Thread 24615650

Recommended reading charts. (Look here before asking for vague recs)
https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/4rAmSZxb

>Archive:
https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg

>Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg

>Previous:
>>24605413

>Thread Question:
Do writers really only write what they know? Is that why so many settings are entirely underutilized?

>>24615650 (OP)
>tq
genre literature specifically has a problem in that it has become too incestuous. everyone is drawing from other sff works rather than their own experiences.

>>24615650 (OP)
>Do writers really only write what they know?
Yes, which is why all good writers do ungodly amounts of research.
>>24615653
This is a major problem as well. Case in point: Sun Eater and its fisgusting plagiarism.

>>24615650 (OP)
>TQ
I think the issue is that there is nothing truly original. Everything is an inspiration of what has come before and that’s the case for every story created by humans. Underutilisation of settings/themes/characters etc is because people are afraid or lack the imagination to step out of the familiar.

>>24615653
>>24615672
>>24615681
Problem is also that new authors are clearly chasing financial success over writing anything of quality that will stand the test of time. Just look at romantasy novels as a whole. They're just writing porn for women and raking in the money.

>>24615724
Most romantasy makes no money, a couple of franchises make a lot of money. Romantasy is litrpg for women, they write a lot of it because they like writing it, and a very small portion of it is financially successful. Most of it doesn't make anything.

>>24615650 (OP)
good intro to wolfe?

>>24615825
Just read New Sun.

>>24615731
That's a very compelling argument anon, however I hate women and therefore strongly prefer imagining them as achieving entirely undeserved success (is they are romantasy authors themselves) or being personally responsible for the perceived degradation of the medium (if the authors in question are men writing for women).

>>24615837
let's be real. new sun is too much for your average reader. they might READ it but understand or retain very little form it.

>>24615653
FPBP

>>24615825
You're going to be confused. Read this instead.

>>24615840
Have sex incel

>World has magic that individuals can utilise.
>The protagonist only uses bladed weapons.
For what fucking porpoise?

>>24615864
Allegorical, Metaphorical, Metaphysical, Practical, Symbolic, Thematic, and various other reasons.

>>24615840
My post and your own are not mutually exclusive, both can be simultaneously correct. A small portion of it is successful, undeservedly, and most of it is unsuccessful, deservedly.

>>24615853
Not him, but whats wrong with Soldier of the Mist?

Lysander MUST die.

>>24614857
>Disappointing that I couldn't claim another convert, but I'm glad to have helped. Out of curiosity, what sort of SF do you read? I've found Sun Eater to be a love it or hate it series and I'm trying to discern why. I'm an epic fantasy reader at heart so I prefer space opera to hard SF. My fellow RRfags here seem to like Sun Eater so I'm presuming it's more SF oldheads who dislike it
I have a very difficult time finding science fiction that I enjoy - it's much easier for me to indulge in almost any other genre. The few successes I have are Star Wars and Star Trek, which are licensed works or novelizations and therefore hardly original. Other than that, I enjoyed John Carter of Mars by Burroughs, Lewis' Space Trilogy, HG Wells' War of the Worlds, the first Dune by Frank Herbert, the Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke, The Stars My Destination, and Dream Thief and Empyrion by Stephen R. Lawhead. That's pretty much all the "space" books I've read and kept. I also have a couple of oddballs nobody's ever heard of like The Ophidian Conspiracy, Avengers of the Moon, Target, The Road to Roswell, and Project Pope. But as yet I have not been convinced to pursue any serious SF series.

>>24615981
Not that guy but I'm assuming the jumbled narrative can be a turn off to some and come off as random shit happening every chapter.
Personally I really liked it because it really put you in the shoes of Latro and his amnesia.

>>24615825
You need to read Herodotus first to properly enjoy Soldier of the Mist. It's not a hard book but it does expect you to have read Herodotus.

>>24615825
>Herodotus
no
Sorcerers house, or Fifth Head of Cerberus, or doctor death novellas as intro to wolfe.

How modern do you allow dialogue to get before it becomes a turn off?

Which of the WoT books had a bunch of Aes Sedai appear before Rand with a gaggle of Two Rivers girls and one of them forcefully made Rand into her warden?
I was reading the series a good decade ago before some stuff put me off reading at all until just recently and I'm trying remember exactly where I stopped.

>>24616258
As long as theres no modern slang or terminology I don't care. Leaning too far into ye old english can be equally as annoying as well.

>>24616260
I think that was 6

>>24616266
That was it, thanks.

>>24616261
That’s what I'm thinking. I can write natural sounding dialogue, but not if I'm trying to ape an ancient dialogue I don't speak

Finally finished the last 60 pages of Unholy Consult. One of the most intense stories I've read. Wish we got to see more regarding Kellhus's statement that he intended to conquer Hell. Kind of demands the sequel series.

They did NOT kill 60,000,000,000 people and depopulate entire planets with armies full of towelheads using glorified KNIVES. It's literally not possible no matter which way you slice it.

I call shenanigans. SHENANIGANS!!

>>24615981
I didn't say there's anything wrong with it. I said he'll be confused. He'll have a better time not being confused. Easing into it.

I've gotta tell you the truth folks, I gotta tell you the truth. I just finished Joe Abercrombie's The Devils. I think it was his best novel yet. Yeah, sorry. That's just how I feel. I was especially disgusted and aroused by Brother Diaz and Vigga. Some of the twists were painfully obvious and telegraphed with all subtelty of a monster truck show, but damn if the leftovers wasn't the most awfully horrible thing Abercrombie has ever written.

>>24615653
While that is an issue, it's hardly unique to SFF. MFAers with no real life experience are hardly any better.

>>24615825
Kinda late but I agree with the others. Just read Fifth head of cerberus, it really is a great intro to wolfe.
Latro completely filtered me. There must have been so much going over my head. I felt even more lost than when I read New Sun fifteen years ago. I still enjoyed it, and it may even be a good view into how lost Latro himself felt, but I will read Thucydides, Herodotus and some general stuff on greek mythology before I read Latro a second time.

That said, any recommended reading for Wizard Knight? It's been a few years and I made the mistake of listening to an audiobook instead of reading it, which you just shouldn't do for Wolfe, but I felt like I missed a lot of what was really going on.

>>24616323
I think it helped me with Latro that I had read Mika Waltari's Turms, kuolematon (I think it's called The Etruscan in English?) which is a historical novel about a man with amnesia living through the turmoils of the same time period, though he only got amnesia once and not every day lol

I liked it but i kind of wish it went more into autistic detail about how Will works in terms of mechanics/actual application, and the internal politics of the senate.
I'm a bit of an idiot and I don't get the ending, though.
So Luceum and Obiteum are parallel universes that Vis went through in the labyrinth, Ulsicor's brother is stuck in one of them and there's some ancient evil that's about to awaken?

thoughts on this?

>>24616363
Is it better than his previous trilogy?

>>24616425
The first Matthew Stover novel I ever read was filled with homosexual and/or child sex scenes
Like literally every other page was talking about fags, lesbians, and pedophiles in graphically masturbatory detail
Needless to say I didn't finish the novel and put it where it belonged: in the fireplace.

>>24616465
I don't know what his previous trilogy was, sorry.
>>24616425
Edgy in a (mostly) fun way. I think the author just wanted to write scenes where his MMAfag DND character stomped all over fantasy shitters.

>>24616283
One thing that bothered me was how did Kelmonas get into the Golden Room, did Cnaiur's skin-spy take him up there before coming back down to get strangled? Was it a different skin-spy who met Kelmonas after his eacape? This might be obvious especially once a reread but couldn't figure it easily on the first read through

>>24616284
Why am I supposed to think killing imperials is a bad thing when the only thing we see of them is they're all terrible?
>Oh no the hero killed all the villains!!

>>24615724
Newly published authors are chasing success, because that's what gets published - the "sure thing" books that are close to something that's already been successful.

You can find some good stuff self published, but it's wading through miles of shit to find the one gem, so may not be worth it.

Luckily there are thousands of good books that were published prior to 2015 to occupy yourself with.

>>24616128
Now I'm even more confused. Sun Eater has more in common with Star Wars and space opera at large than hard SF. Ruocchio is a big pulp enjoyer, channeling the high stakes and drama of the form in his best moments. And the series' high-level conflict is similar to that in Lewis's Space Trilogy.

>>24616363
I really enjoyed it as well. I think "Will" might be explained in more detail in the latter books. It seems that the people don't really know about all the rules etc. themselves, with Vis not being initiated by those artefacts that allow to use/give will to begin with, thus being immune to those torture devices in the beginning (listened to it in German, there they were called Zappers [before I get shamed for listening to the audiobook: the German actor reading it has the best voice I know of, listening to him always is a pleasure]), and noone knowing about that fact.

Really looking forward to the stuff you mentioned in your spoiler, and yes, that's how much I got from that scene as well. And it ramped up a) my interest in the next book and b) the level of depth to be expected by quite a lot

Any /sffg/-approved dark academia books (besides Harry Potter 3)?

What if there are no Lysander POVs in Red God

>>24616363
>>24616913
What the hell is Emissa's deal

>>24616897
>Sun Eater has more in common with Star Wars and space opera at large than hard SF
it absolutely does not, I only made it 150 pages into the first book and I can tell you the only thing it has in common with Star Wars is the fact that there are humans traveling through space, and there's an emperor
and the puritanical apologist Lewis would spit on you for comparing Ruocchio to himself, unless it were a critique of his plagiarizing attitude - the nihilist gnosticism and baldfaced anti-monarchical screed of Sun Eater would have appalled Lewis, as much as Warhammer 40,000 would have

>>24615650 (OP)
is there any sci fi book that merges the worlds of Bioshock, The Handmaid's Tale and The Purge kinda?

>>24617006
nigga write it

>>24617006
How do you square an Objectivist u/dis-topia with a pseudo-religious totalitarian state?

>>24616943
Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is basically the ur-example of that pseudo sub-genre.

>>24615653
It's hard to get published being original.

>>24616950
Then it means he is dead inshallah

>>24616146
>ou need to read Herodotus first
any suggestion?

>>24616982
You've read 150 pages. I've read the entire series. Believe me when I tell you that Hadrian's antireligious and antimonarchical attitudes in Empire of Silence are rebuked by Demon in White, as he comes to believe that the Empire is humanity's best bet against the Cielcin and that the Quiet has a plan for mankind. His view of the Chantry becomes less "I hate my dad" and more circumspect, grasping its social utility but disdaining its earth mother cultism in light of the Quiet's nature. Fundamentally Sun Eater is the story of a deeply naive man facing inescapable truths that cut against his nihilism.

Women make awful fanart. Every one is hit with the midstick even if they're described as drop dead gorgeous. Straight woman wouldn't know a hot woman if their lives were on the line.

>>24617323
like wtf is this

First for horse

>>24617325
Not this horse though

>>24617329
look at how they massacred our girl

>>24617323
Some of my favorite porn artists are women. Actual women. But they're disgusting degenerates who can't post their smut on social media cause they'd get banned. Social media is a great filter that only allows groided artwork to survive.

>>24617042
Through dialectics

>>24617323
>>24617325
To be fair, image search suggests this image was drawn by one of the most stereotypical tumblr types out there. There are plenty of female artists who draw great fanart and pinups of game and tv show characters. But books don't really get a lot of that in general and instead attract those tumblr types because publishing houses have been aggressively catering to them for quite some time.

What do you think of the first page of this early 2000's fantasy book?

>>24615653
That's why genre fiction is DEAD.

>>24616955
Checked

||She|| definitely knows something or is up to shenanigans with regards to the ||parallel worlds, maybe||. I mean, ||throwing a knife at Viz 'because she saw him having a sepsis and wanting to release him from his suffering'? Nah, not buying that. I'd guess she realized his arm was related to the passing of the portal.||

>>24617557
Looks like I am too stupid for spoilers, god damnit...

>>24616950
As much as I despise Lysander and think he MUST die, the book would probably be worse off without his POV.

>>24616955
Secretly some agent for Veridius maybe?

>reading way of kings
>scenes with jasnah and shallan religious debates feels like im reading a religious argument on reddit
>look it up, find out the author is mormon or something
>okay whatever as long as its not overly preachy
>next scene the atheist girl kills 2 street thugs for no reason because they were le bad anyways, doesn't it make ya think!?

other than that im enjoying the book

>>24617448
feels too authentic, where's the dark lord and ziplining shadow mages?

>>24617620
Yeah, I got that vibe. I was surprised that a lot of readers didn't really like her. I don't really hold it against characters for being bland, though. They have to be annoying for me to dislike them, and she wasn't that at all.

>>24617557
I'm excited to see where she's taken in the next books.

What's with /sffg/ authors and putting their main characters in torture boxes?

>>24617711
It's a sex thing

>>24617711
Self inserts ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

>>24617711
This is why I refuse to read another book by Robin Hobb after the Farseer trilogy.

>>24617749
>female ""author""
shan't be reading that

>>24617749
>>24617781
What's wrong? Can't handle your precious MC getting eaten alive by parasitic worms and getting replaced by his in every way superior daughter as the MC in the new books that are being written years after the fact as a cash-crab?

>>24617784
>What's wrong? Can't handle your precious MC getting eaten alive by parasitic worms and getting replaced by his in every way superior daughter as the MC in the new books that are being written years after the fact as a cash-crab?
eh, not even surprised
public reminder : never read anything by a woman

>>24617787
Fuck you I'll still read Janny

>>24617787
I just think Rob Hobb is just a freak. I would recommend The Complete Chalion and the author Lois McMaster Bujold seems well adjusted. Time-Marked Warlock, at least the first two books by Shami Stovall are also pretty good.

>>24617824
>Bujold
I only read one book by her and it had cuckoldry and a gay romance

>>24616363
For spoilers , either that or timetravel.
Also most people missed that the girl that came before the protagonist in the village at the end is his classmate that ran the Labyrinth before him.if you notice her sceleton ramined in the original dimension and was not consumed. Her original copy died on the way back.


Good book but the concept has been done way better before ( Practical Guide to Evil wipes the floor). Thankfully saved on the third Act where the writer figured how to be good or something.

>>24617824
Life is too short to waste reading books by women.

>>24617907
What about Le Guin, Russ, T. Lee, Kavan... just saying, there are some pearls to be found amongst the heaps of slop written by women

>>24618022
All slop. Women need constant supervision, even when writing.

>>24618206
Easy there Abdulah , not everyone has a burqa fetish

>>24617325
Self-insert for Darrow's BWC

>>24617325
The Red Rising fandom has some of the worst fan art I’ve ever seen

>>24618294
Coomers and trannies ruined the series.

>>24618353
Don’t forget the worst group, straight women

>>24618353
>>24618361
Are you guys done circlejerking or do you need an extra hand?

>>24615653
Fpbp. Read lots of different books (genre, literature, history, religious texts) and literally live life. You'll have much more interesting things to talk about than a nerd who endlessly consumes modern MCU sffg slop

>>24618353
How does fanart ruin a series?

>>24618382
>who's going to tell him?

>>24618242
Islam is right about women.

Other than the Lord of the Rings, are there any examples of "unnecessary" sequels that were good?
By unnecessary I mean where the original book didn't end on a cliffhanger or have any major loose ends; if the sequel never came out, people wouldn't call it an unfinished series.

>>24618537
Red Rising unironically. The first trilogy was ok and ended without cliffhangers or a tease. The sequel books are far better and make the world more interesting similar to LOTR to the Hobbit.

>>24618581
Sell me on it. I finished the first triology, and the last book was a slog. I liked the first the best, because it was at least honest about what it was, instead of the bad attempt at misery to keep the tension going which the later books did.

Gygax's prose kind of sucks, but I find it entertaining.

>>24618587
>better world building
>better characters
>established characters developed further and all are improved
>more mature series
>plot is more space opera/game of thrones in space akin to Golden Son
>has best boy and most hated villain
It’s just good easy reading. Odd that you prefer Red Rising the most when Golden Son is the probably the peak of the series. That said, the most recent two books are on par with Golden Son for me

Golden Son (b2) > Dark Age (b5) = Lightbringer (b6) (both really good but feel like one book to me) > Iron Gold (b4) > Morning Star (b3) > Red Rising (b1).

Red God which should be released next year is the final one and I have high hopes for it.

>>24617711
edgelord gen-x post-modernist post-ironic nihilism
or sexless female author
take your pick

>>24618607
>Odd that you prefer Red Rising the most
Honestly you're right. I had two paragraphs typed out, then remembered the Eo opener in the first book, and the bodymod arc, which was pretty much just misery to kickstart the story. So I guess the first book wasn't that much better after all. I would still put it way above the third.
I don't know, I just dislike authors going so hard on this forced anti-protagonist misery. It just feels like bad writing. Writers that use overuse that also tend to not really have characters, just plot devices. And I usually like miseryporn a lot. If it is done good, which it isn't here.
It's hard to imagine the books being a game of thrones in space if people are just classic archetypes or straight up exist so the author can advance the story. I mean the jackal, really? He worked in the first book, but later on it was laughable.

>>24618642
I describe it more as game of thrones as there are political factions pulling the characters all over the place in an ongoing war between two large warring parties. There are schemers in both advancing their agendas, undermining major characters and there are houses similar to the major ones in ASOIAF. The Jackal was more of a psychological villain. His entire thing is creeping people out and he’s not a physical one which is a nice foil to Darrow who is a physical character. Miseryporn exists still in the series and I’d argue that it’s more prevalent in the sequel series, but I don’t find it gratuitous specially compared to something like Malazan where it’s just chapter after chapter of torture.

The sequel books also introduces more protagonists outside of Darrow who are more interesting as well. They all suffer in their own way but it’s a world where there is an extreme and violent caste system so it’s not like it’s out of the blue when it happens.

>>24618663
The Jackal was a comic book villain. That is my main problem with him. Give me someone that actually makes sense as a villain.
As I said I don't mind misery if it is done well. Saikano, Eden, Hitsuji no Uta? Kino. I dislike Malazan, but there it was at least everyone suffering the same.
In red rising the author just hypes the main character too much, then has to smash him down somehow, which just feels contrived.

>>24618673
The sequels have better villains.

>>24618673
>Saikano, Eden, Hitsuji no Uta? Kino.
I mean, this here is why many believe that RR discussion should be moved to a containment thread, or out of /lit/ altogether.

>>24618728
Can you try that again in a more coherent way? And who are these "many" you're speaking for, are they in the room with us?

>>24618673
In RR the only POV is Darrow so all the suffering is on him. The sequel books have more POV characters and everyone shares in the misery :)

>>24616660
Not sure. I thought Kel was Ajokli, but then Kellhus and Cnaiur were both Ajokli.

It's time, guys. Give me your cozish autumnal herbal fantasy.

fallbounty.jpg

>>24617787
we read ursula here, anon

I wish Alex Ross made art for fantasy books.

>>24619009
Michael Whelan is as close as we’ll get.

>>24619019
Indeed. I would find a good artist and commission some if I had the cash.

BUUURSAAR

>>24615650 (OP)
name the book

>>24619125
The half of Dune that isn't talking about how dogshit a planet of 90% sand is.

Finished Book of the New Sun and Urth of the New Sun. It was top kino, my favorite part was Sword of the Lictor and Urth.
I want to read all of Wolfe's stuff now.

>>24619125
Every solo penned Wheel of Time book

>>24619125
Chronicles of the Black Company. Almost every book has rape and rape of underage girls as well.

>>24618022
>T. Lee
Assuming you mean Tanith Lee, her most popular book opens with gay quasi-incestuous pederasty in the first chapter. Never dropped a book so instantly in my life. Don't call that putrid trash a "pearl".

>>24617448
women cant write

>>24619125
Gor series

>>24619019
shame it's wasted on such a shit book. SHIT!

>>24616425
It's a solid introduction to what is one of the best post-2000 sff series. Stover's writing quality is up there with the modern greats. Caine's Law in particular is the best experimental narrative I think I've ever read.

I finished the Prose Edda. It was one of those books I was very sure I'd already read because I knew so many of the myths in it, but it turned out I hadn't read it at all. It was interesting and not dry at all. Perhaps the most shocking thing to me was Sturluson claiming descent for his gods/humans-that-became gods (?) from Troy. It's honestly insane and kind of funny, he equated Thor was Hector and made all kinds weird etymological connections that would probably be derided nowadays. Anyway, the stories themselves are fun, it's always interesting to see how people have tried in time to explain the origin of the world, the natural phenomena and so on. The gods themselves feel rather ordinary and I'm not sure whether it's due to whatever Sturluson adapted or whether they really are meant to feel like normal people who happened to gain powers. Intriguing either way. It was also really nice to see the origin of several English words as personified in old Norse deities or concepts.

>>24619334
Peeved

>>24619369
I finished this recently. I have a hunch that the whole Thor is Hector introduction part was only written as a CYA to prevent the Vatican from coming for his ass. It's literally not relevant to the rest of the translation.

>>24619385
Huh, that never even crossed my mind. At one point my translator mentioned that the list of kings/lords in the beginning corresponds to the Anglo-Saxon one, so I figured he lifted the whole Troy aspect from that and applied it to his own mythology. It's all a bit of a mess anyway.

>>24619125
>anything by Jack Chalker
>anything by Piers Anthony
>anything by MZB

>>24619334
yes, catholics are better thinkers than atheist pseudointellectuals

are there any book characters like Robocop

Almost finished with Dark Age, just starting part IV. I am now convinced that by the end of Red God, there will be no named characters left in the series. The epilogue will be a crowd of vaguely described people watching the funeral of the last two named characters who raped each other to death while poisoning each other with the very essence of war crimes condensed down into a liquid.

>>24619791
Would be kino as long as the indistinct crowd starves to death afterward

>>24619798
Of course. It's what they deserve

>>24619791
>reading Dark Age for the first time
>get to that same part
>gotta be a fakeout somehow
>gotta be
>immediately go skim through my Lightbringer copy for a single chapter starting with Ephraim's name
>there's none
>despair
Good times

Any fantasy like pic rel?

>>24619892
Malazan

Just started iron gold, I agree Lysander must die but because he's retarded

>>24619914
You'll get plenty more reasons to think that soon enough

>>24617907
Picrel is the best argument they deserve a shot.

Fucking bizzare, fun ride. Not!LOTR orcs get 'Nam weaponry and USMC memes, with gratuitous sex, all while making fun of SFFG and spiraling down the path of greater scope villains.

Fun book. Never would have believed it was written by a woman, except it says it was.

>>24619963
Rats and Gargoyles, another by her, is also great.

>>24615681
I think the opposite is true. Everything ends up as original because there are too many ways to diverge from the norm. It's a question of how original something is.

If shuffling a deck of cards almost always creates an ordering of cards that has never happened before, then chaining together 50,000 words will do that with certainty.

>>24619646
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?4922

>>24619917
Off topic but I wish this stupid book could just start with a win or two. It's just bleakness for 200 pages so far and it's missing balance.

What are the best multivolume pre-2000 fantasy series? Besides Tolkien and Jordan obviously

>>24620112
The Belgariad and The Mallorean

>>24620118
this and shannara are pretty much THE fantasy stories of the 80s

>>24619125
Drow matriarchy in R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books

>>24620235
I read every book of his that was published before I graduated high school and I never considered that angle.

>>24620249
I started reading them in middle school and turned out they were very relevant to my interests.

Does anyone else vaguely recall some wrestling themed fantasy book where the main character was a preacher of some sort and had to win a wrestling tournament to beat demons or something?
I haven't actually read it, I remember seeing a cover somewhere online and thinking it was a shitpost but now that I think about it I think it's a shitpost I'd like to read.

>>24618528
Islam is barely right about itself , lol

>>24619892
Eisenhorn series

>>24619892
Karl Edward Wagner's Kane series
Dark Sun (Prism Pentad series)

>>24619593
>yes, catholics are better thinkers than atheist pseudointellectuals

Anons, suggest me elven or fae centric books. I'm new to books so suggest even the ones you think I might know (I don't).

>>24620667
Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
War of the Flowers by Tad Williams

>>24620706
I was thinking more of an elf or fae protagonist instead of something that depicts them in negative light. I like elves...

>>24620667
The King of Elfland's Daughter, The Silmarillion, Thomas the Rhymer

>>24620667
A Court of Thorns and Roses

>>24620812
You shouldn't. Elves are the worst. THE WORST.

>>24615650 (OP)
What site you use for download books

>>24620341
Ok Shlomo.

>>24620840
Amazon.com

I knew going in that His Secret Illumination would have a BDSM / muscled sugar mommy focus but hot damn the protagonist is more of a sub than Stockton Rush ever managed to create.

>>24616315
>telegraphed with all subtelty of a monster truck show
That's a great simile. Definitely going in my novel.

>>24620840
I dont download books. I buy them and read them off printed paper. Because I'm not a faggot.

>>24620667
Bernhard Hennen wrote an elven-centred superseries (a couple of subseries, ~20 thick books), but it is mainly in German

The first book
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25581147-the-elven

>>24620840
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_library

>>24618382
>>24618365
Hmm you seem kinda defensive

Unironically how pozzed is red rising? I really wanna get into it

>>24621037
What is pozzed to you because it’s a schizo buzzword. There’s a gay character in the series who is incredibly based. There are women who fuck up. It has a white blonde male x white blonde female romance. If you live in a shitty pozz mindset you’ll enjoy nothing

Horse

>>24621037
It has women in it so it's automatically terminally pozzed

>>24621057
Young attractive women are the opposite of pozzed

>>24621063
Did you take up the offer?

>>24621037
Some gay characters. The only gay POV character lost his significant other before his story sets in. There's only one explicit sex scene in the series and it's female on male rape

>>24621048
Victra best girl

>>24621221
>There's only one explicit sex scene in the series and it's female on male rape
I don't remember that at all

>>24621273
Lysander and Atalantia

harem fantasy rec where the harem are useful, do something beyond appealing to the male gaze, and have goals and conflicts of their own?

>>24621325
If your okay with absolute slop:
Dungeon Diving 101's harem is pretty divers while most of them feel like actual characters. Bonus points for a decent number of the cast actually leaving the harem from time to time to follow their own plans.
De'vas chronicles smaller harem and their mostly just background fighter but their personalities are decently written and interact well
Mob Sorcery... okay basically all the characters are just 'animal but a sexy woman that will shank you' but the harpy is a complete bitch and I'm here for it.

>>24619963
Really loved that book as a teen, and it's the book I re-read the most (like, 10 times or so). Once I finished it I even restarted to read it. Fun times.


Barashkukor best orc

>>24617325
It was a really bizarre feeling to look up character art to see how other people visualize them and seeing a bunch of nappy haired mulattos on the """official""" wiki. Like lmfao, it's not 2014 anymore, these fags are out of touch.
This Darrow's pretty good, at least.

>>24621398
It’s the self inserts who need to make everyone black and brown cause they are, whilst completely ignoring a lot of the already black and brown characters in the universe. This is official art of Mustang and she looks the opposite of every shitty fan art out there aka white.

>>24619449
Wolfe mogs your favorite sff author ngl brotatoe.

>>24621325
Blood & Fur. no furries included, though one girl can shapeshift into a giant wolf

>>24621454
No he doesn't
The authors he takes from are far better than Wolfe himself

>>24621352
dungeon diving 101 is doodoo like all of bruce sentar's output, though I'll admit not getting far enough to actually see more than two obvious heroines
haven't read de'vas
Mob Sorcery never shows the mob actually doing anything, after three "books" absolutely fuckall has happened to advance the plot, and there's one (1) scene of "conflict" which is just about which of the beastgirls fucks the MC harder

>>24621043
> There’s a gay character in the series
Dropped.

>>24617046
Yes. Deadly Education is superb. However it is also romantasy from a woman's POV, just fyi

>>24617049
Yep. It's an industry like any other, and risk-taking rarely makes lots of money. My current plan is to shit out some cozy-mysteries, score an agent, then slowly start to transition towards more original stuff once I'm a proven earner.

>>24617448
It's fine. Those names are dogshit though, single-syllable names need to have a closed vowel, like Bob, or Pat. Rob. Sam. In point of fact I defy you to think of one real-world common single-syllable name that has an open vowel sound

>>24621783
Beau, Dee, Flo, Lou, Sue... Joy, maybe, I can't be fucked to remember the rules around the y being a vowel or not.

>>24621898
Y can function as a vowel or a consonant, depending on the word. With "Joy" it is a consonant.
Bo, Lou, and Sue are good ones, though I notice they're all abbreviations of longer names.

>>24621766
>El’s father is a Marathi-speaker from Mumbai, but El has no personal connection to Indian culture. Her father’s family prophesied that El would be a destroyer, and other than that rejection El has nothing to say about India or half of her culture.
>Making El biracial seems like an afterthought, not something that affects her character in any way. It just creates some truly unfortunate optics, like when El goes on a three-paragraph description of how unnecessary she finds showers and how dirty she is at any given time.
>All this adds up to a character (and a world), that reads as nothing so much as colonial. El feasts on the languages of others for her own edification, power, and survival, but she doesn’t see her classmates as people, and she doesn’t see language as a living thing related to real cultures.
>Other cultures and peoples exist, but only to serve the aims and needs of white (or mostly white-coded) characters. Novik has no empathy, no care and apparently no ability to Google anything about the cultures she wants to draw on.

This one star review makes it sound either unintentionally hilarious or like a veiled fuck you to diversity quotas, is the story at least interesting though?

>>24621929
It definitely feels like a diversity-quota thing to make her half-indian, yeah, but it works its way into the story sorta-well in the third book.
I enjoyed it a lot. It's like the anime Kill La Kill, it is simultaneously a parody of the genre and an exemplar of the genre, in this case the genre being wizard schools. Elphaba is a broody loner nerd who has special mary-sue OP powers and is destined to destroy the world, but she's very droll about it.
The coolest part by far is the setting. Magical hell-monsters infest the world and love to eat wizard children, so they finally built an automated highschool in the void where they can learn to be wizards or die trying, which brought the wizard-infant-mortality rate from 90% down to like 50%.
I'm not exactly a high-brow intellectual (that's why I post in sffg!) but I couldn't put it down.

>>24621929
also this review is just some hyperliberal doing mental gymnastics to make Novik out as a racist, fuck we doin here

I liked empire of silence
But man, will this series be just a long loop of making decisions that will eventually blow in his face for Hadrian?
I got this misery porn loop vibe in this first book

>>24621325
Give a try at Mike Truk.

>>24622013
For me it's the Road of Kings poem

>When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat;
>The people scattered gold-dust before my horse’s feet;
>But now I am a great king, the people hound my track
>With poison in my wine-cup, and daggers at my back.

>Gleaming shell of an outworn lie; fable of Right divine -
>You gained your crowns by heritage, but Blood was the price of mine.
>The throne that I won by blood and sweat, by Crom, I will not sell
>For promise of valleys filled with gold, or threat of the Halls of Hell!

>What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
>I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.
>The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;
>Rush in and die, dogs - I was a man before I was a king.

Phoenix on the Sword is such an incredible introduction to Conan that I pity anyone who starts with another story.

>>24622008
It's a fundamentally bittersweet story. From page one we know that Hadrian ultimately wins (or at least achieves his objective) but loses a lot--of himself, of his friends and family--in the process. For the most part it gets weightier and more compelling as the series goes on.

>>24622064
Oh yeah I definitely noticed what the writer did here.
Since we already know hadrian succeeds by some degree, even if he lost the things he loved in the process, the author is free to throw shit at him and it becomes more about the journey than the destination

books where the main character is a bungler, shirks honing his abilities, wastes his potential and power, but figures out practical ways to defeat enemies

I finished The Twenty Days of Turin. While at its heart it's a metaphor about the post WW2 years in Italy, it can be easily read with no historical knowledge. Very atmospheric and unsettling.
It's basically about a man who wants to write a book about the twenty days of mass psychosis/insomnia punctuated by gruesome murders that took place in Turin ten years back and that nearly no one wants to talk about. What he unearths from various witnesses is very creepy (this is where the fantastic part kicks in) and not as over as he had thought. The air of the city itself gets more and more oppressive and heavy and the protagonist starts having one strange encounter after another, while the final chapter downright feels like a fever dream, in and out of the story.

>>24620133
>how fantasy died in the 1980s

>>24622053
>Phoenix on the Sword is such an incredible introduction to Conan that I pity anyone who starts with another story.

>find https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?258410 in a second hand shop, like new
>it has no index
>there's no "Phoenix on the Sword"
I'm still mad.

>>24622024
Surprisingly passable fantasy schlock for smut. Shame it seems he's on hiatus.

>>24622294
Yeah, he started doing some non-smut western cultivation/progression/level crap now.
I couldn't manage to finish the first book, and the problem is that his protagonists were more interesting than the non-smut one. Also, the setting is probably one of the worst I've ever seen, even chinkshit and koreanslop are miles better.
Which is really puzzling, considering I loved the settings of the smut ones...

>>24622361
>Yeah, he started doing some non-smut western cultivation/progression/level crap now.
Really? I don't see anything on kindle other than his smut stuff.

>>24622361
What psuedo name is he using for that?

FYI

Because I have noticed there is a lot of bad taste and misinformation in the community

Blindsight is very overrated and not an "intellectual book"

Starfish is Peter Watts's masterpiece

Chronicles of Amber sucks dick and Zelazny wrote it cynically for money

Zelazny has some good stuff though like Lord of Light

Jack Vance and Poul Anderson are the best /sffg/ authors and don't get talked about enough

Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Malazan are works of genius BUT Mieville and Erikson are turboshitlibs and the books do have retarded stuff in them

Jeff Vandermeer sucks; he is a turboshitlib like those guys but his books have no redeeming qualities

Maybe I need to make an infographic because a lot of the ones in that mega link are stupid as fuck

>>24621403
>>24621398

Been a long white since I read, what are the various colors described as looking like again? The only thing I recall for sure is that Obsidians are extremely pale, and golds have gold hair.

>>24622383
>>24622385
He's using his real name, since he doesn't want to be associated with his smut writings. Which is stupid, considering they're much better than the non-smut ones.

>>24622431
Are you being intentionally obtuse? Just give us the name.

So I'm 30 chapters into Empire of Silence, and an issue I'm having is that the MC really doesn't do much of note. Like I get it, he goes from being a prince type whose life is controlled by the whims of his father, to being homeless and helpless.

And I get the vision, this section of the story is supposed to highlight his lack of power and agency to contrast with his eventual rise. But it still doesn't make up for how it feels that in 30 chapters he has only made a single impacful decision and everything else has either happened to him or been inflicted on him.

>>24622438
nta
Michael A. Cox
Probably anyway

>>24622438
The name of the first book is Bastion.

>>24622389
I thought Erikson was some kind of libertarian

>>24622483
>>24622483
He's a big lib/socialist. If you can tolerate that, then you'll love Malazan.

>>24615650 (OP)
Can you write fantasy for males now or should you just write women getting dicked by (monster of the week)?

>>24622550
you sure can make write fantasy for males but if you want to make fuck all money from it you'll have to serialize it on webslop

Does anyone have a chart with a list of classic fantasy essentials? I went through the mega and there isn't really anything comprehensive

>>24622586
The Dying Earth
Lyonesse
The Broken Sword
Three Hearts and Three Lions
The Wizard Knight
The Shadow of the Torturer
Fafrd and the Gray Mouser
Conan the Barbarian

off the top of my head

>>24622455
It's probably as pronounced as it is because of the book's troubled editorial process. I've heard Ruocchio talk about having an editor quit on him and the book doubling in length relative to the manuscript he initially sold.
It's really a shame. I liked Empire of Silence well enough to continue reading the series but it's perhaps the weakest installment, which turns off some readers who'd probably enjoy Howling Dark onward

>>24622625
In that case, I'll stick with it, it does feel like a book that got stretched out, but I'm used to liking series where the first book isn't the best.

>>24622586
See >>24620118

>>24622389
>Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Malazan are works of genius

Rats and Gargoyles, Viriconium and The Iron Dragon's Daughter are much better than those.

>>24622389
I also really enjoyed Starfish and it's one of my favorite novels of all time.
I also like the next two books but only because of Starfish.

Reading WoT while not having the tiniest exposure to the TV show aside from the fact that the chick from Gone Girl was playing Moraine has been an interesting experience.

You read about these characters and then see who they chose to play them in the show and you almost can't believe your eyes. Like what do you mean that's Siuane Sanche? There's not a single quality shared between the character on the page and the actress they chose.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5AeC7eGAjjQ

When it cut to who she was motioning to I just bust out laughing

>>24621048
UMA MUSUME?

>>24619853
I remember when the senate scene happened, I skimmed through the entire rest of the book to see if virginia survived.

>>24622603
How is The Wizard Knight "classic fantasy"? It's from THIS millennium

>>24622931
anything written by Gene Wolfe automatically qualifies as classic.

>>24622942
A lot of his later books are lame though

any xianxia focusing on sibling relationships or friendship?

>>24622990
uh I guess Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, there's a focus on raising a legion of randos up the various realms

Anyone noticed how similar the slog of slogs in the Second Apocalypse is in comparison to Blood Meridian?
>thinking sffags will read anything else than sff
>thinking people are not filtered by Bakker

>>24623158
Literally everyone has read Blood Meridian. It's the most mainstream, most normie book imaginable. You are not special for knowing Cormac McCarhty, an author with multiple Hollywood movie adaptations of his work. Sit down and be humble.

I'll let /lit/ decide the on order in which I read my latest book haul; currently already reading The Stars My Destination (2/3 through) as first pick and like it a lot, it genuinely feels like a cyberpunk-ish retelling of Count of Monte Christo, and I like Bester's writing and sardonic wit.

The rest of the haul includes: Blood Music (Bear), Inverted World (Priest), Ice (Kavan), House of Suns (Reynolds), High-Rise (Ballard), Stories of Your Life and Others (Chiang); plus a couple more, but mainly interested in the ones listed

>>24623248
I've seen the movie adaptation of High-Rise, so I'd go for Ballard next. Crazy shit.

>>24622942
>>24622603
>wolfe
>classic
LOL
see >>24619334 >>24619449

>>24623293
Filtered

Kept going with Coldfire, everyone says the ending is worth is but man... it's such a slog. I like the world building and it has interesting characters but by God the whole 'Quest' part of it is so mind numbing. It's just, walk in this general direction, get on a boat for a while, then keep walking in the direction of some vague evil we need to defeat.

>>24623293
>heh this meme totally proves me right
Holy filtered

>>24623430
Who is this "everyone" and where are they from?

>>24622625
I got the impression that the author got a lot better.. .at being an author by the 2nd book
Didn't know that the 1st book had editor problems, that explains so much

>>24622659
Howling Dark so good, and by far the most interesting book in the series. Setting was so mysterious and exciting.

Man, I really like the series. Even if it's a bit "samey" in middle with the space military parts. That maaaybe book 3 and 4 (or is it 4 and 5?) could be condensed to 1 book.
My very favorite parts are the political intrigue stuff + giga despair and overcoming it

Just finished The Warrior Prophet and the end "battle" pissed me off. The Men of the Tusk, while emaciated and starving, manage to defeat a force three times their size due to singing songs? The Fanim even had elephants ffs. Bad writing.

>>24619125
Erikson really loves them chubby.

>>24622749
>>24622749
Thank you for the recs my man. To clarify what you’re saying, are these libtard books that are nonetheless impressive, or are they just good books full stop?

>>24622752
Thanks man. He does the biter abused woman thing so much better than Jeff Vandermeer. Lenie is an interesting and likeable protagonist. The woman in the Annihilation books is just a terminally depressed cunt for no reason.

>>24623321
>>24623435
Filtered by literal pulp stories from the 1930s, typical wolfefags

>>24615653
And..?
Are you suggesting I need to do start doing anything differently in light of your perception of these alleged flaws in the genre? Or am I free to disregard and continue reading?

>>24615825
You don't need an intro to Wolfe. If you aren't diving right in and suffering for it, you aren't reading him right.

>>24623293
No one who even thinks of saving basedjaks to his harddrive, let alone posting one, ever has an opinion I need to waste time considering.

>>24622990
>chinese people
>friendship

>>24623553
Tattersail brain’d life that.

>>24615650 (OP)
>mfw The Twenty-One Second God still hasn't been added to Good Reads
I miss the days when users could add shit on their own.

>>24623560
>are these libtard books that are nonetheless impressive, or are they just good books full stop?

They are good books full stop, don't know about any of the authors politics.

>>24623560
>Lenie is an interesting and likeable protagonist.
I agree, I don't understand why people hate her character. Not from Starfish, but from book three, I enjoyed the "friendship" between her and the deuteragonist, they are both kind of socially retarded and constantly misunderstand each other's real personalities.

>>24620332
>HEAVEN VS HELL, LIVE ON PAY-PER VIEW!
After a demonic possession at the biggest wrestling show of the year, the Vatican sends exorcist Gabriel Blackwell to infiltrate the company, pose as a wrestler, and expel the demon. Blackwell has a complicated history with the wrestling business and must adapt or die, fighting for his soul on Pay-Per-View.
>Vatican Championship Wrestling is a fast paced pulp novel with non-stop action! An all-out battle between good and evil with the squared-circle as the stage!

>>24623697
That not the WN I was referring to, you absolute stupid fuck.

Any good books about exploring ancient ruins and/or caverns?

>>24623710
That doesn't seem sustainable at novel length except for horror.

>>24623731
I imagine it would require in-depth and genuinely interesting worldbuilding to make the ruins of ancient civilizations entertaining enough for the reader to stick with the exploration for a whole book, but it could be done, if only for a niche audience.

deepseek is so shitty when asking recommendations, it either gives you made-up names or mixes author names
also, for some reason, it thinks we're still living in 2024

>>24623710
I just finished Dragon Age: The Calling, which mostly takes place in an ancient ruin (The Deep Roads). So it can be done.

>>24623818
I enjoyed that book and 2bh the early dragon age books and games were good. It’s a shame what happened. I still find it funny that the cure for the dark spawn taint seems to be theirin cum

Fuck, he is good.

>>24623870
Yes. Patiently waiting for Splintered Sun.
Silently praying for more Bobby Dollar

>>24622389
Starfish was really nice. I didn't really like the sequels, but thinking about it that was probably because I wanted more of the first and was disappointed they were their own thing.
Also I took a quick look at the goodreads page and I expected a lot more outrage than there was. With Watts practically pairing rapebait with rapists

>>24623766
Because it's been trained on data from mostly 2023 and before, and just a bit of 2024. That's it until a new version comes out, and even then it will be behind in time. And is dipsy really the best for something like that? Just use claude, gpt or even gemini pro.

>>24623832
I wish David Gaydar had just stuck to writing Dragon Age novels and it had spun off to be its own setting, like Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance, rather than just centering around the video games.
>>24623870
Guess it's time to start. I've got Shadowplay and Otherland. Which one is best to begin with?

>>24622550
nothing stops you from doing both
in fact, that's what I'm doing right now: male high fantasy where the mc fraternizes, romances, and eventually lies with a monster girl

I just finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, a brief review follows:
Pros
>funny writing style
>interesting enough to get through all of it
>mysterious enough depictions of magic
Cons
>alt-histort was hardly alternative at all
>magic was not grand enough despite gesturing at it
>overall felt small in scope despite involving both the Napoleonic wars and the idea of magic returning to the world mostly due to its personal focus on the two protagonists
Can I get some recommendations which have the same mysterious edge to magic, but which are a bit more grand in scope?

>>24623892
The premise of Splintered Sun isn't really grabbing me right now, for some reason, but I trust Tad to deliver something from the heart. Are you excited for what it's about or is it simply you enjoying a return to Osten Ard?

>>24623933
I haven't read either, though, I'd like to start Otherland this year. The classic to start with is Memory, Sorrow & Thorn but if you wanna pick between those two you gave, I'd wager on the Shadowmarch series as I've heard good things about it. If you want a standalone, my personal rec is War of the Flowers.

>>24624040
>Are you excited for what it's about or is it simply you enjoying a return to Osten Ard?
I'm excited for the next Tad Williams book, whatever it is. He's written a lot but his style reads so breezily you soon run out.

>>24623933
Depends if you want fantasy (Shadowmarch) or scifi (Otherland)

>>24624051
Fair enough. It's also the reason why I'm picking it up anyways, too.

>>24624082
>read summary and skip to a Mat or Nynaeve chapter

>>24623757
I agree.
There's a considerable amount of short fiction that does this.

>>24624193
Examples?

>>24624205
Like half of the works by Clark Ashton Smith are about that.

>>24624205
Naudsonce - H. Beam Piper

>>24624205
Omnilingual - H. Beam Piper

started reading the name of the wind
>summery is about a dude doing cool shit
>then why are we just following a bartender?
>oh he's the guy
>and he is just retelling his life story
>comfy childhood
>suddenly trauma and beggar life
better get back to the cool shit soon, i don't need more depression

>>24624370
I'm sorry anon but there is no cool shit
At all
Kvothe never does the cool shit
It was all lies (by Rothfuss and his marketers)

>>24624082
>"muh faile!!!"
>"dont kill the tar valon witches that just tortured you, rand!!!"
>"no sexy big tiddy queen with insane diplomatic capability get away from me AAAAAAAHHHH"
matt and rand clear that fraud

>>24624390
damnit, but will the depressing shit end soon tho?

>>24623933
They're both good but Shadowplay is better.

>>24623710
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenoarchaeology

>>24624457
No, it's only going to get worse once he falls in love with a prostitute and gets endlessly cucked. Someone else surely has the page saved and will post it...

>>24624513
That isn't what cuckolding means.

>>24624025
The Dragon Waiting, sort of.

>>24624420
100%. I think Perrin had the potential of being the slow oafish character that slowly became truly powerful but after Faile came into the picture, holy shit.

Heckin frick he is good.

>>24624782
It's like she only exists as a character to make perrin worse

>>24623905
I haven’t even gotten around to reading more than half of the second book. It wasn’t even bad, I just missed the underwater stuff.

Blindsight is a nice book but way overrated and the philosophy is retarded. “Dude like what if instead of thinking…you just had an extremely complicated flowchart of instructions that turns inputs to outputs…like exactly how a computer works…how fucking out there and terrifying is that…like what even is consciousness”

^bookpilled on youtube said this was the most profound philosophy that he had ever read in any book

Do not research The Perdido Street Station Bird Rape Incident.

>>24624868
Don't worry anon, I have no intentions of doing so.

>>24622990
people unironically ask recomendations based on tropes now
i noticed that
when did this change occur?

>>24624876
Probably autism.

>>24624876
It’s super weird and cringe. I will read the best stuff regardless of genre. Just tell me what the good shit is, but if it’s good shit and has futanari I’m kinda in the mood for that though.

>>24624876
I think it happened with the normalisation of fandom therefore fanfiction which led to people looking for more of what they enjoyed under the guise of tropes and regardless of the actual content and quality.

>>24623248
Chiang is really good, though none of the stories are connected, so consider reading them as palate cleansers between books
His Exhalation is also great

>>24624883
When does futanari matter except in sex scenes?

Apparently putting a lot of quotes makes it think that this is all spam.
>>24616943
>>24623599
>>24617006
>>24618954
>>24619646
>>24622209
>>24622990
These are some of the examples of what this anon mentioned, in this very thread. I had to delete a lot of them.
>>24624876

It's an interesting change, and I have my own theories on the matter. I won't be elaborating. In summary: byproduct of tag systems

I think the reason I can't get into empire of silence is because I'm a faggot that listens to audio books and the narrator fucking sucks.

>>24624876
Don't wanna waste my time on shit that doesn't interest me. It's why romance novels advertise themselves based on the ending.

>>24624876
>asking based on tropes results in a higher probability of finding a good book for you
Wow, who would've guessed? If I asked for Chinese Fantasy recommendations, 9 out of 10 would be harem slop with rape or something I've read already

>>24625080
I like xianxia but have to check each story first to see if it's haremcuckshit. Sad!

It's kinda ironic how the dumbest people are on the literature board

>>24625106
No, it's just more evident that they are.

Are there any good books about WW2, Nazis, Hitler, and his fascination with the occult?

>>24625125
The Keep by Paul Wilson

>>24624104
I'm only on The Great Hunt right now and prefer Perrin to Mat. I guess the latter gets better after he isn't so sickly all the time

I don't care for Perrin

>>24617749
Not totally adverse to mc suffering: it probably speaks to something unworthy in me, but I quite enjoy it sometimes tbqh (e.g. the chap in the JV Jones books who gets tortured a bunch; the mc in the Tokyo ghoul books). Fine on some level with fitz getting eaten by worms but not interested in Bee as replacement mc, not happy with Fitz's hard one ending getting thrown away (domestic life, peace, happiness with Molly), and was v put out by the Fool stuff; seemed like have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too pandering to fujos. Will not be revisiting

>>24625171
Mat doesn't really become Mat until book 3

>>24625240
Man, I had all but forgot Matt spends book 2 being Gollum

>>24625171
Yes. Perrin becomes this mopey dweeb who is inexplicably liked by not one, but two powerful women for some reason; Mat, on the other hand, becomes a kind of freewheeling rogue whose hijinks become more and more fun as each book goes on. Mat is the dude getting all the boys together to hit up the bars on Saturday night and Perrin is the guy saying he can't come because his wife won't let him.

>>24621325
Mage Breaker a gritty after the war story with a neo-noir feeling, very good book.
Bedlam
Feral Mage which is by the same author of De'vas Chronicles which was mentioned earlier.

Has anyone here read Warlock by Daniel Kensington?

>>24625363
>Has anyone here read Warlock by Daniel Kensington?
I have and I liked it. The girls are fun and he does a good job giving them plenty of characterization beyond being a new hole to fill. I haven't read any other wizard school smut to compare it to though. I read the third book on his patreon and it's almost completely slice of life about their time at the school (very little time spent on the overarching plots brought up in the previous books, but still some meaningful stuff there) which might appeal to some and turn off others so I'm looking forward to seeing how it's received when it releases.

>>24625534
>almost completely slice of life about their time at the school
I should clarify that it's not full of chapters about wizard school class work and in fact that gets glossed over a lot. Instead it's a lot of character work and interactions to show how women who previously hated each other learn to get along and adjust to their new circumstances, which I personally enjoyed.

>>24624104
>Mat or Nynaeve chapter
Turbo based.

>>24624546
What would you call it?

>>24615650 (OP)
new thread for fellow bonobonos
>>24626025

>>24624864
>“Dude like what if instead of thinking…you just had an extremely complicated flowchart of instructions that turns inputs to outputs…like exactly how a computer works…how fucking out there and terrifying is that…like what even is consciousness”
>t. philosophical zombie
bro, do you even are