Thread 24576167

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>Previous:
>>24566253

>Thread Question:
What's your favorite novel that's a blatant rehash, but done so well you can't help liking it?

>>24576122
I always liked what a fuckup Raven turned out to be. You think he's a Gary Stu who has the skill and background to steal the show, and then you realize just how flawed he is.

Horse

>>24576167 (OP)
>What's your favorite novel that's a blatant rehash, but done so well you can't help liking it?
sune eater books. blatant is underselling it.

I know women authors hate it when their works are dismissed as YA, but more importantly: why do they keep writing YA? I don't get it.

Are they just retarded? Do they not even realize it? Or do they think that their particular take on the tired tropes, dialogue, and plot beats sets them apart?

>>24576223
does it get any better after the first book? because yeah it's not so much blatant as it is "this would have ended up in court if plagiarism cases weren't so difficult and expensive"

anyone have that copypasta of the marine owning the atheist professor but its seconda apocalypse themed

>>24576167 (OP)
I liked Double Star, which is just Prisoner of Zenda in space.

They're not /lit/ at all, but I had fun with T. Kingfisher's pulp retellings. They feel like Goosebumps books for adults, and I mean that as both compliment and insult.

I spawncamped someone's black company collection at half price books. Got original hardcover omnibuses so now I feel like I have to read the series.

>>24576286
> now I feel like I have to read the series
My condolences.

>>24576286
I own the paperback omnibuses. It's definitely an investment.

>>24576218
canon size queen btw

>>24576367
Darrow's carved cock probably changes shape at will like a razor. No man can compete with that

>>24576400
Darrow wasn’t even modified down there. He’s got a big massive red schlong

>>24575743
>Built up literally since book 1 and was throwing in your face since his first chapter in book 2
You might be misremembering but Jezal doesn't have a kingly lineage at all. The subversion is he's actually a random whore's son. Granted, this is one of the better and more subtle twists Joe pulls off.
>He was coming out on top for every single plotline during the entire trilogy
Not really. Book 2 ends with him failing miserably but "actually, it was all part of the bigger plan!".
>Nigger are you serious
Yes. I can't tell if you just don't remember but having this whole arc being built up for Logen only for it to be "actually, he's not any different after all that. And whoops, he also loses his king status and might die."
>The often repeated message for the entire trilogy was that people don't get what they deserve
I already pointed that out with subversion being the thematic element
>Bayaz being a mastermind
Why are you so fucking triggered, you retard? I told you that I expected most of le heckin twists in the First Law. I still enjoyed it.

>>24575841
Eat a cock, nigger

>>24576424
No way Mickey "I want to create a god" Violet left the penor untouched. It probably vibrates and drips ambrosia.

>>24576359
Anyone with half of a high-school education would see that the first law is not plot-twist slop and muh subverted expectationerinos, but that's asking a lot of /sffg/

It's funny how Bayaz becomes almost literally the concept of capitalism.

>>24576518
>muh subverted expectationerinos
I don't know about plot twists but that's literally what it is. The main plotline of book 2 is a fantasy quest for a magical macguffin, but the macguffin turns out to be useless and... that's it, there's nothing more to it. "You would expect there to be a point to this journey but there's actually no point" is literally the point.

Benefits to not reading tradpub AAA garbage is not having to deal with the associated normalfags and their spiteful vindictive spoiler ways.

>>24576553
Most stories have plot twists, that's what keeps stories interesting. There's a different between a useful, meaningful plot twist, i.e. the seed wasn't where it was supposed to be, and plot twist slop like "Logen was actually Khalul who was acting as a sleeper agent"
If you want a story without plot twists at all, might I suggest the very hungry caterpillar?

>>24576569
Reread the first six words of my post. I'm not talking about plot twists here.
But the First Law is absolutely about subverting expectations of what a traditional fantasy story is "supposed" to be in people's minds. It does so gleefully and with a large heaping of nihilism.

>>24576252
the first book is skimmable the second makes it it's own story, Hadrian is a fun protag. Silence in particular is derivative but I think Ruocoo finds his own voice the further books

>>24576581
I find it hard to categorize a book that does something different as "a subversion of expectations" but that's just me. Every good story should try to do that to some extent, I guess whether it is well done or not depends on how respectful the author is regarding the subversion.

>>24576243
My guess is that they sell better, at least in the sff field.

>>24576582
I'm enjoying the series greatly, but as of almost finishing book 3, it does not stop being highly derivative of New Sun. Hadrian is basically Severian, The Quiet are hierodules/hierogramates, so far the plot of Demon in White is broadly the first half of Urth.

>>24576604
Yeah, that's my gut feel as well. In fact I bet it's become a weird chicken / egg thing where YA receives a larger proportion of advertising by booktubers etc., so they sell more, so authors focus on YA more often

>>24576367
she'll take the 4.8 and like it

>>24576243
>>24576646
You don't seem to realize that the YA has a much higher sales floor and ceiling for women than there is for men quite possibly writing anything. That doesn't even get into romantasy which definitely has better financial prospects then literally anything a man could write. There's no reason whatsoever other than personal preference for women to write anything other than that.

>>24576629
>the plot of Demon in White is broadly the first half of Urth
What are you on about? The audience with Tzadkiel/the Emperor and Hadrian's vision quest maybe, but DiW is a mil-sf/space opera epic heavily grounded by battles and logistics whereas Urth is 400 pages of tripping balls

>>24576506
>>24576424
>>24576400
I don't love seeing discussions of cocks in my /sffg/ but if it makes bakkerfag seethe I'm all for it
then again, he's probably into it since his favorite author is a known closet case

>>24576776
>only one person dislikes
As delusional as Bakkerfag but lacks self-awareness like all other newfags

>>24576711
Thanks for the suicide fuel. I'll keep working on my Dostoevskyan-McCarthyan high fantasy epic to stave off my yearning for the grave.

>>24576780
My favorite current series is Sun Eater. I just appreciate the camaraderie of the RRfags and don't like it when niggers sperg out about RR discussion here.

>>24576799
;-)

>>24576711
you'd think writing good books people want to read would take priority at least some of the time

Imagine being afraid of seeing the word "cock" in a book.

Couldn't be me.

What fantasy books to read after Tolkien? Leftist, Jewish, female, POC or LGBT authors are out of the question.

Crazy how tchaikovsky wrote a 10 book epic military fantasy in Shadows of the Apt but it seems like nobody read it. I thought the book was about bug people like a bugs life but I guess all the characters are human with bug like powers.

>>24576836
>good
Not necessary
>people want to read
They do this. Women and teens want to read derivative YA sff books, and authors and publishers are happy to cater to them. It seems like despite there being fewer and fewer sff books targeting men, it's still ever harder to break into that scene and market. Anecdotally, the YA section at my B&N has a floor to itself, and the adult scifi and fantasy sections are combined into a corner behind all the manga.

Light Bringer spoilersish
I love Casisus and Lyria's relationship in this book.

>>24576864
I'm not afraid of it, but its presence may indicate that a book won't suit my tastes

>>24576942
I didn't like Lyria until she became friends with Cassius.

>>24576891
Howard (Robert E.), Smith (Clark Ashton), Lewis (C.S., namely Space Trilogy and Till We Have Faces), Gene Wolfe. Nothing's really like LotR though. No fantasy author has planned out a world in such detail that it feels pulled from the pages of a lost epic cycle while also resonating with the imagination.

>>24576891
take the dying earth pill

>>24576424
He absolutely was. There's just no way everything else got bigger, but mickey left his dick the same.

>>24576367
This part made me really uncomfortable.

>>24576799
based sun eater anon
>>24576952
>when she called him a good man

>>24577100
It was just the author trying to make it clear that mustang is a whore since some people still doubted it

Sun Eater copied The Sparrow and the author lies about having read it

>>24577116
Victra is unironically as big a whore as Mustang, if not bigger.

She's also quite possibly a pedophile. She's 27 in Golden Sun, and it's implied that she fucked Cassius before the Academy, when she would have been like 24 or something.

Fucked Cassius, threw herself at Darrow to no avail, settled for Sevro, and is described as experienced in Golden Son, and that she knew what she was doing.

>>24577128
So? Victra is based while Mustang is a huge bitch all the time after the first book. Victra also doesn't pretend to be anything else and Mustang gave Darrow the "you can't judge me" speech in Golden Son, which is a PEAK whore trope. Victra is also completely irrelevant to Mustang's whorishness in general so bringing her up was pointless.

>>24577100
Why? Her brain had been fucked with.

>>24576518
>>24576569
>let me just make plot twists mean "le whacky crazy thing!!" so that I can be right
Nigga, you know exactly what we mean when we say plot twists. The fact that the seed was literally nothing and that the whole second book was for nothing is a "twist", even if it's an anticlimactic one. If you're getting anal about the word, sure, let's just call it "subverting expectations". A plot twist doesn't always have to be that Logen was actually dead through the whole trilogy

The only thing in Red Rising that has ever made me genuinely uncomfortable was when Darrow was about to be gang raped and murdered by the Gorgons.

>>24577168
Virginia has canonically only fucked two dudes. Calling her a whore when there's an actual whore right next to her is hilarious.

>>24577175
That's what made me uncomfortable.

>>24577217
yeah but like fucking Cassius as a way to get back at Darrow is pretty whorish behavior tbqfah

>>24577126
As one of the 3 anons that have actually read the Sparrow here its really not even a significant detail in Howling Dark and its done to the feet too not just the hands like with Emilio in The Sparrow.

>>24577235
She didn't fuck him to get back at him, she fucked him to get information on how to take his family down. And also to feed any information he divulged to Octavia so she could use somewhere down the line. It served both herself as the daughter of Nero Au Augustus, and as an agent to the Sovereign, and she couldn't very well continue in that role if she didn't put out at least once.

>>24577217
If your only measure of whoreishness is how many people she's fucked then we're not even having the same conversation.

>>24577261
Contemporary fantasy sounds like a mexican soap opera.

>>24577272
melodrama is one of the characteristics of space opera

>>24577271
you're basing this off of what exactly?

>>24576922
There's still a disconnect that I just can't grasp.

Yes, it's true that YA SFF and romantasy dominates. But what's more accurate is to say that like 3-4 authors dominate, and then there are 10,000,000 copycats who aren't selling anything.

The book that started this conversation has a combined ~100 reviews on GR and Amazon. She's a new-ish author, but is heavily connected, is (was?) considered an indie darling, had the likes of Janny Wurts and Emily Woo Zeller pushing her shit. To put that into perspective, Bayne's Climb, Book I of The Sword of Bayne, has nearly 200 reviews, and his Kobalos series has nearly 3,000.

So I get that people chase trends, and for whatever reason women authors are especially egregious about it - romantasy, YA SFF, cozy mysteries, etc. But I'm not at all convinced that your average writer chasing these trends is making more money or finding more success than some random guy from Kentucky writing swords & sorcery

Thus, even if your goal is say fuck the art, fuck creativity, I want to make the most money possible, it seems absolutely the wrong move to write a bad book in an incredibly crowded market.

>>24577201
this. pierce had so many humiliation rituals for darrow to that point that I was actually afraid for a second.

>Lysander could have continued to have comfy space adventures with Cassius and Pytha
>Instead chose to be space Hitler and to be molested by the woman who killed his parents.
Fuck Lysander. The only good thing that came out of his betrayal was Cassius linking back up with Darrow.

>>24577296
All because he got a boner looking at a girl who ended up fucking hating him and then getting ripped in half in an iron rain while still hating him

>>24577197
I honestly have a hard time describing the series as a "series predicated on subversion of expectations" but clearly there's a portion of /sffg/ that disagrees with me

>>24577293
You're right that most writers aren't making cash from sellings tons of copies. But they do get a payout from the publisher when they sell their book to them to put it on the YA shelf, and that's definitely more than they'd make if they were trying to join in and write sword and sorcery, for instance. It's a comparatively dismal amount next to massively popular series but it's still more than they'd make if they tried to cater to a different audience.

Should have figured the Athena shit was gonna be too good to be true.

>>24577293
The average guy from Kentucky writing s&s is making $0, or even negative.

>>24577293
Legends and Lattes begs to differ. A male audiobook narrator turned top seller for cozy fantasy. There are a lot more of these cases than you know, let alone would believe.

This is what you people are raving about?

>>24577456
FUCK nerds amirite

>>24577456
I wouldn't call them people

>>24577456
Stop biting your nails

I love Cassius so much bros.
I got spoiled I know he dies like for real this time at some point in Light Bringer and I hate it :(
Light Bringer spoilers

>>24577456
is that a printed book

>>24577456
what do you mean "you people"

>>24577522
Cassius is one of my favorite characters ever. Just for the journey he went on, and for the fact that I'm a sucker for the punished noble with a good heart trope.

Should I make my fantasy book singular POV?

What do you guys prefer?

>>24577543
You do what you like who cares what anyone else likes

>>24577558
it matters because i dont' want to be like that one anon who had a feMC and nobody read his garbage

>>24577560
no one is probably going to read it anyway. If you are that insecure you're never going to make it.

>>24577126
Of all the things Sun Eater straight rips from other books, this is probably the most obscure and inconsequential one to have this much of an ongoing autistic sperg out about.

whats up with the self shilling on this board compared to every other board? why is it a bunch of people asking if we'd read their shit/looking for critique of their work/looking for advice? every other thread is filled with this shit

>>24577590
because /wg/ is full of meanies

>>24577576
As a Ruocchiofag (?), the The Sparrow plagiarism allegations never made sense to me. Ruocchio wears his influences on his sleeve. He can't shut up about Gene Wolfe, Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, etc. The nods to his influences, either by way of worldbuilding or namedrops, are probably the worst thing about his writing since they distract from an otherwise very immersive world. So why would an author who's that proud of his influences lie about taking influence from The Sparrow, a broadly well-regarded highbrow SF novel?

>>24577168
This, the golds are promiscuous as a rule, at least Victra sees things for what they are as opposed to Virginia whose retarded idealism lost her Luna, Earth, and Phobos in the course of two books
Victra best girl

>>24577300
I honestly want to see your take on how it isn't. You might be the first person I've ever heard saying TFL's overall thesis isn't to subvert the epic fantasy genre.

can i get /lit/'s throughts on the southern reach series by jeff vandermeer? (the first book in the series is annihilation, same book that movie is based off of). i wanna know if its worth reading. there are four books -- does it work towards a real ending or is it just endless slot? is there an overarching plot or adhoc nonsense?

>>24577608
I'll do my best but don't expect too much, I'm retarded.
>The First Law spoilers below
Anons here are saying the books are a subversion of expectations relative to the fantasy genre at large. I argue that the book has plot twists and SoE's, but they do not define the nature of the books. One anon here said that the seed was the purpose of book 2, however the seed was just a tool bayaz wanted to use to defeat khalul. At the end of book 2, the seed wasnt where bayaz expected it to be. Plot twist yes, but does this categorize the entire book as a SoE in fantasy? The story is not about finding the seed, it is about defeating khalul.
Then in the last thread, another anon pointed to a number of things in book 3 that he considered subversions of expectations. See >>24574959 and my response >>24575743. Where in those small to medium plot points does it change the book from a regular fantasy to a SoE?
In my opinion, just because a book has plot twists doesn't mean it's a deconstruction of the genre. The main story is very much still regular fantasy, a crew of characters in a fictional world use their varied abilities, some magical some not, to defeat a powerful enemy. It's a good vs evil story, where the good might just be less evil (bayaz). Morally gray characters are not new. One all-powerful wizard (very much a fantasy trope) pulling the strings for eons who is fairly unapologetic about his methods is just a part of this story.
One of my main arguments is that for a story to have value to experienced readers, it should include non-generic elements. I don't know a single person who wants to read lord of the rings 20 times with the proper nouns changed. Must a story not contain a single plot twist to not be categorized as a subversion of the genre? The first law is grim and littered with morally gray characters who hit snags in their journey. It is still very much regular fantasy because overall, it's a story of good vs evil in a magical world where the main characters embark on an epic quest.

>>24577600
because he outright copied the sparrow to the point of plagiarism. he's not shy about copying other stuff but this is pushing the envelope. he's already predisposed to copying so him taking an entirely unique thing is sad.

>>24577607
Virginia is going to put up a legendary performance in Red God

Pierce better give me a Victra POV in Red God or I'll riot

>>24577694
>adding a POV in the final book
not likely, anon

>>24577694
A Victra POV would just be her aggressively riding Sevro whilst thinking about killing people

>>24577664
Well, in order to subvert the modern fantasy genre you still have to adhere to the fantasy template somewhat. So just because underneath it all it's still fantasy doesn't really change the fact Abercrombie took the genre and flipped it on its head. It's almost cartoonishly cynical, everything you would expect in a normal fantasy as catharsis is not present at all (yes, even with twists and whatnot. Memory, Sorrow & Thorn is a good example of many twists within what you would consider conventional fantasy), almost all the heroes are pieces of shit despite initially being presented as somewhat grey, character development is basically null by the end of the series except for a few exceptions...

>At the end of book 2, the seed wasnt where bayaz expected it to be. Plot twist yes, but does this categorize the entire book as a SoE in fantasy?
I would still argue that it still categorizes the series as a whole as SoE, yes. It essentially asks, "what if going to Mordor had been for nothing?". You could argue that what really matters in book 2 is the journey itself and I agree but taking the whole series into account and how it ends I'd say it still falls under SoE.

I respect your take, I guess, cuz I've never heard it. The series is a fun ride for its own sake but there's no place in my mind where I could see TFL as being anything other than a very cynical take on modern fantasy and taking every single trope and flipping it on its head.

Recommend me some good apocalypse fantasy similar to The Banner Saga. (start, and during it, not post-apocalypse)
I absolutely love the sense of urgency in this.

>>24576218
Dick Sucking Lips

>>24576243
>Why do women do shit they know they hate and know will make them miserable
This is a question that's been asked since the dawn of man.

>>24576243
>Look at cover
>Seemingly cool Byzantine setting
>Nope, it's another fantasy novel with magic powers

>>24577830
And let me guess: there's a boytoy wish fulfillment love interest?

>>24576243
>why do they keep writing YA?
Because any woman under like 45 simply never moved on from YA. Even the romantasy novels with tons of filthy sex all have YA level prose. Twilight nuked the brains of an entire generation.

>>24577663
I've only read annihilation, I liked it and found it better then the movie. It's basically a self contained book. I've heard mixed things about the sequels so I'm also curious about them.

>>24577900
they are perpetual children on an intellectual level. But that's not saying much as half the men here read slop for teens too.

>>24577925
You're not wrong. The rise of modern romantasy slop coincides with Japanese light novels mutating into Royalroad webnovel progression slop. I miss the old slop damn it.

>nobody ever posts said sexy rape smut from said YA books
How bad can it be,?

>>24578073
They're all from the point of view of the female MC, so it is the male body whose sexuality is emphasized.

>>24576243
>I know women authors hate it when their works are dismissed as YA, but more importantly: why do they keep writing YA? I don't get it.
Because that's what has an insane audience to get money from. Also, that's clearly the level of writing people are comfortable with as something they skim through, get familiar tropes and feel like they've read another book like a big girl.

I've been binge-reading the Del Rey Conan books. Just finished Beyond the Black River, and hooooooooooooooooly fuck. What a story.
I've heard that REH actually liked the Picts and wrote other stories about them, and just chose to have them be the bad guys in this story. Is that accurate?

>>24578333
They are Kull's allies in those stories. Atlanteans become Cimmerians and both Cimmerians and Picts devolve to the point where neither remembers that they are ancestral allies and are instead mortal enemies. It's great!

>>24577667
>author borrows from other authors
>author openly discusses his influences
>"He stole from a book he says he never read"
Again, why would he lie? Either he's particularly ashamed of the Cielcin mutilation scene, or he has vendetta against Mary Doria Russell despite supposedly enjoying her book. Neither of those make any sense.

>>24578243
So basically reading it is gay.

>>24578347
Yes and it makes you gay. I met my bf through reading. Be careful bros, you’ll read a book and then the next thing you’re in bed holding hands reading.

>>24578351
>holding hands reading
Seems like it'd be hard to turn the page

>>24578354
We’re e-reading degenerates.

>>24578354
You still have two hands left, I'm sure you can make it.

>>24578351
Is it pozzed?

>>24577494
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT NAIL-BITERS, RIGHT CARL?

>>24577744
>The first law spoilers below
I'll agree that the pessimism and cynicism of the book is atypical for fantasy, but those elements aren't enough in my eyes to classify it as a deconstruction or a subversion.
Per your book 2 arguments, there is one major difference between the edge of the world and mordor: mordor was the final destination for the whole story. The edge of the world was a stepping stone, one stop to finish the quest. That's still my argument for how it is not enough to change the nature of the books from traditional fantasy. It plays with a more realistic, pessimistic world view in there is no true good, there is true evil, and people don't always get what they deserve but it is still very much a regular fantasy story.
If Khalul's forces had triumphed, or Bayaz failed to contain the power of the seed and released demons into the world, then I would say the books are absolutely a subversion of typical fantasy. For me, the heroes triumphing over the bad guys after a long, epic journey filled with magic still roots this series solidly in the "traditional fantasy story" bucket

It happened again. I had to reject someone from joining the Goodreads group because they didn't put anything in the join message. It was a private profile, so if you see this, try again. If not, I'll assume it was some random account rather than anyone from here. At least this is a rare occurrence.

Are there any super hero novels that the anons of /sffg/ like?

>>24578583
Worm is a common rec, but honestly I find it really slow and hate the power scaling.

>>24578560
NTA but I use goodreads for myself but only to track and log what I read. What do you get from joining a group on there? Do you discuss books there too or is it just a way to track what other anons are reading and to bully them

>>24578603
From the relevant thread

>>24578583
Brandon Sanderson wrote some, but they aren't well liked.

>>24578603
GR is so fucked that it's nice to be a part of a group that's generally not. Or at least isn't fucked in the same way

You use the group to find people whose tastes match your own, to check out consensus on books, etc. Most people don't engage with the other parts (like a monthly book recommendation, etc.) but they're there if you want them

>climax of the second apocalypse
>hundreds of pages of sickening visions of gay sex cannibal orgies
What was Bakker trying to say?

>>24578775
You wouldn't understand.

>>24578775
you wouldn't get it, Sandertard

If bakker didn't make women mad his shitty books would never be mentioned here.

>>24578973
Nah hes based. Unlike other pseudlosiphers he created a narrative to explore and communicate deep subjects. Narrative is the soul of literature.
His story is a logical fiction (as per Wyndham) wedded to the fantasy worldbuilding tradition. It's pinnacle.

No one outside of this general reads bakker btw

they don't even know who he is

>>24579055
same with Wolfe. But that is just pleb npcs and it will always be like that. They know only sanderslop

>>24579067
No it's because he's not good, but edgy contrarians made him a meme in this general.

>>24579074
bakker is leagues better than whatever is the "relevant" fantasy of modern day I grantee it.

>>24579079
No amount of long term autistic shilling will ever make this true.

>>24579055
Bakker is among the highest rated authors on /r/fantasy. The overall userbase there isn't all that different from here. What is entirely different is the moderation. That the vast majority of users refuses to become what the moderation wants to them to be causes intense frustration and grief.

>>24579125
cope

When does Wheel of Time get good? I'm only on the second book but it feels like nothing is happening. Rand is a faggot, Matt is annoying, Perrin is based buf they never give him anything to do. The best part if the first book was when Nynaeve, Moiraine and Lan were separated together. When will literally anything actually happen?

>>24579132
Book 3, and then moreso in book 4. Rand is almost completely defaggotized by 5

>>24579131
I dislike Bakker. Your feelings are clouding your judgement.

>>24579146
im sure you do buddy

>>24579146
All its going to do is repeat the same newfag buzzwords. It does this every time.

>>24579055
this is probably the only place he's memed but he's known in a bunch of places. he's in the same strata as Abercrombie, Wolfe, Donaldson, etc.

Can you recommend me a fantasy book that have a bittersweet feel to it (similar to sailing from the Grey Havens in LotR)?

>>24578518
>First Law Spoilers
But see, I disagree. I think that's Joe's sleight of hand. He finishes the story as you "normally" would but with everything fucked. Logen "dies", Glokta stays alive but completely unchanged, Jezal is basically made a bitch by Bayaz with a wife that he doesn't have any idea is a hostage, West truly dies... Literally, all of it was for nothing. In fact, basically the only normal thing is that the evil forces were held at bay and to me that's not enough to set it apart. Most stories, no matter how grim and what genre it is, ends with the evil at least being held back for a time.

What would you consider then a full subversion of the genre?

>>24579371
Memory, Sorrow & Thorn
His Dark Materials (this one's much more bitter than sweet)

>>24579125
>>Bakker is among the highest rated authors on /r/fantasy
I sincerely doubt it considering Bakker is so obscure that he does not even show up in the first two pages of results if you google his name, and no book store I have ever visited, even used book stores, carries any of his books.

>>24579419
Best Fantasy Novels 2025, #34
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/s/oFv5PXW7cd

>>24579434
Genuinely shocked cause literally nobody talks about him and again I have never seen his books for sale anywhere. Looking at how voting works, it looks like each person got 10 votes apiece, and there were roughly 1000 people, so 10,000 votes total. Bakker received 55 votes from 1000 people, so that puts it more into perspective, but even 5.5% readership is surprising to me, I would have figured single digits because I have literally never seen his book on a shelf in a store in my entire life and I've been going to a variety of book stores since the 1990s.

>>24579371
The Memory, Sorrow, Thorn trilogy for sure. It's not very derivative of LotR in general, but Tad definitely was thinking of the gray havens and the elves when he was writing it
The Night Lands is melancholic in a different way.
It requires you to read three other (very good) books first, but Tehanu is very bittersweet and lonely.

Dungeon Crawler Carl has gone from Royal Road to being sold in Wal-Mart. What a journey.

>>24579371
The Farseer books.

>>24578560
This is unusual. Just rejected another one for the same reason. I'm almost certain that ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪ had no idea what they were doing by applying. What a profile and name. If you're somehow reading this, prove me wrong.

>>24579407
>>24579465
Thanks. I was actually planning to read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy in a foreseeable future.
>Tehanu
I read old Earthsea books a couple of times and I like them pretty much, especially The Tombs of Atuan, but I've never read Tehanu. Is it good? I know that Tenar is back in that one, but I'm usually wary of ageing sci-fi writers returning to their older works, they tend to become more "unhinged" with their ideas (like Asimov in final books of Foundation series, or Heinlein in everything he has wrote in the 80s).

>>24579462
The Darkness That Comes Before has more reviews and shelves on GR than every single Dying Earth book combined. This speaks more to the tragedy of Vance's lack of success more than Bakker being popular, but it does put things in perspective.

Book stores operate on entirely different rules I've never been able to understand. It's row upon row of Mercedes Lackey, Brent Weeks, Jo Walton, and other people who i know exist but never hear people talk about in real life or the internet

>>24579517
Filter bubbles are powerful indeed. We've fashioned astounding echo chambers for ourselves.

>>24579480
Is he still self-publishing first or did he fully sign the series to a publishing house?

>Okay, here's my list, my personal "Top Twelve". After Tolkien and Le Guin go: Stephen R. Donaldson "Thomas Covenant", T. H. White "The Once and Future King", Peter S. Beagle "The Last Unicorn", Roger Zelazny "Amber", Marion Zimmer Bradley "The Mists of Avalon", Jack Vance "Lyonesse", Tanith Lee "Birthgrave", Patricia McKillip "Riddlemaster of Hed" and "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld", David Eddings "Belgariad" and Fritz Leiber series "Swords…", i.e. Fafhrd and Gray Mouser.
Does he have good taste?

>>24579556
Still self-publishing on Patreon first.

>>24579570
Why does Le Guin get glazed so much? Earthsea is good but it isn't anywhere near the same level as LOTR. It can't REALLY be because it's a female author and a story about a POC, right?

>>24579600
No, she was celebrated before that. I think her sci-fi stuff is better anyway even though I'm far from being a fan of her writing.

>>24579600
The fact you think LeGuin automatically means Earthsea is probably why you're confused
Earthsea is great but so is everything she's done. that's why she is so beloved, her bibliography is large and contains almost no duds
If you're aren't into the epic poem / children's story aspects of Earthsea then take a look at The Left Hand of Darkness, Always Coming Home, or Rocannon’s World instead

Just finished Poppy war 1 and I am feeling kinda pissed I got tricked into reading this shit
I never felt angrier at the end of a book than right now, holy shit

>>24579613
>>24579624
Fair enough. The quote mentioned specific series for everyone else so I just assumed he meant Earthsea as it is her most recognizable work

>>24579636
How were you tricked?

>>24579642
Youtube shills

The writing in VNs reminds me a lot of LITRPGs

>>24579643
Why did you trust them more than /sffg/?

>>24579644
You should probably stop reading litrpgs about gay sex

>>24579646
I learned my lesson

>>24579624
In context of >>24579570 it is means Earthsea. He spends a considerable chunk of the essay arguing that Earthsea books are almost as important to western fantasy canon as LotR.

>>24579570
>Belgariad
Based

>>24579509
>But I've never read Tehanu. Is it good?
It is. I also hate the thing you mention with authors totally losing "it" when they return to a series many years later.

Tehanu avoids this problem by virtue of being deliberately different and making the gap of time an important facet of the story. It's very much a book about aging, of being old and no longer going on adventures, finding meaning in life, wishing the best for those that come after you, and so on

It's a book you'd bounce off as a kid, but if you're an adult it'll hit pretty hard.

I want to write books about big assed goblins using high-level sluttery to dominate the world

How much adult content is in these Forgotten Realms books, I picked up this and Pool of Radiance at the thrift store today.

>>24579665
>>24579639
Ah shit, my bad then. Then I would disagree strongly with his assertion.

LeGuin is often "your favorite author's favorite author", so I suppose in that context Earthsea has had a big impact and that might be what he's saying.

But in many ways Earthsea is the almost bizarro LotR. It's such a unique way of world building, adventure, character arcs, and so on, and nobody else has really tried to copy it. If it's influenced western canon as much as LotR then it's in a much more indirect way that's impossible to measure.

>>24579570
Pretty based list, especially the mention of Tanith Lee

except >>24579767
> doesn't know about the child abuse.

>>24579838
None. All the early books are PG rated.

>>24579848
nta
The actions of an author don't change the content of a book.

>>24576167 (OP)
https://moonquillnovels.com/book/anomaly
hard science fiction. *not* cowboys and aliens.

>>24579973
Horrendous.

>>24579973
>*not* cowboys and aliens
Why do you keep saying this?

>>24579848
I don't know those children so I don't care. I just like Polgara

>>24579863
That's too bad, I'll read it anyway. I have one of the Drizz't books too that I forgot about

>>24579763
Lysander must die.

>>24580082
To be fair most of his chapters after Iron Gold are about him coping and seething about people not liking him which was pretty fun to read.

>>24576891
Hubbard.

>>24579624
I have this nice omnibus with three Hainish novels.

>>24580006
>>24579870
Pedos.

>>24580242
You're posting on and reading 4chan.
That must mean you endorse everything that has ever been posted on this site if that's what you believe.

>>24580082
It's true

>>24579570
>not mentioning Moorcock
I hate this old fucking plagiarist.

>>24579624
>Earthsea is great but so is everything she's done. that's why she is so beloved, her bibliography is large and contains almost no duds
Now that I think about it yeah. Prolific and quality.

>>24577456
This gave me psychic damage.

>>24579848
>doesn't know about the child abuse.
Paul Verlaine had wounded a fellow poet (and his lover) Arthur Rimbaud with a revolver, Burroughs had killed his wife and fled, Ezra Pound was a Nazi collaborator and O. Henry got five years of prison for embezzlement. It doesn't mean their writings should be completely dismissed solely on that ground.

>>24580242
It wasn't pedophilia though.

>>24578339
That's why history is important.

>>24579848
>> doesn't know about the child abuse.
as someone who read the Belgariad as a kid and enjoyed it, this was really weird to learn about
iirc it was in the 60s and Eddings and his wife were relatively young, not yet successful writers
how did they justify that behavior to themselves, if they tried to at all? was it more socially acceptable to not give a shit about adopted kids back then? were they trying to make ends meet and ready to do anything? did they have good intentions but overestimate their ability to care for the kids? considering how quaint a lot of the belgariad is, it's kind if weird to imagine someone who might have been a complete asshole giving life to Polgara, Ce'nedra, Belgarath, etc

>>24579848
Back to social media with you

>>24580723
4chan is social media.
>No, it isn't, its ANTISOCIAL MEDIA!!!!!

>>24580512
All of those happened a century ago at least and they didn't write disposable slop.

>new john carter of mars animated show in the works
If it inspires even a single new planetary romance novel it was money well spent

Opinion on the Banks' Culture series? And if I decide to give it a shot, better to start with Consider Phlebas or Player of Games (or even another one entirely)?

>>24580242
He beat his kids he didn't rape them, and Polgara is like 7000 years old so nuh uh

Reading Demon in White, 300 pages left. The second book was better than the first and the third is clearly better than the second, Sun Eater might turn out to bea pretty good series after all.
Hadrian talking to artificial intelligences has been my favorite part in both Howling Dark and Demon in White.

>>24580893
>All of those happened a century ago at least
It was happening in late 60s, therefore, in 50 years or so it's going to be OK to read Eddings?
>they didn't write disposable slop
World literature could've lived without any of them, doesn't mean it should.

>>24580977
>He beat his kids he didn't rape them
BTW, what is it with modern western society that raping someone is suddenly considered worse than murder?

>>24580976
It's kino and a must read if you like sci-fi.

It's hard to answer which to read first. Since Consider Phlebas is the first book in the series it does a lot of the necessary world building and setup of the wider Culture, but it's arguably the weakest of the books and the most unlike the rest. Player of Games is certainly fairly self-contained and a great book, but overall I'd probably still suggest start at the beginning.

This is an oddly specific request but does anyone know any fantasy stories with an analogue to hadrian's wall and the roman v savage conflict around it?

>>24581029
GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire with its storyline of Night's Watch on the Wall against wildlings and the Others is going to be too obvious?

>>24581049
Yeah I should have said besides that one. I'd prefer finished works.

>>24581056
>I'd prefer finished works.
Why fantasy readers are so hell bent on reading "finished works"? You can't enjoy reading books without knowing how they will end? And you would refuse to read, say, Kafka's The Castle or Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon solely because of that?
Also, does it means the opposite, that you will read every series to the end, no matter how bad it's going to get? Like, take the same ASoIaF, the quality was on the decline since A Feast for Crows, and if The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring are ever going to be released I bet they will be a complete disappointment, penned by tired and disillusioned writer; but literally everyone in this thread are going to read it no matter what (just like it was before with people getting through Merlin's cycle of Amber and the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant). Please, just stop with this obsessive-compulsive madness! It's unhealthy and embarrassing.

>>24580885
By that logic, forums are social media.

>>24581083
>literally everyone in this thread are going to read it no matter what
It IS upsetting that /sffg/ is 99.9% normalfaggotry.

>>24581087
Contrarian nonsense take. Those books are mostly fine, they're not unreadable, but they're also not the next best thing that happened with the genre in this century. Can we please stop treating them as special, just like it was before the TV show was ever conceived?

>>24581099
>contrarian
Thanks for beginning your post with a newfag buzzword so I didn't have to waste my time reading the rest. Have a nice day, anon. There's a GRRM general for you to circlejerk your favorite author.

>>24581083
The only thing unhealthy and embarassing here is your reaction to my preferences in this request. I asked for a book rec and followed up to narrow it down. If you choose to apply that to "fantasy readers" at large or even my general reading preferences then that's your own error, spergbro. I enjoy plenty of unfinished series, including ASOIAF. If only I had bothered to write
>Also, I'd prefer finished works.
Maybe I could have saved you from going full retard.

>>24581083
Are the final chronicles really that bad? I've read the first two chronicles and while it feels like it's already finished there, I wouldn't mind more.

https://youtube.com/@based_con
The Based SFF Convention
I haven't looked at any, but it might be interesting.

Featuring sff discussion panels from a traditionalist, conservative, right-wing, and based perspective.

Example videos:
Fairy Tales to fight the Culture War
Going on the offensive in the Culture War
The History (and future?) of Science Fiction
Has the Left lost the Plot?
Making Connections in a Hostile Environment
Has Publishing Forgotten about Men?
Being Cancelled and Prevailing

There are a lot of of complaints about all things contemporary, so maybe it'd relevant to those interest.

>>24581106
>Thanks for beginning your post with a newfag buzzword so I didn't have to waste my time reading the rest.
What an obdurate fool, discarding the entire argument simply because of a word he didn't like.

>>24581109
My reaction?
>spergbro
>full retard
You sound just a little bit mad, "bro".

>>24576474
kys

I read Signal Airship by Robyn Bennis (:DDD) and liked it

Help me decide what to read next /lit/, the choice is between:
- Blindsight (/Firefall omnibus)
- House of suns
- A fire upon the deep

>>24581133
It takes no emotion at all for anyone who's been here for more than a few months to call another anon sperg or retard. That you got even slightly defensive over it is actually pretty sad.

Red God theories, RRchads?
What's going to happen with the eidmi? Will it be used, and on which Color(s)? I'm betting that Lysander intends to use it near the start of the book, but loses it to a rival Core Gold faction and has to work with Darrow to reclaim it, resulting in one of them dying and a localized genocide of Golds.
POVs? This could be a problem, if Darrow does anywhere except the very end the entire book will be hamstrung. It's probably too late in the game to add another POV but I could see Pax or Diomedes filling in.
As for the ending I think Lysander's reformers, with or without him, will make peace with the Republic, perhaps forming a more moderate Society still led by Golds, with allowances for regional autonomy to prevent war between Rim and Core.

>>24581207
>What's going to happen with the eidmi? Will it be used, and on which Color(s)? I'm betting that Lysander intends to use it near the start of the book
He's going to use it on pinks since they're the most disposable to him and to check of it works.

>>24581207

Darrow, Mustang, and most others die.
Lysander Wins.
This sets up to the Pax vs Lysander trilogy.

>>24581241
kys

>Darrow exiting the leviathan's stomach and starts howling
I LITERALLY took my hands off my steering wheel and started clapping

>>24581252
Darrow will face the same end as Luke Skywalker and Paul Atreides at best. It's that kind of story.

Anyone who believes that Red Rising will have a triumphal ending is ignoring the book titles.

Iron Gold - Only the ruthless survive
Dark Ages - Death and despair for all
Light Bringer - Lucifer, the devil arrives
Red God - Jesus, crucified

BORN TO CANT
CONSULT IS A FUCK
鬼神 Kill Em All 4132 Year-of-the-Tusk
I Am Mandati Man
478,637,782 CULLED SRANC

I finished Engine Summer. Beautiful. There was something incredibly melancholic about the post-apocalyptic world, the loss of the angels' world combined with the loss of love and self, and I really enjoyed the mythical or mysterious proportions certain people or even the most mundane inventions of the past achieved. I think I guessed halfway through the final revelation and then spent the rest of the book dreading it would actually happen and it still hurt. The Boots thing though. There's a sort of understated horror there, as much or perhaps even more than the ending and it becomes quite obvious in retrospect. It made me feel bad especially for Rush and what he did to be what he thought Once a Day wanted. There's actually a lot to say, from the theme of stories to the idealisation of the past, good and bad things included, to love and miscommunication to trying to find a sense in relics from the past and so on. Just really good.

>>24581534
Nice to hear. I havent tried Crowley again since reading The Deep

>>24581694
I decided to read the rest of his bibliography precisely because I loved The Deep a lot. I'm only two books in so I can't say too much except that I haven't been disappointed so far.

>>24581085
Yes, they are.
Social media is any online medium that allows for social discourse.
What do you define it is as?

>>24581138
House of suns.

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*
Confess /sffg/

>>24578249
This is not an exaggeration. Some friends of my wife, who are no slouches, haven't read a real book in years. Even when they've enjoyed books by proper filters like Dostoevsky or Tolstoy in the past.
They say they like to read, but mostly read slop. For every 4 YA books they read, they add a self help bestseller or feminist meme book like The Bell Jar.
I unironically think it is the drudgery of work life. These women are all stuck in draining, unfulfilling, but high end jobs. Doctors, lawyers etc. Reading is not an avenue for development for them, but rather an escape from the stress and complexity of reality.

I've finished 10 volumes of the science fiction anthology that MIT/Technology Review publishes. Here are 9 stories that I enjoyed, edited for length. None are from the first volume, because I wasn't writing when I read it. All the rest are on Goodreads.

Insistence of Vision - David Brin
A man flirts with a woman who isn't wearing her augmented reality goggles. As long as she doesn't put them on, everything will be fine.

Business as Usual - Pat Cadigan
A slice-of-life story about an interface designer who unexpectedly becomes a therapist to smart appliances.

Los Piratas del Mar de Plastico - Paul Graham Raven
Hope Dawson does a lot of writing gigs, but her true interest and doctorate is in qualitative economics. Acting on a tip, she meets an eccentric man whose wealth is beyond his own knowing. He hires her to investigate peculiar economic activities.

Byzantine Empathy - Ken Liu
A technical discussion of cryptocurrency in general alongside the specifics of the fictional crypto central to the narrative. The second part is a philosophical dialogue about between frenemies. This is one of the few stories I've read that makes use of the blockchain aside from brief mentions as a payment method.

Echo the Echo - Rich Larson
It's said that everyone dies twice. The first time is physical death and second is when no one remembers you. What are memories of someone other than echoes of their existence? This is a poignant story about pushing back against that second death.

I Give You the Moon - Justina Robson
I don't know if I've ever read such a hopeful and optimistic post-collapse future full of compassion and empathy. A father and son in Namibia work with remote robots to improve water quality. The son dreams of vikings and the father is content with his life, though he'd like to share with it a woman. A woman dreams of going to the moon.

Company Man - Shiv Ramdas
He's gotten a new artificial heart, but due to a mishap, they want to repossess it. Corporations have far more rights than natural persons, so even with his powerful position, his continued survival is very much in doubt. This was a very humorous story in an absurd way.

Immortal Beauty - Bruce Sterling
In the 25th century the remains of humanity are satisfied with how life was more than a thousand years ago. Technology is for the oracles they worship, the computers of heaven. When they die, their souls are uploaded into the afterlife.
Baltasar is the Spanish ambassador to France, a position of high status in the aesthetocracy. In Spain and France, aesthetics determine everything. Commerce is taboo and only the most wicked of foreigners deal in the evil that is money.

Encore - Wole Talabi
Blombos, twin artificial intelligences that are millions of years old, are embodied in a ellipsoid ship with its longest semiaxis being roughly 2,500 miles. Their core objective is the creation of art. When an unknown patron promises the fulfillment of their core objective, they become curious and excited

>>24581534
>>24581907
both are in my top 10 love those books
philosophical standalones are the best

It's finally coming bros!

>>24582240
>slice-of-life story about an interface designer who unexpectedly becomes a therapist to smart appliances.
That one sounds good. Theyre all pretty interesting.

What am I in for, fellas?

Thoughts on the Primaterre series?

Grimdark sci fi that trends toward "hard". Girl enters cryosleep, crash-lands on unknown planet. Genetically engineered death squad from fascist empire also lands on planet- but they're the good guys.

Written by a Swedish woman, oddly enough

>>24582335
Haven't read the new series, was waiting for at least the last one to come out. Is it worth it?

>>24582293
What are your favorite philosophical standalones?

>>24581134
>le kys in 2025 A.D.
Faggot

>>24582341
There's a lot of interesting short fiction, but unfortunately in my experience the majority aren't worth reading. So, it's a lot about managing expectations and hoping you'll come across a good one. It's too common to only have a single that's of particular quality per anthology. Too often there's nothing I like at all that much.

fantasy books about running a business and making money

>>24582467
Spice and Wolf

>>24582467
The Dagger and the Coin
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Spinning Silver

>>24576167 (OP)
https://moonquillnovels.com/book/anomaly
>
hard science fiction. I used to read a lot of the old science fiction. Before cowboys and aliens like today... there were a ton of short, quirky, weird sci-fi novels. I miss those, so I tried to make one.

>>24582467
The Dragon's Banker

Should I read The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson or the rewrite that was done later?

>>24581207
Eidimi is going to backfire in some way. Like it's not going to kill the color it targets but switches them around with golds or some shit.

My evidence:
>Dio repeatedly asks Lysander what if he was born a red in LB.
>Eidimi means 'to change' or something like that and is the etymological root of the word 'to edit'.
>Moonies are almost religiously devoted to upkeep the hierarchy with gold on top, Akari was likely the same.
>Silenius is characterized as very much a wise man and wasn't cruel like his descendants. He for instance didn't genocide pre-color humans, just sterilised them and let them live out their lives.
>Lysander mentioned in his final chapters that the Raa entrusted their secrets to white hierarchs to be whispered into the ears of the patriarchs, so it's likely Atlas didn't know the whole truth (he didn't know what a shadow knight is for example).

So the final fight is going to be between Lysander and Darrow as normal humans not Golds.

>>24582767
I don't think Lysander and Darrow are gonna fight 1v1 at all. I think Lysander is gonna get killed by someone else. Someone lesser than him.

>>24581207
Lysander must die

>>24581261
I did this when Cassius showed up to help at the end of Dark Age

>>24580980
Alright. I need a break from Wheel of Time. It's time to get back into Suneater.

>>24582346
Just watch the play

>>24577296
>>24577299
Some people just can't stand a man with higher duties.

>>24581116
if you had asked me this 8 years ago when I first read the Last Chronicles, I would have told you to just skip them. They're very obtuse, you never know what the fuck is going on, and you're basically inside Linden's head and emotions for 3 straight books. There's very little magic (The Haruchai have outlawed Earthpower basically), so it's like the second chronicles in terms of the magic of the world being severely limited.
However i started re-reading the whole series a few years ago, and I'm currently on The Last Dark. Upon a 2nd re-read, I'm actually shocked at what Donaldson pulled off. The Last Chronicles are every bit as essential as the 1st and 2nd, and there is just enough lore to make it satisfying to someone who cares about the series as a whole. The interior monologue of the characters isn't just chaff; it has a purpose that is obfuscated during a first read-through. If you can stomach being entirely confused as to what's going on or where the series is headed, I would whole-heartedly recommend the Last Chronicles. As far as I'm concerned it's the pinnacle of the series. Most people see as some sort of self-aggrandizing cash grab that fails to capture the magic of the earlier series, but having fallen in love with the unique lore of how the Land has ended up after so many years, I disagree. It's an essential read that most people will merely scoff off. The nutso thing is that Donaldson could write even more stories set in that universe if he wanted to

>>24582335
I can't wait

>>24582932
>>24581116
>>24581083
also this dude is full of shit, it doesn't matter to me if a story is "finished" or not. It can still be a masterpiece (Berserk is a good example). Donaldson came up with the of the Final Chronicles alongside the 2nd Chronicles, he just didn't write it for over 25 years because he was so daunted by the herculean task he had set before himself. It's not the kind of books you wanted, full of lore and action, but it's the book he wanted to write all along, and it works.

>>24582415
besides Crowley you have David Gemmell with several.
Gene Wolfe obviously.
Lesser known would be R A Laffery's books starting with Past Master and Fourth Mansion.
Christopher Preist's Fugue for a Darkening Island and The Inverted World.
Keith Robert's Pavane.

>>24582932
>>24582940
Well I'm glad to hear it.

Fantasy books with a menstruating protagonist? As in, the author actually brings up the issue.

>>24582413
imo yes especially the first (La Belle Sauvage) which is incredible. The Secret Commonwealth is a little miserable in tone (everyone’s just angry at each other the entire time) and ends without a lot of clarity on where the story is going (so The Rose Field is gonna need to do a whole lot of tie-up), but it still does a good job of capturing that world and the writing’s pretty good.

>>24583042
what do you get out of shilling the same book over and over

>>24583189
Awesome. His Dark Materials is one of my favorite fantasy series so I'll definitely check it out.

>>24581138
>>24582045
Thanks, but could anyone go into a bit of detail on these three books?

>>24583447
Lurk moar

>>24583447
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=48484
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=1126719
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=77711

>>24583490
>all these anons joining a group where you show your face and name

Any good "exploring warfare" books? Like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or "Fire Caste" novel, with dangerous environment, low-intensity warfare, maybe with some exploring expedition. I have read "Annihilation", but I would prefer something more military-oriented.

>>24583496
There are larger /lit/ Goodreads groups that are entirely public.

Which of these should I read next?
Current year SF standalone
Grimdark series standalone(?) sequel
Novel sequel to a novella
Indie author's first book in his newest series

>>24583172
Only A Clash of Kings comes to mind, and even there it's only that one chapter.

Almost finished. Pretty boring so far.

>>24583496
>joining a group where you show your face and name
What?

Here are the requirements.
You must know the response.
secret club: where
secreter club: shoe
secretest club: bring
ancestral club: stairs
never forget or forgive club: rowan
espionage club: bacon
debatable club: queen
This is just for fun.

>>24583737
Some people in that group have their actual name and photo in their profile

>>24583737
As of yesterday the the UK now requires photo verification of being an adult to use adult websites and apps. This includes discord, reddit, TikTok, and much else.

>>24583717
Probably should stop after you finish then.

>>24583717
This Alien Shore by her is very good in my opinion I havent read Black Sun Rising yet though

Are any of the books in this bundle any good? I know nothing of the publisher and haven't heard of the authors.

To add to the general discussion, Cleave the Sparrow is the best book I've read that's been published in the last several years. It kind of a satire of both political satire (think Chris Buckley) and philosophical scifi (think Permutation City) novels. It's preachy like a crackhead screaming on the street corner is preachy, or like a ketamine trip through a physics 301 syllabus. Genuinely a book that could never be created by AI. I enjoyed it.

>>24583935
Peter S. Beagle wrote The Last Unicorn so there's a chance that stuff might be good, don't know anything about the rest though

>out on my monthly route through the used bookstores in my city
>find Iron Gold, Dark Age, and Lightbringer paperbacks at different stores but all for really cheap and in great condition
>figure now's a good time to check out the sequel series since /sffg/ is constantly talking about it
>get back and put them on my shelf
>Lightbringer has a different spine than the other two and now they don't match
>autismal rage consumes my body
Are they all like this or did I get a weird edition?

I also found the first three Red Sonja novels by David C Smith and a copy of Thuvia Maid of Mars. All in all a good day for my sff case.

I was reading the first Spiral Wars book, and I got this sense of fake moral complexity.

Like with the Krim. In this setting, the Krim enslaved humans and then killed off most of them when they wouldn't fall in line. When the humans got their feet under them, they turned things around and evetually eradicated the Krim, the first time a civilized species had completely genocided another in galactic history. Now, this act is heavily celebrated in human society, lumped in with their survival and comeback.

But the idea is raised that this genocide shouldn't be as venerated as it is, if at all, but it always feels half assed. Whenever a human character questions it, it's very quick and never given much thought. When someone argues against it, they're talked down to and concede the point very quickly. On top of this, every time new information about the Krim is given, it puts them in a worse light. And humans in the setting have earned a rep for being the genocide people, but this rep is presented as being unfair.

So it feels like the writer wants to have moral complexity, but is terrified of the possibility of the reader perceiving the humans as not being the outright good guys. Making it feel fake.

>>24582240
Now for some of the worst of the anthologies.

The Mighty Mi Tok of Beijing - Brian Aldiss
A surgeon develops new anatomy for humans based upon the the complaints he received from the women he has sex with. It's very scatalogical.

Pwnage - Justina Robson
Social media psychosis.
(Yes, she's also in previous one for one of the stories I most enjoyed. It's rare that I consistently enjoy short fiction from the same author. This one is from 2013 and the other is from 2022. They're completely different.)

The New US - Pepe Rojo
A woman who has been subjected to many medical experiments trudges through a collapsed Mexico overrun by cartels and the new US. She's nearly unaware of everything going on around or inside her, including an implant constantly pumping her full of testosterone, forcibly transitioning her. I assume it was intended for the effects of testosterone to be similar to becoming a zombie.

The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You - Jo Lindsay Walton
This was an absolute disaster that I couldn't look away from. So utterly awful that it pained me to read it. Yet for some out there I have no doubt that this would be their peak fiction. This stream of consciousness preteen ramblings about social media derived procedurally generated mental illnesses was too much to take. If you're the sort that enjoys as it says the "SmartSchizularity", then this may be for you.

A Little Wisdom - Mary Robinette Kowal
An old woman with Parkinson's and a service robot struggles through the day to show people that art can inspire and comfort regardless of the circumstances. The story is almost entirely performative symbolism.

The Nation of the Sick - Sam J. Miller
A man tells a story about his life that alternates between self-righteousness and self-pity, while being arrogant and pretentious the entire time.

The Monogamy Hormone - Annalee Newitz
The only conflict in the story in the protagonist with herself because she doesn't like the personal branding that polyamory carries. She wants to do it, but that's for strange old millennial white males, and that's so not her.

Less Than - Lavanya Lakshminarayan
A wealthy queer woman is a pro gamer and married to her ideal husband. Everything and everyone, except him, demands that she become pregnant and raise a child. She begins to believe that all of society is colluding to brainwash themselves into believing what society what has deemed best for them. That personal choice is being stripped away from everyone, not with violence and oppression, but through algorithms and social pressure.

Halfway to Hope - Lavanya Lakshminarayan
Safia designs VR sims for bedridden wealthy and elderly patients in a hospital. The one person she wants to design for is Amulya, her lover and would-be wife, but Amulya's homophobic traditionalist family gets in the way. They blame Safia for corrupting her, which resulted in her being at that protest when it was bombed.

Has there been any book sff books released in the past few years? I haven't been to this general in a while and haven't kept track of any awards and such

Has there been any good sff books released in the past few years? I haven't been to this general in a while and haven't kept track of any awards and such

>>24584145
adrian tchaikovsky's tyrant philosophers series. the first book is about a rebellion against an autocracy. mosaic novel with multiple povs. The story and characters change in the subsequent books and they're equally as good.

>>24584145
The awards don't tend to be for books those who come here enjoy. There's been plenty released that I personally enjoy, but there isn't really a consensus due to lack of readers. Depending how many years mean, there are some newer series that have some popularity and tend to be discussed or spammed here.

>>24582417
always has been relevant.
again: kys.

>>24584145
The Spear Cuts Through Water

>>24584335
>>24584335
As much as you've pushed this book, you ought to add your rating and thoughts. It's not favorable as is.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=55868456

>>24584370
It's my first time posting about that book ever you loser

>>24584186
Is it better than the spider series?
>>24584335
Looks very unique and interesting, thanks anon.

Guys, when this thread’s done, I’m breaking Sci-Fi and Fantasy into their own threads/generals
So I could use some help from y’all.

>>24584401
where will I post about dune?

>>24584401
That sounds stupid, fuck off

>>24584401
For what purpose? Where would things like BotNS and Lord of Light that play with both genres fit?

>>24584403
There will be a third general of popular sagas, Song of Ice and Fire, Dune, Harry Potter, Wheel of Time... etc.

>>24584431
Make a fourth one for obscure one-volume titles too.

>>24584427
Anon wants to talk about BotNS in two generals at the same time

>>24584431
why would you do this

Ok get ready

>>24584335
>>24584370
Dropped

>>24584548
quickest way to make me not read a book

>>24584548
>Yandex browser

>>24579480
I read the audiobook because it's so peak. I usually hate audiobooks but damn if the guy doing it doesn't have some serious gold pipes.

I'm in the Eye of the Bedlam bride and it's a lotta fun although I'm sensing some missed potential in this one

>>24584548
Ok I had a feeling it was gonna have a yaoi romance that's why my fat ex tried telling me to read it. Was wondering why a Lewis and Clark story was so popular

>>24584437
Make a fifth one to speak generally about all science fiction and fantasy novels

Once again, I struggle to get the hype around The Drenai Saga. I came into this book with certain expectations. Waylander is an assassin, in theory a book about the great assassin should involve some stealth, some skullduggery, perhaps some sleuthing. Instead the action in this thing is two sieges and an occasional skirmish out in the field. Waylander solves all of his problems by either brooding, not being a dick, or shooting it with his crossbow.

There's not much to say about the brooding. It comes across corny, and one wonders why he became an assassin in the first place if he doesn't seem to like it very much. As for not being a dick, no less than three times, maybe more it all blends together, Waylander is saved by somebody he didn't kill before. This occurs twice toward the end of the novel, and the repetitive nature of it comes across as lame.

Oh and the assassinating and sneaking? Nowhere to be seen. All the things that lead our moody protagonist to this point happened off screen. Our fantasy action is short siege then long siege. One wonders why the bad guys keep pointlessly attacking the walls when the defenders ran out of food three days ago. Just wait a few more days until they starve? Just wait for your fancy deus ex ballistas to be built? Seems like a pointless waste of life, but then if there were no pointless casualty filled assaults on the walls then there wouldn't be as many pages wasted on dull action. It's especially annoying since I read this one after Legend, which was the same thing.

It's all solved by an army showing up at the literal last second anyway. Not much of a perimeter you have there!

Did this book give me what I wanted. No. Is that my fault? Yes, I should just stop reading Gemmell.

>>24584548
Is it lesbians (based) or fags (cringe)

Got hit with another hate wave for picrel and decided to watch what booktubers had to say about it in their reviews.
Was pleased to see than not everyone were cockslurping sellouts.

>>24585043
I don't know how people even made through book 4. The writing was on the wall for how shit the series was going to become sometime in book 3. The moment I could start connecting each character as a representative to various mental problems is when I realized the series was terrible.

>>24585061
I've been listening to them and I hate having to find new audiobooks so i've just been dealing with it

I just started reading this and I'm finding it pretty shit so far, the author just drops a bunch of lore and made-up words out of nowhere every paragraph, I'm not getting any of that shit. And the protagonist (which I assume is Szeth) reminds me of fucking Sasuke when he went through his edge phase. Does this shit get better?

>>24585202
I read WoK and never understood the hype.

>>24585061
In the first few books mental issues were just an obstacles to the characters that had own personalities, struggles and challenges to get through.
Starting with Oathbringer in lesser degree and in the last two especially mental issues became an obstacles and challenges and personalities (Shallan) to get through.
This flanderized and changed characters, making them shitty and boring.

>>24585232
>You see these slavery and light eye vs dark eye issues, pretty fun as the source of the conflict? They will become irrelevant and kind of forgotten soon after.

If Sanderson is trash then who are the good Fantasy writers currently?

>>24585370
Joe Abercrombie
Steven Erikson
Guy Gavriel Kay
Robin Hobb
Tad Williams

I think the emotion spren are pretty indicative of Sanderson's lazy worldbuilding.

Like, the spren themselves are boring in how unambiguous they are. "Fear spren", "anger spren", "awe spren", etc. It's not like you can misinterpret what someone is feeling with a spren. Which leads to the other problem of like, the fact that like people can literally without any doubt know exactly what you are feeling doesn't come up either. I don't think people ever comment on spren other people have attracted, it's weird.

All they serve is for Sanderson to lazily write what a person is feeling. Instead of saying "they are scared", or you know, trying to convey that with their actions, you can just write about the fear spren around them.

>>24585390
I read the wikipedia articles of all of them and the only ones that mildly interested me were Erikson and Kay, which books from them can you recommend?

>>24583828
Nah I gotta read the whole series + the new prequel novel regardless of how bad it is. I won't give up.

>>24585510
Malazan ofc