... but that's the vibe I think.
>>25608985Yeah the state of genre fiction publishing is actually really good now, you're right
>>25608997i still can't believe kirkman is so consumed by his cuckold fetish he unironically has god cuckolded
>>25608999Objectively sure, subjectively clearly not for you.
>>25609014What's your favorite book published this year
>>25609016Nothing you'd like
>>25609020I thought your preferences were more objective than that. Anyways, publishing is being supported by adult coloring books, not anything related to this thread, which I think is pretty bleak. But that's good, because it means that publishing doesn't matter anymore.
>>25609026Doomerism is bad for you.
Do people even read anymore? I mean, I do, but normies? They're all on TikTok now.TTS is going to result in AI being used by subliterates.
>>25609028>>25609030
>>25609030No, unfortunately. Reading is a niche hobby now. Even stuff like romantasy or shounen in book form like Sanderson's isn’t really that popular compared to movies, video games, anime and comics.
>>25609034it really is over for books... they had a good run.i'm not giving up my collection, but i could see all physical bookstores closing up in my lifetime. i don't know how used book stores even stay open, they cannot be making much money.
>>25609034Relative comparisons don't matter. Only absolute numbers do.
>>25609034>Reading is a niche hobby now.publishing killed it
>>25609044High fidelity visual media and hundreds of billions of dollars in whizz-bang effects making movies and shoes an EXPERIENCE killed it. Books require patience, the skill of reading, and imagination.
>>25609046>shoesshows*oh yeah and streaming. i think that was the final nail.
At least you get to feel superior about it.
>>25609046No, publishing killed it. People still like reading if you put a book in front of them and tell them it's something they'll want to read. Yeah they're not gonna go for something niche and cerebral but SFF novels still provide unique qualities and people know this (or this thread wouldn't exist.) Publishing just narrowed in on a target audience so hard that they stopped doing that for everyone else.
>>25609030One of my normie female coworkers recommended Prince of Thorns to me when I told her I read
>>25609079how horrifying
Is Perry Rhodan as crazy as the germans say it is? Is there lots of shooting aliens with lasers and blowing up planets?
>>25607430>that's like his only powerIt's not, but spiritually it is huge. The guy was one of the Ainur who created the world, could move mountains, create storms etc. if you want to go into the physical part. Problem is, he squandered his power on destruction, mutilation and manipulation and instead of creation.
>>25609071nah
>>25608997>>25605578How about Jesus is Back, and he's pissed, in Dinosaur Times?
>>25609016Either picrel or Platform Decay. Both were kinda r*ddit (the latter particularly) but I enjoyed both anyways.
>>25608965>summer comes>put my SF, fantasy and horror books in the shelves in the living room>winter comes>replace them by the classics of mainstream literature
>>25605993Those first two books my be my favorite books ever. I hadn't read much science fiction before that so they had a pretty big impact on me. The introduction of the alien species was written in such a great way. I'll probably wait another decade so I all but forget them then read them again.
>>25608965well, we can talk about wheel of time I guess
>>25608965>>25609383is it even good
Well that was fucking mentalI think I enjoyed it
>>25609079>>25609091I casually commented on my sister having several Sarah J Maas books on her bookshelf and she was embarrassed I knew who Maas was. Apparently she assumed she could openly display her smut books without anyone knowing what they were.
>>25608965I hope this belongs to a woman (female).
>>25609398stupid whore
>>25609411Cheer up, anon. Those writers who sell millions today are quickly forgotten after they die. Look at F. Marion Crawford.
I NEED some weird fantasy recs. Scifantasy is acceptable.
King of /sffg/.Simple as.
My friends, I was able to get a copy of the skyward leatherbound <3
>>25609719Have a pity (you).
>>25609719Too bad he let Janci ruin the cytoverse.
>>25608006Are those the same fucking artists that did the cuck comic?
>>25609302K J Parker is excellent, loved the books about not-Constantinople
>>25609366There's also the Void trilogy, which takes place in the same universe. Not quite as fun as Pandora/Judas, but still enjoyable.
Is The Pilgrim's Progress fantasy?
>>25609030Its the same I think, but its easier for non readers to feel included
>>25609427He had 4 kids albeit so his family should remember enough for everyone
If your English isn't good enough to enjoy this I pity you. The final chapter is incredible and has a twist ending.
>>25609391Whata good about it?
>>25608353dumbfuck retards in here read so little they can't even comment on stuff like this
>>25608353>>25610263Neither can you, you didn't say 1 thing about it, do you read or just seethe?
>>25610263I added it to the list but I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange which will take forever, Mona Lisa Overdrive again, and Vineland. I'm also ilstening to the Cyteen audiobook which will also take forever because I put it on at night as I fall asleep
>>25610263Its good but like George Retard Martin it meanders by like the 3rd book & just fucks around
>>25610397>The Knife (some evil guy or whatever) attempts to rape Ash. She awakes before this occurs and unleashes the dark power within her, killing all but Veys and the Knife once more.Wikepedia makes this sound like the most garbage YA slop. Classic "evil guy about to do something bad, so protagonist who has been trying to awaken their powers, finally conveniently does it when evil guy is close enough to do bad" trope.Sounds stupid as shit.
>>25610416Edgy YA slop*
>>25610259It's a novel premise and a good pulpy adventure. It's too long. It's sometimes off the wall. For instance, the premise is the souls of the dead coming back and possessing people in a far future spacefaring civilisation. And in one chapter, the ghost of Al Capone comes back, and you think it's just for colour, like 'yeah, I guess if all the souls that have ever died are on the other side, some of them will be famous, haha'. But it's not for colour. For the rest of the series notorious gangster Al Capone is the secondary antagonist.
>>25610280He mostly seethes about people here "not reading" nor "discussing books", for he is pagespammer, the destroyer of threads.
>>25610416Teasing rape is always pussy shit. Having it though. That's some actual edge.
>>25610263You being an antagonistic piece of shit over people having not read it isn't making me want to read it.
>>25605156What? But excession is the 5th bookThe first is a bit of a slog, but people usually should start with the second
>>25605650The Night Land
>>25610457>For the rest of the series notorious gangster Al Capone is the secondary antagonist.lol this can't be serious right? the covers make it look like such serious highbrow science fiction
>fantasy inspired by Japanese light and visual novelsanything like this?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdhWrrKcmYg
>>25610503lol, no.You have no idea how bummed out I am not even Nasu can write Nasu anymore. It's just DBZ tier laser slop bullshit.
>>25604586What makes anon here continue reading a story?For me, it is one factor.Initially, the only thing that keeps me reading is the discovery, trying to figure out what is happening from small clues.After that, if I'm not invested, I will drop it.
>>25610602quality
So ima just ask here cuz this is where i saw the series suggested... im almost at the end of book one of the malazan series so if i wanted to read the second book would it be okay to take a quick break and come back or would it be all too likely to forget stuff i needed from the first book to understand what was going on?
>>25609452No really, I have nothing in my immediate backlog that I want to read. I even started a new xianxia last night.>>25610490Culture books are for the most part standalone.
>>25609391Jesus Christ they're 1200+ pages each
>>25610693totally not bloated
>>25610661Bayne Begone!
>>25610457>haha'. But it's not for colour. For the rest of the series notorious gangster Al Capone is the secondary antagonistThat's absurd but it makes me want to read it.>>25610501>lol this can't be serious right? the covers make it look like such serious highbrow science fictionTook the words out of my mouth.
>>25610713Kill yourself for disrupting book discussion.
>>25610457what the fuck
>>25610457That's why I'm probably not going to read anything published prior to his Commonwealth series. I tried reading the books and didn't care enough.
>>25610824Being here is a state beyond death.
>>25609452PLEASE GIVE ME WEIRD RECS.>>25610848I do agree. I wish I could find a nice book discussion forum.
>>25610858Vurt by Jeff Noon
>>25610858How many of those are novels?
This was recommended on jewtube. Should I read this?
>>25610897No, and you shouldn't watch it either.
>>25610897that promotional line is cringe as fuck
r8 my Vance shelf. Been trying to get my hands on Moon Moth but no luck so far. Favourites: Lyonesse, Planet of Adventure books, Eyes of the overworld
>>25610501It's otherwise a vast in scale and complex story with a lot of moving parts and a very well-realised universe. It just sometimes has moments that make you stop and wonder if there's a joke you're missing.
>>25608965damn that wheel of time set is pretty rad
>>25611092Paperbacks are for reading on the toilet and baths. Hardcovers are for shelves.
>>25611119I actually prefer paperbacks, but I see your point.
>>25610114That cover is boring. Is the trilogy as good? I know it's unfinished, sort of.
>>25611163I didn't start the trilogy yet and I'm gonna read a another book or two in-between.
>>25611119>reading on pottysee a doctor
>>25611092What, no The Wankh?
>File 770 publishes an article by Jon del ArrozI knew Mike Glyer was a cuck but this...
>>25611372The nano templar is fun, dumb pulpy SciFi. The author is also deeply, openly anti-woke in his online persona, if that's a pro or con for you. Your thumbnail looks like raw chicken.
>>25611348Part of the Planet of Adventure books :) The renamed thing (Wennek?) is lame.
>>25604586>middle age fiction>guy splits mail after stabbing through it all the way to the coifbooodeathmatch at the end was a bit hard to follow but brutal as fuck
I think worldboooolding is spiritually reddit if you overfocus on it while ignoring the other parts of a story
>>25611415I wonder how Vance reacted when they told him why "wankh" sounds so naughty?
>>25611577I think it depends on the story. If you have a sweeping space opera you need it, because you need to establish what rules everyone in the setting is working by for their actions and motivations to make sense. If you're doing a pulpy adventure then you shouldn't overtly world build, it should be discovered revelatorily by the characters.
>>25611609Oribtsville is better than Ringworld, though. The size and scope of Orbitsville are made plain in the novel, and also because (as with all Shaw novels) it has real characters not carboard cutouts.
>>25611609Story should shape the world, not the other way around.Tolkien made Middle-Earth because he felt like his languages needed reasons to exist. You are never going to be on that level
>>25611680nta LMAO! Imagine there being a categorical imperative of narrative development. It KANT be done.
>>25610890I don't know, most? They're all novels/short stories/novellas. I don't use goodreads to track manga or visual novels.
>>25604586>short movie stuck in production hell after the editor ran out of money>author on suicide watchSequel when?
>>25611760Didn't know Goodreads even had visual novels.
>>25611817lol what
>>25611824they raised 150K dollars for 15 minute short film and filmed it 5 years ago. Apparently, it has Shad and Lindybeige cameos.But they ran out of money during editing and decided not to release it
>>25610457based i'll give it a go
>>25611577>Character focused storyYeah its a detraction>Narrative focused storyIf it sets up the major themes, sets up all the rules and dominos and mysteries and red herrings, then yes the world building is essential. Nothings more reddit than a charactercel complaining about narrativeheads
>>25610457To Your Scattered Bodies Go has a similar idea.
>>25611839narrative focused stories only succeed through their characters. you can't make up for cardboard characters with le hecking awesome lore, because then you might as well just read a wiki entry instead of the fucking book
>>25611850t. never read anything that wasn't made in the last fifty years
>>25611829what the fuckthere have been movies with lower budgets
>>25611861The studio wasn't professional; it was some random board game studio that spent all the budget on freelancers, like they hired a professional choreographer
>>25611867what a misplay
>>25609042In my experience, retirees with good pensions who always wanted to own a bookstore and just barely manage to break even/don't lose so much money that it'll run out before they die.
Reviews are an outdated concept. Use concise manipulative and deceptive hooks or perish.
>>25611922>Reviews are an outdated concept.So is being a novelist. Start making podcasts or go hungry.
>>25608965Where's the shelf of the books this person actually reads? This is a trophy case filled with knickknacks and heavy display copies. Where are the paperbacks?
>>25611961Mass Market Paperbacks have ceased production.
>>25607123His Maiar servants were pale imitations of him. Sauron spent millennia building power and raising armies to fight a tiny remnant of the Noldor and their poor cousins, and ended up being defeated by the armies of Men. Morgoth washed over the mightiest kingdoms of the Noldor like an inexorable tide. Men were nothing before him. Morgoth himself might have suffered defeat and shame, but his tide of evil was unstoppable and required intervention of the Valar. The forces of Middle Earth were sufficient to deal with Sauron. No direct intervention was needed. The Valar had to PERSONALLY lay waste to all of Beleriand to vanquish Morgoth's evil, because it was totally unsalvageable. Compared to that, nothing Sauron did rises above the level of mischief.
>>25611964I believe some authors still make mass market paperbacks, but only if they are sufficiently big names who can actually move them. In most cases, people who bought MMPs switched to ereaders and ebooks. But there are still trade paperbacks that are easier to carry around and read than hardbacks.
>>25611577Authors who think they're too good to world build are the dudebros of SFF, and I despise them and their shallow works. World building without a story is masturbation, but SFF without world building is a bitter, failed screenplay writer trying to salvage his career.
>>25611817Was his book any good?
Finished reading The Expanse. 9 books in this series that covers about 50 years' lapse in the far future where space exploration has reached Mars and the asteroid belt in the Milky Way. It kicks off pretty good, some politics, a mysterious alien menace. Characters struggling with drama and a crisis bigger than they are, the stakes are high but they're only human. This last theme is consistent throughout the series, but it becomes tiring. Eventually you stop giving a fuck about anyone. There's an entire book, number 6, dedicated to the personal growth and emancipation of a character that should be very important later. The next time he is mentioned is one line on the last chapter of the last book (9). It appears to me that the story was supposed to go the direction of phasing out the current cast, for a new batch of characters, who end up meaning nothing at all despite hundreds of pages to their name. I suspect the development and success of the Amazon Prime series is to blame. If you want to read this, you should stop at book 5 and call it a night. Nothing else is worth reading.
>>25610114>le EPIC twist...so what is it?
>>25612040It's about an elderly rape Hitler who tries to commit suicide, but during the suicide gets transformed into a 17-year-old for some reason.He then disguises himself as his own son and befriends his former rape victims.It triggers a lot of people, apparently.
>>25612129>rape rape rapeso thats why the guy on the cover looks like a jeet
>>25612088Frankly I'd say nothing past Book 1 is worth reading.
>>25612182>not using Ty Franckly as the joke
>>25612118>heroes rout villains in final battle>villains simultaneously collapse internally due to individual vices>just desserts for everyone>magic immortal witch king dead for good>impregnable castle seized for first time in history>total victory>total honour>immortal queen they saved from a curse visits them at home>show her all the cool shit they have>absurdly opulent halls full of gemstones and engravings>astoundingly beautiful vistas and gardens>magic immortal horses from Artemis (always stabled, never mentioned before then)>homunculi living in giant globes in private alchemy laboratory (never mentioned before then)>greatest library in the world>treasuries filled with gold and silver bars the size of logs>week of feasting and celebration>eve of king's birthday>melancholic at dinner>"what's wrong my lords?">in the primes of their lives (early 30s)>nothing left to conquer>wtf do we do now, become shepherds?>"I'll supplicate the Gods for anything you wish, as promised">desu I wish our enemies were alive so we could fight them again>"s-sure....">row to a glade in the middle of the night>she prays for what they ask>see the villains alive and their castle whole in a vision>not sure if real, can't sleep>next day, everyone in presence chamber>little tense>"I'm pretty sure you're immortal like me now">u serious?>ambassador interrupts birthday>declaration of war from the villains>just like in the first chapter>turns out we were the worm ouroboros all along....
>>25607930b-b-b-b-b-b-b-based!!
>>25608965WoT is the only real book on that shelf.
>>25611964Not true.
>>25608965goddamn i didnt know big brian had that many books. some of the hardcovers are cool
>>25612129This just sounds like Mushoku Tensei but for chuds instead of pedophiles
>>25612567Ok, most retailers are no longer carrying them and their sales are tiny compared to other form factors.
>>25612129Sounds retarded>>25612535kind of lame>>25612682lol, perfect way to put it
>He chewed with his white and healthy-looking teeth through the unpleasant memories as well as the ham steak. WTF was the author going for with that sentence?
>>25612835adding to the word counttrying his hand at metaphors
>>25612834>>Sounds retardedWell, it is an arrogant Mormon first-time author who tries to answer the question:>can Hitler be redeemed?Gotta admire the balls on that guy.Also, the same guy spent two million Aussie dollars trying to build a castle in an Australian swamp, but it sank.
>>25612844that implies hitler did anything wrong
>>25612850He lost the war and killed himself. How isn't that wrong?
>>25612855>killed himselfoh here we go...
>>25612894>>25612894>>25612894
