The Silmarillion

>magazine rejected my fantasy novelette
owari da...

People always talk about whether a book is good. But what book did you have most fun reading?

>>25200051
anything by Vance is enjoyable and not particularly difficult to digest

>>25200051
About half of the Red Rising books.

>>25199659
>>25199704
>>25200022
Some of the few anons that prove to have a functioning brain, capable of critical thought not mere consumption and interpretation.
Donald Trump says, "SAD!"

>>25200022
>That's it, the theory that was told at the beginning is never developed further, it's consequences are never explored and nothing more happens
Unfortunately fella im coming to realize this may be 90% of sci fi, meant to exist as mere representations, more like windows into other words, where there is no real engagement between reality, and the fiction which ultimately derives all its concepts, even the most ridiculous, from the possibilities reality allows to be thought up.

Somehow too much sci fi always ends up being about something else, something simpler in the end. The window is never broken, it becomes a barrier. Seperating the fact that reality has reasons, implications, consequences that arise from the "real". And fiction, can instead be selective of when consequences matter, implications arise, and reasons can be found, more often than not, for sake of validating something related to the MC, not their existence.

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Any good Age of Sail-inspired fantasy or sci-fi out there? I read picrel recently and it was trash. The marriage of the most bland military sci-fi with the most boring romance imaginable.

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You’re not such a pseud you can’t admit these were good, right?

>>25200167
The first two are decent but Oathbringer was the beginning of the downfall of Stormlight.

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>>25200051
Always a fun read.

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>>25200011
I've spent way too much time reading the edge-kino Darth Bane trilogy, I need something whimsical to balance out my spiritual palette, something high fantasy and magicla

>>25200149
Revenger and Honor Harrington (no sail ships but essentially a sci-fi version of Horatio Hornblower) are the closest I can think of.

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>>25200061
Vance is not only incredibly enjoyable but I would argue he IS particularly difficult to digest especially compared to modern sff. Read the Dragon Masters recently and it amazes me how much philosophy and complex ideas were written into such a short self contained story about men riding mutant war machines. Which would just be silly and low brown in any other writers hand.

>>25200290
Best short Vance series? (aka less than 4 books, but not short story books)

The people who randomly mention an author incorporating philosophy into their books have to know they're just baiting me right? I've fallen for this trick before.

>>25200298
You're permanently baiting yourself, no one actually cares about philosophy.

>>25200304
>no one actually cares about philosophy.
yes. that is the problem with the world.

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Any fantasy series with an atmosphere similar to Zelda? Specifically Majora’s Mask or Wind Waker? I’ve yet to find any series that even slightly fits this type of story. The closest thing I’ve read to it was Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures and I can’t even put my finger on why.

>>25200044
Oof. But there are many publishers, are there

>>25200149
On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers

>>25200339
>I’ve yet to find any series that even slightly fits this type of story

Not even Earthsea or Prydain?

>>25200362
I’ve read Prydain and Zelda didn’t cross my mind once, desu. I liked it a lot, though. Haven’t read Earthsea but I will in the future. How do you find Earthsea to be similar to Zelda?

>>25200339
>>25200376
I would like some recommendations for a zelda like book as well.

Specifically Wind Waker

Alright guys what character am I?
>"Father. I must remove my genitals to save the human race"
>"wtf i'm still horny!"

>>25200420
Sounds like something a jew would write.

>>25200491
Alright I had to double check and no he is not.

>>25200498
Impressive.

>>25200417
>>25200376
Earthsea is the closest to wind waker traveling on a little magic boat in a vast ocean.

>>25200167
I'm not enjoying Way of Kings, Brando's prose is grievously pedestrian. Also Shallan is annoying, Szeth is a bitch, and the parshendi are gay.

>>25200342
Novelette/novella range is a hard sell most places, especially if you're not in with the editorial culture. I might just post the story in question on my blog.

>>25200530
Will you link it here if you do?

>>25200554
Probably. I've shilled my work on /lit/ before.

>>25200011
These are the remaining short fiction works of Greg Egan that I hadn't yet read and/or written about. Post 1/3

Artifact (1983)
Eight light years away from Earth an alien artifact has been discovered. He feels nothing. A complete sense of anhedonia has overcome him. They all plead with him to stay, but he knows he must leave.
Ok

The Way She Smiles, The Things She Says (1985)
A psychosexual horror story of father, son, and son's girlfriend. 41 years later this story is much closer now to be being real. The time of its peak relevance is not all that far off.
Enjoyable

Tangled Up (1985)
This is a surreal story about a guy who is trying to create a non-linear inception film and finds that his memories have become nonlinear and incepted.
Enjoyable

Neighbourhood Watch (1986)
A town dreams a monster into existence who will kill everyone they dislike. The monster wants to kill everyone indiscriminately. They could never imagine that the monster who wants to kill everyone would want to kill them. (The contemporary version is the leopards ate my face meme.)
Ok

Mind Vampires (1986)
A bizarre psychosexual vampire story that verges on erotica.
Blah

Scatter My Ashes (1988)
A horror story where a freelance journalist is obsessed with criminals. The story is a condemnation of its subject matter and how everyone is complicit. By the end the political opinions are rather blatant. Among much else, he predicts that people will livestream their crimes for the world to watch.
Ok

Beyond the Whistle Test (1989)
A company designs music be catchy to anyone who listens to it on a neurological level. The advertiser's clients rejoice at their increased sales. No one can resist. For some it becomes far more horrifying.
Enjoyable

The Vat (1990)
This is subtitled: A Romantic Comedy, but if it is, it's a twisted one.
A neurochemist accidentally injects himself with a neurotransmitter-antagonist that completely changes both his personality and how he perceives reality. He becomes obsessed with a woman because that's how the deterministic state of existence has proceeded.
Blah

The Extra (1990)
One of the wealthiest men in the world has created 125 clones of himself. For now they exist as organ donors, but one day he'll transfer his brain into one of them and be reborn.
Enjoyable

Fidelity (1991)
A husband's wife tells him that they should use Lock. She's afraid that one day they will no longer love each other. Statistics, relevant examples, and prior personal experience say it will happen eventually. If they use Lock though they will never feel any differently about each other ever again.
Enjoyable

In Numbers (1991)
Far away from Earth, the ship's eight crew members succumb to illness one by one. None of them have any idea why or how it's happening. If this story was only about epistemological humility it would've been better. It also has a peculiar blend of mysticism and politics at the end when he's trying to make a moral statement.
Ok

>>25200568
The Demon's Passage (1991)
A sentient brain tumor narrates political satire that condemns scientific hypocrisy, animal experimentation most of all, and humanity more generally for its ethical failings.
Blah

Before (1992)
A repair crew for a space hotel has gone missing and they've been sent out to see what happened. They encounter a space-time phenomenon that they can only speculate about.
Enjoyable

Dust (1992)
A man has been creating digital copies of himself and experimenting on them. He hopes to discover the limits of consciousness, continuity of self, identity, and self-knowledge of subjective experience. This story forms the basis of Egan's novel Permutation City.
Highly Enjoyable

Worthless (1992)
A man in dead end job with no prospects for a better life or any desire to improve himself offers himself up to a company. The company implants a device that transmits everything he experiences to them. 20,000 others have done the same. The company uses this information to create stuff that will appeal to the masses and also niche material that certain people will become obsessed about and give everything for. All he wants is to find one other person, literally anyone, with whom he can share a personal bond.
This is in the class of stories where you overdose on negative feelings with the expectation of cathartic release.
Highly Enjoyable

Reification Highway (1992)
A mother and teenage child are on an asteroid 20,000 light years away from Earth. They left their home universe and many others behind long ago. Information was bought from a man several universes ago that his people had a found of lode of reified logic, and it may have been this asteroid. Reified logic ignores the limitations of physics.
Enjoyable

Wang's Carpets (1995)
A group of transhumans travel across the universe searching for intelligent life. They find life, initially thinking it to be unintelligent, but it may be far more advanced than they're able to comprehend. This story was later incorporated into Egan's novel, Diaspora.
Enjoyable

TAP (1995)
A private investigator has been hired to investigate a death. The media's narrative is that the Total Affect Protocol chip in her brain killed her. TAP allows its users to understand, feel, and express any possible human experience. All other languages are insufficient so it has its own shared language among its users. Other languages can be used, but they will lack nuance. The prevailing theory is that she thought the <<death>> word and it killed her. Her daughter believes that someone killed her. The private investigator is willing to entertain anything she can find evidence for.
Enjoyable

Yeyuka (1997)
An Australian surgeon decides to travel to Uganda to treat Yeyuka, a disease, because HealthGuard has rendered its clients immune to almost all disease. He wants to do what he can for those who can't afford its protection. Uganda is far worse than he could have ever imagined.
Enjoyable

>>25200570
In the Ruins (2013)
This doesn't seem to have been published anywhere other than Egan's personal website. This is a polemic against the anti-intellectualism of the United States. Academia is no longer a matter of what you know. It's who you are, who you know, and how you present yourself. Egypt is offering Americans a chance at a scholarship to escape the intellectual ruins of their country.
Meh

Didicosm (2023)
This is the life story of a cosmologist who wants to determine the size and shape of the universe. She has a personal vendetta against one of the most popular pop science communicators. She condemns him and all others of his ilk who use science to mislead, deceive, and manipulate. Almost all the rest is university level discussion of the size and shape of the universe. Personal moments of her life are interspersed between.
Ok

Death and the Gorgon (2024)
There's been a cave-in at a local mine repurposed as a cryonics facility. As part of her investigation the sheriff comes across what she believes may be a conspiracy by an organization that's part of the Rationalist community.
Enjoyable

Vouch for Me (2024)
HHV-10, a viral infection that had laid dormant for decades, is now activating across the world. Its prognosis is a 50/50 chance of death or a total loss of autobiographical memory. An entire family has tested positive for latent HHV-10, as do almost 8.25% globally. Each member of the family prepares for the worst in their own way.
Enjoyable

Understudies (2025)
This is an academic tournament of math word problems. The reader can try to solve them before reading on for the answer, but I didn't attempt to do so. The purpose is to show that a human with pen and paper can still keep pace against a human that relies on AI to do their thinking for them.
Ok

Spare Parts for the Mind (2025)
An Alzheimer's patient has been given a neural implant which has made him coherent again. What follows is the joys and sorrows of trying to make the best he can of the time he has remaining. There's a lot of discussion contrasting augmented cognition with AI and the social acceptability of brain implants.
Highly Enjoyable

Haven't been here in a long time
Is this general still dedicated entirely to worshipping bakker?

>>25200575
There are still bakker worshippers here, yes. most recently one anon has been posting screencaps of books he's reading and calling the authors (including bakker and Ada Palmer) as pseuds. The Red Rising wars have died down to intermittent skirmishes and occasional waifufagging. Sometimes we even discuss books.

>>25200575
The last twenty or thirty threads have been an absolute shitshow, yes.

>>25200592
The last week or so hasn't been that bad desu

>>25200607
>t.bakkertranny

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>>25200011
guys
...any books with anthros?

>>25200620
Nope. None exist. Sorry!

>>25200568
>If this story was only about epistemological humility it would've been better.
What do you mean by this?

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>>25200620
Basically: the Nazis win WWII and genetically engineer anthros to hunt for sport

>>25200570
>Uganda is far worse than he could have ever imagined.
What does this mean? Uganada itself as it exists? Or something mystical and alien that happens to exist in Uganda?

>>25200579
>most recently one anon has been posting screencaps of books he's reading and calling the authors (including bakker and Ada Palmer) as pseuds.
He's been inactive lately only showing up once in a while. It's sad to see somebody give up on reading

>>25200634
I'm about to sleep so I'll be brief.
Literally what it says. Most of the story is them trying to come to with that it may not possible to figure everything out.

>>25200637
I had to drop a few words for character limit count. It means that Uganda is far worse than he could ever expected relative to his home country in terms of the disease ravaging the country.

>>25200608
Mindbroken

>>25200646
I see, thank you for the answers.

>>25200639
I haven't given up. It's just that I've lost my patience for books wasting my time with certain writing approaches where things are teased or vaguely directed at without anything being established or said because...you have to find out in the next book.
Also the NBA playoffs are coming up soon so I've been preparing for that because thats more interesting than reading right now.

>>25200656
What is the relation between sports and philosophy?

>>25200639
Yeah I feel bad for him. As a writefag I almost want to write a deeply philosophical fantasy epic just for him, because the notion of a story that layers conceptual depth atop a fantastical character-driven story intrigues me, too. I'm not sure my abilities are up to it yet. My current WIP is essentially Game of Thrones written by Dostoevsky. I'm proud of it so far but I hope to improve upon it in the future.

>>25200667
Nta. The Greeks took physical fitness seriously. There are likely many interpretations from platonic to epicurean; a bastardized variety exists in le Nietzschean vitalists.

>>25200061
Cugel's Saga is a slog

>>25200167
The first two were soo fucking good, the third was slog, no having a peak ending doesnt save it, i hope the 4th is good
>>25200522
>Muh prose
Gay bitch ass this aint poetry

>>25200708
You'll understand when you start reading things with actual substance to them.

>>25200667
Healthy mind in a healthy body

>>25200668
>My current WIP is essentially Game of Thrones written by Dostoevsky. I'm proud of it so far but I hope to improve upon it in the future.
We'll all look forward to it. I know I will atleast. Sounds interesting.

>>25200635
>A pack of half-naked cat-girls, their hands sheathed in iron claws and their bellies starved of fresh meat. And their quarry, as Alan discovers too late, is ... himself.
Every day I am tortured by what could have been.

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>>25200762

>>25200722
Like what? Tell me so i can laugh, books are only storytelling for me, idgaf about prose

Is there any fantasy or scifi series that is functionally monarchist, and actually lays out its position without resorting to weird schizo ideologies or literal magic?

>>25200781
Explain better nig

>>25200796
He's asking for a fantasy story with no magic or weird things in it that extols the virtues of the divine right of kings WITHOUT appealing divine right
He's basically asking for nothing.

>>25200801
Thanks
>>25200781
Nig that dont exist

>>25200772
You aren't ready for it yet, don't worry you'll grow to appreciate it more as you check out more authors.

>>25200781
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic

>>25200828
I havent only read sanderson but its some the best books i read, people hate it cause they believe books are supposed to be more than just entertainment, they are not

>>25200796
I mean the story tries to argue for monarchism without making the nobility literal magic people.

I've recently got a fascination for modern day monarchists. It's like finding a dinosaur in the middle of central park. I want to see what these living fossils think justifies simping for an obsolete political system that's been outcompeted everywhere.

>>25200848
Stop fishing. He'll never answer because there is none. And he's obviously posturing, and inarticulate. Anybody who understands or appreciates something deeply, wants to share and prove their appreciation through an expression understanding. So either the concept that would otherwise be expressed is too simple to articulate, like somebody explaining why they like small breasts over big breasts, it's arbitrary and meaningless, but most importantly, an artifcact of feeling and personal experience so it can never be explained in anyway to be appreciates beyond what it is in immediacy.
Or he's simply too dumb to articulate something complex, and too shallow to care to try.

>>25200874
I like them big if they arent attached to a fattie, and big but smaller on a skinny girl so it doesnt overshadows the ass, i just aim for that 20-25% bodyfat chick and then analyse the shape

>>25200874
You don't give genuine answers to someone who states they're going into it with the mindset to laugh at it first and foremost. I'd get the same exact response from him if I posted that one Bakker page from last thread about cunny or if I chose an excerpt from a Gene Wolfe novel. Also, you're a psuedointellectual dork prattling on as if you're profound and not just some autistic faggot posting in a containment general.

>>25200935
>Also, you're a psuedointellectual dork prattling on as if you're profound and not just some autistic faggot posting in a containment general.
I accept your concession.

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Why didn't they just threaten to nuclear carpet bomb the planet as a last resort?

>>25200935
>some autistic faggot posting in a containment general.
Thats literally you nig, prose simp

>>25200943
You didnt read the second right? They got a better tool to dissuade them
Anyways the chink got bad prose dont read it

>>25200011
Does anyone have any recs to stuff similar to Asimov's End Of Eternity or Olaf Stapledon's Last And First Men? Speculative fiction about long duree history and time travel is right up my alley.

>>25200675
Greeks also liked fitness dick in their mouths too apparently

>>25200973
So what? They were still manlier and more civilized than modern "men".

>>25200943
>>25200967
Im not sure the order but they eventually use rockets to push the earth to another solar system Ala the anihilitrix from Frisky dingo

>>25200982
Mmm pretty sure you mixed in his other book wandering earth

>>25200943
Is there a version of the book that's dechinkafied? I hear that the character names are all some Bingchilling nonsense.

>>25200983
I have never read the others but just assumed it was like some giant overarching series. The second movie isn’t even a book btw. It’s like three lines in the original Novella about passing Jupiter.

>>25200996
I watched the series first which is with western characters, but takes liberties in adaptation.

Bakker.

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King of /sffg/.

Simple as.

>>25201045
he looks way too happy for the kind of books he is writing

Is murderbot diaries worth it?
It seems like a chungus type of thing, is it like that in the books as well or did I just get a bad impression from the one episode of the TV show I watched?

>>25200011
He's Arnold Arnold Arnold Rimmer without him life would be much dimmer, he will never need a Zimmer.

>>25200981
You didn't exist back then so how do you know? They probably had their own version of funko pops which acted as props in Plato's academy.

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>>25200620
It's mostly about early modern light infantry tactics, but the MC is nursed back to health by an eight foot Russian wolf-lady princess, if that's your thing. Apparently she plays a bigger role in the sequel.

>>25201073
Because they conquered the civilized world and gave us all our modern knowledge.

i watched a summary of the dungeon crawler carl books instead of actually reading them

saved me many days of lifetime

>>25201110
same but i mostly use chatgpt

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>>25200276
I haven't read Revenger, but liked the first Honor Harrington book.

>>25200339
I've never found anything quite like Zelda's mix of epic quest, fairy tale, and horror in any medium. The closest might be European fairy tales or Arthurian legends.

>>25201110
>i watched a summary of the dungeon crawler carl books
Why would you do this to yourself?

>>25200781
Sun Eater, specifically Demon in White.

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>>25201092
sovl vs sovlless

What should I read if I want a realistic, highly technical appraisal of how early 13th century Knights would fight each other?

>>25201257
An academic text

>>25201257
A history book on medieval warfare?

>>25201260
>>25201263
This is the fantasy/scifi thread. That's what I want. A fantasy or scifi story that gives a realistic, technical description of knightly combat.

>>25201278
That's like asking if you should watch John Wick movies to learn how to shoot a gun. If you want technical accuracy, look elsewhere.

>>25200051
Most web novels/fanfics on Spacebattles (and their various splinters) and RoyalRoad

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>>25200620
The Life of Riley series by Greg Howell
https://othrworlds.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
The Moureau Series by S. Andrew Swann
Man-Kzin Wars by Larry Niven
The Builders by Daniel Polansky
Redwall by Brian Jacques
A Chronicle of Lies by Abraham C. Carson
The Chanur Saga by CJ Cherryh

>>25201289
>Most web novels/fanfics on Spacebattles
I've found only 3.5 fanfics there that are tolerable to read, and even that is just barely.

Urphobia (Worm / Pathologic) (this is a good prose, or at the very least it has a very unusual style)
Dysfunctional (Worm / Youjo Senki) (very wholesome character chemistry, albeit the plot drags with the pace of a slug)
Saerang (ASoIaF / Silmarillion) (kinda mid, but the author in-depthly knows his tolkien material)

(If we include additionally AO3, then):
Biological code (Frieren) (coz the author is madlad enough to use the fanfic format to explain computer science theory)


Everything else has been a disappoitment.

>>25201330
>Dysfunctional (Worm / Youjo Senki / Fate)
typo, fix

Greg Egan Short Fiction Ratings
HIGHLY ENJOYABLE
Closer
Dust
Learning To Be Me
Spare Parts for the Mind
The Moral Virologist
Worthless

ENJOYABLE
3-adica
Appropriate Love
Axiomatic
Before
Beyond the Whistle Test
Bit Players
Border Guards
Chaff
Cocoon
Crystal Nights
Death and the Gorgon
Fidelity
Glory
Instantiation
Luminous
Mitochondrial Eve
Night Running
Oceanic
Reification Highway
Riding the Crocodile
Singleton
Sleep and the Soul
Tangled Up
TAP
The Cutie
The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine
The Extra
The Hundred Light-Year Diary
The Infinite Assassin
The Safe-Deposit Box
The Slipway
The Way She Smiles, The Things She Says
Vouch for Me
Wang's Carpets
Yeyuka

OK
A Kidnapping
Artifact
Blood Sisters
Break My Fall
Dark Integers
Didicosm
Dream Factory
Eugene
Hot Rock
In Numbers
Induction
Into Darkness
Light Up the Clouds
Lost Continent
Mister Volition
Neighbourhood Watch
Only Connect
Oracle
Our Lady of Chernobyl
Reasons to be Cheerful
Scatter My Ashes
Seeing
Seventh Sight
Solidity
The Caress
The Moat
The Nearest
The Planck Dive
The Walk
Understudies
Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies
You and Whose Army?
Zeitgeber
Zero For Conduct

Meh
After Zero
Crisis Actors
In the Ruins
Shadow Flock
Silver Fire
Steve Fever
This Is Not the Way Home
Transition Dreams
Uncanny Valley

Blah
Mind Vampires
The Demon's Passage
The Vat

>>25201470
Linking back to the posts made it have the "too many lines" error

>>25200011
>doesn't link to archive

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>>25200290
It's especially funny because Dragon Masters isn't even one of his better stories.
>mfw Joaz does what he should have from the beginning

>>25200708
Prose is execution of substance. A great story can be made hackneyed by mediocre writing. On the other hand, someone like Gene Wolfe could probably make a visit to the local corner shop a riveting read.

>>25201495
youre contradicting yourself? you first say its an execution of substance, and then that a good writer can make something without substance sound great.

>>25200290
Tell me more

I just got the entire Lensman series today for dirt cheap. Always wanted to read these but really don't know nothing much about them other then that the author was highly influential on space opera and for some reason there was an anime adaptation in the 70s or 80s..
What am I in for?

>>25201471
>>25201470
dont worry i read all your brief reviews

>>25201509
NTA i told you the explanation wouldnt be coherent.

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the big twist is they're secretly jeets, is it worth reading further?

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>>25201564
I dunno but that cover art is going to stay with me tonight if you catch my meaning

>>25200051
The Devils.

>>25201659
No matter what butthurt ninompoops say about Abercrombie, The Devils is legit a FUN time.

>>25200051
so far, the will of many
its full of tropes and wish fullfillment, but hecking fun

>>25200568
>>25200570
>>25200572
Your reviews are not shit. No need to fuck off.

>>25201551
>What am I in for?
Lots of great ideas for its day but terrible writing.

>>25201487
I'll do what I want. You're welcome to cry about it.

>Tolkien's prose, the very shaping vehicle of his story, is bland and universalized, and often clumsy in its construction. It has no particular characteristic, apart from the joining of long sentences by 'and', which can become wearying.
>Tolkien's prose is designed for the long, long empathic read.

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>>25201885
>>It has no particular characteristic
wat?

>>25201900
He was comparing LotR to the Gormenghast trilogy, don't worry.

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Wasn't sure how the cozy adventure GOD was going to handle near-future scifi, but turns out his use of VR was just an excuse to unleash his fantasy muscles

That prologue with Jack and Beanstalk had more striking, evocative imagery than most entire books even attempt. What a legend.

>>25201912
Chad Williams remains underrated, decade afte decade.

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>finally started reading Stover, expecting edge out the ass
>get that in spades but also insanely cool and in a few parts fairly thoughtful entertainment
what the fuck this is awesome

Tolkien wasn't a pseud which is why his writing goes over so many heads

>>25201912
>>25201953
Terrible taste.

>>25202000
Yeah, on opposite day.

>>25202021
The days when you're hetero.

>>25202024
I'm Tad Sexual every day of the week.

>>25202000
If you think Tad Williams is terrible you should just kill yourself imo

>>25202162
Your opinion, alas, isn't valid.

>>25202198
No u

I have a headache and its ruining my reading session

>>25200167
Stormlight is just shounenslop in fantasy novel form. Entertaining but not exactly well written when compared to other, more grounded works.

>>25200051
Sixteen ways to defend a walked city.
That and Mort.

>>25201912
Niggers are incapable of forming a functioning society.

>>25200938
He kind of clocked you perfectly if I'm being honest, only his own words also end up describing him to the letter as well lol

>>25202379
huh?

How Mormon-y is the Cosmere exactly?
I know nothing about it, and I don't really care to read it if it's just Joseph Smith goes to Narnia...

>>25202461
I can't speak on specific theological references in his work but I can say his Mormonism is reflected in his approach to writing humor and relationships, that is to say it comes off as very corny and unnatural sounding.

>>25200149
Safehold series by David Weber

Read Reverend Insanity.

>>25202552
Go back to your containment general RIfag

>>25202461
Not really Mormon-y at all. It treats religious more seriously and vastly than most fantasy, but that's really it. There are some things people pointed out after-the-fact that may, perhaps, be references to some of its theology, but they're almost all major stretches and it's doubtful anyone would notice.

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>>25201754

>>25202552
>Read Reverend Insanity.
Haven't been here in over a year...and here you still are, just slogging along. Congrats?

>>25200607
>>25200648
Bakkerfag doesn't need a trip because we all instantly recognize every single one of his posts.
>>25201912
Hell yeah brother, I too have two (2!) digits to my IQ and enjoy discussing the same author every single thread too :DDDDDD

>>25202604
kek you're a hilarious guy

>>25202604
...?

mind: broken

I do not look forward to reading this Silenus part. Really this whole story isn't what I was expecting at all. Not in a good way.

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Other than Conan what sffg books have macho, alpha-male protagonists?

>>25201912
Based. I have the first two Otherland books waiting for me. I’ll probably read them later this year as I just spent the last two months rereading his Last King of Osten Ard series and need a break. Also excited for Splintered Sun as I feel Tad is very damn good at stand alones.

>>25201912
I love Otherland. Is MST as good? I'm not usually a fantasy guy.

I just want the mistborn movie to do good

>>25201564
Not really. The Company isn't even natively from the world the story takes place in. Look, it's complicated.

>>25202935
Tarzan.

>>25202935
John Carter of Mars
Kane by Karl Edward Wagner

I have worldbuilding fatigue.

>>25202935
>macho, alpha-male protagonists?
The Second Apocalypse has Cnaiur as a darker and edgier Conan-expy.

>>25202604
Do we really talk about Otherland so often that this kind of butthurt is justified?

>>25202935
The Last Hero.

>>25203070
except he's also suicidal, a cuck and literal faggot

>>25202935
Karsa Orlong from Malazan

>>25203254
that's the toxic masculinity for you

I was gone for 3 days and I felt depressed I couldn’t post here. I’m an incel NEET who just got a job for the first time. I’m scared I won’t have time for reading sci fi. My dream is to read the Culture series and everything the Strugatsky brothers wrote. Read nearly everything PKD wrote except Exegesis and some lesser known works.

>>25203331
I can't imagine a job eating up that much of your time. 8h + commutes should still leave you with enough free time to read for hours each day

>>25202935
see >>25200218

>>25203331
Audiobooks if you can, I listen to them most of my work day every week.

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>We wuz Vikangz
Moar like this?

I still don't know what the homunculus shit was at the end of Citadel.

Yall know any comfy raiding xianxia (monogamy)?

>>25203566
*raising

>>25200970
try the Giants series by James P Hogan, also I'm told The Outward Urge by John Wyndham (writing under a pseudonym) is like that

>>25203575
Not the same quality though.

>>25203428
Moorcock said this was influential on his Elric books.

>>25201551
I read Triplanetary recently based on a recommendation by an anon in this thread. It was fun. It's very 1930s, which I found comfy but you might find grating. I enjoyed imagining the characters all talking and looking like actors in an old movie.

>>25201912
I'll give this one another shot sometime, but I got bogged down because a lot of the "futuristic" stuff he describes is too similar to banal and gay stuff from our own society. It's hard to get excited reading about people logging into a Discord server or using VR Chat.

Just finished reading operation bounce house. Its fine, but it feels like a lot of DCC themes got reused and remixed, only without the whole fantasy element. Is Matt a one trick pony? not that i mind it, DCC is extremely fun, i just dont see reading anything else by him if he writes something new

>>25203591
>Moorcock said this was influential on his Elric books.
Then it's sure to be disgusting.

>>25203650
Moorcock also breathes oxygen so die by asphyxiation just in case :-D

>>25201912
>an ineluctably worthy attempt to marry the recuperative narrative impulse of fantasy to the explanatory forward thrust of sf, but drones on for much of its length in a style which defeats the silence of the pleasure of the text, a senatorial style, flat and mortuary and belated.
>Then something like Story begins to surface, like a dolphin breaking through ice, far more shapely than ice. The pace, at such long last, begins to quicken. It may be too late: certainly Otherland will have lost a high proportion of the readers it ultimately deserves long before they have a chance to come into reach of its gifts: and this will be a shame. Because this First volume of Otherland could be the start of something magnificent
>I did not read 700 pages [said this reviewer to himself] in order to be fed a load of babytalk postmodernist Shock of Self-Referentiality Toon Prattle at the end of them; I did not need to have “revealed” to me the structure of a book whose building blocks were self-evident from the beginning of all those pages. What's going on here?
>Williams is a fantasy writer who writes long. At the conscious level, he is revisionist, sincere, transformative, argumentative, forward-thrusting; and much of his work exemplifies these identifiable intentions of the conscious artist. But whenever his plot requirements ask that he grope into areas where he feels insecure, or where he may think his readers need cribs, he slips into phatic repetitions of material like some housewife on the Liffey, backstorying the river of life. The hundreds of pages devoted to Renie and her personal problems in Otherland could, for instance, in the hands of an editor with nerve, have been reduced to dozens. And they would have meant more.

>>25200044
Maybe you should stop talking like a chink and get serious

>>25202943
MST is absolutely fantastic, though if you aren't usually into fantasy I don't think it'll change your mind.

There's a type of fantasy that feels magical and wondrous when you're a young or an inexperienced reader, but if you go back to it it's hard to get over the poor prose, paper-thin characters, cliches, etc. MST is that sort of fantasy, but with great prose and characters. It'll spark magic even in the old and jaded. I love it a lot.

>>25203076
I think that the Bakker hater guy is genuinely mindbroken at this point, and he assumes any post that's a little hyperbolic about an author is actually referring to Bakker.

>>25203665
Is this level of pretentiousness normal in genre fiction book reviews?

>>25203612
>I'll give this one another shot sometime, but I got bogged down because a lot of the "futuristic" stuff he describes is too similar to banal and gay stuff from our own society. It's hard to get excited reading about people logging into a Discord server or using VR Chat.
It gets a lot better in this aspect, but the speculative accuracy is actually something I really appreciate reading it for the first time in 2026.

It's from 1996 and thus predates 95% of the things that would eventually form the backbone of the modern information age, but as you say he gets routine life so correct that it's almost too mundane

However things quickly veer into the strange and surreal. At times it's very much like Alice in Wonderland.

i know fantasy is supposed to be hecking dark and original, but i really enjoy the heroic tropeslop that is will of the many so far.

>>25203751
no it isnt. genuinely, 80% of them are I HECKING LOVE SANDERSON AND TOLKIEN

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What is the last thing you read that made you think about it for months?

>>25203751
I review a lot of books and I think I see what's happening with this one. There's an insecurity that sometimes crops up when critiquing something that you secretly think you didn't actually understand.

There's then a temptation to sound erudite and well read in order to get ahead of accusations (sometimes only in your own brain) that you were too dumb to appreciate something.

>>25203785
Piranesi

>>25203665
I get so so worried about the idea that my criticisms could ever be this shallow without me realizing it. Its why I do a lot of work to try and give context, reference, and analogy to ground my thoughts in something beyond mere self referential perception.

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I just finished this. Ask me anything

>>25203795
I still have to get to reading this, but I'll get to it once I need to take a break from the next 7 book sci fi series I read

>>25203812
Is it as erotic as the cover implies?

>>25203815
No. The person on the cover is a MAN. And he does have sex with the green monster on the right, who is the daughter of the blue monster. The blue monster also has sex with the green monster and she births 2 kids with the man on the floor.

Do you have a specific reading seat or space? I most frequently read in bed before I go to sleep, but it's become somewhat of a bad habit as I now rarely read elsewhere or at other times.

>>25203834
I'm the same and here's my personal strat: when reading in bed, lay backwards, as in put your head where your feet would be.

it opens your bed up as a place to read that isn't tied to going to sleep. it's a very tiny trick, but it works in my experience. it has the added benefit of not making the bed feel "stale" which is a problem I deal with constantly due to insomnia.

>>25203650
seething tolkiendrone

>>25203806
>>25203793
>>25203751
Mindbroken.

>>25203823
>this is supposed to be better than mainstream fiction

>>25203793
>I review a lot of books
Your reviews are shit, fuck off.

>>25203898
That isn't Yev. Don't say that indiscriminately.

>>25203942
He better prove it. Let's see his Goodreads.

>>25203575
Outward Urge doesn't seem like it, traveling to the moon =/= time travel

The other one seems close.

>>25203893
...?

>>25203894
it was written in the 70's.

Teehee you will never find my goodreads

>>25201149
> I've never found anything quite like Zelda's mix
Same here. It’s a bit difficult for me to put my finger on why, though. Because for example, I know the first Zelda game was heavily inspired by LOTR so you could say LOTR has a lot if the elements: long quest, a humble race does great things, dungeons and monsters… Actually, I think the Hobbit is a lot closer to Zelda.

But that feeling of an elvish-like kid growing up as he goes on a lonely (sometimes tragic) journey in a world with temples erected to gods, weird races, mixed with Japanese aesthetics and folklore, the light hearted but also tragic quality of Link, Zelda and Ganon’s story, the reincarnation cycle… it sounds generic but its execution really isn’t lol

>>25203737
> It'll spark magic even in the old and jaded
I agree anon. I read MST for the first time when I was like 25 and was surprised with how much wonder it was able to evoke in me. Those first opening chapters are some of my favorite in all of fantasy, if not my favorite

>>25204034
Real reviewers don't use Goodreads.

Hey Malazan fans, do you recommend This River Awakens?

>>25204085
Yes. Coming-of-age kino.

>>25204043
Should I give you a hint?

project hail mary is great you dumb fuckers

>>25204043
Name one real reviewer.

>>25204091
I'll try it, thanks.

>>25204129
Edgar Allan Poe was a very demanding one.

>>25204133
EAP is goated but he was born BB (Before Bakker) and thus never got to witness peak

three body problem #2 is boring and the author writes some things really bad, like the lovey dovey shit.
Is the payoff worth it?

What are the best fantasy books with lolis?

>>25204164
Berserk.

>>25204167
>books

>>25204168
A picture book contains less text than manga yet is a book by definition.

>>25204168
Manga volumes are books technically :)

hivemind consensus on james islington?

>>25204182
Zero votes!

https://strawpoll.com/XOgOVq3Dan3

Don't forget to report and ignore newfags like >>25203898 who actively contribute to off-topic discussion and have been spamming off-topic for literal years.
>>/lit/thread/21311319#p21323327

>>25204004
That's Bakkerfag, our resident primary threadshitter, lashing out.

>>25204164
The Rance series

>>25204196
>personal army
uh oh anon. looks like you did a duwsy oopsie.

>>25204162
>Is the payoff worth it?
personally no, but a lot of people clearly think otherwise, people who've read more sci fi than me.

>>25204164
Fledgling the kween herself, Octavia Butler

>>25201564
fucktards who read fiction especially sff and low-iqly map the races and civilizations back to a race or civ existing in reality need to raped and air-fried.

>have my desk looking at the window
>the sun shines on my laptop
>grab the fattest fantasy book I have around
>use them as a barrier against the sun without having to draw the curtains
Thank you Feist and Hobb!

>>25204188
>Malazan is higher than Conan
The absolute state of sffg.

>>25204188
Not surprised that Bakker is 1. Voted New Sun personally. Still don't get the Bakker love. I did think Prince of Nothing was okay but yeah New Sun was better

>>25204338
Just because it has classic gender roles doesn’t mean it’s good

>>25204352
Nice bait.

>>25204217
Did you just announce a report?

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There is a VAST DIFFERENCE in quality between Sanderson books where he is and isn't afraid to talk about various women and their heaving, plunging, generous cleavage
>BOOKS THAT ARE GOOD AND MENTIONS BOSSOMS OFTEN
Warbreaker
Mistborn era 2
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
>BOOKS THAT ARE NOT GOOD AND DON’T MENTION BOSSOMS
The rest of them

Sanderson SHINES when low necklines are a plot point.

>>25204498
Keep it up and ill report this message too pal

Trump just signed an automatic draft. Are we in starship troopers yet?

>>25204626
I'm 35 so I'll be fine. Good luck to everyone 18-25 with a broccoli haircut though.

>>25204626
I wish he would stop hammering the Dollar.

>>25204626
>Won't go into effect until December
Quit whining, bitch.

Are The Vorrh books any good?

>>25204164
You'll get yours soon enough, PEDO.

>>25204642
You won't do shit pussy, shut up.

>>25204650
Quit gaping toddler anus, FAGGOT

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>>25204655

>>25204677
This dude has raped kids

>>25204626
I was confused as this has always been the case to my knowledge, but I guess there were technically a handful of states where the process wasn't already automated when you get your driver's license.

I'm past draft age, but I never would have let myself be drafted. Now I have two young sons and they will never be drafted either. It's one of the few convictions I've maintained since I was very young.

>>25204626
>Selective Service has been automated!!! REEEEEEE!!!
We've had selective service since 1917, dipshit. It's not a draft.

>>25204626
Every burger here was already signed up when you got your driver's license

>Asked about best philosophical Vance series, that isn't longer than 4 books, but isn't a series of short books
>No answers
This is the real reason the thread can be disappointing and uninteresting. Interactions are so tenuous, but that'd be fine if they weren't also so shallow.

>>25201767
Same bro, halfway through so far and it's a fun ride

>>25204772
Go to reddit then

>>25200708
I loved the first two and I've been hardlocked on the third book since its release

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Any reccs for books like The Reverie by Peter Fehervari, the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, or the Dune Novels. Looking for something surreal, dreamlike, and mind-bending.

>>25204035
To me the classic games are perfectly balanced between horror and whimsy and between epic grandeur and folk-tale minimalism. I think it's the sort of things where you really need to play it as a kid or you won't get it, because in many ways it encapsulates that feeling of being a child and growing up. Whenever I first played Ocarina and went to the future where the townspeople had all been turned to zombies I freaked out and couldn't play the game for a while. Now I wouldn't be at all scared by the dated graphics. But it feels like everything else tries to go for "100% directed at kids with nothing scary or sad" or "Dark and grim for adults," with nothing effectively mixing together the dark and light elements while taking itself seriously.

>>25203894
Chalker would have been an anon for sure. I read Demons in Amber recently and he wastes page upon page on backstory for a buxom horsegirl with no personality.

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>>25204772
Check this out for heavy philosophy AND heavy feelz.

>>25204795
Does he not do series? I don't mind starting with short stories I guess.

>>25204626
Literally nothing has changed. Instead of having to do it yourself, it's just done automatically now

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Oh man is he one of those authors that deliberately takes a dishonest contrived approach to writing the conditions for their world that necessarily validates the very point they want to demonstrate through constructed (fictional, not that nonfictional writing cant be contrived and dishonest) writing?

Any sci-fi about archeology? More specifically picking over the ruins of ancient civilizations? Something with an eerie undertone to it?

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Actual historians are critiquing...do I trust the Historians or...do I trust the New York Times saying its a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election...(2016 election) and 4chan...
I need to hear the other sides best defense. Might even skim the historians book on Wikipedia

That dude Vances grandmother was insane though, I must admit. Lighting your sleeping husband on fire is next level mental illness. Not sure how much that reflects on the Appalachian population and people rather than maybe poor homes in general (even that may be a stretch)

Wait a minute...I just realized that Vance guy sounds a lot like the Unites States Vice President what the fuck....

The original Vance mentioned has gotta be a different Vance right?

>>25204823
Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds

What's the best translation of Journey to the West?

>>25204904
Anthony C. Yu but its in multiple volumes and it's like $35 a pop.

>>25204892
hey man just wanted to say it's very funny you got mad people weren't nipping at your very low-effort bait so you felt compelled to just lay this turd out for everyone to see.

>>25204892
>>25204894
>>25204858
>>25204772
Harry Dresden.

>>25204994
?

>>25204502
Did you just announce a report?

>>25204772
Stop being so needy. Nobody here is under any obligation to spoonfeed you.

>>25204502
Did you just announce a report?

>>25200051
Dungeon Crawler Carl. I cannot Express how fucking good they are.

>>25205062
This. Newfag niggers spam about Vance every thread so you need to lurk moar.

>>25204626
Yeah and the IRS isn't using checks, nothing has changed except your generation no longer needs to find a post office.

Also we'll never be starship troopers as long as civvy yellows get to vote.

>>25204754
>>25204744
You forgot kids don't drive anymore

Speaking of post world war lit is John Russell Fearn not the worst sci fi author ever?

>>25204196
I am reminded.

>>25201059
They're alright. There's liberal faggotry but Murderbot's autism makes up for it. Buy it used because it's not worth it new.

>>25205062
Do you guys even actually like talking about books?

>>25205132
No.

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>>25205132
There was a point when we would talk about Vance and Wolfe so much in threads over the years that then people said we talked about it too much. The Vance trilogy you want is Lyonesse btw

>>25205132
What are books

>>25205149
I think it's Swedish for "fag". That guy called you a fag. Go kick his ass.

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Literally female GRRM

>>25205144
>The Vance trilogy you want is Lyonesse btw
Thanks. Hopefully "you want" means philosophical.

I'm just trying to stack up future books to read once I get to the one I expect to be blown away by, so that I'm not left yearning for something that is no more, and can move on to equally great pastures.

>>25205165
wiki gives YA vibes, not YA template, but broad YA "rebels/outcasts on the run" story progression

>>25204182
his first series is trash
his second series had a decent first book but its second book was trash

>>25205187
Kinda, but it follows the perspectives of multiple people and has great worldbuilding.

>>25205235
writing so shit its good

im getting recommended so many videos of people dropping sandersons' books

>>25205216
oh man, i have so much fun reading will of the many and now im demotivated

This is an excerpt from a high profile fantasy series, try to guess the author without googling.

“Ah, what do you know?” she said. “You’re a building.”
“And?” the tower said.
“And people fart in you. Like all the time. I bet half the people in this room are doing it right now.”
"Oh, I’m fine. Just a big mess of existential crisis!"

>>25205165
no 4+ on Goodreads, no read.
Simple AS.

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>An X of Y
>X of Y
>Xs & Ys

>>25205342
>The Thing-UntelatedThing