The best way to cure brainrot is a good reading of fantasy. Fantasy aids your brain and also helps with other problems like depression. So let's get a thread for the best genre going.Post about well-known authors you like and love.Post about obscure authors you wish others to know.Fantasy adjacent genres like history, horror, mythology, detective tales are welcome too.Feel free to ask for recommendations from other anons.You don't need to post about any system or specific game on this thread. This is purely dedicated to fantasy as a whole.
I will start with a classic.>Very long so immediately cures any form of brain rot be forcing you to focus>In deep and highly detailed world>A message that becomes more relevant every day>Cool editions filled with illustrations and easily accessible both in digital and physical>Comfy as fuck
It's 175 pages.A family fights amongst themselves to rule the greatest city in the universe.Not standard bland like oatmeal fantasy
>>97919219>Fantasy aidsWho fantasizes about getting AIDS?
>>97919410Seems like a blend of sci-fi and fantasy
>>97919540Seems purely like fantasy.
Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu: Souda, Baikoku shiyou is proper fantasy, the pre-1940s kind without magic-as-science or magic-as-religious-allegory. It is more whimsical like Alice in Wonderland or The Princess Bride. It is charming and accessible to females. It might even make you feel good.
>>97919410You can't just read the first book, anon.Then again, all five are only probably around 600. Last time I read them I knocked em out in a few days.
>>97919410I read the first book, it's alright, I like the walking the path thing to unlock powers but couldn't care enough to read the rest of the series.
But sadly it got hijacked by normals
>>97919219My favorite fantasy series is Glen Cook's Black Company.It's not the best writing. In fact, the early novels are downright sloppy. It's predicatable and cheesy. Half the novels? The lore is literally just Hindu mythology. But it's my very favorite every single time I read it. I started reading it in the 90s. We thought the last release we'd ever see was 2011's Port of Shadows, set between the first two novels. Then, only last year, he announced "hey surprise: I finished 4 more novels." There's an RPG coming out from the guys who did Delta Green. It's based in the time between the first and second novel, so I'm not super interested, but still excited that the series is finally getting the attention I've known it deserved for so very long. Back in 2000, I remember having to pirate a Russian copy and machine-translate it into English, because so few people were reading the series that it went outa print within a year of being released, from lack of sales>>97919410That's my very close second favorite. I reread it at least every couple years; the Corwin cycle, at least. I admit I skip Merlin, half the time. Love the series and the ttrpg.
One of the best and one of my least favorite fantasy series is Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy. It's so thoughtful and well written that it prolly transcends genre fiction to be actual literature. It deals thoughtfully with shame, identity, trauma and colonialism. It's genuinely good rather than a beach read. And it's so fucking depressing you'll wanna die. It's not bleak or hopeless or any edgy bullshit. It's sad.
Has anyone read the Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster? I read the first two books a while back and enjoyed them quite a bit.
>>97920145Holy shit I haven't thought of those in... thirty years or so. I read them but can't remember a single thing about them. Thanks anon--I think I'll put them on the list.
>>97919229I'm reading through this for the first time right now and I'm really struck by how different even the opening chapters are. >Bilbo nearly draws his blade on Gandalf during the confrontation over the ring >Frodo is waiting around for Gandalf for like twenty years>the whole mood on the initial outset of the journey is quite different >ALL THIS STUFF with internal Hobbit bickering and 'politics' Tolkien was really built different, man. I wish I'd read these books a decade ago.
I found The short story What Good is a Glass Dagger by Larry Niven a pretty good read.
>>97920145You making me think of novels I read a long time ago reminded me of the Recluse series by LE Modesitt Jr. Apparently it's still ongoing! I musta stopped reading after the 9th one because I don't recognize the rest. I remember seeing his 2nd novel about ghosts in the store and picking up those two. They were really good. I think I never got back to Recluse. But I musta liked it enough that I bothered reading other novels by him.
>>97920145Hahaha Jesus. That's a throw back. I really liked those books. Peak comfy.
I really enjoyed The Belgariad and its followup series. It's nothing special. It's about as schlock as fantasy gets. But it's enjoyable. He also wrote a standalone novel, The Losers, that I thought was really good. AAaaaand then we found out about the decades of child abuse. Pretty hard to want to reread it. Dude is dead though, so you won't be giving him any money if you do.
>>97920196Hobbits are fascinating creatures. I'd be interested to know if anyone went to the Tolkien estate over the years with a pitch for a low-stakes show just about the everyday lives of a Hobbit community, like a fantasy Little House on The Prairie.
The writing in the first two novels of this series is unbearably amateurish and bad. But they taught me how much better smut is than porn. The series moves away from smut by the third trilogy and it stops being as interesting, but it's alright.
I found Sabriel to be a good read. It's a YA novel but not so much that it's not enjoyable for older readers. It's definitely not something like twilight or its many many imitators.I quite liked the magic system (for necromancy) and how it revolves around different bells. The book continues into a trilogy series which i find far less interesting.
>>97919219Good thread. This story leans more sci-fi, i posted this story over in /eadsttcoteg/, to give you an idea, but it's on hand and by a well known fantasy author. He wrote The Last Unicorn, which is one of my favorite books, and the movie's alright too.
>>97920365It's from a collection of his short stories called "The Overneath".
Girl I was sleeping with got me to read these. They're not bad, but jesus christ they lean so hard on the mary sue bullshit. The main character is a baddass assassin. Oh and a fairy. Oh and a wizard. Oh and a princess. Oh and a werewolf. I was promised smut but it's incredibly tame. But, as far as fantasy series go, eh. At least it was long enough to keep me in books for a couple weeks.
>>97920370
>>97920196Wait until you learn that he wrote the entire anthropological dynamics between the Hobbit partying and gifting tradition of giving gift instead of receiving them. Also take your time to enjoy the thing, there's no two like this one. But you will return to read it again anyway.
>>97920376
>>97920375Sounds like a female sword of truth series.
>>97920390I mean it's not THAT bad. But yeah that's about the right idea.
>>97920365Sorry anon, I'd check it out but I can't fucking stand reading books on a screen.
>>97920439Can't say i blame you. I'm not quite fond of it either.>>97920365Now, The Last Unicorn itself is really deserving of attention. I recently got my hands on a 1968 copy of the book, it has a cute story attached that i'll spare you all.Movie is on youtube for free, and is worth watching in addition to reading book.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enq2pFpBz1sIt has a good audio book, read by the author. His accent can be a bit much, but if doesn't bother you, or if you'd rather get used to it than read, then get it while you can.https://litter.catbox.moe/c2akzsxux8jqy8vg.zip
I re-read pic related and the rest of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series a couple of years ago. It was a rare case of a series I read and liked in my early teens and ended up liking as much, though in some ways for different reasons, re-reading it in my thirties. >>97919540It's probably been close to 20 years since I read the Amber books - there was more than one - but from what I remember they were pretty much purely fantasy, no scifi elements.>>97920142Seconding Soldier Son, and really Robin Hobb in general. A great author, all in all.
>>97920375Read the first two books but have to drop it. I don't mind girls having their own corner of literature but that thing is on the same level as most isekai and nothing close to the classical fantasy attempts. The world and everything is extremely tame and the attempts and being edgy fall absolutely flat. Like you said, not even the smut is that smutty. >>97919936Berserk started good. Even in the middle is very decent but started to go off rails at the end. And now Miura passed away and the ending is going to be fanfiction tier. I wish he keep the thing like Guts and his friends go on gritty adventures instead of trying to do the shonen thing of a giant overreaching plot that never seems to land anywhere.
Read Fritz Leiber you pieces of garbage!
>>97920292I could really go for a slice of life hobbit series with an animation style inspired by the likes of Tintin.
>>97920791Goes without saying but if these books are new to anyone I can second this. The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories are really good. They're foundational sword & sorcery and big influences in modern fantasy (they also appear in Gary Gygax's Appendix N, the list of works that influenced the creation of Dungeons & Dragons), but they're also just great stories of two friends who trust and care about each-other going on adventures together. It's like a series of really high-quality buddy adventure movies.
Some might call it slop but I rather enjoyed many of the old Ravenloft novels. "Vampire of the Mists" was very enjoyable.When it comes to reading fiction, I'm really more of a horror person than fantasy. But for fantasy authors, I can strongly recommend Tolkien's entire body of work, including the non Middle Earth ones, as well as Lord Dunsany.There is also "The Book of Lost Things" by John Connoly. Amazing fantasy book. Not really a series and his other books are quite different. But this one is a standout.
I love this series. Slightly uneven but very entertaining. High and low fantasy is both represented here which I find rare. The plot is extremely tight as well.
>>97921073Hell yeah, I read that first omnibus, haven't read the second yet. Some of the best batshit really high fantasy I've read. I wish that everything was in print, I'd like to finish that shit someday.
>>97921005I honestly think that Fafhrd and Grey Mouser have a lot more to do with what d&d is actually like at the table than Conan, Elric or any of the other big hitters.
>>97921099It doesn't end well for any of the characters lol
>>97921024This isn't hot take but Dunsany is one of the best fantasy writers of all time. He's a great example of pre-Tolkien fantasy too, and every bit his equal. His stuff's all public domain but I recommend the Penguin Classics collection. It was put together by S.T. Joshi and he always adds a bunch of footnotes to his stuff, and I appreciate the extra context. Joshi also did Penguin Classic's Lovecraft collections and those are excellent too.Plus it contains my absolute favorite fantasy story, The Relenting of Sarnidac. It's like a 15 minute read if anyone's curious: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/dun/tago/tago19.htmNote: Dunsany is Fantasy in the more classical sense. Modern fantasy tends to have its own tropes and genre conventions. This isn't a bad thing, but readers are expected to know what an elf is, or a dwarf, or whatever. Dunsany (obviously, considering his work predates LotR) exists entirely outside of this framework. His stuff is fantasy in the sense that it's literally fantastical. It takes place in a fantasy world with fantastic gods and characters. Considering Tolkien's outsized influence on the genre, Dunsany's fun to read just to get a taste of fantasy that's totally uninfluenced by him.
Yes, it's a sometimes painful self-insertYes, it's got some questionable sex stuffAnd yes, it's eternally unfinishedBut in spite of all that, you gotta admit - man can write a gripping bard like no other.
>>97921102I'd probably agree. Conan and Elric are both big parts of D&D, but not necessarily of the parts of it you actually see at the table. Conan (and Dying Earth And LotR) were major influences on the Greyhawk setting, and Elric was an obvious and overbearing influence on D&D's cosmology, but Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser actually read as something like a D&D adventure. Plus, if nothing else, The Gray Mouser owns Thief every bit as much as Conan owns Barbarian. He's written all over it and has been since the beginning.
>>97921106Seconding. Lord Dunsany was HP Lovecraft's idol. "Carcassone" is a masterpiece of classical fantasy and my favorite tale from him.
>>97920335I never even got through the first one. At the time it felt like H.P. Lovecraft trying to write erotica and it fell flatter than a loli's chest.Perhaps I should give it another shot, but I honestly can't be arsed.
>>97921162I have known her longer, my smile said. True, you have been inside the circle of her arms, tasted her mouth, felt the warmth of her, and that is something I have never had. But there is a part of her that is only for me. You cannot touch it, no matter how hard you might try. And after she has left you I will still be here, making her laugh. My light shining in her. I will still be here long after she has forgotten your name.
>>97921162I couldn't read more than a couple of chapters because it was so awful. It is a joke that anyone thinks this is well written.
>>97919802If the goal is to cure brainrot I wouldn't scare them off by saying "read these 10 books">>97919540They don't need to be kept separate>>97920054>>97920791>>97921106Very good recommendations.King of elfland's daughter, dread empire are worth checking out too
>>97921498lmao what kind of cuck would ever say that
>>97921473>it felt like H.P. Lovecraft trying to write eroticaOof I don't know that they're THAT bad, but fair enough. But I've enjoyed some of Lovecraft, too. She did get better at writing by the third book.>>97921106Ick I can't stand his writing. Great! he invented another fantastical world where his characters can proclaim dull monologues as the author talks about how delightful he finds himself. I love my eighteenth and nineteenth century literature but Dunsay sucks out loud. His worlds are interesting but he's so fucking self-absorbed tjat it oozes out of every paragraph, which read more like lectures than stories.
>>97920780>Read the first two books but have to drop it.They're not good and they don't get better. They're just easy reads and the whole set was relatively cheap and a few thousand pages means I don't have to buy new books for a while. I promise you didn't miss anything.
>>97919219Ursula LeGuin.
>>97920375>The main character is a baddass assassin. Oh and a fairy. Oh and a wizard. Oh and a princess. Oh and a werewolf.
>>97919219>brainrotKRIS. SUSIE. RALSEI. THREE PEOPLE SMILING. THE PROPHECY. THREE HEROES APPEARED TO BANISH THE ANGEL'S HEAVEN. DECEMBER HOLIDAY. THE ROARING KNIGHT. THE ROARING. THE DEVICE. FRIEND INSIDE ME. DR. WING DING GASTER. HIS DELTARUNE. DON'T FUCKING FORGET.
>>97920142The force feeding fetish one¿? ANON Pls.shame, identity, trauma and colonialismThat's nearly all the fantasy than isn't romantacy or Litrpgs since the 2016, it only lacks gay shit.
>>97922398Anon if you learn to read books you might:A. Know what they're about.B. Be able to construct a legible sentence.
>>97920289Luv the belgariad, simple ass. Its the kind of pastiche done with profesionalism.>>97921162Most overrated junk I ever read, specially the second book.
>>97919219Nah I like my brainrot. My brainrot is going to seep into my fantasy games. My friends are going to enjoy our collective brainrot.
The Tiger & Del novels are fairly light, but I enjoyed them. The Lost Swords series by Fred Saberhagen has a really interesting setup, but I found myself disliking it the more I read. One of the few times I've read something and thought the author must have some weird issue with women.Not sure if it counts as 'fantasy', but Howard Pyle's "Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" was a formative book for me, I've loved it since I was old enough to read.>>97920248I love this short, glad to see it mentioned.>>97920791>>97921005Yes! 'Bazaar of the Bizarre' was the first one I ever read and is probably still my favorite, kinda like "Tower of the Elephant' is my favorite Conan short.
>>97922632> the author must have some weird issue with women.typical catholic
>>97922632>Not sure if it counts as 'fantasy', but Howard Pyle's "Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" was a formative book for me, I've loved it since I was old enough to read.It absolutely, definitely does not.But I am with you. I fucking love Pyle's work. His Robin Hood and his Arthurian stories are some of the best works there are on either tradition. I am halfway through rereading the first volume of his Arthur stories right now. I found a beautiful first edition set of all four volumes that I spent way too much money on. They're really wonderful. I particularly like his treatment of the Sable Knight.
>>97922632>>97922768And bonus round, for anyone unaware, Pyle did these absolutely beautiful lithographs in a calligraphied version of The Lady of Shalott. I have a first edition of this, too, but it's literally falling apart. Like half the pages are off the spine. Some day I'll save my pennies and buy a nicer copy.
>>97922808And, lightning round, you're all prolly familiar w/ Waterhouse's famous painting on the left in pic-related, which is of the Lady of Shalott. But what you might not know is that it was a 3 painting series. Of which I've always though Half Sick of Shadows is the more interesting.
The Earthsea series.
>>97922860I found them boring as hell,the magic system built on true names and balance feels cool and I digged the pseudo-taoism vibe, and that first encounter with dragons in A Wizard of Earthsea actually delivers. But man, does the whole thing drag, ltos of chaff and introspection and the "Epic quest" is like an aftertought.The cultures weren't interesting(oh wow, not Vikings, but lamer; not Chinese/filipines, but again, lamer!) The characters didn't interest me much, and the sheer amount of dragons made them less and less special until I was annoyed by them. Which is a shame, because at first they were interesting. But it got more and more Mary Sue(yeah, that's right, this school of magic for men, was made by women!) Interesting ideas, but I loathe the execution, specially in the last book wich felt like Le Guin taking a big fat shit in the first trilogy.
I find that Thieves' World is becoming more and more slept on (they need a modern printing). A shared world collection of stories that was actually inspired by roleplaying games at the time. The author said he wanted a city where you could imagine Conan and Elric and Fafhrd and Grey Mouser all having adventures at the same time. It's multiple authors, so the stories can be hit or miss, but the first two collections are pretty excellent.
>>97922991Fuck, forgot my pic. Look at this fucking cover! Badass as hell!
>>97922860I just started these and I'm undecided on it. So far I'm enjoying the spooky cult at the beginning of book 2 more than book 1 (although the other Anon is right that that first dragon encounter in book 1 was very cool). If nothing else, the books are short, so I imagine I'll stick with them unless I become terribly offended. They've been on my list forever just because they show up on so many "best fantasy" lists.
Tanith Lee's Tales from the Flat Earth are really dope.
I mean, if you want old-school fantasy.
>>97924366And if you’re looking for a fantasy-comedy. Here’s another recommendation. From Classical Greece.
>>97922585I stopped half-way through the second book when I realized there were no cool powers yet. What a waste of time and money.
>>97924366>>97924388Calling these "fantasy" is nonsense. Fantasy is a genre of popular fiction that arose in the 1950s and 60s. Or you can argue it starts in the 19th century if you're really stupid because it absolutely doesn't.
>>97921162Someone recommended me this book before and I thought I was getting trolled IRL but the guy was genuine. I didn't have the heart to tell him he had such bad taste in books I thought less of him.
>>97924662NTA but I don't think this thread is in much danger of hitting the bump limit so we really don't need the semantics flame war. Genres themselves are squishy and difficult to pin down anyway. You could--and, I'm sure, would--argue about the definition of fantasy for the rest of the thread.
>>97924662> magical creatures Check> heroic characters Check> fantastical locationsCheck> question/journey tropesCheck> sorcery/magicCheckSounds like fantasy to me. I think you might just be a snob.
>>97924715NTA, but it's more that the phonefag is deliberately missing the point of the thread to try and look smart, or else to bait autists for (you)s.
>>97924734NTA but by this take there is no distinction between Frieren, (some) urban legends and the Epic of Gilgamesh.I think fantasy as a narrative genre IS a modern thing, altough it's not a hard distinction by any means. Would pretty dumb to use Tolkien as a divide, anyway.
This one is fantasy technically, but its themes are not heroic, but more spiritual and personal. I recommend it so much, probably not for everybody, but im sure it will change more than one life
>>97919490Fantasy AIDS is the werewolf shit from Harry Potter
>>97924872Stop being a faggot. This thread is to recommend fantastical stories to other anons to help feed eachothers imaginations.
>>97923005So that's where this game's cover was from
>>97923005They look like they're about to recruit me into the 3rd reich
>>97924734>I think you might just be a snob.That's because you're an idiot. A genre isn't a list of parts.
>>97924870>knows the difference between modern pop culture movements and thousand year old books>"look smart"Anon, pointing out that you're a fucking retard isn't me attempting to "look smart." Jesus christ that's a low bar.
>>97920335what do you see as the difference between smut and porn?
>>97920248>>97922632>What Good is a Glass Dagger?Two recs is enough for me. Is this available as an ebook anywhere? I'd buy it (or the The Magic Goes Away collection) if I could, but all I'm finding is paperbacks. Reminds me of Battle Circle. My dad loves those books, and I loved them as a kid, but they never made the jump to digital.
>>97920362The Bell, Book and Candle is actually from a real excommunication rite.And an exorcist may also use such implements.
>>97925599I learned this from Wizardry
>>97925414There are plenty of differences. There are also similarities. One similarity is that they're all fantasy. Fucking ape.
>>97920375I read these books to have something to talk about with my wife. They have issues, but the later 4 books are all fun classic fantasy (first four are less good). The main girl is indeed a Mary Sue, but as long as you go into the books knowing you aren't the target audience, it's got a lot of fun mystery, world building, and fantasy locals/fights.Her extended universe of books also all tie together in a Cosmere-esque way.Also the male characters are surprisingly well written and pretty masculine, Dorian and Rowan and Lorkan are all based.
>>97924160I read the first three books a couple of years ago. Sadly I couldn't get my hands on Delirium's Mistress or Night's Sorceries then. Night's Master, Death's Master and Delusion's Master all definitely were really dope, though.>>97924662>Calling these "fantasy" is nonsense. Fantasy is a genre of popular fiction that arose in the 1950s and 60s.I see, I see, so Robert E. Howard didn't write fantasy because he was too early? I don't think your definition of the fantasy genre is going to be accepted by anyone except yourself, anon.
>>97920703I've read the first book. I didn't really like how the followers of the Christianity inspired religion were portrayed to not be particularly good people. The troll ia a pagan who's consistently portrayed to be nice and kind and tolerant, and the monks of the 'true' faith are all at best bigoted at worst traitorous hypocrites.
>>97922632>Marion Zimmer BradleyEeeesh. That's an endorsement that didn't age well.
I haven't read this guys newest stuff but I loved this series as a kid
>>97926084>I didn't really like how the followers of the Christianity inspired religion were portrayed to not be particularly good people.That's not an impression I remember getting. There are both villains and heroes from most cultures presented in the book, and I don't think the main human religion was portrayed as particularly bad. The troll's tolerant, sure, but so was Doctor Morgenes, and their tolerance has less to do with either of their religions and more to do with their membership in the League of the Scroll, which as an order of scholars from multiple different cultures naturally draws in open-minded people. Founder of that order was of the "Christian" culture, and there are also a couple of priests of that religion (Father Dinivan, Father Strangeyard) who are fairly prominent characters and very clearly good guys.
>>97926131During Simons journey before he meets the troll, one of the first people to stab him in the back is a monk trying to collect the reward money on his head. Maybe I've just become sensitive in my age, given how explicitly hostile more recently published fantasy books are towards religion.
>>97926096So good. He never wrote a bad bookNo love for the Drizzt stuff here? Huh.
>>97926498
>>97926149That sounds like leaping to pretty far-reaching conclusions based on very little, to be honest. Simon himself is an Aedonite, as are Dr. Morgenes, Prince Joshua, Princess Miriamele, whatever the mistress of the kitchens taking care of Simon was called...do they seen unsympathetic to you? The monk's,a former mobk, a scam artist, not a member of any order, and again, the Leagye of the Scroll, which is very much good guy group, was founded by an Aedonite and has several Aedonite members.
I hate comedy but these were good.
>>97919219Traditional games?
>>97926149how trigger happy can you be?religious people don't deserve happiness
>>97920703i had the first 2 books when i was a kid and they were some of my favourite fantasy books. I kept looking for the rest for years but couldn't find them anywhere in my small town.Read them a few years later when i was finishing uni. it didn't disappoint
>>97926668Reading fantasy has always helped my fantasy based make believe games.
>>97920196Yes then you get "bumbly bombaliy boo I am le magic reddit walking talking mod"
>>97926668RPG's exist thanks to fantasy stories and people wanting to play their favorite novels, this is just a fact. They're part of the hobby as much as miniature painting is.
>>97920703>Memory, Sorrow and ThornIneluki did nothing wrong.
>>97920289Belgariad was great, but Elenium topped it I think. Yeah there was child abuse, but he also did time in prison for it.
>>97927058He was on the losing side, twice. That's doing it wrong. More seriously, though, Ineluki was a great example of an antagonist who was genuinely tragic and sympathetic but also pretty straightforwardly someone who needed to be stopped. I think Memory, Sorrow and Thorn in general was pretty good at having more nuance than black-and-white good and evil while still taking a stance on who was in the right and who in the wrong in the present conflict instead of going all grey and cynical.
Ballad of the White Horse by Chesterton, it's not fantasy but it's pure kino.
>>97927073True, though as highlighted when the Sithi were fighting the Norn Queen his plan was essentially perfect, there was nothing they could have done to stop it and it was luck that it fell apart.I remember disliking Miriamele though, consistently throughout the entire series. Sithi princess was much cuter, I liked the Sithi in general really, Williams managed to sell me on the elves being genuinely inhuman in their own way.
>>97927100Yeah, Sithi and the Norn and the third, mistreated part of their people whose name I seem to have forgotten were all pretty cool. Miriamele was annoying in the same way as, Simon was, I thought, in that they were both dumb-ish teens and obviously less mature than the other characters.
>>97927124Simon grew up much faster than she did. Right to near the end of the last book she was still way behind. Maybe she's better in the sequel series, I don't know. Haven't read it.
>>97922585Seco d was definitely a downgrade, but has some really cool stuff too (Felurien's realm especially, and the various stories surrounding it). >>97924707>>97921597Fair enough. Your loss tho. >>97924536See I preferred the mire subtle "magic", like being able to play an insanely difficult music piece on a broken lute, or the hell he wrought on those edema imposters (it was really just swordplay). I liked the suggestion that he's actually just heavily embellishing real events, that the true magic is in the tale and its telling. >>97920703I didn't finish TDC cuz I wasn't particularly attached to any of the characters and the story seemed to be taking a lull around the burned village, but that whole sequence underneath the castle was fantastic, in both the literal and complimentary sense.
>>97923005The first Thieves' world anthology is really fantastic
I'm almost all the way through the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I've liked the series as a whole so far, though I think I'd be pretty picky about who I recommend them to. The writing has some pretty clear strengths and weaknesses. Pros:>rich worldbuilding and cosmologyThe author is an arthropologist and I think it shows in how the various cultures in the world interact with each other, across time and space, and how they interact with their gods, who are based on a sort of tarot-like system with people being drafted into positions under the gods throughout the story>it's finishedThe author (and one of his fellow players in the GURPs campaign that inspired the series) is still putting out other works in the series universe, but the main story is complete. No GRRM or Rothfuss shenanigans.>intricate plottingThe author has a shitton of characters with various motivations, and it seems like there's a payoff in every book. Individual character arcs might sputter and die along with the character, but each book typically ends up with a pile up of machinations that somehow resolve beautifully.>cool magic systemMagic users in this system tend to draw power from either alternate dimensions associated with an "element" roughly corresponding to the domain of a god or get it from spirits in the wolrd itself. Generally a person will have aptitude in one particular "warren" as they're called, and it can be overt (being able to cast storms of chaos like a wizard's spell in a game) or subtle (someone with aptitude in the domain of luck might accidentally stumble just in time for a crossbow bolt to whiz past his or her head), but not everyone is able to draw from it. I also like that it has "realistic" magical warfare in that battles involving mages usually involve each side trying to neutralize the other's magic users before committing to an attack
Cons:>every character is a philosopherJust about every single point of view character will spend pages philosophizing on the nature of war or on love or on whatever other subject they happen to be thinking about, from the lowest slave to the various god kings that show up. I found my eyes glazing over a bit in the midsection of a few books because of this>time investmentPartly due to the above, they're doorstoppers. The "short" ones in the series still top out at 800 pages for a mass market paperback.YMMV>charactersThere are a metric fuckton of characters, with story threads scattered about between many factions on three separate continents and sometimes in parellel dimensions. Some are easier to read than others, and the author does a decent job of getting you attached to the "important" ones despite any given character being able to die at any moment, including ones you'd think had plot armor.
>>97919410Isle of the Dead was really good too>>97919936Berserk is okay but it has the same problem later versions of it has - a big edgy opening that ultimately is pointless except for establishing that it's 'not like other shonen'. If it wasn't for Miura's amazing art and Japan's general lack of western tropes at the time of release it'd be some chuuni garbage no one remembers.That and the huge pauses because he couldn't stop gooning to gachas is still funny>>97920275There's so many of these books. I got given 20+ modesitt books. They're okay but maddeningly generic in some places.>>97920335I don't remember this book at all but i remember reading it. That's all.I know they're a bit YA trashy, but I love the valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey since they run the gamut from 'psychic assassins that work for the king' to 'young paladin girl can't decide between hot gryphon or elf boyfriend'
>>97927405>Just about every single point of view character will spend pages philosophizing on the nature of war or on love or on whatever other subject they happen to be thinking about, from the lowest slave to the various god kings that show up. based and greektheaterpilled
>>97927140Tad Williams is good but SLOW, he takes his time to make you like the characters and its planting things than will only blossom in the next books. I really liked those books, not very powerful/common magic, but its powerful when used, the different monsters were cool, not OP but also not just chaff, I used a few of them in my games (the burrowers ones specially), and the Sidhe were interesting, cool cultures than felt like that. The Norns specially have a very Evil Fey vibe than is hard to find done well.
>>97927527Norns not getting POV chapters (except maybe one or two with Utuk'ku?) and Ingen Jegger sort of being their primary representative in the story no doubt helped keep the Norns mysterious, which is important for that Evil Fey vibe.
>>97927634I agree, the later books we learn a lot more about the Norns and they society, but the Original trilogy they had a very powerful aura of mistery and danger to them.
>>97927091 "You sing of the young gods easily In the days when you are young; But I go smelling yew and sods, And I know there are gods behind the gods, Gods that are best unsung. "And a man grows ugly for women, And a man grows dull with ale, Well if he find in his soul at last Fury, that does not fail. "The wrath of the gods behind the gods Who would rend all gods and men, Well if the old man's heart hath still Wheels sped of rage and roaring will, Like cataracts to break down and kill, Well for the old man then— "While there is one tall shrine to shake, Or one live man to rend; For the wrath of the gods behind the gods Who are weary to make an end. "There lives one moment for a man When the door at his shoulder shakes, When the taut rope parts under the pull, And the barest branch is beautiful One moment, while it breaks. "So rides my soul upon the sea That drinks the howling ships, Though in black jest it bows and nods Under the moons with silver rods, I know it is roaring at the gods, Waiting the last eclipse. "And in the last eclipse the sea Shall stand up like a tower, Above all moons made dark and riven, Hold up its foaming head in heaven, And laugh, knowing its hour. "And the high ones in the happy town Propped of the planets seven, Shall know a new light in the mind, A noise about them and behind, Shall hear an awful voice, and find Foam in the courts of heaven. "And you that sit by the fire are young, And true love waits for you; But the king and I grow old, grow old, And hate alone is true."
>>97925590Dunno, I've never gone in for e-books. I prefer paperbacks, especially anthologies (which is how I encountered the story in the first place).Speaking of anthologies, Isaac Asimov's Worlds of Fantasy collection is fantastic- it's 12 books of short stories, each one all based around a theme (Like knights, wizards, fairies, dragons, etc). If you can find any I highly recommend picking up a couple volumes.>>97924388Speaking of Fantasy-Comedy, I think we'd be remiss not to mention the entire Discworld series. I also like the Xanth novels by Piers Anthony, up to Isle of View or so (after that the joke started getting pretty tiresome to me). >>97926149I know what you mean. I'm not particularly religious, but at the end of the Sword of Truth series (I know, I know, I apparently have masochist tendencies), I literally rolled my eyes and made the jerk off motion when the Bad Guy Empire got transported to Earth and founded Christianity with their fake memories.
Got back into reading a lot fantasy these last few years.>David Gemmell My favorite fantasy author as of now; despite his habit of writing about the same thing (father/son dynamic, which is quite understandable when you read up about his life). Lots of focus on flawed heroes, redemption, and the clear cut between good and evil. His stories and character have a lot of "heart", prose is very to the point and flows very well. He wrote quite a few novels, so my overall recs' are>>Rigante series (4 volumes, very weak final but worth a read)>>Druss the Legend trilogy>>Waylander trilogyI still have to read the other Drenai cycle books, he also wrote a trilogy about the Troy war (though he died from a heart attack before finishing the last one, his wife ended up completing it); a duology about Alexander the greatHe also wrote "The Hawk Queen", two books, his worst imFor French/french speaking anon>Noon du Soleil noirGreat sword & sorcery trilogy about a mysterious wizard and his bodyguard building a business in a strange city. First person narration, very esoteric and strange bits thanks to the very old school depiction of magic and out of body experience; and some nice sketch illustration throughout all three novels>Le Bouffon de la CouronneTrilogy to be finished, first volume was out last year, second volume bound to release this summer, and I recall that the author announced a third. About a member of a religious clergy who ends up becoming a jester for the king after making a fool of himself during an important dinner. Not a lot of magic besides the very obvious flying castle in which most of the novel takes place. The main character starts out a bit of a whiny bitch, but he is still an oddly endearing lad, despite the shitty things he ends up doing.
>>97928807>Blacktongue thief/daughter warsneat duology, a bit edgy, but it had a lot of touching moments which worked well on me. Daughter wars was definitely the best between the two.>>97920289 I finished the first volume of the Belgariad; feels like a very "by the book" fantasy story, but it somehow works; very clear cut archetype and narration, entertaining nonetheless; I really like Polgara and I wonder if her standalone book is worth picking up. Rough to hear about the child abuse though damn.On my reading pile I have quite a few stuff, any comment/suggestion on what to pick up among those once I'm done with a compilation of short medieval horror stories?>Peake Gormenghast series>Glenn Cook Black Company>Wheel of Time (first two volume)>Elric Cycle, by MoorcookAs a bonus, stuff that I would recommend skipping, or getting into if you really have NOTHING else to read >The Band, by Nicholas EamsFell for the recommendation on some forum, I can't really say that it was good, but I still finished both novels. It was trying a bit too hard to be funny at times, and the second volume was even worse. Felt like a straight up tabletop group game session, and not in a good way. >Maleficient Seven, by Cameron JohnstonA bit like above, it was a random suggestion, and the pitch sounded fun, a group of 7 generals who were serving a warlock are back to working together, but well it was pretty bad too; very cliched character and very edgy with an overt focus on gore.>Orcs, Stan NichollsAs above, very promising pitch, following an orc company following an evil ruler, but ends up becoming a mcguffin quest. I still have a soft spot for it I guess, it being the first fantasy novel I picked up when I was a teen, but the follow up series is even worst.>Sword of truthtrainwreck of a series, starts of as standard fantasy stories, with some neat worldbuilding bits, ends as a not!Ayn Rand objectivist pamphlet, and an impressive amount of rape.
>>97928860>trainwreck of a series, starts of as standard fantasy stories, with some neat worldbuilding bits, ends as a not!Ayn Rand objectivist pamphlet, and an impressive amount of rape.For some reason I started (also stopped) reading Sword of Truth with Naked Empire rather than from the beginning. The reason was probably that Naked Empire was the volume my local library had available when I was visiting the library - when I was young, I fairly often just picked whatever volume of a series was on the shelf and went with it. It was one of the very few novels I've just dropped instead of finishing. Just an absolutely atrocious book. It's not just the objectivist philosophy the writer had picked up from Ayn Rand, from what I remember, but he seemed to be trying to outdo Atlas Shrugged in how preachy and heavy-handed one could be in espousing that philosophy and how stark one could make the divide between the perfect objectivist superman characters and the monodimensional loser villain characters.
>>97928887I was recommended sword of truth by my eighth grade English teacher, I look back and wonder what the fuck she was thinking. Good teacher, though, also recommended me some good stuff, but, sword of truth, damn.
>>97928997I think that was around the same age where I started them, on my dad recommendation lmao, he had a pretty big fantasy collection and it was among his favorite, I still give him shit for it. The first volume really takes a nose dive once it become a bdsm fanfic for like, 50/70 pages
>>97927140>your loss tho.It literally was. I read the first book and I will never get that time back.
Bujold's Penric and Desdemona series of short stories/novellas. Guy gets possessed by a demon that he learns to tame and becomes a pseudo detective.
>>97929051Not the anon you're replying to, but I thought that the first book at least was a promising start to the series. The second book was the one that was a massive, steaming pile of shit to me. I do also have a pretty low bar for liking literature (I liked Wheel of Time, for example).
>>97928997Yeahhhhh... a college roomate recommended it and handed me the first book and I couldn't even finish the first hundred pages. I threw it back into his room with disgust. And this is coming from someone who read all the way through the first ten books of Wheel Of Time in high school. Ugh. All this talk about that shit is bringing up memories. I need to go fucking bathe and do something fun for a while.
>>97929128Bujold is one of the few authors whose sheer fucking SKILL at the craft is terrifying to me. You can just spend eight hours in a day reading and not even notice it, and it's just effortless for her. The Vorkosigan saga is easy as breathing.
>>97928860>>97928807Nice recs, and I agree with you in some takes (the orcs one tough, I didn't like it, the band was cringeworthy and I couldn't finish the first book and I love the Drenai books).I would recomend to you two series.Cristopher Rowley, the Broketail books. The pitch is this, a pair of a dragon (2 tonnes, no fly, a few breeds of them etc) and his dragon boy (basically a squire/goofer, it repairs the armors and keeps the swords of the dragon in tip top conditions) want to be recruited in the Dragon legions, the setting is high fantasy, with big magics, and differents kinds of beings,but the war stuff is quite down to earth, mostly fought with bows and swords and some magic to spice it up.The other is the Under the Northern Sky Series be Leo Carew. Its sold as Game of thrones esque, but no, it has some intrigue, but the vibe is very different. A lot more melancholic. Its about an alternate earth, with neanderthal/nephilim like people than are a bit bigger than humans (and kind of autistic) than fight vs the Humans of the kingdom of England using they legions (wich is bascially the core of they society). I really liked the ending, it has some rough parts, but plenty of fighting and I would loved the not-nephilim would be more explored.
>>97928860Wheel of time is not worth the time spent reading it. I think I got 8 books into it and it was never that good. I only read them at the behest of a friend.
>>97929574It's true. On the other hand, you did read eight books... It's a fairly mediocre bubble gum fantasy. Its sprawls, but it's at least mindless fantasy that isn't actively repulsive.... other than the fucking constant and insane misandry.
>>97920791are the comics alright?
>>97929636I liked them.
>>97929615I did but only because my friend kept urging me to read them. They are not good and probably the biggest waste of time I ever spent on the fantasy genre. And I read Xanth books.
>>97929643I'm just really into thieves guild shit but too lazy to read a book atm. Loved first Locke Lamora, got a hundred pages into the 2nd then stopped for no reason, gonna pick that up again.My recommend for the thread: The lies of Locke Lamora. Just so entertaining and the worldbuilding is light and fun, just a breeze. Good way to get back into reading. If you have any interest in fantasy con artists that is.
>>97929128Luv Bujold, the only author wich I can read about his gay characters and I don't get sick of them and throw the book out. >>97929319She is very good, the sheer personality of each character is great, and her humor is top tier. Miles will ever be one of my prefered characters. Forward Momentum!>>97929574Wheel of time would have been pretty good if it was condensed in half the books, Good worldbuilding, some cool characters and a neat history. But gods the Aes sedai...
>>97929636They're fine, DC I think recently put out a complete collection. There aren't nearly enough of them imo, never took off the way Conan did.
>>97929615Did you read Wheel of Time or watch it? The message of the books when it came to gender was "both genders are retarded in their own ways and need each other for balance". The show was retarded Yas Queen Slay shit so I could see the confusion if you'd only watched it.
>>97919219Any fa/tg/uys recommendations for horror? Bonus point if horror combined with adventure or gothic stuff. I just love haunted castles like Dracula a lot man.
>>97930059The books don't do that theme a good service to be frank. Almost every single woman in the book is a cunt of the highest order and maybe half the time they get slapped for it. Most of the male characters dont act like retarded assholes to the women besides the occasional eyeroll here or there when they are talking. The contrast between how the men and women are handled in these books is why alot of people see it as misandrist drivile. Also I hate how so much of the problems in the books would be solved by a simple conversation between a few characters.
>>97919219I liked reading Legends & Lattes
>>97930360>all of the women are shrill harpies who need a good spanking>all of the men are normal and level headed>this means the writer hates menDon't understand the logic there.>Also I hate how so much of the problems in the books would be solved by a simple conversation between a few characters.This is correct and also kind of the point. The world is where it is because of some idiotic decisions made with no communication.
>>97920142Its an interesting world and all, but I couldn't fucking finish these. I felt like I was promised a much more interesting story than I got, and I dragged my feet to the end of the first book knowing that there were two more to come. But like a third of the way into book 2 after the MC reverted back to his most pathetic self AGAIN and lost everything due to magical bullshit that even after 500 fucking pages he refuses to even believe is real (mother fucker you have had battles in the shamanistic dream realm TWICE how the fuck can you still be in denial about this? Just fucking TELL SOMEONE WHATS GOING ON YOU STUPID FUCK) I gave up. I read a wiki article on the last two books to see if it ever went anywhere and god fucking damn have I never been happier to have dropped a series. All i missed were two books of misery porn where the guy does nothing, accomplishes nothing, and gets shit on for it relentless while also in the background something ~political~ happens.
>>97926992You shut your mouth about old hey doll merry doll ringadong dillo old tom jolly tom tom bombadillo
>>97930691>Don't understand the logic there.The logic is that that huge parts of the stories are dedicated to the shrill harpies who continue to act like shrill harpies the entire book with no development. Any time you think there might be development they revert back to being cunts the next book. Some times they are vindicated in their cunt behavior or even rewarded. I mean Nyvene or whatever her name is gets to be the strongest female magic user ever, gets a hot macho man of her dreams who is also super subservient to her (he literally becomes her slave) and more all the while being the cuntiest of cunts to ever be a cunt. The reader is subjected to these harpies and their pov over and over again. Also the men don't act level headed they mostly act like push overs who just roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders and keep putting up with the horrible cunts. >This is correct and also kind of the pointIt may be the point but it's really bad writing when a entire book wouldn't happen if two characters just talked to eachother.
>>97925440Smut is writing. Porn is pictures or videos. That's what I mean by the difference between the two, when I say>they taught me how much better smut is than porn
>>97930066Necroscope is a fun read, Fevre Dream is another good vampire novel. Those Across the River for a newer werewolf tale.
>>97930719That's a fair assessment of them, yeah. If you're gonna read Fantasy, Hobb is one of the better authors out there. Farseer and Liveship are certainly more fun reads. I think Soldier Son is her best writing, but I can't fault you for putting it down as>misery pornIt is.
>>97927446>I got given 20+ modesitt books. They're okay but maddeningly generic in some places.If you like him at all, give his Ghost Of trilogy a read. It's whodunnit in an alternate world where ghosts physically exist. They're good. And the fact that I know I've read at least 6 of the Recluse books and can't tell you one single thing about them is testament to the fact that they are pretty generic. To be fair it was like twenty years ago that I read them, but still.
>>97931144See, these were the first Robin Hobb books I ever picked up. Got them at a garage sale as a bundle. I cannot for the life of me imagine ever willingly touching another Robin Hobb book, these poisoned the well for me on that author basically forever. Why did we spend the *entire first book* going through the trials and tribulations of the cavella academy and the politics of it and setting up a cast of characters and relationships and goals and so on if within the first 100 pages of the next book he's been booted in disgrace, will never even become the below-his-station scout cavella the first book was constantly hinting he would end up as, and literally everything I mentioned of the above is gone forever never to return? The first book works in a vacuum as an extended prologue to get the MC to a point where he can be assigned to the frontier and actually engage with his demons and understand whats going on, even being aware of the shaman dream magic that is ruining his country's shit in ways they don't even know are happening, and have to fight the taken-soul version of himself. It takes a long, slow route to an interesting place where an interesting story can be told. And then the second book just... turns the first book into a massive waste of my time. Not just because I didn't get the story I felt was being set up, but because all of that craft and detail work has NO RELATION to anything that comes after, it literally doesn't fucking matter it was 90% filler outside of the very beginning and the very end.
Anyone like T.E.D. Klein's Dark Gods? It's horror but it has fantasy elements to it. I loved this book when I was a teenager.
>>97919219Robin Hood looking ass niggas.
>>97931750People still using this lame slang bores me to tears, when will the culture evolve a little.
>>97932281Don't you ever get tired of being a whiny ass nigga? Evolve a little my man.
>>97919219Is this Deliverance II?>"My dear Sam, do you remember that little pig owned by Ted Sandyman? Can you remember how it squealed?">"Yes Mr. Frodo. But if you don't mind me saying, sir, is now really the time to discuss that?""I'm afraid so, Sam."
>>97931110I would prefer something more focused on the monsters. I'm a bit jaded at the stories where normies are the main characters.
>>97933761Well, check out literotica's nonhuman section. There's no shortage of decent smut on it for just about any fetish. There are even genuinely good, published authors who put stories up there semi-anonymously.
>>97928141>I literally rolled my eyes and made the jerk off motion when the Bad Guy Empire got transported to Earth and founded Christianity with their fake memories.Wait what? Holy shit that's great(ly bad). I'm somewhat critical of religion myself, but I thought it was mighty silly to have a fully realized satan stand in whilst fedora tipping away any notions of a creator. I actually read the whole series, up til part way through the last book, whereupon I felt it had long turned boring and set it down, never to be read again. That's a wacky ending, I might need to finish it.God, that must have been more than 17 years ago. Memory tells me that the forst, second, and #6 Faith of the Fallen were good, though that could be in part due to my then teenage brain.
>>97928141Xanth is terrible upon rereading them.
