Thread #25093629
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Epstein (drive) Edition
>Old:
>>25085570
>Recommended reading charts (Look here before asking for vague recs):
https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/4rAmSZxb
>Archive:
https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg
>Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg
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>last book you’ve read
>current read
>next book you plan to read
>The Blade Itself
>Before They Are Hanged
>The final first law book
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>>25091834 #
From The Warrior Prophet:
>“You,” a young Galeoth man at his side said. Where had he come from? His eyes flashed in wonder, but something about the broken light made his face lurid. His lips looked wanton and feminine, the black hollow of his mouth promising. “You travelled with him. You’re his first disciple! His first!”
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Thoughts on KJ Parker?
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>>25093725
He wrote a licensed Conan novel called The Road of Kings that's pretty good too. The prose isn't as good as the Howard books, but it manages to tell an interesting story that fits the themes of the original works.
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Books for this feel?
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>>25093760
try asking in the thread for brown people >>25092906
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I finished White-Luck Warrior.
Overall it was pretty good, I think I liked it more than The Judging Eye. However Prince of Nothing trilogy is still better so far.
My favorite new characters is Cleric and of course Sarl, eh lads? eh?
I was really disappointed that Sorweel went full turbocuck, that scene was a bit too much.
I like Achamian a lot in this second series though.
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>>25093834
If you would consult the chart, please
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>>25093834
I think you mean grimdark. I’m not even sure what we call dark fantasy anymore. Aren’t most fantasy books that involve wars technically dark? Even the lighter war focused books include women and children being killed.
Take the Farseer Trilogy for example, it’s considered one of the lighter series and yet there’s a baby who gets brutally killed by mindless zombie people in book 2?
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>>25093834
It's something that generally has elements from the horror/gothic genre such as vampires but like all definitions of fantasy it's nebulous. Grimdark is a subgenre maybe that is more about the rape, swearing violence and more of a themes of cynicism and nihilism but dark fantasy does not mean it has to be dark, scary or brutal. Adams Family or Death from Discworld could be considered dark fantasy but with more light hearted elements.
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>>25093734I've never read a Conan book
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>>25093845
>I’m not even sure what we call dark fantasy anymore
Neither am I. Couldn't find a decent dark fantasy story for the life of me. It's all just normal fantasy but with rape and swearing.
I couldn't care less for ASoIaF because it's incomplete.
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>>25094080
Children will never appreciate giant robots fighting on the level that I do. Unless they grow up to be smart like me.
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>>25093782
I found the last two books to be the better part of the second series. I've read the first series and the last two books of the second, but always found the first two to be too much of a slog.
The final book is sort of a rushed mess, but it has so much cool stuff going on that I don't really mind. You get to see Our Mostly Holy Aspect Emperor and Warrior Prophet a lot more.
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Is it just me, or do sci-fi and fantasy writers have a real problem with writing heros as hyper analytic autism bots, and never having people with real wisdom. I am not saying the former cannot be good characters, but it's sort of a trope now. Even loose sci-fi like Red Rising has hyper analysts as all the "smart" characters. And the super computer autist kid is definitely a trope.
Whereas, I am having a hard time coming up with a genuinely wise figure like Gandalf I can recall from recent fantasy or sci-fi, or someone like Dante's Virgil or Beatrice.
To my mind, it's a bit of lack of imagination. Why would things like omni competent AIs and aliens be limited by discursive analysis instead of being Laozi or Saint Maximos tier sages? Is it just that the latter is harder to write?
I can see why it would be harder to write first person, but third person doesn't seem undoable.
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>>25094112
Writing smart characters is hard because smart people in real life often make logical/intuitive leaps that, if written in a story, just come across as a total asspull. You simply can't write a realistic smart characters because having your character solve the plot because an apple fell on their head seems retarded.
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>>25094171
I should probably elaborate on that. I've only read this, the emperor's soul, mistborn era 1, and about 400 pages of TWoK. I actually took a break after part 1 of WoK to start secret history and it was like seeing the iceberg but in fewer words.
It's crazy how Sanderson can say (or progress) so little in so many pages. Some sections feel excessively long, and when he writes novellas he's actually forced to be concise and it results in stories that maintain the same quality throughout rather than just spiking at the end at the climax, or the "sanderlanche." I think the setting is more interesting than its individual stories. I'll probably finish Way of Kings, but I'm gonna take a break and read someone else after despite getting the first 3 SA books for Christmas.
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>>25094252
>>25094144
Good points, but I think it's more than that. Particularly with hard sci-fi, Watts and Reynolds, or Bakker as well, the authors seem very wired into a particular philosophical tradition.
Analytic philosophy of mind is still very hot on computational theories of mind (or Bayesian brains) despite them having all sorts of huge problems (such as pancomputationalism in physics rendering the thesis trivial, or there being no way to explain how something computes so hard it feels or understands). On these views, insight and understanding are reducible to data analysis and consciousness and any noetic component to understanding (i.e., real understanding, not just deducing conclusions from inputs) is spooky woo woo, or extra baggage from natural selection.
A lot of writers don't hold to quite so reductive an ideology, but the general empiricist psychology.
You also have to keep in mind the general therapeutization of psychology, ethical education, and philosophy itself. Everything is about maximizing the needs of the self. It's means-ends reasoning all the way down. Beauty and goodness, any value, is a sort of mirage or just inchoate impulse rising to the surface. So it's all suspect.
And people of a very different orientation still embrace this stuff because it supports voluntarism. If everything that actually matters spawns in our head, then *we* decide all meaning and value, and we're something like little copies of Ockham's God of sheer will, just a bit more constrained in the input side of the equation.
So, I think it just maps a more general thing in the culture. Aesthetic and values anti-realism seem very popular with the younger generations, either because they believe them or because liberalism has taught them that such things are "private" and so ultimately irrelevant outside of something like "taste."
Wisdom is subtractive and intuitive. It’s the ability to see what matters amidst the noise of the world. Analysis is additive. You describe the inputs and then the conclusion. The latter is way easier to write. It's particularly easier to write if you're pushing an ideology where all insight and wisdom is a mirage because nothing *really* matters. Gandalf is a counter example because Gandalf *knows* Sauron is evil in a non-liberal way—not because he isn't maximizing utility and respecting autonomy, but because vice is evil, is real ontic privation.
So maybe you can blame Ockham for ruining fiction too.
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>>25094112
Counterpoint, pic related isn't that old.
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>>25094144
>>25094305
systematic analysis is actually the cope that midwits do. if you're much smarter than somebody else all you really feel is that they're really stupid for missing obvious observations. if you're much dumber than someone else their thought process seems like incomprehensible schizobabble full of unjustified leaps and incoherent intuitive deductions. and if you're doing systematic, analytical reasoning your intelligence is completely irrelevant.
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>>25094144
It's actually not hard to write a smart character even if you're only average intelligence yourself. An average person can usually arrive at the same conclusions as a smart person, it just takes them much longer and more work to do so. So all you have to do when writing the super smart character is to have them do the same chain of reasoning and thinking, just in a fraction of the time, and perhaps have him intuitively get through some of it without having to ponderously reason out every step. You can also have him recall things from memory instead of having to look them up, which gives the impression he is also erudite as well as brilliant. Though if you go too far with this you get somebody as superlative as Sherlock Holmes, who has superhuman perception, is impossibly well-read and educated on all manner of subjects, and can induct a person's life story from a handful of minor details.
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Can we all agree that dunk and egg is woke? Support real fantasy instead
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>>25094515
>The Orc city
>The Orc Wars
>the elvish king
why so trite?
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>>25093834
Originally, dark fantasy was horror with fantasy elements. Stories about vampires, mummies, other living dead, curses, demons, and spirits. It's clear cut and I prefer it to "vibes" based definitions that are more visual than literary.
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>>25093834
If you want a more granular difference: Kane is dark fantasy, whereas Conan is not.
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>>25094366
Smart people seem to fall into these traps too. I think it's partly mere ignorance. People think these pictures of psychology, anthropology, metaphysics, etc. must be true because "science says they are true." They get this picture of man from reading scientific texts, or analytic thought that is plugged into the sciences, generally neuroscience, which is one of the last great holdouts of reductionism (way more so than the physical sciences). Even though the assumptions in play are metaphysical and epistemic, and hardly something anyone saw through a microscope or fMRI, it comes through as "scientific." Opposition is thus woo.
It helps that your average person gets very little by way of intellectual history. Even your average philosophy grad student gets survey courses that just skip from Aristotle to Descartes, and ignore the East (while reading Plato and Aristotle more as moderns). Then these same students become the adjuncts who get stuck teaching intro to philosophy.
In this way, the assumptions of early modernity, that human reason is wholly discursive, that being can be described by univocal formalisms, that the cosmos simply must be homogeneous, nominalism (or a shallow realism heavily influenced by nominalism), all become transparent and so unquestionable. The great irony here is that many hard sci-fi writers are athiests and these assumptions were all originally theological. Why must reality submit to our formalisms? Because God wants us to know and utilize being. Why is the cosmos valueless and purposeless by axiomatic fiat? Because all value is determined by the divine will, and teleology would constrain divine freedom. Why must reason be discursive and linguistic? So that the mystics and monks lose authority when we debate Scripture. Why is asceticism and virtue now irrelevant to reasoning, and everything just depends on proper method? So that the monks and "saints" cannot be called on as evidence against the new theology.
None of that stuff is a requirement for rationality or rigor though, it's just historical baggage from the cataclysms of the Reformation.
Partly, the issue is that history in American schools (and I would imagine most Western schools) is generally a sort of "Whig history" for liberalism, at times bordering on propaganda. And it tends to conflate the refinement of technological method with a host of unrelated philosophical and political positions.
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>>25094656
He has a very “arch” writing style. His settings tend to be bleak and cynical with lots of black humour, and all of his characters are rarely good or evil, but various shades of grey. Happy endings are optional. But he doesn't write grimdark fantasy, it's more the low fantasy of the mundane and he has an almost autistic interest in the mechanics and logistics of things, whether that's building a crossbow, how to smelt ore, how best to kill someone with a sword, or how to conquer a city. So it should come as no surprise that his Engineer Trilogy has a lot of, well, engineering - both political and of devices.
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>>25093632
>The War Hound and the World's Pain
>The City in the Autumn Stars
>The Dragon in the Sword
I'm on a big Moorcock binge right now, but I'll probably take a break after this and read outside the genre for a while.
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Is pic related any good?
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>>25093629
I deeply regret watching the series; my mental image of the characters and my attitude toward each of them has been tarnished.
Nobody else I discuss this with recognises how stilted, and clumsy the dialogue was. Especially Holden. I think it's only fawned because 'hard' sci-fi tee vee is utterly starved of content.
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>>25094833
>Every military vet reviewing Malazan says Erikson has no clue how militaries work.
Do you have a link to any of that? I'm interested in their criticism. Erikson's take on military life never felt particularly "real" to me, but since I've never been in the military I have no way to gainsay it.
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>>25094976
I'm not disagreeing, but Tolkien's Beowulf is Tolkien at his most 'Tolkien'. The language is dense and archaic and yes, often beautiful. It's LotR turned up to 11. However it's not something I'd recommend as a first introduction to the text.
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>>25094970
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1qvb1mf/comment/o4brb9n/
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>>25094515
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>>25095026
Fuck. I dont believe it. Im not going to take the bait, I didnt mention it initially because im tired of talking about Bakker, but that "knuckle deep in blood and ash line" instantly sounded like something Bakker.
I dont believe it though. Its just too convenient.
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>>25095040
don't worry, it is actually a fake quote based on the real one from that Douglas guy's book
The "Inchoroi city" gives it away, but it did kind of hit a Bakker-ish vibe when I first saw it too. "There is nothing more relived than the Inchoroi" especially sounded clunky in the exact way a lot of in-universe quotes from various sagas are
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>>25095025
Not as in-depth as I was hoping, but from what I gather from his posts, my intuition was actually spot on: Erikson plays fast and loose with military organization, to the extent that it's hard to figure out how the Malazan Army is structured. I've read all 10 books and I couldn't tell you more than a vague outline. I know a bunch of ranks, I know roughly the order they go in, but I couldn't tell you how big a malazan army typically is, how many officers it has, or how many men any particular rank commands, or what his responsibilities usually are. I've never served, but one thing about military life that is abundantly clear to me, as a civilian, is that the chain of command is explicit, not vague and hard to define.
Beyond that, though I couldn't really grasp what he meant by "the tone". It wasn't really about accuracy to real world analogs, is the impression I got, but rather authenticity of experience and feeling. Worth noting though, that his experience is that of a modern day professional soldier, in a professional military. Not exactly a universal military experience, though one would assume some carryover of concepts even to pre-modern military. Especially if that pre-modern style military apes modern conventions and structure.
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>>25094889
May be taking your use of "niggas" too seriously but I've thought about writing a fantasy story about a !not-African prince who realizes how much his people gained from the vanished !not-European colonists and leads a coup to make his country into a real civilizationif this sounds retarded it's bc I was inspired by the Kanye West Heil Hitler video
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Wait a minute…. Elantris has better prose than everything Sanderson wrote after it. What’s going on?
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>>25095371
It mostly sounds dumb bc the not!African prince, even if he ends up in charge, is still ruling over a nation of not!Africans. Africa hasn't been entirely without intelligent and driven leaders, it just turns out the leader isn't all that matters.
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>>25095025
I think it's ludicrous to expect "captain" to be equal to your modern US/NATO ranks, especially when IIRC malazan captains are in charge of mages who are worth a hundred normal soldiers.
I would understand if he griped about a "centurion" not being in charge of a hundred men, but even then it varied in the real world too. One need not look further than real world militaries to find out that ranks and especially their names are not always equivalent between militaries (t. was in the military (not US))
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Rhulad Sengar. Tragic or just an asshole?
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>>25095912
his character in RG is quite sad. His own kin basically abandon him and his family ends up dying by his hand. I think he genuinely tried to be a good king but he was too retarded for the role and ended up being manipulated by the chancellor instead
he should not have ntred his brother though
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>>25096291
Yes I mentioned the most recently discussed books in this thread. More of the same shit.
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>>25096301
This is the THIRD (3rd) time I'm asking you to name the book you've read and want to discuss. Your refusal to do so shows only that you have no books you want to discuss and that you're only complaining because you want attention, there's nothing random about this, it's an accurate deduction based on your behavior.
Either reply with the book you want to talk about or don't bother at all.
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>>25096306
>we could talk about other <hypermega normalfag-approved author here>
But that's the problem!!!
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MALAZAN SANDERSON TOLKIEN. MALAZAN SANDERSON TOLKIEN. MALAZAN SANDERSON TOLKIEN. MALAZAN SANDERSON TOLKIEN. MALAZAN SANDERSON TOLKIEN. MALAZAN SANDERSON TOLKIEN. MALAZAN SANDERSON TOLKIEN. MALAZAN SANDERSON TOLKIEN. MALAZAN SANDERSON TOLKIEN.
Every thread.
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>>25096310
You are making up a strawman about my personal life because I did not make a positive post about
>one of the top 10 highest grossing global franchises
>some random two-book series some faggot wrote SIXTEEN years ago
>tradpub spammed-for-6+-years all throughout most threads
Lol.
>>25096318
But anon why would you EVER want to discuss anything but Tolkien or <popular author here>? EX DEE
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>>25096318
How would one go about changing such a state of affairs, anon? Could it be that you could actually do something other than whine, such as perhaps posting a book you like, and maybe the situation would change for the better?
No, its impossible, better bitch forever and make posts of less substance than even the ones you complain about.
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>>25096287
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>>25096371
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>>25096367
Elric is far easier to get into than any other of Moorcock's series, There's The Elric Saga Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3, then The Citadel of Forgotten Myths, and then if you're a true Elric Fanboy there's The Folk of the Forest which was published in New Edge Sword & Sorcery issue 1. I'd highly recommend reading Moorcock, his prose isn't the best (though IMO it's quite good once he hits his peak from the 80's to the early 2000's) but he is wildly creative and he's probably the most influential Fantasy author since Tolkien, he's definitely worth reading for that alone.
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>>25096430
Ah ok, I assumed you were a novitiate, my apologies for patronising you. I haven't actually read the Golden Barge or the Dancers at the End of Time, I'll get to Dancers eventually though, perhaps after I finish the Pyat Quartet.
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>>25096434
No apologies needed! Golden Barge is supposed to be his earliest book although he had left it in limbo for decades before revising it and publishing it. Dancers is quite a riot, although The End of All Songs is a bit overlong; there's even a short story where it crossovers with Elric and everything.
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>>25093869
Here it is.
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>>25096438
>Golden Barge is supposed to be his earliest book although he had left it in limbo for decades before revising it and publishing it
This is quite intriguing actually, I wonder how it fits into the cosmology of his later work? I'll have to put it on the to be read list. Thanks anon.
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>>25096469
Yeah not until you read it, of course. Though I bet there is a sort of primordial version of his Multiverse in it. I normally hate crossover Multiversal stories like in those dogshit Marvel superhero movies, but Moorcock was really the first to do it so I can give him a pass.
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>>25095375
In the case of Malazan, it's probably because the Malazan military has a very modern structure to it, at least as far as its terminology and superficial formations go. You have "squads" which have corporals and sergeants as lower ranked officers, you have "companies" with captains and their lieutenants as junior officers, you have regular infantry and marines... it feels more modern than it does medieval. So I could see his criticism from the perspective of a modern day soldier as fair, in that case.
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>>25096471
Splendid, I love pulp and I will buy a copy immediately.
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>>25094515
Dunk and Egg is so goated, the right can't what fake and gay culture war stance to take on it. There have been threads on /tv/ these past few days claiming the left hates it for being "too white" (with nary a 13-follow literallywho to cite) while in completely different threads, rightoids are seething about the race and sex swapping of a one-off character.
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>>25096517
The novella is one of the greatest ever written. The show is not nearly as good (though it is by far the best ASOIAF adaptation) I don't want to get into the culture war stuff. I'd highly recommend anons read it even if you're not a gurm fan it's fairly different from his other work.
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Way better than i expected honestly. Thought it would be a straight critique against faith and Christianity but it turned out to be pretty based.
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>>25096578
Absolute kek
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>>25096611
NTA but:
>The concept of a "Multiverse" with characters from different universes who cross over and interact with each other.
>The eight-pointed star as a symbol of chaos in Fantasy literature and art (you'll see this everywhere if you look for it)
>The "Eternal Champion" who is one soul that reincarnates as different Heroes and appears in times of great need.
I would also say that his Melnibonéans inspired the modern fantasy trope of "Dark Elves" as in a race of long lived or immortal fairy-like people who are indolent and get off on torturing and mistreating others.
Now to be fair, he didn't exactly come up with all of these ideas out of nothing, but he certainly popularized them. I'm sure there are other things too, this is all just off the top of my head.
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>>25096623
>The concept of a "Multiverse" with characters from different universes who cross over and interact with each other.
I don't know if he really popularized those things. DC comics already had the multiverse before Moorcock. And Marvel/DC is what everyone thinks about when you talk about multiverses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_of_Two_Worlds
>modern fantasy trope of "Dark Elves"
Dark elves were popularized by Gygax's D&D, like the dark elves in modern Japanese fantasy come from TTRPGs not Elric.
>The "Eternal Champion" who is one soul that reincarnates as different Heroes and appears in times of great need.
He got this from Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson. Could be that he popularized it.
>The eight-pointed star as a symbol of chaos in Fantasy literature and art (you'll see this everywhere if you look for it)
That's true. 40K got this symbol from Moorcock.
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>>25096649
I've never heard of Flash of Two worlds but I don't read comic books. I thought DC started doing that stuff with Crisis on Infinite Earths but it looks like I'm just wrong. As for Gygax, he was open about being inspired by Moorcock for the alignment system in D&D, so he was familiar with his work. I don't know if Gygax ever said anything about the inspiration of the Drow specifically, but they're very similar to Moorcock's Melnibonéans in attitude and aesthetics though their culture is different. I've never heard of Three Hearts and Three Lions, so yeah it looks like Moorcock ripped off Poul Anderson and popularized his idea. Regardless, it seems like you're more well educated on this stuff than I am, so thanks for correcting me.
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>>25096666
I'm aware of the Star of Ishtar (though Moorcock's star is aesthetically distinct from it) but I've never heard of historical use of the Octogram to represent chaos, I would love to read more about this if you can provide me a source.
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>>25096325
>>25096336
Dude have you read this epic fantasy called MALAZAN. It's highly underrated and a hidden gem. But it's so dense you will probably not get it. Did you know that Tolkien actually made up an entire new language for LOTR? Hail Sanderson!
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>>25096649
The first Elric story was published in 1961, when Gygax was probably a toddler yet.
>>25096660
Moorcock acknowledged the influence of that Anderson book in some preludes to his Elric books. There was also another writer, an obscure English one whose name I don't remember, who also influenced his multiverse concept.
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>>25096803
Been working on one. You guys aren't?
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>>25096885
He said in 2024 that the next in the series will be called Instruments of Violence. Larry is currently working on his MHI series, Academy of Outcasts series, American Paladin series, and some new things for Ark Press. I believe Larry is actually waiting for Steve Diamond to write the draft, but Steve apparently has been busy with his corporate job, even their podcast WriterDojo has been on hiatus since 2023.
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>>25094889
Come to me... I have so much to show you...
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I want to re-read A Voyage to Arcturus
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More books like this about weird people living in a weird castle/city/location?
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>>25097139
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>another sanderson book to be released
His work is so so but I admire that he's able to pump out so many books fast. If only some other authors could work just as fast...
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>>25097602
I think both books are very overhyped but I appreciated that book 2mixed it up as I got bored of hogwarts but in ancient magical Rome quite quickly. I found all the multiple viewpoints of various version of Vis confusing at times especially when there are lots of names thrown at you. I just found it hard to remember what was going on at points.
The book felt incredibly rushed at times but also like nothing was happening at the same time. I think there's potential as it's an interesting world but it needs some better editing I think.
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>>25097650
Kneel
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Okay so apparently talking about Malazan makes some people horribly upset, but I still feel like the Moranth are an underexplored group and the origins of their munitions and odd bug-ways are some of the most interesting and exotic materials in the series.
There have been any number of fantasy series that take place at a time period where gunpowder is just being developed (for example Realm of the Elderlings) or features some use of gunpowder weapons, but in no others series have grenades, mines and bombs played such a major role. That I've read.
So now I'm posing a question about other series. Is something like Powder Mage a good read? From what I understand that series makes heavy use of gunpowder both for firearms and for magic.
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>>25097811
I could barely understand what you posted but Monarchies of God is great. There’s a good amount of firearm usage and there are also eastern and religious factions that prefer more traditional ways of fighting
Great pacing, great battles, barely any magic use and a likeable core cast of characters
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In the mood for some sci-fi. As a newbie in the genre, what do you guys recommend?. I was thinking about starting with Tchaikovsky or "The Three-Body Problem"
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>>25098016
yes, tchailkovsky is fine to start or Blindsight for hard modern sci fi. I personally like older pulp sci fi or new wave. Check these out sometime.
The Stars my Destination
Inverted World
Vermilion Sands
Roadside Picnic
Lord of Light
The Dragon Masters
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>>25098024
Sanderson is both quality and quantity tho
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Is the Night Land the ultimate feet appreciator fantasy/horror or is there another?
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>>25098016
Start with some of the older classics or common recs:
Enders Game / Speaker for the Dead
Hyperion
Foundation / I Robot
Dune
Childhoods End / Rendezvous with Rama
Blood Music / Eon
Neuromancer
Snow Crash / The Diamond Age
A Fire Upon the Deep
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>>25098118
Well basically it's about a person who wants to become famous by breaking a centuries-old enchantment that makes a city live the same day over and over forever. Over the course of the story the person visits this citythree different times but it's always the same day so three differention versions exist simultaneously
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>>25098145
based
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>>25098389
They aren't. I have made peanuts with my story.
>>25098397
Nebula award.
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>>25098378
toilet paper in or out?
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Any recommendations for something similar to Bernard Cornwell's "The Winter King"? I like how it handles the Arthurian myth like a realistic chronicle of a desperate struggle for something greater, in a time of strife among the ruins of a greater civilization.
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>>25098477
Heresy.
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Any book with a atmosphere similar to old EverQuest?
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>>25096121
>>25096368
What part of R e i g n i n H e l l do you not understand?
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>>25098947
>>25098950
of course oaths mean "swearing". what you meant was simple profanity/bad words
>>25098983
ooh, and that's a bad miss.
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I just finished this recently and really enjoyed the fact that Knaak actually made the dragons more than just glorified mounts and had them scheming/plotting/etc. Also, I found another thing Paolini cribbed for Eragon as it's basically the same plot but better and written in 1989.
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>>25099059
It's hard to pick apart why it's different than most, but it is.
I think what makes it work is that the moral grayness of his villains (and just about everyone else) feels modern. A typical source of mixed morality comes from the medieval setting - a warrior that keeps a slave, a noble that fights for good causes but is a rapist or pedophile, etc. Sometimes they lean on something more fantastical, like a curse, magical tragic backstory, etc.
With Parker it's more likely to be an otherwise normal person who is greedy because they want to make enough gold to retire. or they betray someone but it's not a big deal because the other person betrayed them too and it's just sorta what happens in the underground.
the tone is closer to a crime or action movie that has light moments and comedy
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>>25098343
Ned goes to the Wall without controversy, Renly gets arrested for homosexuality and Stannis for some trumped up religious apostasy crimes. Balon does nothing because there's no chaos. Everything Joffrey was already concerned about regarding Dany gets addressed and they crush the dragons while they're still the size of a large lizard.
If you made Joffrey just a little smarter there's like no way the Lannisters lose.
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>>25093698
>>25094725
I've only read Making History and I really, really liked it until the last like 20 pages when it suddenly got really, really retarded. I'm not one to usually complain aboutgirlbosses, but the girlboss prostitute being so much of a genius was too much for me, even if she was a plant by the enemy nationand everything about the ending's twist felt way too contrived.
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>>25099157
He seems to have a recent problem with his endings. >>25093698 is the best thing he's written in a long time until the last few pages when it falls off a cliff. I think I understand what he was aiming for the the execution failed, at least for me, but it seems to be a common complaint about that book.
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>>25099096
So it's actual moral grayness and not the grimdark "grayness"?
>>25099141
I'm sorry you're so much of a manchild you need everything to be an 80s cartoon
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>>25099265
>but I still feel like the (insert group name here) are an underexplored group
Malazan in a nutshell. I'm starting to understand it's not really complex, this fag just drops plot threads for no reason and I imagine he'll pretend it was all part of his keikaku in the last book.
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>>25099278
>I don't know what I'm talking about but I want to sounds like a cynical badass by badmouthing this series so I'll make up something vague enough that other people who haven't read the series (that was finished in 2011) will think is a scathing criticism of its structure
Anon please
Pls
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>>25099285
Tell me about Gareth anon. Oh wait you can't. Homie was too busy writing about fat chicks, rape, and potsherds to actually write coherent stories.
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>>25099286
If you had actually read the books, you’d know the name Gareth is never mentioned in the main series. It’s not the epic gotcha you think it is
>muh fat chicks, rape, potsherds
It’s way too easy to spot someone who hasn’t read the series and is just parroting shitposts from /sffg/. This has been debunked many times yet you’re still trying to push that narrative for whatever reasons. At this point you’re probably more obsessed with fat women than SE himself
It wouldn’t bother me this much if you retarded subhuman had actually read the books and put a little effort into your trolling
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Reading this and nearly done. I am so sick of these obvious dumb plot twists.
Spoilers: Moonlet filled with antimatter? Better cut into it purely by guesswork. Definitely don't ask the AI inside that's answered like everything asked.
Oh the Chinese want to take over the ship? How could they they're locked in their quarters? Oh they put LSD in the air supply (through magic chemistry) and for some reason they can get out of the locked rooms but the Americans can't?
The twist just seem like plot holes or braindead characters. Why would a chief engineer be outside looking at an engine and not with her team watching all of the sensors? Ahh because she needed to tragically die.
Liked the premise but just got sick of it towards the end.
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>>25098820
I just finished Nigh Without Stars (Commonwealth 7), it's so good bros. Even if you don't get into it you can stop after book 2, the three sub-series are all self-contained stories.
I'm re-reading Reality Dysfunction now, I remember not liking the supernatural elements when I read it ~10 years ago but the scifi setting is peak. Also all the rape and penis-in-vagina descriptions get old, Hamilton is such an incel.
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So what about nonfiction books on SFFT? Any favourites, recommendations...?
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>>25100084
No books but you may enjoy this essay by Stephen Donaldson
https://www.stephenrdonaldson.com/EpicFantasy.pdf
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>>25100097
>Stephen Donaldson
He actually means "rape fantasy", right?
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This entire sequence still triggers me immensely. I've been debating with myself over whether to end reading the series based on this. And I say this as somebody who doesnt even like Cnauir that much.
I'm just sort of tired of these weird frequent Humiliation rituals all these characters are subject to, that all happen to tacitly involve Esmenet, due to the fact that Kellhus is Super Jesus and can do whatever the fuck he wants, so nothing in relation to him actually matters beyond the result.
I've been trying to find the value of writing these scenarios. How does this deepen any character? It doesnt introduce any new understanding of them? We already knew that Achamian was cucked hard to Esmenet, even before he got cucked. Desperate to feel normal with her.
And we also already knew that Cnauir was figuratively cucked to Kellhus, and cant control his own feelings, and thoughts.
So this scene gives us nothing new, nothing interesting, beyond showing us the sheer power that Esmenet now has, by being married to Super Jesus.
I've put up with this bullshit not for 1 book now. But 2 books. If I have to put up with this retarded bullshit for 3 books now, where Esmenet, is even more glorified that stupid shit like this can happen. Then how am I supposed to believe anything is going to suddenly change? That the characters are suddenly going to become deep? That the problem of Kellhus being able to do whatever the fuck he wants, so much so, that the process no longer matters, simply the fact that he was involved, means what he wants will succeed. So starving retard soldiers, can go and kill an army bigger, and more well fed than them, simply because.............they believe in Super Jesus even harder now than they ever have.
Or what of the fact that Kellhus' mind reading makes it so that no character has any actual character of their own, theyre jist something to be used by Kellhus or discarded if they cant be used, because he magically knows everything about them and can puppet them. Fundamentally reducing every single character purely to their desires and feelings. Everything surface level about them, while ironically pretending, that simply because it had to be revealed, means it was not surface level.
But thats the problem. Depth comes from the UNRAVELING OF WHAT WAS NOT SEEN.
Depth comes from the fundamental understanding of what was not understood.
So if you skip the understanding part, and get straight to knowledge, then theres no longer any depth, any substance. There cant be meaning.
Yes. I figure this is exactly Bakkers point about determinism and whatever.
Id just wager, that despite the fact I agree with his assertions loosely. He shirks having to deal with the entire problem of what makes the question of free will vs determinism interesting in the first place. The fact that we are yet made to feel as if we have any will of our own.
I am frustrated. Is there any point continuing?
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lol.
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maybe kellhus still has some use, to be the only one to say what should be said, even if its all hollow.
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>>25099954
As much shit as asoiaf gets, you’re right it at least doesnt have woke slop. Gurm’s female characters are some of the most borderline red pilling women in fantasy. Surprised he has as many female readers as he does, desu.
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Tried reading Revelation Space. ts (Thissu shittu) is boring af (ass fukku) I'n going back to Pale Fire
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Releasing one 600 page book a year is very easy because that's just 2 pages a day. That's basically what a teen does for schoolwork.
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>>25094103
Odd, my experience was the exact opposite. Prince of Nothing was good when it was about the characters but spent an unreasonable amount of time talking about the exploits of non-characters in battles with no real relevance to the story. Judging Eye and WLW are far and away his best work imo, and I'd happily recommend him if all of his work was that quality. The last two go back to wasting time on recitations of deeds and events, and Kelhus is a lot more compelling as a bogeyman than a character.
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>>25100671
Does Bakker learn to write characters, that wouldn't be wooed by one outspoken observation from Kellhus by then? Just because Kellhus is gone doesnt necessarily mean he stops writing shallow characters that would succumb to Kellhus after one convo.
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>>25100721
Yes, but also no, because in the first half of AE most of the characters have wised up to his tricks and won't be used by him again, but then in the second half he reappears and reveals that all of this was just as planned, and everyone immediately begins cucking out to him again.
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>>25100743
>but then in the second half he reappears and reveals that all of this was just as planned, and everyone immediately begins cucking out to him again.
Kek Bakker just cant help himself can he? I almost want to keep reading just so I can fathom how he possibly gets away with writing such a thing
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>>25100790
I mean, the entire Second Apocalypse is just a vehicle for Bakker to show off how his unbeatable ubermensch self insert defeats every obstacle by simply adopting his pet philosophy. He's basically Terry Goodkind but a Homer fanboy instead of an Ayn Rand fanboy.
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>>25100829
Why is it always the shit philosophies that get aggresively integrated into fiction novels? And who do they always miss the fact of philosophy that its constantly responding to and engaging with itself.
Determinism fundamentally doesnt mean anything without the belief of free will, and if you dont establish enough of a basis for free will to be atleast valid, even if not legitimate, then how can it mean anything?
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>>25100854
First let's specify hard sci fi. Le serious contemporary "this is for real how things will be in the future/gadgets will work but actually not." example Blindsight. Where as old pulp is just fun with ideas and alien worlds. Example Jack Vance's the Dragon Masters.
So let's say hard fantasy has 2 counterparts that can be branched off in a few ways. 1. The meme example of George RR Martins tax policy. Game of Thrones is trying to be gritty and realistic instead of romantic like LoTR. 2. soft whimsy magic in Harry Potter or pulp sword and sorcery vs. gay autistic video game magic system.
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>>25100939
You're trying really hard to win an argument, but you can't argue your way to victory when you've got your definitions wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_science_fiction
>Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic.
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