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>Previous:
>>24519998

>Thread Questions:
>What SF/F books are you currently reading?
>Favorite book covers?
>Favorite artists (amateur or professional)
>What character is literally you?

I'm almost through with The Dragon Reborn.

I'm beginning to think Robert Jordan has a lesbian femdom fetish.

I'm about to read this book.

>Favorite book covers?

>>24527950
>Lysander (died 395 bc, Haliartus, Boeotia) was a Greek military and political leader who won the final victory for Sparta in the Peloponnesian War.
Deal with it. Lysander's Final Solution to the Color Problem is the way forward.

Picked this up on a whim and enjoyed it. This Erevis Cale guy seems pretty cool. I know he has a trilogy of books after this that seem highly regarded in the FR universe. Can anyone who read them recommend them or not?

Oh now he bested him in combat too
I hate this fucking character, I hate this fucking book, and I hate this fucking series.

>>24528033
It's been a long time, but I enjoyed them more than most I read in the setting. Kemp did well with a character he didn't create and had a lot of restrictions for, as did the 6(?) Sembia writers when they were doing that major part. Unfortunately he wasn't able to write all the books he wanted, as they were cancelled due to internal office politics. Primarily that management didn't like the direction was taking the books, and especially not what he wanted to do to follow up with the trilogy.

>>24528015

>>24527985
Doesn't everyone?

>>24528055
I've seen someone on /tg/ say he was making Wizards pissy with how he was depicting their setting, what was that all about if you happen to know?

>>24528034
Please keep reading, anon. You're on the precipice of a very based moment.

>>24527985
Yes and it's fucking great

>>24528061
He was literally me. I feel so ashamed with each random erection.

older dom coded bitches putting leashes on pretty young girls and mindbreaking them

It's like he went through my search history.

>>24528056
>>24528015
nice. very nice.

>>24528080
What, Cassius showing up?
I knew that was coming nobody else made sense.

What are the best sci-fi books featuring organic technology (meat machines, meat robots, etc.)?

>>24528063
I'd have to look it up and try to to find it again, but if I'm remembering it correctly he was writing more towards a modern style with videogame influences than the classical and well established tabletop fantasy style.

>>24528116
Yeah. I knew he wasn't dead, but I was still happy to see him.

Read Abercrombie's The Devils and quite enjoyed it. He's very good at writing the chapters inside the character's heads in distinct ways. Really love Baron Rikard and the necromancer

>>24528131
are these books any good?

>main character is literally too angry to die
I love this shit

>>24528056
Still crazy to me that each of these collections have no hardcover version.

just read sanderson's latest cosmere novel, the isles of the emberdark

right off, i will say that it is his most passable work since before oathbringer, there are no crazy shallan antics that go on forever, nor magic technology or juvenile writing, no mentions of therapists or kalladin in vertical motion

this is a continuation of his earlier novella sixth of the dusk, and in dusk, i believe that sanderson has created one of his more memorable characters

lots of lore drop, we get a glimpse of the cosmere city of silverlight, thematically, the story is set during the space war age between scadrial and roshar

also, the story is allowed to breathe, my biggest issue with sando's latest works was that they all happened in a constrained amount of time, not so here, which has a more languid pace

definitely the best of all his secret works, and i would put it at a solid A level for all sando's works

I really did not remember anything from Echopraxia. Loving this reread. Genuinely having to stop and THINK.

>>24528193
Yes, even though the ending Is a little rough.

>>24527950
Lysander is literally the highest of gold pedigree and basically royalty. It’s not without question that he is incredibly smart. He has been raised from birth to be perfect and had the best teachers for it. He didn’t grow up having friends, he grew up around tutors.

>>24528383
Good to know he's not washed, I suppose.

>>24528395
check out his new short story set in the same universe
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-twenty-one-second-god/

Er gen slop, granted he is getting better and better at this and my science fiction read is blind sight at the moment but I have kinda dropped it since it's so fucking slow.

The Darkness That Comes Before is on sale on kindle for £2.99. Should I get it or is Bakker shit?

>>24528698
He feels like a parody of GRRM. If you want to get into the Second Apocalypse, you must understand that sexual violence isn't just a narrative aesthetic to sell his gritty world, it is a core, unalienable aspect of the world building.

>>24528803
Sounds like Bakker has a rape fetish. Seems to be common in fantasy.

>>24528803
>He feels like a parody of GRRM
No he doesn't.

>>24528033
I read them when I was a kid and liked them a lot. If you're generally a fan of IP genre fiction Kemp is one of the best authors in that niche.

>>24528803
Oh no, the horror! It's almost like rape was a very common thing in the medieval times. Wait until you find out how much murder is in the books, or better yet, wait until you find out how prevalent it is in history.

>>24528968
Ok Gurm, now finish the book.

>>24528575
Yep. I read that a few days ago. I was the one who originally posted the link.
For those who haven't read it, the story takes place before Firefall and seems to be about the beginning of the Bicamerals. I would recommend it.
Did you like it, anon?

Quit reading fucking trash

>>24528803
Well, even in your own words, it's more like GRRM is a parody of the Second Apocalypse. How humans use other humans as means is pretty recurring theme in bakker's stuff, and for whatever reason, humans to some degree associate rape with such domination. While in GRRM's shit it's more like a thin veneer painted onto the world to make it bleaker

>>24528698
Yeah, it's good. Rather bleak tho. Prince of Nothing/the first three books would probably be liked by 95% of fantasy readers. The Aspect-Emperor is a bit more dense and you probably have to be interested in bakker's philosophical musings to get through it, tho it has the coolest concepts

>>24528985
We're in the "Bakker/GRRM created RAPE" circlejerk hours. Good luck convincing these normalfags to read anything not placed on their (single series) throne.

>>24528990
No, I mean science fiction/fantasy as a whole. Useless fucking empty calorie slop.

I read the first four chapters of A Game of Thrones and decided "yeah, I'm not going to bother reading this fucking slop" and I've never looked back.

>>24528992
>slop
Oh these are your like-minded newfag brethren.

>>24528968
>Oh no, the horror! It's almost like rape was a very common thing in the medieval times.
Correct.

One can remember the well-documented account of how Godfrey of Bouillon assumed the command of the First Crusade by anally raping Robert of Flanders, Raymond of Saint-Gilles and Alexios I Komnenos in a single public ceremony, or the indoctrination practices of Ḥashshāshīyīn, whose acolytes were conditioned to a physiological dependency on handjobs given to them by their elder superiors. Those were the direct inspirations for concepts revisited by King Bakker in The Second Apocalypse.

It is known.

>>24528803
So he has a rape fetish? Based

>>24529002
>>>>HE USED A WORD! HE USED "THE" WORD!!! YOU CAN'T USE THAT COMMON WORD THAT DENOTES THINGS OF POINTLESS VALUE OR LOW QUALITY OR ELSE YOU'RE A FUCKING ZOOMER!!! YOU'RE A FUCKING ZOOMER IF YOU USE THAT WOOOOORD!!! ZOOM ZOOOOOOM!!!

Consider fucking killing yourself.

>>24529012
>newfagbabble off a checklist
sasuga
take your narcissistic delusions of grandeur elsewhere dumb new nigger

>>24528996
How much of a consideration was being able to sincerely say this in terms of whether you'd read it?

>>24529035
I have no fucking idea what you're asking here.

>>24528698
>>24528803
If you want happy fantasy, then stick to trash like sanderson and jordan
If you want a world that's blacker than pitch then read bakker
>Cnaiür screamed. “Show me your mighty warriors!” His limbs fevered by all-conquering hatred, he cut them down, weak and strong alike, fighting like one mad with heartbreak, hacking shields until arms were broken, pounding figures until they stumbled and spouted plumes of blood. The advancing ranks engulfed them, but still Cnaiür and his Utemot killed and killed, until the turf beneath their feet became bloody muck, treacherous with corpses. The Nansur relented, scrambled back several paces, gaping at the Utemot chieftain. Sheathing his broadsword, Cnaiür vaulted the bodies heaped before him. He caught a wounded straggler by the throat, crushed his windpipe. Roaring, he heaved the thrashing man above his head. “I am the reaver!” he cried. “The measure of all men!” He sent the body crashing at their feet. “Is there no cock among you?” He spat, then laughed at their astonished silence. “All cunts, then.” He shook the blood from his mane, raised his broadsword anew.
The greatest fantasy writer since tolkien
>And he thought of Proyas. On the worst nights he hugged himself in the blackness of his tent, screaming and sobbing. He beat the earth with his fists, stabbed holes with his knife, then fucked them. He cursed the world. He cursed the heavens. He cursed Anasûrimbor Moënghus and his monstrous son. He thought, So be it. On the best nights he made no camp at all, but instead rode to the nearest Shigeki village, where he would kick in doors and glory in screams. On a whim, he avoided those doors marked with what he imagined was lamb’s blood. But when he found all the doors so marked, he ceased to discriminate. “Murder me!” he would roar at them. “Murder me and it stops!” Bawling men. Shrieking girls and silent women. He would take what compensation he could.

>>24529046
>Cnaiür and his Utemot
It's just Mongolians nigga

This might sound like a silly question, but how might someone who cares more about being incognito than being able to quickly access his great sword hide that he's carrying one? Like how could you wrap it up or conceal it so it would blend in in a horse drawn cart?

>>24529061
Just have him carry something along the lines of what Corvo carries in Dishonored, a pseudo-switchblade extendo sword.

>>24529003
If this is meant to be ironic then clearly the only medieval history you know is European.

>>24529046
Oh lol , is this the so called "good writing"?
This is trash.
If you add "...and then they all clapped" in the end it would be chefs kiss

>>24529061
Makeshift "repairs" to the axle under the cart with leather straps. May or may not have a greatsword hidden in it.

>>24528996
They guy who dies in the prologue has the a more complete character arc than anyone else in the entire series.
>>24529061
A sword without a guard could probably be disguised as all sworts of things.

>>24529064
I'm not really going for that kind of steampunk tech aesthetic. Metalwork to make swords is some of the highest technology in the setting to give an example.

>>24529102
>all sworts
hehe

>>24529061
Disguising it as some fixture of the cart is probably the best way to so it.

Empire of the Dawn is a really stupid name for a book

I think Bakkerfag just might be a homosexual

>>24529242
Noooooo....????

>>24529061

just finished project hail mary. amazing what they'll publish with no editing these days. well i liked the ending. the movie will probably be fun. pic unrelated.

>>24529107
In that case it doesnt really make sense that he can hide it, right? So either give him a less conspicuous weapon, a reason he can walk around with a big weapon without people being alarmed, or adjust the worldbuilding to allow for the wacky anthics you want to put in your story.
If he only needs to be armed for a scene you can have him seize the weapon locally somehow.
It seems to me there is friction between the low-tech, grounded story you want to tell, and the anime character traits you want your donutsteel to have.

>>24528131
The New Jedi Order
Xenogenesis by Octavia Butler

>>24529107
If your character wants to be inconspicuous they shouldn't be carrying a huge sword. Inconspicuous would be a Cane sword or something similar. Failing that, put it in a cart or something. Hide it under the wagon seat.
But practically speaking big is inherently conspicuous.

>>24528131
Creatures of Light and Darkness

>>24528968
Yeah remember when the Roman Emperor defeated the Bulgars and had ten thousand captives anally raped? Or when Julius Caesar was famously gang raped by the entire Roman Senate? Let's not forget the betrayal of Jesus when Judas Iscariot raped him. That's why the symbol of Christianity is Jesus being raped.
Because that's how Bakker utilizes sexual violence, not just "women were raped as spoils of war, c'est la vie." And those are our human heroes! The otherworldly adversaries are rape aliens fueled by rape magic who command hordes of rape monsters, so spare us the "it's just historical realism, sweaty"

>>24528987
>what should my fantasy world look like?
>oh how about Europe but kinda squished

>>24529046
>This is the best prose since Tolkien
Jesus wept

>>24529046
>Cnaiür
I hate when stupid hard to pronounce fantasy names like this and I'm Welsh

>>24529345
I just ignore all the umlauts and accents because trying to say them out loud sounds stupid most of the time.

>>24529354
Audiobooks just gloss over them anyway.

>>24528383
I'd say it's a 50/50 on this having been written before Oathbringer

>>24529046
Jesus, this is the slop you've been worshiping and peddling all these years? This is some teenage edgelord's fanfiction. It's a child's conception of a badass brutal warrior.

>>24529345
I just pronounce it as "NIGH-URR"

>>24529003
>Godfrey of Bouillon assumed the command of the First Crusade by anally raping Robert of Flanders, Raymond of Saint-Gilles and Alexios I Komnenos in a single public ceremony
Gee, why did Harold Lamb and others hide this from us?

>>24529385
It's the opposite, you are so used to neutered warriors written by low T leftists that you can't tell when a real man writes a trve kvlt frostbitten warrior.

Book where the female protagonist has to dress in skimpy clothing (preferably a loincloth) to sneak into the bad guys lair?

>>24529385
You somehow missed his
>wall of text
>KINO
spam posts for the past several months? He likes to copypaste it around the start of a thread.

Someone whos deep in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere (mistborn, stormlight archive) did i gimp myself by reading Secret history after mistborn era 1 but before anything else? It reads like i should know about all the characters mentioned from the other books

>>24529424
Yes. Sanderson recommends you don’t read it until after mistborn era 2.

>>24529077
>>24529003
>>24528968
>>24529333
https://youtu.be/YwNUG3NxzTI?si=aZ0L7-VeZyUXTk-A&t=70

>>24529046
>blacker than pitch
So he writes stuff like little girls getting raped and beheaded and men dumping their loads into her neck hole filling her little body like a stuffed turkey and cooking her up for a Thanksgiving meal?

>>24529333
Basil the Bulgar Rapist is my favourite Roman emperor.

>>24529053
>>24529088
>>24529339
>>24529345
>>24529354
>>24529385
>>24529397
>>24529410
>>24529458
Cope, Newfags
Bakker is KING of /sffg/
always has been, always will be
>Some one hundred thousand Inrithi had stumbled from the Carathay, and less than fifty thousand now ranged across the plain. Another twenty thousand remained within Caraskand, too weak to do more than cheer. Many had dragged themselves from their sickbeds and now crowded the Triamic Walls, especially about the Ivory Gate. Some cried out encouragement and prayers, while others wept, tormented by the collision of hope and hopelessness.
>But on wall and field alike, everyone looked anxiously to the centre of the battle line, hoping for a glimpse of the new banner that graced the threadbare standards of the Holy War. There! through budding grove or across rolling pasture, flaring in the breeze: black on white, a ring bisected by the figure of a man, the Circumfix of the Warrior-Prophet. The glory of it scarcely seemed possible …
>War horns sounded the advance, and the grim ranks began marching forward, into distances screened by orchards and copses of ash and sycamore. Kascamandri had ordered his host to draw up more than two miles distant, where rolling plain broadened between the city and the surrounding hills, knowing it would be difficult for the Inrithi to cover the intervening distance without exposing their flanks or opening gaps in their line.
>Songs keened over the throbbing of Fanim drums. The deep war chants of the Thunyeri, which had once filled the forests of their homeland with the sound of doom. The keening hymns of the Ainoni, whose cultivated ears savoured the dissonance of human voices. The dirges of the Galeoth and the Tydonni, solemn and foreboding. They sang, the Men of the Tusk, overcome with strange passions: joy that knew no laughter, terror that knew no fear. They sang and they marched, walking with the grace of almost-broken men.
>Hundreds collapsed, faint for the lack of food. Their kinsmen hauled them to their feet, dragged them forward through the muck of fallow fields

Ever heard of India?

>>24529389
I pronounce it as "snare"

>>24529467
Wait, which point on the cope, seethe, dilate, have sex chart are we on?

This is a very nostalgic /sffg/.

I think Science Fantasy is better than Science Fiction.
I don't want to listen to some hack who couldn't do real science yap about physics and shit.

>>24529477
He's a Chinese Room. He spams the same newfag vernacular but has no clue what any of it actually means, other than his psychotic delusional belief that typing certain words will cause physical pain to people He Does Not Like. He's done this for over 6 years now.

>>24529476
The C is SILENT, FOOL!

>>24529490
All we need is for that one anon to bless us with his ai slop infographic

Am I off in assuming that Bakkerspammer probably ALSO /b/'s logposter?

>>24529504
https://warosu.org/lit/thread/24293177#p24296326
Tell us about the logposter. Bakkerfag is some /v/ crossboarder.

>>24529512
>He doesn't know about logposter
Go frequent /b/ for a few days, you'll see. He's been at it for 3-4 years now I'd wager.

Should I read The Rape of Nanking before The Darkness that Comes Before?

>>24529528
No? Why would you ever even connect the two?

>>24529528
No, you should read a book about the First Crusade to see how Bakker raped everyone and everything.

>>24529528
Both are fiction so you might as well.

I'm sorry, what does any of this have to do with red rising?

Any modern (published in 1990-2025) books/series about invasion resitance? Maybe something action-packed (3BP was boring), from today's Earth (Half-Life 2) to an invasion on other planets (Gears of War).

Any books with gratuitious sexual violence?

What does any of this have to do with Dungeon Crawler Carl?

>>24529558
>>24529567
No, none whatsoever exist. Sorry, you're SOL.

he based because he kills rapists

>>24529574
Fuck... Guess I'll get writing.

>>24529558
Footfall by Larry Niven. It's a little before 1990 though.

>>24529558
Timelike Infinity, the first novel of the Xeelee Sequence. I believe there may be at least one or more stories about that topic in the collection "Vacuum Diagrams" as the overall universe has ~30 novels/short stories/etc. in it so you'll have to hunt summaries to find which ones are relevant. Maybe check "Xeelee: Resplendent" too for another short story collection.
The overall series involves humanity being conquered by aliens twice until they turn around and annihilate/assimilate every other species in the Milky Way (except for the Xeelee).

>>24529585
Footfall is awful, lmao. Nearly no on-the-ground combat between humans and fithp to speak of.

>>24529590
A Hymn Before Battle?

>>24529598
>John Ringo
Never read any of his stuff. Always looks like slop of the highest caliber.

>>24529598
I read that dude's Council Wars series. The first two books were superb.

>>24529602
He has some good stuff. Baen books just have really shitty covers sometimes. His Posleen War books are some of the better "on the ground" alien combat books out there.

It'll never cease to amaze me how destructive some anons are. It's not enough to be self-destructive, they also have to try to inflict as much harm as possible. Too many are so determined to make where they post as terrible for everyone and then complain about how they're making it terrible.

>>24529786
Oh nice, I'm flattered you reposted this.

Higher cognitive ability linked to weaker moral foundations in UK adults
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289625000339?via%3Dihub

This would seem to have a lot of implications for SF writers, especially hard SF.

>>24529046
All the Inklings prose sounded prettier than this. I only read classic genre fiction and sometimes I forget why genre fiction is critiqued for bad prose. Even modern "literary" fiction written by woke transsexuals Mogs this

>>24529868
betting now in this study "moral foundations" means "likelihood to cuck out for the benefit of sandniggers"

Bayne is growing on me. Part The Nameless One, part Roland Deschain, part traumatic brain injury

>>24529911
It might be self-perceived moral foundations. A lib/leftist guy usually perceives himself as a wholesome puppy dog but may frequently be an abuser of women and children, but Christians self-flagellate over bad thought

>>24527978 (OP)
I just came in here to say thank you for the lists. thanks bums.

>>24529920
That outfit that the female character is wearing looks very interesting…. I’ll have to look into this

>>24529911
>>24529923
Remember that many people professing this stuff are doing it as camouflage. There's a reason why most 'male feminists' are sex pests at best.

>>24529911
>>24529923
No.
Maybe I'll excerpt it later.

Why is psionics (telekinesis, telepathy, precog, etc.) so popular in science fiction rather than fantasy?

>>24530002
Because it was thought of possibly being scientific for several decades and even today has people to trying find scientific evidence for it. Psuedoscience can make for good fiction.

>>24530002
>>24530011
It is real

>>24530002
I believe it's because it's easier to explain as 'we use the blah blah chip in the xy gland of the brain to enhance the innate blue blah powers'.
Meanwhile in Fantasy you can do everything from firebending so the laws of thermodynamics can literally suck your dick to 'yes I do have to chant this whole one hundred word spell to boil water and yes the fire already has to be started first'

>>24530002
psionics are the magic ability with the most scientific flavour, that's literally all it is

>>24530033
Also it lets you do cool shit like make snub fighters viable rather than a worthless investment in overly expensive but easily destroyed combat vehicles.

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

> He is noted for coining the term 'Psi' to denote parapsychological phenomena;

>biological father of more than 600 people

>>24529046
>He beat the earth with his fists, stabbed holes with his knife, then fucked them.

kek, is this a Tyler the Creator reference?

>>24530002
As far as magics go, psionics are just much less sexy than tossing fireballs or summoning elementals

also fantasy has plenty of what I'd call psionics, it's just more obfuscated or flowery so that it comes across as fantastical rather than scientific.

>I believe that war will destroy us. All of us, Rim and Core alike. All that the Colors have built together. All we have protected. The legacy of the Society will vanish. Not because our arms are weak. Not because our commanders are frail. But because we are fighting against a religion whose god still lives.

>At this moment, he is mortal. He strains under the burden of rule, and the seams of their alliances fray. But if we sail on Mars or Luna, the Colors will unite. They will become a tide and their now mortal general will become, once again, their god of war. And if he falls, another will rise, and another, and another. We are too few. We are too honorable. We will lose this war just as surely as I will now lose my life.
Romulus says this towards the end of Iron Gold so where the FUCK was it in Dark Age? I want Darrow to become the god of war I was promised.
Finished Dark Age, highly overrated. It actually might be my least favorite book in the series. Only good thing to come out of it is Lysander basically being raped nightly by Atalantia.

>>24529920
Man, why doesn't this guy at least run his 3D screenshots through an AI filter or something to make it look less like shitty 3D screenshots?

>>24530133
the 90's 3d screenshots are the appeal. It certainly caught the attention of a bunch of sffg readers so much so that other covers and books are ignored.

>>24530133
I've decided to embrace that as well. It's part of the charm.

I could choose to post other covers when I talk about it, like picrel, but honestly the 3D renders are much more 'honest' to the prose

Are there any parts in Bakker books where characters talk to each other or maybe eat go for a walk etc or is it always just The ten thousand swept like waves through blood soaked valleys and screamed the prophet's name from thirsty throats etc etc

>>24529920
I was thinking Roland when I first read it as well, mainly because of the Mountain and following somebody. Part 2 was a wild ride, almost a genre shift and him cutting off that suburban dad's finger at the start was lulzy.
>>24530133
He had regular covers up until a few years ago and nobody cared. Not all of them have people on the cover either.

I think I need to take a break from Red Rising after Morning Star. I need a break from Darrow's wild ride of "trust the wrong guy and some of my friends die in front of me" and also I'm not looking forward to the switch to multiple POVs.

>>24530199
Honestly Darrow is the 2nd most boring POV in the next 2 books.

>>24530238
That's even worse desu. But mostly it's not about Darrow and more about me preferring following just one character as much as possible.

>>24530264
I'm the opposite. I started after dropping Stormlight Archive at book 3 and I'm kinda all about multiple POVs which that series had hella of so I liked the change in the next series.

any esoteric fantasy kino?

>>24530278
Sometimes I don't mind it. But when the series is about a dude surrounded by people he can't trust I think switching to the other characters would cheapen all the betrayals. Some of them already seem like asspulls as it is kek. Regardless, a break between the first trilogy and the sequel series should make it less jarring. I'll just have to keep ignoring you anons talking about the later books a little longer.

>>24530302
Lord Bakker

>>24529920
Is the female character actually dressed like that? And is the outfit described?

>>24530344
>But when the series is about a dude surrounded by people he can't trust I think switching to the other characters would cheapen all the betrayals.
I will say for the most part the POVs are millions of miles away from each other. It's not like you're going from Darrow to Sevro in the institution or something.

Yo. I'm helping my lil sister to brainstorm ideas for a novel since we just got a shit ton of money from an inheritance and one of her dreams was writing a novel and getting some japanese old lady to draw a manga off it.

basically I'm looking for books involving "shell worlds", like Matryoshka doll style planets that have different layers, mostly to find out what could work better as a source of artificial light and day/night skies.

she wants to make 5 layers are each planet-size for her novel, so if she ends up liking the universe, she might write more about it in the future. obviously everything is still in Drafts and she's changing a lot regarding the plot. But making a "shell world" work is what she wants to figure out right now.

>>24530409
Matter (Culture series)

>reading Valora
>No orcs, no dwarves, no goblins, no elves
>A random ass lich with no explanations
>Machines and fantasy mixed together
>Random ass magic without explanation
>Stacy bitch MC with incestual thoughts
What the fuck am I reading?

>>24530409
Dante's Inferno

>>24530438
>Stacy bitch MC with incestual thoughts
Picked the FUCK up

"Orcs could be nearby!" exclaimed the panicked Elvish King, casting glances in every direction as his bare chest heaved up and down, processing deep lungfuls of air. "There is no menace more reviled than the Orc."

>>24530469
doesn't he know that orcs are secretly an allegory for black people? is he a chud?

>>24530473
I'm pretty sure (based on the cover at any rate) that the story is about how orcs are good and misunderstood.

>>24530469
>>24530473
>>24530478
I pray my book isn't like that. I don't think I'd survive getting torn down the way that guy is.

>>24530484
Make sure to get a good editor

>>24530484
You'll survive when you see your sales go up higher and higher

How did robert jordan put out like 4 books in 2 years?

>>24530508
I imagine he just did it every day.
You can write 1000+ words an hour if you have a plan. The hard part is doing that with any level of consistency.

>>24530527
God GRRM is such a hack

I think I'm done with Black Company. I was really enjoying the Books of the South, when he does the same stupid mind numbing idiotic shit again and lowers the stakes completely by resurrecting Soulcatcher, carrying her head in a box. I could ignore the non-twist that is the identity of Shadowmasters, but this just underlines that nothing fucking matters in the book, along with a certain someone being able to levitate impaled for days over every biome on the continent. What the fuck. I still think book 1 is the greatest fantasy novel ever written. I have no idea why he does this. Imagine of LotR had three more books and book 4 had some Gulnazgs lurking beyond the borders of the Shire and nobody knew who they were. And the entire not-Pajeet mythos vomited onto the reader.

I know there is another House of Chains reader on here I've seen his posts, just wanted to share that I'm 24hrs into the audiobook and Karsa Orlong has been such a delightful character. Book 4 took me some time to enjoy after Memories and 2 attempts in the beginning but now I'm right back on the Erikson journey. Thelomen Toblakai sounds so fucking cool btw

>>24530302

>>24530002
Because writing sci-fi is hard.

>>24530810
read the goodreads summary and i think this is exactly what i'm looking for, thank you

Ready for the best fantasy story this year?

damn, Red Rising fans look like THAT?

Coworker mentioned dungeon crawler carl..

>>24530881
pierce gets to plow a new one of these every night

>>24530881
Nice tits. what happened to her right knee?

>>24530881
MILKY MILKY WARM AND TASTY!
MOMMY! MILKY! PLEASE BE HASTY!

>>24530881
tattoos are gross. What a tragic way to ruin some rocking tits.

>>24530302
BleakWarrior

I unironically watch Daniel Greene

>>24530881
AWOOOOGAAAAA

>>24530884
based. talk to him about how funny donut is.

>>24530926
I was really hoping it'd be over for him when he got MeToo'd but it was still kind of worth it with how many people in the booktuber community made videos condemning him and then quickly deleting them when the BPDemon released a video that basically showed she consented. Really showed how fucking retarded the community is because everyone had to give their opinion before the case was settled.

Oh yeah and he played the "I'm bisexual card, it wasn't cheating because she's a they/them" part was fucking hilarious

>>24530939
He could be blowing kittens for all I care. tick tock, tuber. crank out them videos, boy!

Any sff with /ss/ element to it

god tier youtube channel. Wonder if he's gonna start paywalling his shit soon

>>24530959
what's so good about it?

>>24530965
AP Canavan (a critical dragon) talks about techniques that writers and readers should be aware of while usually using fantasy for his examples. He's good at breaking down any page of prose and poetry and his developmental editing side shows. He is good friends with Steven Erikson and brings him on a lot, they're both a wealth of knowledge. Think his day job is an english professor but he works as a freelance developmental editor for authors, seems to keep which authors he worked with private.

>>24530982
neat, I'll have to check him out

>>24530985
he is quite simply an educator at heart and it shows on each video. peep the playlist tab on his channel, it's organized pretty well.

>>24530614
Based house of chains enjoyer. The Karsa stuff is kino and the entire book has been enjoyable. It’s been consistently good so far and I’d rate it just under memories of ice in second place in my malazan ranking. I’ve got about 5 hours left in the book so hopefully it remains good

I feel like an audiobook version of Malazan would confuse the fuck out of me. How is it? Is there multiple voices as there’s a new character introduced nearly every chapter.

>The Jugglers offer the key, Doctor.
>It was explained to me.
>While I was in...
>Revelation Space
TITLE DROP

Just finished reading The First Law trilogy. It was pretty good. Glokta was based and Bayaz did nothing wrong.

Why do all these new books seem to immediately start with a WHAM BAM IN YOUR FACE FIGHT? or some dead body on the floor? or some other random ass fight scene where I dont' even know the characters yet, but they're in a "STOP, FREEZE! So you're wondering how I got here." first chapter?

>>24530870
I genuinely thought this was the second half of that Targ wiki book. Why do people have such boring titles.

>>24531094
>Why do people have such boring titles.
Probably so people believe it is game of thrones related and go and look at it. I do hate how a lot of titles are 'Of X and X' these days.

>>24531020
kinooo
i liked revelation space and some of the spinoffs, they get into some pulpy bullshit that i quite enjoyed

>>24531074
I liked it too, fun characters and he writes the action really well
only issue I had was that it took way too long for the Jezal humbling, he was past getting on my nerves by the time

>>24529003
>conditioned to a physiological dependency on handjobs given to them by their elder superiors

WHAT

This can't be true, I cant even find it online

>>24529570
We're all waiting for the new one to come out so there's very little posting, it's just tapped out, and it's not the sort of thing /lit/ would be caught dead reading, even if it is better than most crap shilled here

>>24531141
But you somehow think Godfrey raped all the others?

>>24531145
idk, maybe they had an orgy and called it rape later

>>24531076
Because of me, unironically. I drop novels that take 50 chapters to get anywhere.

>tfw none of my wishlist are on sale on amazon prime day
fuck you bezos you ugly cunt

>>24531183
I also drop novels that I just don't enjoy enough to want to continue. I even refuse to try novels I feel I won't enjoy.

>>24531076
To be fair, I read some of the stuff recommended here on good faith and some were not good and some others actually unreadable and when I read 300 pages of it I eventually just asked why it felt so bad and the overwhelming response I got was that it's supposed to be bad and really only get good in the middle of the second book and I just had to read really bad books until then.

I think good writers don't need entire books to make an interesting story, it doesn't need to be 10 either, but what can you do. Publishers need a hook, self publishers or royalroad shit probably need it even more. I think the whole razzle dazzle first chapter or first 5 trend is only gonna get worse.

Maybe it's not all bad, a strong start doesn't mean the story will be bad, it can just stay good, might even make filtering easier

>>24529868
I don't know what you mean by implications for SF writers. I only read the abstract but it sounds like something we've always known about. People who are Machiavellian (like some businessmen, politicians, con men) require a higher intelligence for their schemes, otherwise they need to rely on the collective intelligence (=morals) that are structures for every day life.

>>24531183
>I drop novels that take 50 chapters to get anywhere.
For most people it's 50 pages. Hence why everything has to open on a bombshell.

>>24531076
The number one tip on all youtube videos about writing is basically start right after the life changing event have already taken place and show in the first chapter the protags reaction to it. I think that's why. It's a pretty good tip, prevents long boring infodump prologues.

>>24530409
Pushing Ice
The Long Sun series

>>24528131
Greg Bear's Blood Music is sorta what you're looking for. the premise is that a bioloist makes "intelligent cells" and it runs wild from there. it starts first like a Michael Crichton thriller then goes crazy - I enjoyed it.

>>24530881
where do red rising reading slampigs go to meet people? I want to be there

>>24531368
Thanks

>>24531432
pink gardens on luna

>"YOUNG JUNIOR POTTER, DID YOU USE THE SACRED ANCESTRAL FLAME GOBLET TO LIGHT YOUR SAGE HERB?" Supreme Elder Dumbledore asked with a voice as still as a lake in a painting of a lake, barely restraining his aura and killing intent.

>>24531019
>audiobook version of Malazan would confuse the fuck out of me
I won't lie I HAVE to use the companion guide after a listen. I often listen while driving for work, so I'll go an hour and yeah author will do 30 different voices for 4 different locations and periods and sometimes I need to retrace my steps haha
narrator is great, iirc I think books 1-3 were a different guy but book 4 has been good his Karsa voice in particular is excellent same with Tool. And he does female voice well which is rare

>>24531368
I remember this book left me so indifferent. But then again, it's 1980s SF that we're talking about.

>>24531074
I'm about halfway through the last book, it's a nice story.

>>24531634

Is Haviland Tuf the greatest character GRRM ever created?

>>24530959
>soon
If he hasn't done it after all these years, why would he do it now?

How do we have western cultivation?

>>24531798
Do cultivation readers really think their slop is a cut above jap/korean power fantasy slop?

>>24529467
I KNEEL!

>>24531798
LotM adapts 70 chapters in the first 3 episodes and is so poorly paced I can't actually tell you what happened in the first episode. They fumbled it out the gate.

>>24531798
That's some insane cope. I haven't read or watched Solo leveling and read all of Lotm but the Lotm anime is such a mess that it only makes sense if you read the novel and even then the anime makes changes that fucks with canon so it just pisses of novel readers too. Character designs aren't that greats as well and Chinese is kinda an ugly language so with no dub in sight it's a hard barrier to entry.

>the heavy-worlder woman had, heavy tits...
O, I'm laffin

>>24529578
this guy literally got pissed on

>>24530952
seconded

>>24531940
why do you think they're called golds?

>>24531872
How the hell do you fumble a numbers go up story?

410,757,864,530 DEAD PRADOR

>>24531960
Born to die, and die again.
Polity a fuck.
Kill em' all
I am brass man

>>24528015
digital art was a fucking mistake

>>24528015

>>24531792
>Eric Praline in space

>>24527978 (OP)
Where do people go to for book reviews these days? Goodreads is fucking useless.

>>24528015

>>24531980
/sffg/

>>24531980
There is no single good place. You basically lurk here, Reddit, or some Youtube channels.

>>24531980
The average score reviews are still worth it but any essay review people put on there is not worth reading. I just use goodreads to track what I've read and get recommended stuff. The other good website to look at is storygraph. It has scored reviews for different factors eg characters, story, pace etc.

>>24531798
there is now a general for thirdies who read web novels, please use it

>>24531980
https://fanac.org/index.html?

>>24531980

>>24531980
If you want professionals, there's a few sites for that. When you say Goodreads, do you mean in general? Have you tried looking at the /sffg/ ones?

>>24531980
>tfw my one-star WaT review doesn't have enough likes to be at page one yet
:(

>>24532080
link it

>>24528056
>>24528015
One of the things that really dissapoints me about humanity is that if you have more than half a brain, you know soulful art is way better than the digital clip art slop we get nowadays. And yet the market shows humans still react to slop better than beautiful art pieces. Fucking hell. And never forget the penny pinching jews that just want to squeeze just a bit more money if it means saving $20 for man made artwork.

>>24529046
This... this is a joke, right?

>>24528056
>>24532107
>Modern covers are shi-ACK!

>>24532107
Because covers now also have to look good on screens. Those beautifully painted scenes we used to get as covers just translate to busy messes when they're reduced to thumbnail size. Also, you don't have to pay an actual artist and can get your modern abomination for $400,

>>24529046
Bakkerfag embarrassing himself in front of all the newfags. Pretty funny.

>>24532107
I would hire an artist to create a book cover for me, but these jeets just generate it with AI and use premade clips art

>>24532225
For many authors the publisher chooses the cover options and the author only gets some say. At least that's what I tell myself after Butcher went full retard with the Cinder Spires cover change.

>>24530614
Karsa is so fucking based. Every time he shows up in a book you know good shit is about to happen.

>>24532216
Shoulda quoted the post where he kneeled to himself.

>>24532233
>Erikson starts a whole new series about the aftermath of Karsa's actions
>he doesn't even appear in the first book

>>24531671
If I recall correctly they switch narrators again on the 8th book, which sucks because you can't tell who the characters are supposed to be just by their voices.

>>24531980
I don't read book reviews as a rule. Especially not book reviews posted on sites like Goodreads. Anything you find there is going to be sanitized and tailored to an audience of normalfags and women (but I repeat myself) so will contain approximately zero authentic opinions. It's all posturing for approval.

Sure there's pseuds on /lit/, but /sffg/ does attract a few down to earth readers who just enjoy reading genre fiction and like talking about it. I can recognize these posters when they appear, and I ask them why they like the books they're talking about. That's about as close as I get to reading book reviews. Most of you are not worth talking to about books, but occasionally I find people who actually think about what they read and put in genuine effort when talking about it, and you know who you are.

>>24529875
>>24530060
>>24532120
>>24532216
>>24532235
All this cope for being filtered by Bakker
He is the king of this general for a reason
>>They gathered upon the inner rim of the Occlusion, the Sons of the Race of Men. Humanity, whose lives wilted so soon after budding, whose generations passed as storms and gentle rains. Ephemeral, yet fertile, and so forever new, casting nations like mantles, as ignorant of their origin as they were terrified of their demise. Humanity had arrived in all its turbulent, amnesiac might, come to obliterate Golgotterath. Thunyeri dwarfing Shigeki, their skin jaundiced for being so fair. Galeoth cowing Scarlet Schoolmen for the violence of their demonstration. Nansur Columnaries standing immobile, deaf to any officer’s cry. Ainoni caste-nobles pawing white upon their cheeks. Thousands upon thousands gazing, witless for incredulity, paralytic for shame and horror, alien gold pricking their eyes …
>Men, the cracked vessel from which the Gods drank most deep.
>Some had been petty unto murder in their past lives, knifing brothers for the merest slight, while others had been generous unto folly, abiding faithless wives, starving to carry witless parents. It did not matter. Gluttons and ascetics, cowards and champions, reavers and healers, adulterers and celibates—they had been all of these things ere they had taken up their Holy Aspect-Emperor’s Great Ordeal. And for all their numberless differences, they need only look to fathom one another, to know whether they would be greeted or ignored or attacked. To be a Man is to understand and be understood as a Man, to blindly honour expectation so that others might gamble accordingly. For it was the way they repeated one another that made them Sons of Men.
>Despite their numberless feuds and grudges—for all their divisions—they stood as one before the heinous image.
>The Great Ordeal … nay …
>Humanity, horrid and beatific, frail and astounding, come to collect their future from wicked debtors.
>One race, come to fathom the Ark with sword and fire, and to at long last exterminate the Unholy Consult.

go back to your blog bakker no one cares

>>24532282
i asked. i care. but i also might be bakker and just unaware of it.

Holy shit, GRRM is such a hack.

>>24532427
I love Tad Williams, but I think GRRM is an excellent character writer and does dialogue very well. It's his strong suit probably honed from his career writing for television scripts. As a world builder though he doesn't measure up to the likes of Tad, but few do.

>>24532447
GRRM does go the extra mile with his POVs and internal monologues (Jaime), but Tad still manages to have these great passages of Simon admiring the great beauty of the world without it sounding hamfisted.
Plus, reading the Harrowing of Naglimund is what GRRM always built up to and completely failed to deliver on print (he is never finishing the series).

>>24532461
It is a bit funny how GRRM always built up to huge battles and then proceeded not to describe them, or describe them poorly. I get that it's part of his style, with strong emphasis on character perspectives, to not give us a sweeping, more omniscient view of events, but when battles feature so prominently in events it's disappointing to never really experience them. At best we experience one character's fragmented view of the battle which is so tightly constrained the gravitas of the event is lost. And I suppose that's Martin's point, he's all about yanking the gravitas out of fantasy tropes like epic battles or knightly romance.

prime day is such a scam. Most of these discounts are just the listed prices on other days. fuck bezos

>>24532550
It's pretty brilliant
>pick random day of the year
>call it "prime day"
>declare it to be a day to buy stuff on your website
>allege that there will be deals
>don't bother to mention these deals aren't exclusive to the particular date nor are they particularly good deals in most cases
>millions of retards rush to buy shit on your website to take advantage of the "special deals"
FOMO is basically how modern retail works now.

Books about dudes with demon girlfriends living in their head as they go around kicking people to death?

>>24532550
bezos hasnt been CEO for some time

Can any novel recapture the feelings from when I read LOTR for the first time when I was 14? The one that ever came close was Dune, but I didn't like the sequels.

>>24532572
What did you feel when you read LOTR for the first time? I read them when I was 11 and I've never cared to go back 24 years later.

>>24532572
was it because herbert got mad people liked paul and tried to course correct?

>>24530614
Hoc ch. 4 spoilers Thelomen Tarentho Toblakai is such an amazing part when Leoman utters those lines

>>24531019
I finished book of the fallen in December and I look back and think of house of chains the most. It's a book that doesn't resonate with a lot but there's just some cool shit going on. I think the characterization is some of eriksons best. With Karsa, Delum Thord and Bairoth guild to start it, then the 7 faces in the rock and how Onrack cuts in.

>>24532233
Book of the fallen books 4-7 spoilers have you read Reapers Gale? Erikson's usage of Karsa in that book pissed me off

>>24530891
Maybe carpet burn from cleaning her house?

>>24532580
I think he went too far with the talking babies deus ex machina
>>24532579
I was in awe. The world was much deeper than it let be seen and the level of descriptiveness made it comfy. I had read fantasy novels before, but LOTR feels different. It feels like if someone took a folkloric tale and put it in a structured story, like The Once and Future King.

>And then, after walking all day through a golden haze of humid warmth that gathered about him like fine wet fleece, Valentine came to a great ridge of outcropping white stone overlooking the city of Pidruid.
This is the first sentence in this novel; it starts with "and then."

Cassiuschads how were you guys able to cope throughout the sequel series? Want to re-read the series in preparation for Red God but I get sad just thinking of what happens to Cassius.

>>24532674
Why'd you allow yourself to become attached? Nobody is safe in this series besides Darrow.

>>24532636
Lay of Leithian. I read it at seventeen and it rewired me to also like poetry

>>24532680
From how Pierce is talking, it's sounding like not even Darrow is safe.
>>24532674
If he had to die, going out that way is what he would have wanted. He was a good man. The man he'd been chasing the whole series. And his death is gonna stick with and unravel Bitchsander. He cemented himself as the best character in the series.

>>24532427
Tad's one of my faves and underrated as hell. Reading the Dragonbone Chair myself, giving myself a comfy MS&T summer read.

>>24532494
The only battle I thought was worth the hype was the Blackwater battle that Tyrion's a part of.

Oh? This blonde, blue eyed character wasn't explicitly described as having white skin? I better draw them as the blackest gorilla looking mother fucker you've ever seen!

>>24532879
Do you live in California perchance?

>>24532879
She exists though

Was Tactus a gay? It seemed kinda gay how he wanted to play the violin for Darrow.

>>24532949
Probably bisexual desu

I hope Watts doesn't have an unforeseen accident before cranking out Omniscience.

>>24532949
just a good bro

>>24532959
>>24532949
dudes that canonically have wanted to fuck darrow
>valdir
>tactus
>maybe apollonius

>>24533057
>maybe

>>24533060
I can't pinpoint a specific moment, but it was just heavily implied in all of their scenes.

See, the thing is, I'm just not going to read them
Haha
Ugggh I know I know sorry
But I'm never going to read these red rising books
Lol!

>>24533066
this is me with stormlight archive desu

>>24533068
not worth getting invested in stormlight so good call

>>24532494
>Martin's point, he's all about yanking the gravitas out of fantasy tropes like epic battles or knightly romance.
Because he's a faggot without a sense of wonder or romance himself?

>>24532237
I'm pretty sure Erikson said he isn't showing up in the second book either.
Also
>Malazan Book of the Fallen
>We go to Malazan briefly, three times in 10,000 pages

The biggest wonder of Malazan was Erikson cranking out ten novels in ten years and doing most of it on an xbox small THINKPAD and doing that at coffee shops and bars with all the noise and distraction, probably all dialogue and stuff off the top of his head too.

The entire point of karsa is that Robert e Howard was a retard and if conan was real he'd just rape and kill

I'm not a big reader, but I gave Warbreaker by Sanderson a shot based on a coworkers recommendation and was not impressed. They're recommending Mistborn next and I'll likely read the first book just to have convos and I like the idea of fantasy heists.

I've heard good things about Sanderson, but the characters in Warbreaker were so generic and boring, until things picked up after like chapter 35 of 50. The magic system wasn't explained till late, and the politics didn't seem well written.

What should I actually be reading fantasy wise /sffg/?

>>24533192
I could never do this. I'm far too adhd to tune out all the stimuli.

>>24533265
Your coworker is retarded. Warbreaker is like his worst book imo. Not that the rest are that much better. You should've just started with Way of Kings or Mistborn. His best stuff is probably The Emperor's Soul because it's short enough that he can't bore you with 500 pages of irrelevant nonsense.

>>24533265
sando advertises mistborn as a heist but the heist shit falls apart not even half way through and it becomes a "we have to save the world" story. don't bother with mistborn.

>>24533192
Weaponized autism?

>>24533265
For talking with co-workers? Try Will of the Many. That was pretty popular among normies. Good first installment. Also check out Rage of Dragons if you don't hate black people. Wheel of Time if you don't mind there being 14 fucking books.

As far a Mistborn, the first book was cool. I read it like 10 years ago, but it was cool. When I started a re-read earlier this year, the characterization and interactions just felt...off. Like wooden. You might like it. The structure of the story is undeniably great.

>>24533192
Erikson also said he writes to music. with lyrics specifically - says it helps him.

As this thread draws to a close, I want to take this opporturnity to again thank the posters of /sffg/ for keeping the orderly discussion of your scarcely literary genre trash confined to your general. No other containment thread is as well-behaved or locally effective anywhere else on the website, to draw the trash away from meaningful shitposts about continental philosophy that few of us have read and the like. The true substance and meaning of /lit/.

>>24533291
>The structure of the story is undeniably great.
>Fantasy magical heist into lets overthrow the evil dark overlord within the span of about 5 chapters
>all that sazed dick teasing
stopppppp

>>24531971
Indeed.

>>24533296
Crazy. I can't concentrate on ANYTHING if a song with lyrics is playing.

>>24533308
Same. I remember writing my dissertation at uni and using music as background noise and then I realised I was typing out song lyrics instead of my actual work

>>24533252
Why would he? Barbarians irl weren't rabid animals. They were rational and many barbarian warriors worked as mercenaries in civilized lands and knew how to behave themselves so they wouldn't get thrown out or executed.

>>24533318
Ya I would write my master's thesis to piano/violin music on youtube.

>>24533252
Erikson's words from his famous "The Problem of Karsa Orlong" essay
>The question is: how far from our own sensibilities can we be pushed before it’s too much? Is it his brazen arrogance? Is it the culturally-acceptable rapes? Is it the slaughter of townsfolk, the rejection of Karsa’s companions due to their failures—their weaknesses? Is it his unquenchable self-belief? His need for vengeance? His excessive vows pronounced seemingly without thought? His rejection of civilization? His rejection of enslavement? In other words, where in that Conanesque code of conduct do we reel back a step, shaking our heads?

> Having established this tight, myopic point of view of the ‘classic’ barbarian (reasonable for an isolated people of remote mountain regions)—and structuring the tale empty of overt authorial judgement yet relentless in its detail, one might then expect to see me take the ‘dark horde’ route and offer up civilization as the beacon of virtue and enlightenment. But then… maybe Howard had a point? For all that his nihilistic rejection of civilization, personified in the Hyborian Tales of Conan, is an invitation to despair (like a bullet to the head), it cannot be dismissed out of hand. Civilization has its problems, and even more distressing, there was indeed a kind of freedom in the pre-industrial age that we can only dream of (but how rose-tinted are those dreams, discounting as they do death-in-childbirth, intestinal parasites, disease, disfigurement, starvation, slavery and so on? Just how far into the ‘escapism’ from reality should the Fantasy genre offer up? Oh, and that is the sixty-four dollar question I’m slowly approaching: the expectations of the fantasy readership, but everything in its time…). Accordingly, Karsa’s introduction into civilization is one made in chains—in the stripping away of his ‘barbaric’ freedom. But arrogance is an unruly beast and he will not so easily be tamed, and so the struggle between barbarism and civilization becomes his own personal struggle (even Conan grumbled as much).

>>24533341
>The Malazan Book does not offer readers the escapism into any romantic notions of barbarism, or into a world of pure, white knight Good, and pure, black tyrant Evil. In fact, probably the boldest claim to escapist fantasy my series makes, is in offering up a world where we all have power, no matter our station, no matter our flaws and weaknesses—we all have power.
>I don’t know about you, but I’ll escape into that world every chance I can.
>Now, as Karsa would say: “Too many words. Witness.”

>>24533341
wonderous contribution Anon. holy fuck erikson is a genius

>>24533324
I mean, native Americans were stone age barbarians as well.

>>24533356
Very much looking forward to him finishing Ritual of Writing so I can learn his ways

really wish that there was more romance for men that didn't have harems or BDSM

>>24533341
>(like a bullet to the head

>>24533265
>not getting your coworkers into Red Rising

Also gonna second reading Emperor's Soul. It's Sanderson without the 400 pages of padding. But I've only read Mistborn (which I liked) and half of The Well of Ascension and it's getting pushed down on the priority list. I will check out The Way of Kings eventually though.

>>24533341
>>24533350
Erikson IS the King of /sffg/

>>24532572
The Book of Lost Tales

>>24533413
This.
>>24527978 (OP)
Getting into this. It's supposed to be the acid jazz of SFF. From reviews, it sounds a bit like VALIS in terms of its exploration of religious themes and spirituality. You can read the first portion of the novel from Deadlands, as the first few chapters were originally a novella published in a magazine:
https://psychopomp.com/deadlands/issue-01/peristalsis/
It's obviously about South Asian history and challenges the Orientalist worldviews sometimes touted on this board a la Max Muller. So I'm not guessing it will be read seriously by some.

>>24533341
So stupid. A functional society , "barbaric" or not , is by default civilization. There are dozens of groups less advanced than ancient Romans and Greeks that do not fit the barbarian stereotype. Pillaging and raping on a nomadic lifestyle is a choice the society makes , not a rule.

>>24533511
> A functional society , "barbaric" or not , is by default civilization
You show your ignorance. "Civilization" refers specifically to people who dwell in cities. Societies exist in far less centralized forms.

>>24533515
Don't give me worldplay bs.
"Barbarian" just means then that the person does not speak Greek and the whole point is null.

>>24533511
Knowing Erikson, he probably meant the dialectic between civilisation and barbarism a la Adorno or Engels.
>Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.

>>24533521
Do you seriously think Erikson is talking about the distinction between Hellenic and non-Hellenic while referencing Robert E. Howard? You're not as clever as you think you are. Everyone knows where the word barbarian comes from, everyone knows the context here is different from the Greek one, therefore you are only coming off as a sperg.

>>24533341
I'm still books away from this, or at least I think so, but I find whatever strong feelings this Karsa fellow might have elicited kind of funny considering Ancient Evenings now which is truly something else. You can tell most people don't read a lot or out of their comfort zone when every few years you have a writer who does something that has never been done before but has instead been done many times before.

>>24533341
Erikson reigns supreme

>>24533526
You started the worldplay with civilization and sociery. Do you seriously think Mongols were not a civilization when they were the quintesential barbarian hordes?

>>24533537
Erikson is discussing how Robert E Howard made Conan as a virtuous barbarian against the false beacon of 'virtue', civilisation. He's interrogating what that means for fantasy readers in Karsa.

>>24533367
I thought Erikson was a woke Canadian liberal. Why's he downplaying male suicide?

>>24533413
Malazan is nowhere near popular enough for that. You hear it recommended and discusses, but not really in the normie scene.

>>24533556
Normies like Steven Erikson. He writes the "character development" focused fiction that is in vogue now. People self identify with the characters and barrack for their favourites. He's writing in such a way to create mass appeal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMH-ESRjMkU

>>24533556
>Malazan is nowhere near popular enough for that.
and Bakker is kek? Malzan has more name recognition among fantasy than the Second Apocalypse.

>>24533550
Yes and i'm saying not being a "virtuous barbarian" is a narrative choice , not a given by either history or sociology

>>24532277
the second trilogy has a lot of clunkiness to it and really needed a strong editor but man it also has bakker at his absolute best

>>24533564
Bakker is king.

>>24532879
the fancast discussions where people do this are so pathetic, theyre always jumping over eachother to put forward the blackest person imaginable. Its like when some spastic tells a shit joke and keeps looking out the corner of their eye for a reaction

Erikson on Midnight Tides
>It [Midnight Tides] goes back again and covers the same ground. A number of scenes occurred regarding Karsa in House of Chains and a couple scenes in Memories of Ice are explained somewhat in the fifth book ... approaching from a different perspective. [One of the themes in Midnight Tides relates to whether] the Lakota-Sioux were actually successful in defeating the United States cavalry and marching on Washington. And basically, it's the premise of Midnight Tides, the clash of cultures.

Dr Gregory B Sadler is king of SFFG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w53otohUMJ0

>Bakker, Richard Scott, once a PhD student in Philosophy
>Lovecraft, Howard Phillips, a precocious science journalist and obsessed with Brown University
>Erikson, Steven, a trained archaeologist
>Esslemont, Ian Cameron, a PhD student in literature and trained archaeologist
>Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel, professor of literature at Oxford
>Lewis, Clive Staples, professor of literature at Oxford and Cambridge
Do you have to be an intellectual to write Speculative Fiction?

>>24533629
No but being a massive nerd helps

>>24533192
goes some way in explaining why it's shit

>>24533648
Weirdly, Erikson would agree with you more than his fans would. He seems to care a lot about how people experience art and is fine with dissenting opinions.

>>24533727
oh yes I think he is well aware he's producing total garbage and feels somewhat embarrassed by the fact

>>24533733
You're not very forgiving. What is your favourite fantasy novel, or fantasist literary object par excellence?

>>24533648
>>24533733
filtered

>>24533739
>>24533735
"embarassing" is really a good summary of Gardens of the Moon.
as a novel it reminds of being over at a friend's house in school and seeing him watch Naruto. everyone is continaully the very most powerful wizard of all time, or the fastest assassin ever and so on. charcters continually turn around and go "huh ?!....... impossible!"
prose obviously bottom of the barrel, world unimaginative, a generous 4/10. I can tell he typed this up in a bar and didn't look it over once

>>24533757
as I said, filtered. Thank you for confirming this

>>24533762
it's really so epic when the skeleton man (most powerful wizard of all time) fights the big magic dragons (also very powerful) and the magic blasts go over to where the fastest assassin ever just got done teleporting behind some guys

>>24533768
Yeah it is. Sorry you're a joyless faggot

>>24533629
Lovecraft was a dropout who never went to university
r e howard was a texas boy from the sticks who had no experience with academia
clark ashton smith was born in a log cabin and never even went to school

>>24533772
CAS was an intellectual; he was raised under the wing of George Sterling who had high education connections in his Bohemian Club. School =/= intelligence

>>24533771
are you latino, perchance? seems like the type of thing your kind relish in the most is watching superman and evil superman punch each other really fast
just the concept in your head is enough to delight you, really no need for characters or anything else a non-retard might find interesting

>>24533781
Racism isn't intellectual, chud.

>>24533783
don't let me disrupt your síesta any further...

>>24533772
Lovecraft would have been shitposting on /x/ had he lived today. He only did writing so as not to starve.

>>24533789
I would be proud to be Latino. But I am not, even though my roots, my people, are often vaguely Latinised by the colonial Other. They don't let us wear our Zoot Suits, hombre!

>>24533781
is that you bakkerfag? having a meltdown are we?

>>24533768
It was more that the battle description was garbage.
>the lich and the dragons are fighting!
Cool! What's going on
> sand explodes! Fire and lightning! Dragons are doing dives!
Yes , great , now show it to me.
> no! Sand explodes!
Ffs...

>>24533798
Another issue for me was that I really didn't give a shit about anyone involved.
None of the characters are interesting, memorable, or change in any terms other than expanding powerlevel.
It has cool little vignettes, looking down on a burning city, bridgeburners in the tunnels, mages shooting stuff.
All very grand but nothing behind it. I won't read book 2

>>24533795
don't recollect asking, muchacho

>>24533796
fortunately Malazan was so terrible that I will never ever let morons on /sffg/ trick me again

>>24533806
Good evening shitposting fags, trollfags from /pol/, lolifags, feetfags, samefags and oldfags. I'm Bakkerchad, the shit-posting roaster that spams Prince of Nothing from coast to coast, the philosophy monstrosity with the worst pomposity, the intellectual fighting against the alternative right wing, and the Mounty that surges forth from the Great White North. I'm the author of 7 books, big fat fantasies all; they precede all my future big fat fantasies. These books will leave you filtered, wilted and stilted, replied, and (you)'d to the side, reported, retorted and imported. These are books for the whole fuckin' thread, if the name of your thread is /sffg/.

>>24533803
I kept on going because I promised someone I would and I don't regret reading book 2, I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I can't say the same about book 3.

>>24533837
Odd because memories of ice is generally considered the best of the series.

>>24533851
Deadhouse Gates is considered his best.

>saves genre fiction
Nothing personal, dear.

>>24533859
Only the chain of dogs is good. The rest is Felsin being a bitch in the desert.

>>24533865
thank you master Delany. Another novel mulling over the weird three way relationship you had, perhaps?

British New Wave is better than all the slop preceding and succeeding it.

>>24533883
hippie shit

>Light Bringer only has one narrator
What the fuck I don't want Lysander to sound like Darrow

>>24533898
>audiobooks
there's your problem my goodman

>>24533900
Audiobooks are good for multitasking, aka, shiposting

>>24533900
I can't read while I'm driving or read while I'm training my horsegirls to win the big race. Audio books are the only way.

>>24533897
>This term, as applied to Science Fiction, is borrowed from film criticism, where it was much used in the early 1960s as a translation of the French nouvelle vague to refer to the experimental cinema associated with Jean-Luc Godard (1930- ), François Truffaut (1932-1984) and others. (It was also later applied to music around 1977 as a synonym for Punk.)
>Hippie
Uhhh no, it means "kino"

>>24533903
>while I'm training my horsegirls to win the big race.
Based

>>24533902
>>24533903
I unironically find audiobooks more distracting. If you aren’t playing attention you've missed a whole part and it's more cumbersome to go back. With a book you can take natural pauses and go back and read what you've missed.

Audiobooks are vibe reading. They're much more about a general feeling than comprehension.

>>24533926
kys

>>24533932
What are blind people supposed to read?

>A 2024 survey found that over half of U.S. adults (52%) have listened to an audiobook, indicating a growing audience for this format. The popularity of audiobooks is also evident in the increasing number of library users borrowing digital audiobooks, with 46% of current audiobook consumers reporting doing so in the past year.

>>24533934
a brail translation of a book

>>24533942
Braille isn't easy to produce; it's expensive. Make. Fiction. Accessible. For. Deaf. Folks.

>half the Australian population is so illiterate they can't read even genre slop

>most people don't buy ebooks and far less buy audiobooks
Oh, no, no, it's over for us audiobooksistahs

JG Ballard is the emperor of /sffg/
Vermillion Sands is beautiful

>>24533942
Mate, braille books barely exist in comparison to regular books. People shit on AI narration, but it will make so make books available to blind people.

>>24533648
Take your newfag rhetoric back to >>>/v/, Bakkerfag.

>>24533851
I'm probably bored because I don't find the Bridgeburners&co interesting and they make up most of what I've read so far. I like Toc and Tool though, but they were my favourites in the first book too, so nothing new here.

>>24534080
>Bridgeburners
They're so kino they got an unofficial soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Npn2xb-urU

>>24533757
>Naruto
The point of Malazan is to give everyone power and to allow individuals to be everything they want to be without societal constraints.

>>24534007
I've been meaning to read The Crystal World for years.

>>24534088
based

>>24534088
Rarely have I wished I cared for Black Metal. This is one such instance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUlvIq-TDGI

>>24533868
Felisins story is Heboric's story

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2563880/Ghost_Hand/
heboric if he was she

Stop wasting your SFF stories by posting them on 4chan. Write a short story once a week or once a month and try your hand at making it as a writer. The chances are slim. But you will get paid handsomely if you get accepted by these places. Don't look back once you make your first sale.

>Clarkesworld
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/
1000-22000 words, no exceptions
12c (USD) per word. No horror but dark SF/F permitted.
No use of Chat GPT nor AI allowed
No simultaneous submissions (do not send the story somewhere else).
Stories must be well-written, suitable for audio (since there are narrated audiobooks), and convenient for screen reading (so no weird formatting).
Rigor in science fiction is appreciated, but it does not need to be "hard."
There can't be any of the tropes listed on the site.

>Asimov's
https://www.asimovs.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines
up to 7500 words, at 10c per word (USD)
Character oriented stories, but there is also some poetry $1 per line
Absolutely no use of Chat GPT nor AI allowed
No simultaneous submissions (do not send the story somewhere else).

>Fantasy & Science Fiction
https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/glines.htm
No simultaneous submissions (do not send somewhere else).
Up to 25,000 words in length. 8-12 c (USD) per word. You must read a sample of the magazine before sending.

>Interzone Digital
https://interzone.digital/submissions/
Simultaneous submissions accepted (you can send somewhere else).
Maximum of 5000 words. 1.5c (EURO) per word. Double-spaced and emailed.

>Amazing Stories
https://submission.amazingstoriesmag.com/guidelines/
$20 per story, $10 per flash (USD), and poetry also
No simultaneous submissions, no multiple submissions
1000 to 24,000 words

>Apex Magazine
https://apex-magazine.com/submissions/
8c per word (USD), up to 7500 words
Usually dark sci fi or horror is accepted.

>Beneath Ceaseless Skies
https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/submissions/
Up to 15,000 words, 8c per word (USD)
Provides feedback on rejections
No use of Chat GPT nor AI allowed
Character-focused, adventure fantasy (no sci fi nor horror) that has a deep sense of world.

>The Dark Magazine
We pay 5 cents/word for original fiction up to 6,000 words on publication for first world rights; and 1 cent/word for reprint fiction up to 6,000 words on acceptance for nonexclusive reprint rights.

>Deadlands
The Deadlands pays 10¢/word for original fiction.

>>24534217
>you will get paid handsomely
The author who has sold more stories to Asimov's than anyone else strongly implied that he can afford groceries each month only if he continues throwing up stories on Amazon. There is no guarantee that you receive some magical life-long contract of financial stability.

>>24534225
>he doesn't live in a country with NEET bux to cover groceries and rent so he can write all the time and use the extra cash for pocket money
NGMI.

new

>>24534288

>>24534288

>>24534288

>>24533556
I've heard people talk about Erikson irl
I've yet to meet someone who knows who Wolfe or Bakker are outside of these threads or my book club that I convinced to read Shadow of the Torturer

I haven't read Malazan yet but he seems to have a much larger presence than the other two.

>>24533298
defeat the dark lord and then you find out he was actually holding back a bigger evil is unironically a good twist though

>>24533364
harems are based

>>24533778
Never once denied that, retard
Only stated that he never went to college. Which he didn't

>>24534660
Intellectuals = / = educated