Thread 24475636

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

>Previous:
>>24466520

>Thread Question:
What foods/dishes/meals from a book would you like to try?

>tfw want to continue reading malazan but don't want to spend a year reading so many 1000 page books
I'm in a pickle

>>24475636 (OP)
What's the op image from?

>>24475674
Devils by Joe Abercrombie

>>24475636 (OP)
>What foods/dishes/meals from a book would you like to try?
Lembas Bread because I'm a carb whore and love bread

>>24475667
Read one book a week and it won't take you a year?

>>24475682
Cram might be good too.

>Finished a good book
>Digested it for a week
>Hunger for a new book returns
>Have to begin the process of finding something new to read
Every time it becomes a little harder. I have to dig another inch deeper.

>>24475756
I start reading a new book like 5 minutes after finishing the last one

Read Princess of the Void.

>>24476295
Is it sloppa?
Captcha: MAP4V

>>24475636 (OP)
CUNNY POPE?

>>24476312
Shouting cunny isn't a personality.

>>24476300
Yes.

>>24476312
Shouting cunny is a moral duty.

>>24476300
Not really. It's odd that a series about a guy being kidnapped by a horny space goblin manages to deliver a more nuanced take on an interstellar empire than pretty much any other sci-fi in recent memory.

>>24475636 (OP)
It's sad I dropped this like 60 pages in, it was just too much cringe

>>24476312
not even a loli pope could save this one...

>>24475639
Something can be beautifully written and still be a shitty fucking book. Just like how a movie have tons of cool shit it in but still be a trash movie.

>>24475667
>I want to read but also I don't want to read
If you just care about the story and learning what the story is why not just read a chapter or book breakdown on the internet?

If people wanted to read they would just read. This isn't rocket appliances.

As much as I hate isekai I would have preferred that the protagonist had actually been killed at the red light he ran at the start of the book, rather than this fence-sitting, "you see what you want to see" augmented reality shit that just feels wishy washy. I'm also halfway in and whilst it's beating me over the head with the themes of chasing your dreams and having passions instead of just going to an office job and having casual sex and not really caring about your life it's yet to really introduce what the plot is about beyond saving the kidnapped secretary.
Please rec me some proper pirate fantasy so I can drop this. I've already read On Stranger Tides.

>>24476312
I picture her looking similar to Queen Elizabeth

>>24476582
>Please rec me
That reminds me, does anyone remember this website?
https://web.archive.org/web/20210411164757/bestfantasybooks.com/?

>>24475636 (OP)
Im 50 pages in and im struggling to keep on reading. Every person of power is a woman and it seems the antagonists will be men.
Is it just a kneejerk reaction to all the progressive politics shoved down our throats in recent times or is another case of author spending too much time on reddit?
I want to like Joe again...

>>24476818
When's the last time Tor published something that wasn't wokeslopped to hell and back?

>>24476818
>a kneejerk reaction to all the progressive politics shoved down our throats
Brother, it's been about 15 years since the latest wave of feminism became prominent. Nobody is having a "kneejerk" reaction to it. Except maybe people like who, who have appeared to been asleep until now.

Joe has always featured powerful women in his works. This latest venture just increase that number. He writes it fairly well, not drawing too much attention to the fact. Not until the very end of the book, when a character is like "muh sexism" for one scene, and that's it.

So you either just cope with the fact that Joe is writing feminist friendly fantasy. Or drop it.

>>24476818
>>24476842
Also, the main antagonists are women. You just haven't gotten far enough into the story to know that yet. Don't be so assumptious.

>>24476850
I don't know enough about art to correctly assume this but this looks like some trash art someone made with 3d game assets or something.. fucking awful

>>24476930
don't know what an ellipsis is either

Speaking of woke authors has Chris Beuhlmann given an update on the Blacktongue Thief sequel anywhere? I really liked it and the Daughter's War but it's hard to dig through his social media for book updates when it's 99% politics

>>24476850
stop fucking posting this no one is going to read it

>>24477046
nah

>>24476566
I'd argue otherwise.

>>24475636 (OP)
Do you guys ever write fantasy?

>>24477046
He's literally been doing it for years. You think your response is going to stop him?

>>24477071
Yes

>>24477071
Yes my project with the AI slop infographic is real, I promise

>>24476295
nope
i have standards, so i dont read webnovels

>>24477071
yes. writing right now and touching myself

>>24477186
When I write about you I touch myself.

>>24476662
Loved that website and its sci fi equivalent. Shame it died.

>>24477071
Yes, but the amazing story and characters in my head become lame and trite when I try and put them to paper. I need to learn how to be a better writer.

Robert Jordan's prose is so fucking good holy shit.

>>24477071
Yes but in spurts and I have a problem with self loathing that extends to my creative ventures. Even when I know something's quality, at some point I poke it full of holes, even when it's stuff no one gives a shit about. Even when I show it to others and they say it's quality. I'll get over it.

>>24477071
I've got a 40-pager I'm aiming to send to a contest after I finish editing it. It's about a sorceress trying to make a name for herself by undoing an enchantment that makes a city live the same day forever and how she ends up visiting the city three times at different points in her life and meeting her future selves
I think it's neat

>>24476977
Literally nothing has been posted.
He is probably too busy jerking himself off posting facebook boomer shit and showing up to protests.

Where does one start with Conan exactly?Is there a definitive anthology/collection or anything like that?

>>24478618
huh somehow I didn't find this when I looked. Thanks

>>24476818
>kneejerk
No.
Abercrombie, like most modern male authors, is simply cucked.

So I'm reading Howling Dark (see, not Empire of Silence!) and chapter 13 is Ruocchio just trying to do his own version of the seven principles of governance that Master Malrubius taught Severian in Shadow of the Torturer.
Like, can you BE any more derivative?

>>24478658
>>24476818
>>24476842

Abercrombie isn't writing "feminist" fantasy, he's writing fantasy with women in it. If you can't see the difference, you need to spend less time on 4chan and touch grass.

The women in the Age of Madness series weren't feminist superstacies, neither was Monca(?) in Best Served Cold. They were cunning opportunists, liars, murderers, thieves, schemers and to gain their ends they were lying, thieving, whoring, deceiving, poisoning and stealing. And they were believable and cool characters; in moments where they couldn't be saved by their innate female characteristics or the implementation of male characteristics, they were saved by plot armor to a believable degree.
Men in Joe's works usually reach their goals by violence, heroism, military expertise, political maneuvering, magic prowess and intelligence.
Most characters have, just like humans IRL, overlapping traits from both ares: Glokta (male, physically weak and cunning), Bayaz (male, deceiving, opportunist), the demon girl from First Law (female, physically strong, violent), Cosca (male, flamboyant, opportunist)...
And it works for them too. Nobody would call Logan or Shivers as flat and one dimensional as He-Man, Conan or other caricature trope characters.

Then he released "the Devils" and everything went to shit.
Not because the pope is a girl and the protags are 50/50 men and women, but because everything is marvellized quip dialogue and triple-layer self ironic "every punchline is TWAT hahaha!" attempts at jokes.
I'm still not convinced that the guy who wrote "The heroes" is the same Abercrombie as the one who is to blame for The Devils.

Did Mustang actually fuck Cassius?

>>24478699
quippy. quippy as fuck

>>24478700
Yeah. Why do you think she's named after a horse?

>>24478699
>They were cunning opportunists, liars, murderers, thieves, schemers and to gain their ends they were lying, thieving, whoring, deceiving, poisoning and stealing.

>>24478699
>>24478802
Just... cool it with the antisemitic remarks

>>24478615
Wherever you want. There is no single thread that Conan stories follow.

>>24478803
Go back to the bomb shelter.

>>24478615
The Del Rey collections. They have all the stories in written order as they were originally written by Howard. Plus tons of extras. This >>24478618 is actually a crappy collection by comparison despite looking great.

Any series like picrel?

>>24479443
Isn't this what Brando Sando's plan for Mistborn is? To go from traditional high fantasy to space opera?

>>24478699
Maybe im just tired of wokeslop and have 0 tolerance for it, but you at least have to agree he treats woman far kinder than he does man. Very few woman had their comeuppance compared to man in his stories. It started with best served cold and ended with that travesty from his 2nd trilogy.
Look at Monza, gets everything she wanted and more, while she leaves everyone broken in the process. Shy is a mary sue. Savine is a girl boss who fucks over everyone and still comes out on top because everyone bleed in the process to get her to where she is, in general just a way worse version of Monza. Rikke is just never wrong and does everything perfect.
Vic is great though, ill give him that

>>24477366
>its sci fi equivalent
Link, please? And was there one for horror?

>>24479443
The Book of the New Sun.

>>24478700
Definitely. Cassius rubbed it in Darrows face in their duel and Cassius isn't the type to lie even if he just said that to provoke Darrow. Would also explain why Cassius was down so bad for her in Iron Gold.

>>24478700
Probably. Dude simped too much for that golden whore desu

>>24479520
>>24478770
>>24478700
Also Darrow and Mustang weren’t together at this point so they were single doing their own thing. I’ve seen some people say she cheated on him but Darrow left her initially. She was a free ride but all golds are whores. It’s literally their culture.

>>24479528
>leaves her
>she immediately jumps into bed with the guy who swore he'll kill him
Fucking golden man

>>24478700
>>24479520
If I was Darrow I would've akbar'd them all after I saw that

>>24479533
She does go with him to spy on his family to protect her family not because she loves him. She just fucks him for fun and also to mentally destroy him when she leaves him.

>he didnt go for the superior golden girl
Darrow is a fag

>>24479540
Cassius hit that too.

>>24479540
She would be a ride he wouldn’t survive. Only Sevro can tame that beast.

>>24479540
He should have proposed a throuple. Victra would be down, at least.

>>24479546
How many bastards you think ol Cassieboy's got running around the galaxy by the end of LB?

>>24479540
>>24479547
>married to Sevro with multiple kids
>pregnant with another
>kisses Darrow full on the lips before he leaves in Iron Gold
Why is she like this?

>>24479551
Zero. Golds will fuck, creampie, abort and repeat.

>>24479554
She’s just a very confident flirt. Kisses are for friends, only Sevro and her brood of future Xena princess warriors have her heart.

>>24478700
Man who gives a fuck, everyone knows golden girls are all sluts. The real question is, just how much fun did Jackal have with Darrow in his secret room?

>>24479558
Except best girl

>>24479554
The Sevro thing came out of nowhere desu. She had more chemistry with Tactus and they could have both bonded about being turned down by Darrow.

RELEASE RED GOD BEFORE I PISS MYSELF PIERCE BROWN

>>24479564
>The real question is, just how much fun did Jackal have with Darrow in his secret room?
this reminds me... the only time I was truly fearful for Darrow through this whole thing was when Atlas had him dead to rights on Mercury and was like "cut his dick off, rape him in both holes, and send the video to his wife"

After hearing how dark Dark Age was and how purportedly demented PB was with the writing for it, I was afraid of just how far he was gonna go with this.

>>24479574
It's true. That was my least favorite part of Morningstar.

After catching up with the sequel series I firmly believe Cassius>Darrow and Cassius should have been the mc for th3 sequel series.

>>24479574
It does but it also makes sense. Victra is beautiful but not shallow. Sevro is something she hasn't probably experienced. Truly rough around the edges, a gold but not a typical gold and also someone who like her puts up a gruff I'll fucking kill you outer shell but is a bit more vulnerable when the guards are down. Passion is Victras biggest turn on and Sevro has it.

>>24479606
Cassius legitimately made Lysander tolerable in Iron Gold. And that's a crazy feat.

>>24479606
Cassius has the better story arc. Darrow suffers from main character syndrome but Cassius will always be best boy for me now. I actually felt that all of the POV characters in the sequel books were better and more enjoyable than Darrow.

>>24479579
He just posted an instagram story with a closed laptop with the caption "the bill comes due in the end", which on one hand makes me excited since it means he might be done writing, but on the other hand incites panic. There's just no way everyone makes it out okay.

>>24479617
Doesn't help that Pierce had Darrow job for an entire book.

What if I read Operation Ares, what then Wolfeheads?

>>24479617
>I actually felt that all of the POV characters in the sequel books were better and more enjoyable than Darrow.
Same except for Mustang. She really shouldn't have been gotten a pov.

>>24479618
>"the bill comes due in the end
it's over... RIP Darrow

>>24479618
Has he deleted it? I can’t see it.

Has anyone here read Rudy Rucker?
Any thoughts on his works?

philip chase just had this former military guy now self pub fantasy author on his podcast and he's giving me fed vibes. basically said the 2021 dune movie got him into fantasy and now he's writing epic fantasy? seems so professional too.

>>24479788
Software is as fun as one of those crazy novels by Dick. And so are his short stories.

>>24479797
They sure sucked up to the army.
>all my best students were former military!

>>24479797
he also mentioned he downloads youtube videos lol

>>24479797
>former military guy now self pub fantasy author
I've read enough jarheads' attempts at writing to make that a red flag rather than a green

>>24478699
>Abercrombie isn't writing "feminist" fantasy
I was careful with my words. I didn't say he made feminist fantasy. I said he made feminist *friendly* fantasy. To have a product that is friendly with feminism, is not to say that its purpose is to be feminist. Nor is it to say that it's overly preachy, or serving some ulterior motive. It just so happens, that when you write a story stacked with women in power, it plays friendly with the feminist crowd.

As for your opinion on The Devils. I did mention in a previous thread, that is world building was threadbare, and the whole book relied on tropes. So I don't necessarily disagree that it has a difference vibe compared to his previous work. But I will say despite the Devil's having light quipy writing, it's still way more fun than any Marvel movie. Way more fun than a lot of books out there. It's a completely irreverent book, and that's ok. You don't need deep emotional conflict in every story you read.

>>24479893
>still doing pulp in this day and age
Waste of time and energy.

>>24479724
stories expire after 24hrs

>>24479893
Hey at least the black guy isn't the one with electric powers this time

>>24479902
Maybe I'm a cuck, but I prefer stories that are feminist friendly, but not feminist in nature. They seem to be the ones that can write good female characters that are strong while still being likeable and interesting. There's really nothing worse than a boring woman in a story.

>>24479930
that does make you a cuck, yes

>>24479940
I'd rather have interesting female characters than boring ones

Can we all agree DCC has been the best Sci-fi/fantasy story the past 3 years?

>>24479902
>>24478699
I want to add, that the characters aren't as shallow as the cat posting anon makes it sound. All the characters have their little character arcs, and reveal more aspects about them. They all have their own PoVs, where you get to understand the situation from their perspective, learn a bit about their histories, and how their past informs their present.
Cat-anon would have you believe that they're all just cardboard cutouts. But that's really not the case.

You are still getting that Joe Abercombie flavor. Just relatively more irreverent than his usual level of irreverence.

>>24479930
Women don't necessarily need to be in power, in order to be interesting characters. You can write a feminist friendly story with women in power, and they're still just boring characters. But sure, if a woman has any kind of power in the story, it's typically because the author wants to make use of her in some way. And characters useful to the plot are more interesting than those who aren't. So in terms of averages, a feminist friendly story will likely have better written female characters.

>>24480007
Seems very Reddit

>>24480007
No, go fuck yourself.

>>24480012
oh i didn't mean they have to be in power. I don't care about that at all. They just have to be interesting. A female character without agency or who jobs constantly is just as annoying as a male character with the same traits. Or a male character without flaws.

>>24480036
In my experience. The idea of "agency" seems to change from person to person. I don't necessarily think that a jobber is a bad character either. If it suits the larger story being told. Sometimes people have "useless" roles. I think that's ok.

The idea of agency is where I disagree with a lot of feminists. Because they will claim a good character is bad, just because of some bizarre notion of "agency". For example, take Amy Rose from the Sonic The Hedgehog series. A lot of people say she's a bad character, because all she does is obsess over Sonic. In their minds, being purely motivated by lust for a man, means she lacks agency. So they come up with all these cockamamie ideas about how she needs a different motivation and blah blah. In the process, they end up ruining her character. We're seeing it happen in real time, because the current lead writer of the series is injecting all of his retarded western ideals about women into the series.

On the flip side, you have Alex from The Devils. She has very little "agency" by feminist standards. She's been sucked into this situation she has almost no control of. Forced to follow along, or return to the life of a street urchin. And throughout the book, all she does is job. The characters even start joking about how she needs saving all the time. She's pretty much useless. But the book is still feminist friendly, because despite the fact that she has no agency, the people puppeting her life are women. Her love interest is a woman, and in the end, she's elevated into an undeserved position of power, where she might make progressive changes for the oppressed and underprivileged.
But Alex as a character is actually pretty useless from scene to scene. She's just the donkey Joe strapped the plot onto, in order to carry it out. I wouldn't say she's a good character. She's probably the weakest in the book.

>>24477071
I try, but I can't sustain interest in a story very long.

>>24476818
>Every person of power is a woman

Aaaaaand dropped

>>24480145
Translation: The Devils is femishit slop.

>>24480145
>Her love interest is a woman
why are there so many dykes in fantasy nowadays? Is this some new mandate?

>>24480319
Trannies writing

Should I read pic related, frens?

>>24480325
Yes

>>24480322
And lesbian authors. Don't forget those.

>>24476662
Holy shit I remember this. Back when I first finished watching GoT and wanted to get into similar fantasy I used this website. My first foray into the genre. Started Stormlight Archive on its recc. I still have every series in the top 25 list downloaded

>>24480007
Its honestly the best series written in the current year of isms. I have yet to see worthwhile criticism outside of talking cat bad.

What the hell happened to Rick Riordan? Percy Jackson was so based when I was a kid, and those first five hold up pretty well last time I re-read them. But then it just dips into the most pozzed shit you've ever seen in your life. How does that happen?

>>24480007
It has been at an astounding higher level of quality than I imagined. I hope the author finishes it.

>audiobook ripped illegally on youtube
I will now listen to your fantasy series
Finished the entire First Law trilogy over the last month and it was very good. Best part was character writing, if you picked a random page without context and you could instantly tell which POV it is within 1-2 sentences. Never felt disapointed switching between the main 3 POVs.
Taking a small break before I move on to the standalone stuff

>say one thing about anon, say hes a retarded faggot

Just finished Gardens of the Moon. It was pretty fuckin' good.
Not sure if I want to jump straight into Deadhouse Gates next or read something unrelated for a change of pace first.

>>24480319
I shan't be complaining.

>>24480319
Lesbians are the fence-sitters' answer to LGBT representation. It ticks boxes while minimising the chances of giving chud's the ick,

Best way to farm karma on reddit

>>24480319
I like it because it makes my peepee hard

>>24480375
Rick only started pandering when he got the numbers back and found that the majority of the child audience who stuck with the Percy Jackson franchise were liberal white women who compose the modern YA customer demographic.

The boys dropped Percy Jackson because it never got edgier after the original series. Heroes of Olympus is pretty much where nearly all the original male fans saw the warning signs. Rick panicked and decided to pander as hard as possible to the readers who continued to support him.

I picked up the first Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook after seeing it get recommended all over le reddit. Just before I started it I questioned why the fuck I would listen to what redditors recommend in the first place, and then thought fuck it, it can't be that bad.

>obnoxious narration
>cringe, reddit/marvel tier humour
>"NEW ACHIVEMENT UNLOCKED: INCEL ALERT! Player has entered the game with no female companion!"

Have I fallen for some deliberate ad campaign? I do not see how this would appeal anyone outside of reddit. Does it get better?

>>24480560
It's a very good example of "you either love it or hate it" and I fall strongly into the latter.

>>24480560
Yerp it's shit. Ready player one-esque but as prog fantasy.

>>24480375
Rick pandering to liberal white women is indirectly his own fault. The way Percy Jackson is introduced as a story lends itself to being quite dark (especially if you think about it too long) compared to how Rick would envision the setting as later being

>Percy's mom's boyfriend abuses the fuck out of him and his mother
>Percy's nature as a demigod means he's a magnet for the supernatural so he's lonely due to being moved
>Percy's actual dad isn't in his life
>Percy's mom straight up dies right in front of him
>Percy gets framed
>Percy's new older buddy turns out to be the real thief and fucking betrays him and he almost dies
>Percy is TWELVE when this all happens

Being a demigod is suffering. Boys were drawn to the series (and other YA released in the 2000s) because it was a lot more "male" compared to something like Harry Potter.

The problem is that Rick didn't really vibe with what the boys wanted or were expecting to see, and Rick got too attached to the characters. Even within Percy Jackson, the undercurrent of anti-tension and stasis is subtle when it comes to the central cast. Out of nine characters that die by the end of the last book, three characters are of any real worth to the audience (Bianca, Kronos, and Luke).

I'm not saying that Percy Jackson should have gone full Hunger Games with how WAR IS HELL but something about a setting where "all myths are real" doesn't really lend itself to the sort of universal accessibility fantasy that YA like Harry Potter prides itself on being. Rick still THINKS he can do that which is why he started pandering to the female fans

>>24480560
The characterization is the highlight of the series, along with the overall plot which has some interesting bits to it and doesn't censor much. There's a lot going on. The achievements and much of the sanitized normalfag presentation is balls I agree.

>>24480560
Read Dungeon Samurai instead.

>>24480581
>don't read that self published slop
>read this self published slop instead!

>>24480560
How dumb are you? I was still relatively new to reading when someone recommended that to me, and I had enough sense to steer away. Exercise some wisdom.

>>24480585
>slop
>only my favorite jew-owned traditional publishing house books are good!!!
holy newfag

>>24480585
>only read slop published by tradpubs!

>>24480495
shan't be reading

>>24480502
I don't like seeing lesbians happy

>>24480375
This. Books 1-2 of the Heroes of Olympus really had that somewhat OG feeling but 3-5 was when the beginnings of the grwat Riordan pandering began

>>24480569
True. It's so unfortunate that we don't live in a world where Rick was based.

>>24480647
Which book was it that turned Nico gay for no reason. God forbid that he just looked up to Percy because he was the only male figure in his life. No he just wanted to fuck him. lol

>>24480500
Where did you find this picture of me

>>24480502
>>24480499
My friend reads a suspicious amount of lesbian centered sci-fi/fantasy. He's bisexual, though, so I don't know if it's as goonish as it could be.

>>24480655
Ask him for his favorite scifi ones, I need it for research purposes of course.

>>24480675
Gideon the Ninth

>>24480679
I recommend Gideon the Ninth for non-lesbian reasons.

>>24480686
I would've read it if not for the lesbians desu. Is it worth it to just ignore it?

>>24480679
I saw that and wrote it off as booktok slop but idk maybe I'll take a swing on it later this year

>>24480687
I don't know what you're imagining but the book is not a romantasy book. It's not that the lesbian relationship isn't important, it's more that everything about the book is so unusual, including the way the relationship develops, that I couldn't help but be interested in it. The book's atmosphere is tense, morbid, and at times absurd. There's aspects of it that are so over the top grimdark it's like it was ripped out of a 40k novel, and other times so whimsical it reads almost like an internet shitpost. It's that wild vacillation in tone that kept me hooked, really. I couldn't predict it, and that made it worth reading to me.

>>24480712
are there straight relationships in it?

>>24479922
>black guy
Dropped.

>>24480731
Yes, several, but again it's not a romance book. It's not about "who fucks who" or going on dates. Gideon and Harrow's relationship doesn't start as romantic, and the stuff going on in the story is a lot more immediately important than romance. Ultimately the romance does become important because it relates to the events of the main plot rather than being a side show to it. I can't really go into more detail without talking about the plot and spoiling it.

>>24480648
if Rick was based the story would get a lot more psychological and le deconstructive

>HoO would double down on how being a demigod sucks: no amount of camp life makes up for having a traumatic childhood
>examination of how "western civilization" actually fucking sucks, emphasis on the impact of WW2 (MGS vibes)
>delve into how the children of the gods are all a bunch of emotionally fucked up time bombs
>deal with the existence of Abrahamic faiths (but in a cool way)

>>24477071
I'm writing some but it's girl power

>>24480762
alright, i'll give it a shot. but it's going far down the list, as I've got a whole lotta shit to get to this year.

>>24480785
>abrahamic faiths
there's a cool way he could have tied the kane chronicles into all of that too.

>>24480795
Add lesbians

>>24480560
>Katia's fucked-up baseline body at the end of book 7
:c

>>24480319
the ultimate feminist fantasy has always been a world without men, look up Valeria Solanas

>>24480898
>look up Valeria Solanas
geez what a schizo

>>24480914
yes, and yet a forerunner of things to come

>Lord of the ring would have been better if legolas was a girl
GREAT take by some PhD student at lunch

>>24480945
What would this accomplish, I wonder.

>>24480951
He was unable to give a coherent explanation, I'm afraid. He did spend the next ten minutes explaining how The Wheel of Time was his favorite book because of its deep political and gender message

>>24480951
No gay elves in fantasy, of course.

>>24480945
>>24480952
>doctorate
>lotr and wot
waow

>>24480474
deadhouse gates and memories of ice are the best books. erikson was a stroke of genius writing those novels.

>>24480945
movie Gimli's the girl
>short
>pointlessly belligerent
>big on talk, short on performance
>suspiciously claims to have killed just one more orc than the boys, trustmebro
>can't hold her liquor
>insists on a drinking game anyway
>can't run
>gives excuses about being a sprinter
>can't fucking drive
>nuff said
>mainly kept around for the jokes
she really is tho

>>24480954
a worthy objective, to be sure

>>24480474
Gardens of the moon is generally considered the weakest of the malazan books so if you enjoyed it, it’s all good from there. I’m on book 4 now and I’d say just power through whilst it’s fresh as these books are huge with lots of different characters and events and it’s easy to forget what happens if you take a break.

Earlier today I opened a book to the exact page I left off at on the first try without a bookmark.

And just now I went back in the book to cross-reference something that was said earlier with something that just happened, and I flipped straight to it.

>>24480945
Would she be a pretty girl?

>Dungeon Crawler Carl
:l
>Gideon the Yuri
:O

>>24481001
Tell me today's lottery numbers for Euro Jackpot while you're at it

>>24481001
They call him The Bibliosoph

>>24481026
I don't gamble

>>24480349
Everybody who instantly dismissed the book because of the cat has never read the book.

>>24481051
if you're going to shill for a book at least tell us WHY it's good in sufficiently attractive and engaging detail instead of just
>you're wrong it's good swear on me ma
except you didn't even do the last fucking bit you jobbing bawbag

>>24481057
>read 20 minutes into the book
>scene where Carl tells the now self-aware cat to shut the fuck up and threatens to leave because people only tolerate cats BECAUSE they DO NOT talk
but of course crossboarding newfag /v/ niggers like yourself never got that far
>ugh you HAVE to write an essay explaining why it's good but I can and will dismiss it with some newfag one-liner buzzword
ex dee

>>24481066
>crossboarding newfag /v/ niggers
>ugh you HAVE to write an essay
if you think writing more than one sentence (let alone five) is such a chore, you're the one who doesn't belong on /lit/
return from whence ye came, pretender

>>24481077
>no book discussion
sasuga

>>24480474
What did you like about it? I thought it was awful. The whole book is just characters we barely know anything about fighting for control of a land we barely know anything about.

>>24481095
I might be inclined to have a fucking discussion if the shill had actually written something of substance about the novel to respond to, instead of kvetching about how it's too far beyond anon's writing abilities to drop more than a one-liner
there's more fucking content to engage with on fucking Goodreads for fuck's sake

and i'm not even prejudiced against talking cats in principle; Lewis Carroll has already blazed that trail
(though I'm much more a dog person)

This would've been a science fiction scenario not all that long ago.

>>24481115
All the bad pieces of man that scifi authors attempted to portray in their books flowered into modern society.

>>24481105
>kvetching
oh you're a fucking jew your entire life is falsefaggotry.

Recommend me fantasy that has both soul and sovl. Extra sovl please.

>>24481123
I'm not Jewish, actually
but I knew you'd go for the bait rather than engage in good faith
so
>no book discussion
>sasuga

>>24481126
hard to get more SOVL than Wright Brothers-era near-dieselpunk
bonus: it's actually well-written, pre-zoomer male-protagonist YA

>>24479483
He treats women well because he's a simp with a femdom fetish

>>24480319
It's hot

>>24481134
I will download this. Do you have any other recommendations with a bit more medieval flair?

>>24480692
It's surprisingly not quite as quippy as I imagined.

>>24481127
>engage in good faith
>never at any point mentions any specific plot point of the book
An hero, newfag kike and stop shitting up the thread.

>>24481141
No, I don't read fantasy much
come to think of it the only medieval novel I read is Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt
if I want medieval-esque fantasy I read ASOIAF

>>24480641
>>24480643
What? You want gay dudes or het romance from the POV of the *woman*?
Gay

>>24480560
Just the title alone sickens me enough to never want to even hear about it

>>24480560
NEW ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: INCEL ALERT!
Anon has gone another day without a female companion!

>>24480560
>after seeing it get recommended all over le reddit
You have only yourself to blame. Reddit is DCC's target audience.

Alex a cute. A CUTE!

>>24479443
I know quite a few JRPGs like this

>>24480007
Close , Pale Lights is better after themsecond volume.

>>24480560
>not enjoying ai slowly going insane as it slowly awakens disgused as random achievements
The books are a masterclass of breaking out of confines of it genre. It's started off as a parody and litslop and evolved into a tale of suffering, slowly losing your humanity and still perserving in the face off impossible.
Anyone dismissing it as reddit slop never went passed its few pages and only parrots what he heard from rest of the retards here.
>le reddit likes it
Who gives a shit, did you know reddit also likes to breath?

>>24480560
It's a live deathshow. The AI is cringe on purpose.

>>24481274
>did you know reddit also likes to breath?
not true, a lot of them are anti-natalists who think life shouldn't be lived (even though they won't kill themselves)

>>24481126
Almuric, by Robert E. Howard. It's his take on the portal fantasy stories like John Carter.

Anyone have space navy/marine recs?
Post a picture and why reason why you think it’s good too

Humanoid robot doing logistics
https://youtu.be/lkc2y0yb89U

Regardless of its form factor, it's still a machine as any other. There's definitely going be trouble when the humanoid robots are combined even with current LLMs for conversation. Far too many will believe there's something there when there isn't.

Even those who ought to know better will fall for it. There's no hope for those who have preconditioned themselves to believe they are greater.

>>24481590
Are we doing this again? Debating robot personhood like it's the 50s?

Or are you just lost and entered the wrong thread?

I finally finished The Worm Ouroboros. What a neat book. I loved the language and the use of real life poetry, the very vivid descriptions, the author's obvious passion for nature trips. The structure of the book would have definitely needed some restructuring though, and I'm not even talking about the dropped framing device in the beginning. There was an entire chapter of mountain climbing, which I did enjoy, but I felt like at least half of it could have been spent on characters and their interactions. Speaking of which, Gro was naturally the most interesting, despite his rather chaotic development in the second half and weird death. Prezmyra was the second most interesting.
The ending in itself was sort of expected, but it was also a bit unnerving, I guess. I can understand why Tolkien didn't agree with Eddison's philosophy. What's even funnier is that he was correct about the names, but he couldn't have known Eddison had come up with most of them when he was 10 and was most likely too attached to them to change them.
Now that I think about it, Worm is closer in tone to The Silmarillion rather than The Lord of the Rings. The influence of the sagas, chansons, etc. is quite obvious, especially in the way the characters are written. It's hard to get attached to anyone, but at times they will have a very striking moment, like Prezmyra's death next to her husband, Juss finding his brother and thinking he's dead etc. The saga influence also made it more violent than I had expected. Violent might not be the right word, at least not physically violent, but for some reason I had expected it to be more fairy tale like, in the vein of The King of Elfland's Daughter, and not Volsunga Saga.

>>24481623
this one's laying around somewhere in my house, probably gonna pick it up when I get through Moorcock and Poul Anderson.

>>24481636
speaking of Moorcock, I still haven't finished the first novel because work got in the way. I'll probably finish it by monday.

>>24481590
>Far too many will believe there's something there when there isn't.
People believe there's something in people when there isn't. That's not an issue.

marenovum.substack.com/p/xvii-the-chain-of-command
Workplace motivation edition

>>24481621
It's one of the defining failures of discerning between fantasy and reality. It will continue to be argued the same as religion.

>>24481643
I understand how having a condition that excludes empathy, such as sociopathy or autism, would engender such a belief.

Publishers should be allowed to chain authors up in basements until they finish all the books in the deal

>>24481689
No-no , the debates were not surface level thoughts on some random imageboard.
The only "real" answer against the "if it walks like a duck..." argument is the existance of soul. So it only applies to scared religious folk.

>>24481730
There is no soul and there never has been. As with much, it comes from misunderstandings, especially with taking metaphors literally. It truly is amazing how much fantasy has been built stop religions. It's like a videogame that has been modded beyond recognition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_in_the_Bible

>>24481753
*atop religions
The same is true for AI

>>24481753
I never comment on anything religious online as it's a complete waste of my time but I'll say I do find it odd people can act so sure about things, one way or another. Just really bizarre to me someone could be so confident about things we can't be sure of.

ANYWAYS, I'm going to start reading Sphere by Michael Crichton now. Have a good Friday, everyone!

>>24481728
Isn't this basically how the manga industry works? They just force people to stay in the office drawing and finishing manga to meet deadlines? All for some garbage ass art and story telling lol.

>>24481764
Sphere has the best Crichton action scene of all time

>>24481764
Agnosticism is cowardice.

>>24480560
Easily the worst book I've ever tried to read. The concept just isn't for me. I agree it is very rooted in reddit/marvel humor/action. I would love to see the overlap between adults who buy legos or funko pops and find these books enjoyable. I bet it skews heavily towards the 'man-child' demographic.

>>24481765
No, it isn't. They work from home or from their own office alone or with assistants. There's no need to force anything because of their culture. In the cases where deadlines aren't met, it depends on their popularity and relationship with the company, the same as anywhere else.

>>24481774
zzzzzzzzzzZZZZzzzzZZzzzzzzZZZZzzzz nothing wrong with philosophical skepticism anon

>>24481126
the goats as usually mentioned
The Broken Sword
The Mask of the Sorcerer
anything by Wolfe

>>24481801
>There's no need to force anything because of their culture
we need to change this culture stat! Quick, boat over 6 million Somalian refugees to enrich the culture.

>>24481819
There's a complete difference between "I don't know" and "It cannot be known".

>>24481841
On a related note, is it better to die with grace and dignity, or to survive with compromise and loss?

>>24481853
It has been revealed to me in such a way that I can know for certain.

>>24481872
Depends, since those concepts are very broad, vague, and subjective.

This was beautiful

>>24481728
Or maybe they could write standalone books.

>>24481773
To compensate for its condition of Solaris ripoff.

>>24481975
Yes, BUT PLEASE DON'T CALL IT SCIENCE FICTION OR ANYTHING FANTASTIC! Ishiguro is a REAL writer, you know. Not some genre pleb.

>>24482013
It is unequivocally fantasy

>>24482019
Just like my sex life.

>libgen down
BROS?

>>24482019
And yet, my local library does not shelve it in the fantasy section, because Ishiguro is a literary writer and not a worthless genre slop writer.

>>24482051
It's working for me, bitch.

>>24482058
which extension nigga

>>24482063
No extension.

>>24481126
The works of Walter Moers.
>b-but that's for kids
Yes, and?

>>24482063
>extension
domain, specifically top level domain (TLD).

>>24482070
Didn't know enough to understand your mistake.


This shows how words matter. The argument of "as long as you know what I meant" didn't apply this time.

its too hot to read bros... I need comfy autumn reading time NOW

>>24481297
It's not his best work but it does have some great moments that make it worth reading, and the villainess is fantastic.

>>24481126
King of Elfland's Daughter(and other stories by Lord Dunsany, especially the Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth)

>>24481126
Also the Thongor series if you want some 60's cheese kino

>>24482019
Oh well, at least that genre is less unpopular among the "real" writers.

>>24482051
I have to use a VPN to download off there now it's fucking annoying

>>24482155
Still waiting for Tara of the Twilight to be republished.

>>24482084
>>extension
>domain
RYOIKI TENKAI

>>24482190
lmao

Anyone hyped for endlords? Surely i cant be the only j.v. jones fan here

>>24475636 (OP)
anyone here read the firestar series? finished the first one and it's just ok -- the lolbert/ayn rand masturbation is very nearly overwhelming. if it gets worse i'll just find something else.

>>24482243
Mostly to pirate it, you know. I'd never pay more than 50p for such a book (or any other book).

>>24482283
There's already an ebook apparently. Is it not uploaded anywhere?

>>24481801
>There's no need to force anything because of their culture
Well that and manga authors are paid peanuts until they make it big, and don't get paid unless they submit work, so they have a strong incentive to complete work.

>>24481274
>tfw K:BS makes DCC look like a day time stroll in the park
>>24481764
Most civil anon in the thread. Have a good time reading your book!

>>24482279
>if it gets worse I'll just find something else
Please do. I've read better pulp space operas than this boring tract.

>>24482286
>Is it not uploaded anywhere?
I don't think so. I've been looking for it for months but no deal.

>>24482288
>don't get paid unless they submit work
Perfect.

>>24482294
Paid by the publisher, I mean. They still collect royalties earned on sales and such even if they don't submit anything, which is why more successful manga authors can afford to go on long breaks.

>>24481103
>The whole book is just characters we barely know anything about fighting for control of a land we barely know anything about.
I mean technically you could make the same argument about any big fantasy series that you start reading. Understanding comes over time and learning about the world and the characters is part of why you get invested in the story. And I like the characters a lot. The Bridgeburners are really cool and I love the concept of "the old regime's best of the best being sent to the meat grinder because the new power can't afford to eliminate them directly but they won't die and so their reputation just keeps growing". Crokus' babysitters are less cool (apart from Kruppe who is based) but are still a great group with a great dynamic. Lots of the other one-off characters were interesting as well, I didn't like Paran at first but he really grew on me, Rake is about as Elric-coded as you can get without being totally derivative and the various gods and other powerful string pullers are a great addition to the plot, although I will say that developments kind of border on contrivance at times like when Cotillion gets ejected out of Sorry right as she's about to kill Crokus but I guess you could make the argument that Greek style Deus Ex is the whole point of those characters.
I will say that the Malazan Empire is not particularly well defined (at least in my mind after reading only one book) but the book spends a lot of time in Darujhistan and I feel like I got a really good feel for the city and the characters who come from there. On the other hand the Tiste Andii and T'Lan Imass are a lot harder to get a grasp on but I think that is by design so that they give off a bit of an alien impression and we see that reflected in the reactions to those characters (I'm thinking mainly Lorn to Tool and Baruk to Rake) that the humans of the setting also find their thought processes and morals inscrutable which in my opinion is a good thing. You don't want your fantasy races to just be humans with pointy ears who live a long time or humans with puke coloured skin who shit diamonds or whatever.
There is a lot of jargon in the book regarding magic which I think might be overwhelming if you expect to just understand all of these terms and rules and stuff from the getgo and I think this is a consequence of Erickson knowing his world super due to playing D&D campaigns in it for a long time before writing the novels but I find not knowing is a lot more compelling and I enjoyed figuring things out as I read without having to sit through excessive lore dumps every chapter. I'd take this over Brando-Sando video game mechanics any day of the week.
I also like the PoV structure and how sometimes it felt like the PoV would change mid-paragraph and how Erikson would show an event from one person's point of view, and then the aftermath from someone else's. Although I would be wary about over using tricks like that.

>>24482367
>On the other hand the Tiste Andii and T'Lan Imass are a lot harder to get a grasp on but I think that is by design so that they give off a bit of an alien impression and we see that reflected in the reactions to those characters
Not sure if you're the anon who has just finished gardens, but the entire series doesn't make sense until the third book where they go into details of the world, the races, their history, the gods and the magic. You are thrown in at the deep end but it does all make sense eventually.

new Watts story in the Blindopraxia 'verse.
>https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-twenty-one-second-god/

>>24482451
Aww shiiieeet. Thanks anon, gonna read it later.

Do people here read much self published stuff like litrpg royal road etc, or is that a diferrent type of autism. Didnt see a particular thread for it

Is Wheel of Time worth reading?

>>24482469
SLOP!

>>24482367
>>24482416
on the topic of not knowing what the fuck is going on with races in malazan, I'm on book 4 now with the plot about Karsa. I literally wouldn't have known he's from a species of giant if I didn't check up on one of the fan guides. Am I supposed to have known this because its not clear

>>24482478
quit speedreading

>>24482483
why do you think I'm speed reading?

>>24482466
Some of it pops up from time to time but a few dedicated autists screech at the mere mention of it so it isn't common. I don't think there's another thread for it anywhere on 4chan though and it isn't off-topic here

>>24482478
Idk i figured out he was the Toblekai from Deadhouse Gates relatively quick

>>24482466
A thread pops up from time to time, but they're generally not interested in discussing /litrpg/ stories.

>>24482466
>>24482499
there's literally a webnovel general up right now >>24474794

>>24482502
It wasn't mentioned that they were Toblakai. The only thing that indicated that they weren't human was that an 80 year old was considered a youth.

>>24482514
I thought that was for chinkslop

>>24481641
Alright, I'll stay on the lookout

>>24482530
They didn't put litRPG in the title precisely because it's ass.

>>24482530
>A general for readers and authors involved or interested in the growing phenomenon of 'web novels', serialized English fiction posted to websites such as:
>Royalroad, Webnovel, Scribblehub, Wattpad, Archive of Our Own, Spacebattles, HFY, various personal author websites, and more
also I'm no expert, but isn't litrpg itself an offshoot of "progression fantasy" which is basically wannabe chinkslop?

>>24482536
I think litrpg is actually an offshoot of japanese webnovels about being sucked into a video game and progression fantasy is just the western chinkslop but it scratches a similar itch so they got popular at the same time. Either way they're the future of sff

>>24482469
Do you like really long epic fantasy series? If so, then yeah.

>>24479797
Kek he's 100% a fed. Philip Chase starting making one piece content too. Then when he got big he suddenly said he's an author and had an entire trilogy written in his safe. I hate the ungenuine shilling even though he seems like a nice guy.

I found my old Prydain books and have been rereading them. They are delightful. I think I will share them with my nephews and niece.

>>24481126
wheel of time

>>24482469
yes

>>24482552
So long, that the author died before finishing it. kek

>>24482490
He is described as being half again as tall as an adult man and I don't even think he was the tallest person in the trio. They refer to all humans as children because of how small they are. Speedreader.
>>24482516
I think we do know that they're toblakai, not sure though, but it is clear that he is the character people refer to as toblakai in DG.

>this or that writer earns a lot of money
>becomes forgotten once out of fashion
Funny, how we never think of posterity when discussing popular books.

>>24482552
I don't think I like super long books in general. It's not that I can't handle the load or dislike reading them but I find they tend to waffle on about stuff that's not always germane. It's more an economy of words situation. When volume one of a multi part series is already a third of the length of the lord of the rings I just kind of can't get interested.

>>24482855
They just sell the tv rights to amazon for enough money to coast off of for the next few years even though the show never gets made. Who cares

>>24482900
People with taste.

>>24482912
>live in the UK
>everything sucks but at least I have charity shops in every corner, full of books

Before the thread ends, are there any good books that will give me the same feeling the Last of Us did when it was at its peak? Assuming I've read The Road etc. Thanks

>>24482933
No

>>24482855
Because much of the internet is composed of normalfags who believe popularity is the primary predictor of "good" quality. This is reinforced ITT every thread.

>>24482946
>much of the readers of every era
Fixed.

>>24482952
Yes anon, normalfags in the middle of the bell curve make up the majority of humanity.

What edition of Prince of Nothing should I get, any differences?

>>24482933
>Before the thread ends
Speaking of: OP here. I'm not making the next one. I only made this thread, because I secretly wanted recommendations, and the threads wasn't up when I checked the catalog, so I was forced to make it myself.
I have reading material now, so I'm going to let the thread die. Someone else do it.

>>24482968
When the thread reaches the bottom of the catalog of course. Not right now.

>>24482955
What you like. There are just different covers as I understand.

I'm surprised the dying earth has spell memory. I think it's the first book I read with this d&d system.

>>24483099
Bro, why do you think it's called Vancian spellcasting?

>>24483107
I do not know it's called one way or another
My only experience with dnd is bg3 and planescape torment

Why did Proyas accept to get ass fucked?

>>24481051
I dismissed the book because of the foot fetish shit

>>24483259
Author wanted it to happen.

>>24480015
Because it is.

>>24480500
>omgz!1! a black guy reading fantasy! take all my upvotes, good sir!

>>24482855
It's hard to know for sure who will endure and who won't. When GRRM was brand new on the scene nobody predicted the massive influence he'd have on the industry 20 years later. His stuff was modestly popular and praised by his contemporaries, but there were bigger names in fantasy back then.

>>24483107
Any books extremely similar to that movie "A Dark Song" where the bereaved mother is reacting fasting and hires some priest to help her summon an angel?

>>24482612
Who's the pig? Looks like he does big farts.

>>24483455
your mom

>>24483465
Take it back. I refused to get bullied on the weekend!

>>24483426
His debut was in 1977. He was already 20 years in when he had A Game of Thrones published. The first book started at the high end of the mid-list. 2 and 3rd were already among the most popular fantasy series. 4th, a Feast for Crows, roughly 10 years in 2005, he was #1 on the bestseller charts overall, not just fantasy. 15 years in with the show beginning he was at all-time fantasy level. It wasn't that nobody thought so at all. Yes, there were bigger names. Tolkien probably won't ever be overcome. Rowling obliterates all. Jordan was the derivative Tolkien heir apparent. It's silly to say "bigger names" when it was only a few, not much more than what's mentioned.

suneater is shit

>>24483613
Pretty much. "GRRM is only a household name because of the show" is, and always has been, a cope.

For me?

It's Apollonius Au Valii-Rath

>>24483649
>GRRM is only a household name

>>24483649
GERM is not a household name and the only reason why normies do know of him is because of the show.
These are facts.

new thread
>>24483972

>>24479190
>looks great
It's a glued binding, with thin fake leather over a cardboard cover. It's no more durable than any other paperback, less so because it's such a giant volume, and it's twice the price that you can find all three of the Del Rey versions for. The print is larger, that's the only good thing about it.