Thread 24796095

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

>Archive:
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>Goodreads:
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>Previous:
>> 24779834

>Thread Question: Did you forget that the next Black Company novel starring the raped witches and Croaker’s son will be out November 4th?

>>24796095 (OP)
>>24779834

Suneater gets better after the first book, right? It's taking me a long time to get through it.

Two more Wolfe short story reviews:
'Lord of the Land'
This one is just a solid horror story. There is decent characterization and good suspense once we move past the opening scene with the old man. As with many Gene Wolfe stories, once you go back to the beginning, you can definitely see little clues to different things littered throughout. I liked that it was actually a lovecraftian creature from space. I think that adds a whole interesting dimension to it, and it is fun to speculate as to what being a part of the soul sucker entails. I also learned after reading it that the main character shows up in three other short stories that Gene Wolfe wrote. I would not have expected that from Wolfe. I will have to get around to them. It is not in my favorite short stories from Wolfe by any means, but it is a solidly crafted and enjoyable story at the end of the day.

'Josh'
This one was a real stumper. There has been some discussion recently on it, but I don't think there has been a real answer to the mysteries of this story. I have proposed some theories and threads that hint at certain things, but I think what is important is that this story was intriguing and eerie throughout, despite much of it not being resolved. And instead of proposing my theories again, I thought I would ask if anyone else here has any interesting ideas about this story.

>>24796647
>'Lord of the Land'
I will also say that this story shares a similar format to Many Mansions, because in each there is a story told outside a house, and then once the house is entered by the guest, it is revealed that the story is really relevant to what is going inside in the house. In 'Lord of the Land', the focus is more on what is inside the house, while in 'Many Mansions', the focus is on the stories told outside the house.

>>24796095 (OP)
actually good sff:
>The Time Machine
>Conan
>The Hobbit
>Titus Groan
>The Broken Sword
>The End of Eternity
>The Stars My Destination
>Solaris
>The Dragon Masters
>Dune
>Lord of Light
>A Wizard of Earthsea
>The Knight of the Swords
>Swords and Deviltry
>The Forever War
>The Deathbird
>The Deep
>Blind Voices
>Sandkings
>The Shadow of the Torturer
>Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
>Fevre Dream
>Neuromancer
>Bridge of Birds
>Ender's Game
>Berserk
>Assassin's Apprentice
>A Game of Thrones
>The Darkness That Comes Before
>Black Leopard, Red Wolf
>Lovecraft
>Borges
>Dick

>>24796095 (OP)
not just one, but two fuckups in the op

>>24796750
BLACKED Company image and what's the other one?

>>24796095 (OP)
>sisters who got raped by the company when they joined are now its leaders
I'm afraid cook may have lost his mind. if this shit took him five years or longer to write we may get the worst STRONK FEMALE CHARACTER types. then again, I can't blame the horny guys.

bros the webnovel general is making fun of us again...

>>24797025
I'm also making fun of you in the pulp general

>>24797025
>>24797030
THIS WILL NOT STAND

Red God will save /sffg/

>>24797025
we strayed away from the light of Bakker and into the darkness of YA slop

>>24797025
It doesn't exactly help that most /sffg/ posters just post in /wng/ now...

>>24796981
>sisters who got raped by the company when they joined are now its leaders
Almost every member was killed at the end of the last book. They're basically senior members by virtue of being alive.

>>24796095 (OP)
Eifelheim - Michael Flynn (2006)

Eifelheim is a peculiar novel. Ostensibly it's science fiction, though it reads more like historical fiction that reveals a forgotten history which has been obscured through the centuries due to fear and ignorance. The original novella was published in a 1986 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact and is the "Now" chapters. The novel was published in 2006. This 20 year gap between between writing the two perspectives is only one of the many noticeable differences, despite the novella's text having been updated and expanded.

In 1348, the story follows the life of Pastor Dietrich in the town of Oberhochwald, which would now be located in the Schwarzwald, Black Forest, of Germany. The narrative begins with the arrival of the beings, not aliens, as that word is antithetical to its themes. In demonstration of how catholic (all-inclusive) they are, their presence is tolerated, if not necessarily accepted. So goes then the lives of these two very different groups of people.

For many works of first contact, the event itself is very dramatic and sensational, with both sides being aware of the significance of what's happening. Eifelheim takes a different approach. Everything is presented in a naturalistic manner, so there's no real plot. If the beings had never arrived, there wouldn't be all that much difference. There's a sort of imposed mundanity to the writing, perhaps to allow for what happens to seem more authentic. Much is done for it to be more like a recounting of events than a fictional tale.

The story also takes place "Now", in which Tom is a cliologist trying to resolve an anomaly, Eifelheim, in his modeling. Sharon is a physicist trying to develop a new cosmological theory. They live together in an unconventional manner.

Aside from being the life and times of a 14th century European village during the Black Plague, there's a heavy emphasis on religious matters. The humans and beings find each other mutually incomprehensible, as the humans cannot understand science, and the beings cannot understand religion. This causes mistrust and misunderstandings, though necessity mitigates much. In the "Now", the confrontation is between sciences, which are reluctant to engage in interdisciplinary cooperation, thus stagnating progress and forestalling discoveries.

Depending on the reader, both may seem impenetrable. The past has its cultural differences, religious worldview, and naturalism, while the the present is laden with detailed scientific discussions and passages interspersed with 9 languages. Many readers seem unable to reconcile the two and greatly prefer one over the other, which is the meta-conflict.

My rating is for enjoyment and appreciation. The latter being more than the former. I believe that differences between then and now are less than many want to believe. Technological and social progression are two entirely separate continuum.

Rating: 3.5/5

This was chosen by the 1st round winner.

Really not feeling Verne, he feels dry and autistic but in a bad way.
Finished Journey to the Centre of the Earth and I'm 5 chapters into 20,000 Leagues and it's just not gripping me

>>24796503
It gets very different
First book is the odd one out. (Even if *I* really liked the first book)
2nd book is my favorite in the series, gets into space a bit more - ramps up the SCIfi elements, moves away from the planet bound gladiator stuff
really nails a spooky creepy planet location

>>24796503
Yes. I didn't dislike EoS but Howling Dark is incredible and Demon in White is somehow even better. Rest of the series is at least Howling Dark-tier.
I recommend the novellas as well. Queen Amid Ashes is great if you want more smaller-scale human-Cielcin conflict.

>>24797040
This but also Shadows Upon Time

>>24796503
I read Empire of Silence years ago and came away feeling like it was the Kingkiller Chronicles in space. That first impression has not left me wanting to read more of the Sun Eater books, even though the first one wasn't bad.

>>24797384
Try Howling Dark. EoS' sequels expand the world a great deal and the story takes on a bigger, darker tone.

>>24796095 (OP)
This started off interesting, but it is devolving into a shitty movie script which tries to smash King Arthur and World of Warcraft together (despite the latter not existing when it was written). I'll most likely finish it, but I need a break from the nauseating campiness and fast pacing of it all. Before picking this up I remember reading some people claim that this was overshadowed by LoTR, and had it come out first it would've had a similar impact, and to that I say they had to be smoking fucking crack. The quality of writing is worlds apart, granted Poul still writes better than every homo author of the day.

I finished Neuropath. The Argument remains undisproven.

I literally would not give a single shit if Sevro died. I do not understand the audience fascination with him. Cassius is a much better character.

anyone read larry correias new book yet?
not sure i fancy mistborn meets guardians of the galaxy

>Glen Cook lies weeping
What happened to him?

>>24797475
Its not as good as LOTR, but its better than anything written in the past 25 years.

Reminder to buy books you enjoy by authors you like :D

>>24796095 (OP)
Is black company good
It's on humble bundle right now
Is it reddit and pozzed?

>>24797650
My favorite authors are dead...

>>24797657
I have no idea what reddit or pozzed even mean, but Black Company is good. If you like Joe Abercrombie or Steven Erickson, Glen Cook's Black Company is one of their bigger inspirations for morally grey military fantasy.

THE WIZARD

>>24796095 (OP)
anyone have recommendations for odd, off kilter, strange, unusual, or generally weird sci-fi/fantasy? staff that wll make say "WOW! now THAT was different." early scifi, paranormal, or fantasy that doesn't fit the cookiecutter wish fulfillment YA adventure mold. its ok if its not a literary masterpiece as long as its distinctly..... peculiar..

>>24797672
Why is Abercrombie listed next to actually good authors who know how to world build and also how to write military fiction? Abercrombie is a 70 IQ retard next to Cook or Erickson.

>>24797687
Perdido Street Station and The Scar

>>24797672
>If you like Joe Abercrombie or Steven Erickson
What if I don't? Huh, motherfucker? What if I don't like them? Am I supposed to just go fuck myself?

Theres a lot of anger and hostility in this thread

>>24797672
>I have no idea what reddit or pozzed even mean
Then your opinion can't be taken seriously

>>24797717
Welcome to /sffg/

>>24797657
>Is black company good
Not really, but it's not aggressively bad either.

>Is it reddit and pozzed?
It's very reddit, but also kinda not pozzed. It's like, edgy reddit.

>>24797687
>odd, off kilter, strange, unusual, or generally weird sci-fi/fantasy?
Obligatory
LEM
@
PKD

Also Strugatsky brothers.

>>24797684
I'll teach you magic, but first, you gotta suck my dick

>>24797785
Edgy reddit makes me think of that tranny who made a game where he kills "terfs" so basically a game where a man kills exclusively women and is considered progressive for it

>>24797717
Welcome to 4ch

>>24797831
Nah, it's not like that.

It's more like a novel adaptation of a Critical Role campaign where everyone decided to draft Chaotic Neutral Shadow the Hedgeheg derivatives, and also Vietnam. It's dork reddit, not political reddit.

>>24797839
How woke is Critical Role? I've never watched/listened to it.

>>24797839
There are literally Critical Role novels.

>>24797691
It is because The First Law Series/World is considered to be good. His YA series and The Devils is very shit though.

>>24797156
You post your reviews anywhere else like on Goodreads?

>>24797156
your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF

>>24798026
Yes, they're on Goodreads. I'm the founder of the Goodreads group in the OP.

>>24798026
>>24798071
>>24797156
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=416327

>>24798048
>I hate your reviews of SFF books! Let's talk about what books are pozzed and reddit instead.

Fucking retard

>>24798071
Based Yev. I didn't realize.

>>24798151
>Fucking retard
I'm not the one reviewing pozzed books, retard
Our resident reviewer hates based old fantasy and reads pozzed books, newfag

>Ewgene tries to embarrass Rand with a tale of his childhood, he treats it as a fond memory and shares an embarassing tale of her that makes her instantly get mad.
>Starts bitching inside her head about Rand acting full of himself now that he is the ruler of Tear and trying to put the lords in their places when he was just a sheepherder when a good chunk of the previous book had miss former innkeeper's daughter getting pissed at people for treating her like a normal person while she was under disguise instead of bowing their heads for the accepted pretending to be full As Sedai.
It's amazing how she keeps getting worse. It feels like half of her character is talking shit about Mat, Nynaeve, Rand and Perrin and trying to drag them through the mud.
It was quite funny to see her get reality checked by Rand casually manhandling her and Elayne at the same time after letting her head get so inflated that she really believe that the dragon reborn might only be as powerful as her. Not even the other way around, the reincarnation of the most powerful channeller to ever live and the guy destined to destroy to world might just barely be as strong as someone going 3 for 3 on playing the damsel in distress during the climax of the books.

Man, I need something more like Hyperion
I love me some literary references

>>24797657
>Is black company good
No. The first trilogy peaks in book 2 and its just okay.

>>24798263
Egwene is genuinely delusional

>>24798151
"Reviews are shit" newfag has been shitposting for over 3 years. His favorite author is Lord Dunsany.

>>24798239
>reviewing pozzed books
>he doesn't like the books I like
>calls everyone a newfag that disagrees

Holy shit, you're retarded. If you sperg out over any review of new fantasy books, why are you even here? Go make old/classic /sffg/ or some shit.

You know how in the past we believed life could exist in the moon, mars, and everything in the system? Are there any books with this concept?

>>24798263
Let's not be too harsh. Remember that they're all teenagers. i.e. fucking idiots.

>>24798300
Only in older books like John Carter and War of the Worlds. Once astronomers learned more about the solar system such idea became more fantasy than science.

>>24798301
There are a lot of things you can blame on someone being a dumb teen, the way she treat her childhood friends is not one of them.
You could even say that the way she treats Nynaeve is just like a teen rebelling against a former teacher after graduation, there is no such an excuse for the way she treat the boys.

>>24798343
It's because he is her childhood friend that she treats him like that. She doesn't act that way with others.

What should I read from Larry Niven?

>>24798290
>favourite author is lord dunsany
I KNEEL

>>24798379
Obviously his most famous work is Ringworld. Just be aware that despite the great ideas he's not a very good writer. That's why his collabs like Footfall and The Mote in God's Eye are better books.

>>24798343
She does get humbled in the next book, but there's a reason everyone says Nynaeve is best girl. If you're waiting for Mat to stop getting shit on though you're going to be waiting a long, long time.

>write female characters realistically
>get called a sexist
hmmmmm

>>24798298
All new fantasy books are pozzed
You'd know that if you weren't a newfag retard

>>24797156
I read this one and basically remember nothing about it except it was intentionally not an "easy read".

>>24797172
Try Gulliver's Travels.

>>24797659
Then don't buy them. No reason to feed their kids and the publisher. Fuck both of those groups.

>>24797657
Drop $1 and see. Or go to Anna's and get it for free. Fuck long running tradpubbed authors, they all bent the knee and/or are already rich, and either way don't deserve your money.

>>24798071
>Hyperion 5/5
>Neuromancer 2/5
thanks for the many contributions but I will punch you for that desu

>>24798239
Nigga he's reviewed most of the classics at this point. Yev's read and reviewed like 100 books a year for a decade, so you run out of the classics.

Still tho, fuck anything published after 2015.

>if someone online claims something that means it's true
Uh I thought /lit/ was supposed to be smart?

>>24798578
That's the correct rating, or maybe overrating neuromancer.

William Gibson is a retarded racist hack that unironically printed the phrase "three megabytes of hot RAM"

>>24798608
>b-but he's racist
You have to go back.

>>24798605
I can understand why some do not like Neuromancer. I will admit that it is probably best enjoyed just like how it was written, i.e. coked up to heaven. But I'll never get the hype for Hyperion. It has one good story, the first one, cause Simmons is a good horror author, and some nice concepts. The rest of the story range from Steven-King-tier bs (why yes, let me fuck the space alien iron spike monster, what could go wrong), to soap opera quality granny fucking, literally. What the fuck man. The story of the professor had potential, but it was stretched for about 100 pages too long. Some of the ousters stuff was neat, but only cause it was essentially sf horror. Yeah, fuck Hyperion, fuck Fall of Hyperion, and fuck me for having read that shite.

>>24797650
All the authors I enjoy are dead and most didn't leave children. The ones that did ain't gettin shit.

>>24797687
You'll find more of this in short fiction than in novels. Some favorites of mine are Ted Chiang, Michael Swanwick, and The Best of Walter Jon Williams. Mieville's three moments of an explosion is good...

ymmv. you can't really go wrong pawing volumes at random off the anthology shelf at the used bookstore and flipping through them. anything edited by Gardner Dozois or Ellen Datlow usually contains a representative cross-section of the best stuff available.

The Strength of the Few is out btw

>>24798802
>first person present tense

>consider phlebas
OK it has been considered, what now?

>>24798855
now you look to leeward

>>24798658
I thought Hyperion was alright, but when you get to Fall of Hyperion you realize how much the frame story was holding the first one together. By the time I got to the end of Fall there's so much shit going on and the connection between cause and effect is getting so blurry that I just had to shrug.

>>24798849
Are you implying that AI was used? Or is this some esoteric joke? Do you just like big fanned chinks, or are you insane? Pls I need to know, the possibility of AI sloppa makes me nervous.

>>24798887
>>24798658
Filtered.

>>24798855
Now you play some games

>>24798608
A bigger sin is his shilling of Hillary, I think.

>>24798608
>three megabytes
The past was cute :D

>>24796647
Another one:
'The Seraph from Its Sepulcher'
A bit too much of a straightforward story for my tastes. I think when Wolfe attempts to be more explicit in his religious symbolism, such as in Detective of Dreams, I think he has a tendency to make the story too tidy. At least in Detective of Dreams, I was able to solve the mystery while reading using knowledge learned from parochial school. In 'Seraph', everything just feels fairly basic.

>>24796095 (OP)
I didn't know this existed and this has made my week, thanks anon.

>>24796095 (OP)
more like my dick lies seeping

>>24799584
Does your Dick dream of electric seep?

>>24797687
Raw Shark Texts

I read the first law trilogy. It was enjoyable enough, but I felt dissatisfied at the lack resolution at the end, most of the events of the books seemed futile. Will reading the other books give more resolution or are they all relatively self contained

>>24799743
The rest of the series is about how that society evolves with Bayaz pulling the strings. The next three books and the short story collection are mostly standalone works and then Age of Madness is another trilogy of books telling one story.
>resolution
I read them for the funny shit and violence, you should too. We will never understand magic in this setting.

Another stuff that I find intriguing in the Second Apocalypse is that the elfs (Nonman) are not tree-hugging hippies, but they live underground and in mountains like dwarves. Also, they are totally schizo, ultra-violent and have Alzheimer, not ethereal beings of light and wisdom.
Another thing is that Zeüm resembles China: exotic and distant, very advanced culturally, respected, rich, etc., but they're sub-Saharan African. There are no Asians in Eärwa, I think.
Also, the Dûnyain (Übermensch) come from Hyperborea instead of Atlantis like in LOTR (Númenor).
I love all these little twists and inversions all over the books.

>>24799783
It has very esoteric and Gnostic themes

>another day on /sffg/
>actively being spammed by Bakkerfag

>check out webnovel gen
>actively being spammed by RIfag
every general
every thread
every board
always a spammer

>>24799994
This is true, every general I've ever entered, regardless of how niche, attracts at least one schizo who spends all day spamming it (without a bot, just manually spamming)

>>24799994
The Red Rising fag is much worse. At least The Second Apocalypse is a good series.

>>24799994
I've only posted two times in this general (today and in the previous one two days ago), don't know about the people that answered me, though.

>>24800030
>"Red Rising ... is much worse."
>"The Second Apocalypse is a good series."
They're both terrible.

>>24800030
This is the first post in this thread where anyone has even mentioned red rising. Seethe bakkerfag

Speaking of Bakker, I started Disciple of the Dog and it's a lot funnier than I expected. He has more range than I assumed.

>>24797672
>I have no idea what reddit or pozzed even mean
Then you're the only person whose opinion can be taken seriously.

Black Company Spoilers

>Croaker becomes an immortal all-seeing all-knowing god who watches over sixteen realms of existence, alongside his sexy evil immortal wife who now looks 25 again
>His son is a ridiculously powerful wizard commanding an army of unknown shadows, with his annalists being two sexy evil blonde witch sisters
>somehow because he and his harem are on the cover, Glen Cook is a woke sellout who made the teenagers he had raped in the last book too heckin strong and capable

Stephen Lawhead's Empyrion > Dan Simmons' Hyperion

I think reading books that you like is based!

Thoughts on Kings of Paradise / Ash and Sand series?

I quite liked it, but haven't seen anyone talking about it ever.

>>24800375
I think I gave it a try. I vaguely recall that the first chapter was about the mother of one of the protagonists and I think I stopped there.

>>24797687
Most of zelazny. That guy went places. Roadmarks, call me Conrad or jack of shadows - all wow.
Also Venus on half shelf, that crazy shit. I think, it is of Paul Anderson in disguise as Kilgore trout

>>24800119
His son? You mean Tobo? Who is murgans son?

>>24800486
And who also ends the series on a low note of power because the ghosts ofbhis ancestors are cursing him to stay on the straight and narrow?

>>24800030
do you truly think that there is only one red rising Poster

>>24800486
Ohhh, I'm glad you reminded me of that. Totally forgot Murgen existed

What's the best harem series?

>>24800664
wheel of time

Is Phil Dick actually hard to get into?

>>24799442
I agree. She stands for everything I expected him to oppose.

>>24800548
True, I am at least three of them

>Reading The Silverblood Promise.

>By chapter 12, there have been three, arguably five, instances of a scared tough woman, a confidante but collected warrior of some kind.

>At the same time, there have been six cases of a big dumb thug of some kind. Usually made to contrast the former.

At this point, the writer should have just made these people the same character and had them throughout the story. It's clear these are archetypes and dynamics he likes.

>>24800846
> is dick hard

lol xD

Is this cringe or no? I'm in the mood for a story with a setting that includes vampires.

>>24801428
I have not read it, but I can tell you 100% that it is absolute cringe.
But you want vampires, so that's right in the goal for your desire.

>>24801428
why not just read Anne Rice stuff?

>>24801428
>Kristoff
Cringe overdose desu

>wheel of time fanart
>nynaeve and egwene are brown

>>24801428
i bet he has graphic sex with some teenage girl

>>24801606
no but there's an evil shota who sucks on his mom's tits

>>24801629
that's even hotter

>>24801629
grrm invented

>>24801629
Does he do anything else with his mom?

Just finished the Stormlight Archive, feels bad we have to wait so long for the rest. Oh well, on to the next book!

>>24799783
The Chinese remained on the eastern side of the continent. They're not really relevant to the story or the first apocalypse.
Don't forget the sranc (orcs) being literally genetically derived from the Nonmen (sons of Ninjanjin

>>24799783
>>24801838
and they are all gay rapists btw

Books for this feel? WN/LN are fine too.

>>24797657
It's mid. If you have anything else on your to read list then read that instead.
Read Abercrombie instead if you haven't yet, you'll have a way better time.

>>24801606
Actually the teenage girl has graphic sex with another woman.
>>24801629
Mc also spends the first two books lowkey seducing the evil shota so that's pretty gay.

>>24797657
It's okay. Book 2 is the best, and the plotting and scheming of the later books is fun too. Definitely better than Abercrombie.

Are there any sci-fi books with a giant scope like 40k, but actually good?

>>24801860
Have you read Chalion?

>>24801954
Suneater, Dune, The Algebraist by Iain Banks and maybe his Culture series

>>24802274
Is Suneater any good? It sounds interesting.

>>24802338
No! It's just a remix of better books and you should read those instead.
>b-but they're loving homages
No! Lifting scenes and lines and narration directly from other, better books is not "homage", it's STEALING, it's PLAGIARISM, and you only do it if you don't have it in you to write something good yourself.
Fuck that balding fat fuckf or wasting my time on these books, fuck him

>>24802339
Nothing is original and everything takes inspiration from something else.

>>24802338
First book is meh, after that it becomes pretty decent if not the most original.

>>24802367
Are the characters interesting? I'm more of a character guy than a plot guy.

>>24802362
There's difference between inspiration and lifting the opening narration from War of the Worlds for your book. That's not inspired, that's literally just taking someone else's writing and making money off of work you did not do.

>>24802379
>There's difference between inspiration and lifting the opening narration from War of the Worlds for your book.
That sounds like an homage.

>>24802375
Yes, that is one of the better elements.

>>24802338
>Is Suneater any good?
Painfully derivative, but gets better after the first book. It impresses people who are not familiar with SFF at large.

>>24802385
I'd call it plagiarism actually.

I finished Weaveworld. It was all right, although it had the subtlety of a brick and I was expecting more considering all those comparisons with Imajica (which I thought was better anyway). I think my two biggest problem were the characters, mainly the protagonists, and the Fugue itself.
Cal was fine, I could even sympathise with him at times, but we really needed to learn more about his desire to find his own Wonderland. Why was he so into that? Suzanna, on the other hand, was incredibly bland and that affected her relationship with Cal as well. She had some potential in the beginning with her creepy grandma stuff but then she gained super feminine powers (a weird thing I also noticed in Imajica) and just did... stuff and randomly fell in love with guys with whom she had no chemistry.
The Fugue itself was a great disappointment, considering all the longing and fighting over it. I was expecting it to be more magical when we finally reached it and at some point decided it would have been better if we just followed the carpet everywhere, while the Fugue itself remained something mysterious and full of wonder. Thankfully the desert part kind of made up for that. Sort of. It was more sense of dread, but Barker really managed to capture that pseudo-Biblical atmosphere with the Scourge and all. That was in fact my favourite part of the entire novel, it felt both creepy and overwhelming. Also its ending did not disappoint me which might be a minority opinion. As opposed to the actual ending of the book which I didn't really care about.
Another great thing were the horror scenes, which was to be expected. The first appearance of the sisters was incredibly creepy, although I wish it had more of a lasting effect on Cal, considering what happened.

>>24802395
Was Alice in Wonderland plagarism? Lewis Carroll didn't invent most of those nursery rhymes.

>>24802427
Whataboutism is not a defense that would hold up in court or if you were caught plagiarising an academic paper, why do you think it will hold up here?
Are you Ruocchio?

>>24802455
>if you were caught plagiarising an academic paper
Academic papers aren't art, dummy. The Bible plagarised. Homer plagarised. Shakespeare plagarised. It's a natural aspect of the creative process.

>>24802480
Notice how you went from
>it's not plagiarism it's homage
to
>w-well it might be plagiarism but what about other plagiarism
to
>w-well everybody is a plagiarist anyway so it doesn't count
Your position shifts like sand on a dune. Mine is constant and it seems you've abandoned the position that disagreed with mine and have conceded the point.
Thank you. I accept your concession.

>>24802503
You're the one who said homages were plagarism. Name one artist who didn't reference their predecessors.

>>24798265

Reading it now, this is very accurate, 1 was decent, 2 was very good, 3 is just bad, really battling to finish it, 3 might as well just be an entirely different author writing a totally different series. Genuinely might just drop it, first 2 in the series are worth reading then stop.

>>24802508
>reference
There's a difference between refencing something and using that same thing as is in your own work. When The Simpsons parody The Shining or Cape Fear, they're doing so in a transformative way, where their relationship to the original work of art is explicit and intended to be recognized by the audience so that they may contrast the original and the parody and enjoy a chuckle, while what Ruocchio does is lift things from better writers that he then embeds into his narrative where he couldn't have written something impactful himself. Ruocchio recognizes his own lack of ability and steals from better writers in the hopes that he would gain recognition, and he has, thanks in large part to aggressive shilling on YouTube (Mike's Book Reviews or whatever is credited as the channel that saved Ruocchio from obscurity), and it makes sense that his audience should be type of person who gets their opinions and recommendations from a booktuber: they clearly haven't actually read these things Ruocchio supposedly "homages" so they think it's all utterly original stuff and they praise him for his imagination and writing skill, undeservedly, when he is more so a reader and a collage-maker.
Now to make a collage is an art itself and many visual artists have honed this technique in the first half of the 20th century. A collage-novel is a post-modern thing, referring to a work which incorporates "found materials", thing one would usually not expect in a novel, they're very experimental in form.
Ruocchio is not an experimental writer, he's a pedestrian writer, and in his lack of curiosity finds himself unable to explore... well, anything. He's the quintessential millennial writer, having grown up on media consumption but lacking in any true life experience, so when he writes he can only write based off of other media, and this he then claims is merely love of the genre, because to admit this is the sum totality of his personhood would be too bleak and depressing for anyone to admit to themselves, much less their prospective audience.
Ruocchio does not steal out of love, but out of necessity. There is nowhere else to mine for ideas but other media, this is his only world. And yet, due to being an utter dullard, he is unable to explore this media in a trangressive and therefore transformative way. All he can do is read and go
>I like this, I'll take this, nyeah
with his moist, fat lips smacking in satisfaction over his toothless gums, his greasy hair, barely covering his balding pate swinging as he turns his head to where his wife is cooking him another panful of whatever slops fuels his corpulent form.
I loathe Christopher Ruocchio and everything he stands for in the literary landscape. This extends not just to the phenomena of millennial derivative writers but also their audience, their easily placated herd, these sheep who feast on grass fertilized with sheep dung, who know nothing of a wider world beyong their pasture.

>>24802533
>I like this, I'll take this, nyeah
This is a good mindset to have. Why would you write about things you don't like?

>>24802539
>write about
But the didn't "write about" them, he just lifted them as is. Your utter unwilligness to understand what is being said to you is not going to validate your position.
I'm out of here.

Why is Glen sad?

>>24802566
because he's cook'd

>>24798501
Academy of Outcasts and Saga of the Forgotten Warrior are pozzed?

>>24802584
50 year old man writing dogshit edgy ya to trend chase and you're pretending it's worth reading

>GGK
>Erikson
>Bakker

How can other nations even compete with the sheer quality Canucks dish out

Popping in this thread to state that marron shed and raven each did nothing wrong

>>24802837
Annex Canada

>>24801954
Tchaikovsky's Empire in Black and Gold.

>>24801629
if they just said this on the cover of the book i'd have bought it

>>24802854
Success breeds jealousy

Speculative fiction as a genre has died since Wokies overtook Nebulas and other Awards

>>24802744
Yes yes, now how the fuck is the edgy male power fantasy novel written by an NRA guy salty about the Hugo's diversity winners pozzed?

>>24802900
>>24802584
Anything that cannot match Dunsany is pozzed
All Modern Fantasy is Pozzed
>Where the great plain of Tarphet runs up, as the sea in estuaries, among the Cyresian mountains, there stood long since the city of Merimna well-nigh among the shadows of the crags. I have never seen a city in the world so beautiful as Merimna seemed to me when first I dreamed of it. It was a marvel of spires and figures of bronze, and marble fountains, and trophies of fabulous wars, and broad streets given over wholly to the Beautiful. Right through the centre of the city there went an avenue fifty strides in width, and along each side of it stood likenesses in bronze of the Kings of all the countries that the people of Merimna had ever known. At the end of that avenue was a colossal chariot with three bronze horses driven by the winged figure of Fame, and behind her in the chariot the huge form of Welleran, Merimna’s ancient hero, standing with extended sword. So urgent was the mien and attitude of Fame, and so swift the pose of the horses, that you had sworn that the chariot was instantly upon you, and that its dust already veiled the faces of the Kings. And in the city was a mighty hall wherein were stored the trophies of Merimna’s heroes. Sculptured it was and domed, the glory of the art of masons a long while dead, and on the summit of the dome the image of Rollory sat gazing across the Cyresian mountains towards the wide lands beyond, the lands that knew his sword. And beside Rollory, like an old nurse, the figure of Victory sat, hammering into a golden wreath of laurels for his head the crowns of fallen Kings.

>>24802983
All that flowery language and what he actually says about this implausibly beautiful city is that it has some spires, some fountains and wide roads with tacky statues on them. Oh and a big town hall.
Doing the classic cheat of just telling you something's really impressive over and over without actually conveying any sense of wonder in the actual description. Can see why he practically invented fanasy in an effort to create his own little ghetto away from other writers.

>>24803017
>look at me I could deconstruct what was written and make it ugly and blunt and therefore its bad
Anyone can do this with anything. How about you provide a counter example instead.

>>24802983
And here I was thinking pozzed had to do with the author's politics.

>>24803039
Perhaps because he knows posting out of context passages is pointless posturing, especially when said passages are descriptions.

>>24803039
No, I'm not getting into a pissing contest when your claim that the passage of fairly pedestrian description was unmatchable.

>>24803045
>>24803047
>what you posted is bad!
>this tells me nothing post something good for contrast
>*shits himself*

>>24803051
I didn't say it was bad you autistic sperg, I'm saying the passage does nothing for me because I have no context or buildup for the description.
You also don't know what "pozzed" even means if you think it has anything to do with prose and not whether or not the author and/or book is a leftoid's soapbox.

>>24803068
I didn't post the passage; I don't even like Dunsany. My point is simple, don't be a deconstructionist dweeb if you aren't going to back it up with a counter example. If you think a co-worker is doing something wrong and tell them as much, but when they ask for the correct way you get defensive and refuse them then all that tells me is that you either don't know, you're afraid of being wrong, or you're just a little bitch.

>>24802837
Canada also produced the all time GOAT comic book creator, Dave Sim.

this dude good?

>>24803104
your point is that you have nothing to offer and wanted to pick a fight without staking anything you actually believe in.
You just want a post to pick apart and are sulking now you didn't get it.

>>24803145
I can recommend his Baroque Cycle. Anathem was alright. Reamde made it feel like he thought MMORPGs were literal magic

>>24800984
>a scared tough woman, a confidante but collected warrior of some kind

Am I stupid or did I just read someone having a stroke? A what now?

>>24803230
My bad, I rushed and didn't double-check the autocorrect. Also, I suck at typing with a phone.

I meant to say "A scarred tough woman, a confident but collected warrior of some kind." Or to put it better, a warrior woman of some kind who is presented as confident and tough but competent and collected, who is also described as having scars. In this book, there are several characters like this, often in scenes featuring an imposing man who is confident and tough but is presented as incompetent and easily upset.

So I'm saying if the writer is using this setup so often, he might as well have just made two recurring characters instead of a bunch of randoms.

>>24803145
he writes a lot and some of it, by dint of sheer volume, is probably readable, but personally I thought his cryptonomicon was dreck

>>24803174
imagine being this scared of simply backing up a claim holy shit lmao

>>24803145
Yeah, Cryptonomicon is great

>>24802874
I'd breed her jealousy if by jealousy you mean pussy

>>24802837
Erikson isn't good enough to clean the others' shoes.

>>24802556
What books would you consider to be original?

>>24803489
Nta. Ignore him, he actually likes Sun Eater but his neuroses require him to countersignal it publicly.

>>24803182
what does the Baroque Cycle feel like to read? kind of intrigued for awhile but not sure what it's like or what it's about or the tone

>>24803182

The MMO parts of Reamde aged so bad. The rest of it with the borderline slapstick Taliban/Russian Mafia/Prepper conflicts cracked me up.

>>24803145
Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash and Anathem are definitely worth reading. Seveneves if you like Kerbol Space Program.


Diamond Age is alright
Termination Shock is not good

Is there a reading chart for urban fantasy? I couldn’t find any. I wanted to try the genre for the first time, so I read the first two Dresden Files books and really enjoyed them, but I’m not sure what to read next

I was once reading the manga that did something really interesting, and I'm wondering is any books do the same.

To put it simply, the villains and heroes are working under two different power systems that, before they first encountered each other, neither of them knew existed. This results in an arms race of both sides trying to figure each other out.

>>24798263
It's to make you want to root for Rand no matter what he does as he's one of the few likable characters in the series.

The Butcher of the Forest feels pretty good right now.

>>24803837
The book of the month in the Goodreads group. Hell's Gate.

>>24796095 (OP)
The Immeasurable Heaven - Caspar Geon (2025)

Three billion years from now in a galaxy not our own, an ancient being begins its journey upwards through realities to discover the true reality. The surface reality receives information through the inter-reality network that an unknown being is ascending through the realities, which was thought to be impossible. An agent is sent to discover how the being does so. Another agent is already deep down in the realities and has the maps needed to better intercept the being. These are the three primary perspectives.

This is a novel length exercise in weird worldbuilding, but not in a way that I'm able to appreciate because that's all there is. All the characters are alien and much is outside the frame of human reference, at least on a superficial level. What I mean is that if you're trying to have mental image at all of what's going on, you're going to have keep a lot in mind because it's unlikely that you have any related experience to help you imagine it. If you don't imagine what you read, then I don't know this will go for you.

The viewpoint characters are bipedal symmetrics, but almost none of the other characters are. The locales are similarly unfamiliar. This is surely among the most cosmetically exotic of any book I've read. I say that because their psychology, their behavior, and everything else aside from their appearance is very much human. That bothers some, but I don't really care.

The problem I do have is that if theoretically an author had 10 points to spread across a book's attributes, then this has 9 in worldbuilding. This would've been better as an art book. I've described the plot in the opening paragraph and there's nothing more than that. The pacing is awful and gets worse the further along it goes. Why anything happens becomes increasingly incoherent towards the end. The characters have almost no development, though that's to be expected since this is like three novellas that eventually intersect, and the book isn't long, so each character doesn't have all that many pages. Usually I don't have any problem with multiple POV books, but this one definitely should've been a singular POV focused on the intercepting agent.

This is a standalone novel and at the end of it I wondered at the point of it all. The journey was fine, there wasn't anything notable except for being weird. The destination though was awful. I really disliked it. I don't know if it was meant to be an emotionally profound statement and/or an error-correcting warning.

If you can be satisfied by a book that relies entirely on the coolness of its worldbuilding by having tons of sentient species who have strange physiologies and go to odd places, then this may work for you. Whenever they go to a different or virtual reality, their bodies change. This isn't the author's debut novel, he has a SF trilogy as Tom Toner. Based on an interview, he knows what's he done here and it was intentional.

Rating: 2/5
Week #5

It's out... it's heckin' out

>>24796095 (OP)
https://fantlab.ru/autor4456

I'm going to die if I don't get some Red God news soon

Just finished Edgedancer. Lift and wyndle interactions are peak and I don't think Sanderson has written better characters than these two so far.

Is it any good guys?

This does unfortunately show its age. Are the other two after this better?

>>24804022
WotC don't have a good track record of media tie in novels.

>>24803145
reddit personified.

>>24804022
>is it any good
>female heroine

>>24804022
Didn't read it, but looking at the post, this is what immediately came to mind.

>>24804042
Oh my fucking god lol

>>24803145
he's a chud now like dan simmons

>>24804042
brother what the fuck is this? is that meant to be raven? they turned that bitch into goth mario

>>24804060
It's supposed to be Starfire's daughter, eliciting questions on if or not she banged The Penguin.

why were niggas in the 70s and 80s so obsessed with genre labeling? so much award drama and politics and authors clutching pearls over their genres. radio and tv interviews dominated by "is this book ummmm fantasy or science fiction??" "holy shit he's mixing genres in this book"

>>24804024
Yes but they are also a lot more theological.

>>24804086
maybe another time then. I just wanted scifi.

>>24797650
:D

>>24804075
>good evening sir I would like to purchase one military fiction novel please
>I have just the thing
>*brings back pic related*

>>24804022
The Mary Sue has a Mary Sue daughter

>>24804024
Perelandra is more of the same but more allegorical and fantastical and less of a retro sf romp. That Hideous Strength is a dystopian novel and is much more grounded. I'd even call it prophetic; Orwell regarded it as so, to an extent.

I'm starting to worry that the no-god series will never come out...
At least he's posting on his blog these days, though

>>24804131
Smut is fine for what it is. The problem is that it's become acceptable for people to openly read it. What happened to shame?

>>24804331
Shame is all but dead, anon. It's what naturally happens when enough people believe smut is fine for what it is. It turns out that what people do behind closed doors matters because they don't stay behind closed doors.

Opinions?

Where did it go wrong
I think it could've actually been decent if it stopped after Orso pardons Leo
From that point onwards the writing quality took a nosedive

I win again, Lews Therin!

>>24804500
Just not when it counted.

>>24803639
It feels like fun historical fiction. Quicksilver had all these scenes of Isaac Newton doing weird shit to satisfy his scientific curiosity, like draining liquid from his eye with a needle to literally see how it affected the refractive qualities of his lense and growing a maggot to unusual sizes until his landlady complained about the smell
Stuff like that I remember, I read them like 15 years ago

>>24804500
>mfw he said the line on the last book

Horse and Lysander MUST die, red god where?

>>24804349
Then the problem is those doors staying closed, and the idea that there should be no closed doors because you shouldn't be ashamed of anything.

Everyone knows you defecate but you should still be ashamed of others seeing you do it.

>>24804461
>Where did it go wrong
Joe Abercrombie

>>24804011
Is this bait because a lot of people find lift unbearable. I managed to enjoy her as I got more used to her schtick but she’s still an MCU character

WNG IS FUCKING DEAD AIEEEEEEEEE

>>24804575
Truly scintillating insight. What else could I expect from /lit/? Bravo.

>>24804575
How does it feel to know Joe Abercrombie is living the dream and making mad stacks by writing what he enjoys writing?

>>24804557
Newton actually did those things, though the maggot one was more him attempting to prove they didn't spontaneous appear out of thin air like people at the time believed.

>>24804605
Call it well-researched, then.

>>24803918
your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF

>>24797025
Why would I give a shit what bunch of retards who read Webslop think? Their exile was a net positive to this general.

>>24804075
Are you telling me people nowadays aren't?

It’s not Red God but it’ll do

everyone told me botns was super complex and dense but i'm about 50 pages in and so far severian is just being chill

>>24804922
You've been bamboozled many times already, you just don't know it yet.

>>24804922
It's because BOTNS fans don't read actual literature so when they get to a novel that apes, even slightly, actual literature they think it super complex and dense.

>>24796095 (OP)
I finished Revelation Space and found it incredibly mediocre. How is Xeelee Sequence?

>>24804970
>I finished Revelation Space and found it incredibly mediocre
Correct.

>How is Xeelee Sequence
Worse.

>>24804022
>daughter of Drizzt
>not named Gusht
>not named Pourt
>not named Dribblt

Utter waste

>>24804603
If I don't lose sleep over romantasyslop authors making millions, why would I give a shit how much a fantasy author sells?

>>24804022
Does she whip her dad into submission like a good drow daughter should?

>>24805041
>Worse.
Unfortunate.

>>24805095
Speak for yourself, I'm consumed by the thought of rich romantasysloppers.
They gnaw at my mind like a worm gnaws at a dead body.

>>24796095 (OP)
Anyone have a good torrent magnet for edgar rices John carter books? I only get shit on audiobookbay that no one is seeding.

>>24796095 (OP)
A few months after I finished reading Vajra Chandrasekera’s debut novel, The Saint of Bright Doors, Lesley asked me if I’d like to review his sophomore novel Rakesfall for Apex Magazine. I responded with an immediate resounding yes. I really enjoyed reading Bright Doors, and Vajra Chandrasekera’s prose is absolute gold.

I am a serial devourer of books. But Rakesfall is not a book to be devoured. It’s one to be consumed in slow and wondering bites, chewed over for days or years or perhaps millions of eons, depending on which part of the book you’re at. I’m not going to try to give you a short synopsis of the plot, because there are many plots, folded within each other, scraped out of each other, torn apart and resurrected by each other.

Rakesfall is not going to hold your hand. It’s not going to sit you down and say, “Here, now, this is the theme, this is the plot, and here is what I hope you think.” It presents a series of lives and deaths and undeaths and rebirths of what might be one or two or infinite beings over the course of worlds and universes and time, invites you to watch the ways in which they explode and repair and explode again, and challenges you to think about the porosity of souls and the responsibility you bear for past lives. Chandrasekera’s got an incredible talent for speaking to unthinkably massive themes, and smoothly adding modern bites of humor to passages of gorgeous prose.

I’d strongly recommend this one to anyone who’s looking for a non-Western plot, prose that reads like poetry more often than not, and something that’ll make you slow down, take a breath, and enjoy. I really enjoyed this book, and I’m grateful I got the chance to read an early ARC!

>>24796095 (OP)
“When people dis fantasy—mainstream readers and SF readers alike—they are almost always talking about one sub-genre of fantastic literature. They are talking about Tolkien, and Tolkien's innumerable heirs. Call it 'epic', or 'high', or 'genre' fantasy, this is what fantasy has come to mean. Which is misleading as well as unfortunate.

Tolkien is the wen on the arse of fantasy literature. His oeuvre is massive and contagious—you can't ignore it, so don't even try. The best you can do is consciously try to lance the boil. And there's a lot to dislike—his cod-Wagnerian pomposity, his boys-own-adventure glorying in war, his small-minded and reactionary love for hierarchical status-quos, his belief in absolute morality that blurs moral and political complexity. Tolkien's clichés—elves 'n' dwarfs 'n' magic rings—have spread like viruses. He wrote that the function of fantasy was 'consolation', thereby making it an article of policy that a fantasy writer should mollycoddle the reader.

That is a revolting idea, and one, thankfully, that plenty of fantasists have ignored. From the Surrealists through the pulps—via Mervyn Peake and Mikhael Bulgakov and Stefan Grabiński and Bruno Schulz and Michael Moorcock and M. John Harrison and I could go on—the best writers have used the fantastic aesthetic precisely to challenge, to alienate, to subvert and undermine expectations.

Of course I'm not saying that any fan of Tolkien is no friend of mine—that would cut my social circle considerably. Nor would I claim that it's impossible to write a good fantasy book with elves and dwarfs in it—Michael Swanwick's superb Iron Dragon's Daughter gives the lie to that. But given that the pleasure of fantasy is supposed to be in its limitless creativity, why not try to come up with some different themes, as well as unconventional monsters? Why not use fantasy to challenge social and aesthetic lies?

Thankfully, the alternative tradition of fantasy has never died. And it's getting stronger. Chris Wooding, Michael Swanwick, Mary Gentle, Paul di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer, and many others, are all producing works based on fantasy's radicalism. Where traditional fantasy has been rural and bucolic, this is often urban, and frequently brutal. Characters are more than cardboard cutouts, and they're not defined by race or sex. Things are gritty and tricky, just as in real life. This is fantasy not as comfort-food, but as challenge.

The critic Gabe Chouinard has said that we're entering a new period, a renaissance in the creative radicalism of fantasy that hasn't been seen since the New Wave of the sixties and seventies, and in echo of which he has christened the Next Wave. I don't know if he's right, but I'm excited. This is a radical literature. It's the literature we most deserve.”

>>24805292
>>24805347
Why are you presenting these?

>>24804922
>i'm about 50 pages in
Don't get cocky lil nigga, the rug is about to be pulled out in the garden... tell me what is happening after reading all that. You'll need to reread it too.

>>24797105
Yeah Murgen’s son is the only other one who’s living and still in a human body

>>24805041
what isnt mediocre for you anon?

>>24796095 (OP)
>the cover art spoils a major plot point

>>24805653
shit man I don't even look at cover art

>>24804970

I read a spooky short story about some Ultranaughts which was good, then read the main series thinking it would be similar but it was so boring.

>>24803432
I'm canadian we're all homosexuals up here so no, I don't know what you mean

the ending to green angel tower may have been one of the most anticlimactic endings ever.

>>24805974
Shut your whore mouth I'm still in the middle of Dragonbone Chair

>>24805985
I will say it wasn't bad I just wanted better!

>>24805974
have you read The Last King of Osten Ard series?

>>24806015
not yet.

>>24796095 (OP)
>Try to write my first book
>No originale ideas Keep plagiarize every favorite piece of media

Been a talentless scum Is hard :(

Ursula K. Le Guin

Whiteness
Meditations for Melville

i
Whiteness crossed the continent
a poison fog where it went
villages were vacant
hearths and ways forsaken
Whiteness with greed and iron
makes the deep seas barren
Great migrations fly daylong
into whiteness and are gone

ii
Whiteness in its righteousness
bleaches creatures colorless
tolerates no
shadow

iii
People walk unseeing unseen
staring at a little screen
where the whiteness plays
an imitation of their days
Plugged in their ears white noise
drowns an ancient voice
murmuring to bless
darkness

Why do fantasy authors use so much contemporary idioms, slang, curses, and other modern conventions.
>Months based on the roman emperors
>Didn't know their fantasy world had a Octavius

>>24806089
>originale ideas
no such thing, just write

>>24806102
is this AI? i can't tell AI and le guin apart

>>24805196
Take the interview and download it from MAM

>>24805974
simon becoming a king was boring t b h
Josua got the best ending by far.

>>24805974
What an interesting coincidence I just finished it earlier today myself, I'd agree its kind of anticlimactic and I wasnt a big fan of Tad choosing to have Tiamak retell to Isgrimmnur what happened after the tower began to fall rather than just having it happen in real time for the reader. Loved my time with it however, probably the longest book I've read now that I think about it.

What kind of women do you think the most famous fantasy writers like based on how they write love interests and female characters in general?

Why is he so full of shit? Kvolthe is a loser isn't he?

>>24806325
pale redheads with wide hips and fat sagging tits

How do fantasy authors manage to fit their stories in under five hundred page books

>>24806404
KISS

>>24806168
Because they're stupid and lazy.

>>24806361
https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/personal-assistant-to-writer-elodin-enterprises-JV_IC1133697_KO0,28_KE29,47.htm?jl=1009115710585

>>24797687
Illuminatus trilogy

>>24798024
>The First Law Series/World is considered to be good

>>24797659
>>24798762
Have you considered reading more books?
>>24804094
Where is Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan? This is not even entry-level /x/ lit.

Hyperion was fucking amazing

>>24807012
Now see how Dan Simmons squanders all of your good will in the sequels!

>>24807012
ouster invasion soon

>>24806404
Even five hundred sounds like it's gonna have filler in it.

Anyone else find overly confusing books a bit obnoxious? Blindsight’s got an unreliable narrator, slang, and drops you right in the middle of this world with minimal explanation. At what point does confusing the reader become just poor writing? It's definetly interesting but fuck it I'm looking at overviews online as I go.

>>24807383
Like wtf is this

>>24807383
Watts is an exceptionally poor writer. And like, he tries to be confusing and deceptive to make a point about mind, but he ultimately ends up being confusing because he sucks ass at using the English language.

Nobody reads him for skill, people read Watts for his misanthropic schizo ideas which are quite cool.

>>24807482
Yeah the books really good so far just every passage is like a puzzle which I find more annoying than engaging. Like are these real vampires or metaphorical vampires, is this guy a cyborg or genetically engineered. Fuck it I'm going to wikipedia.

>>24807496
Autistic prose. Most writers that have a background in science with post-grad degrees write like that.

>>24807511
I feel personally insulted at how accurate that is.

>>24807496
>Fuck it I'm going to wikipedia.
Nah, I can answer it all.

>Like are these real vampires or metaphorical vampires
They are members of a long-extinct cannibalistic hominid species (made up by Watts) that was de-extincted through cloning. The connection with the folklore vampires is that the extinct cannibal niggers are like the cultural prototype of the folklore vampires - needing human blood and flesh to survive, hating sunlight, getting stupefied by crosses, ect. They're de-extincted by government/gigacorps and assigned to missions like Theseus because they have no consciousness and in the Wattsverse not having a consciousness makes you a hyperintelligent magician with wizardry powers to cast D&D spells. Also direct blood transfusion from them to regular people makes popsicle hybernation possible.

>is this guy a cyborg or genetically engineered
The concepts are blended together here, and very nearly everyone (save a few very rare exceptions) in that setting is extremely cyborg, hence it not drawing any attention and nobody talks about it. The Theseus crew are all, like, 70% cloned organs, vat-grown tissues or Deus Ex nanoimplants.

To the applicant I just rejected with a blank and empty profile with a single letter name who didn't write anything, try again or not.

>>24805974
It kinda is but I still loved the overall journey. Haven't gotten around to the sequels yet, but I was told they were equally good, if not better.

>>24807748
Tad Williams is like the one guy who hasn't fallen off at all. He's just kept going and brings the same enthusiasm to his projects now that he did 30 years ago

>Be reading lots of Frank Herbert
>This shit is so much more enlightened than that faggot Tolkien
>be bored reading Children of Dune
>crack open a random passage from Fellowship of the Ring
>The words on the page feel like a warm hug
Fuck.

>>24807864
now open wind and truth

>>24807383
>>24807389
I read this a couple years ago, but I still remember what most of this means, and would be willing to bet there was some degree of context provided beforehand
>'the day the lights came down' refers to the event where the ayys made first contact
>Heaven is a virtual afterlife that people effectively commit suicide to live in
>Helen (his mom) chose to be admitted
>mc and dad are visiting her body before all they have access to are her holograms

There is more there, obviously, but once you have the gist of the aforementioned it shouldn't be too difficult to parse.

>>24804958
>i read boring shit and need everyone to know this makes me better than them
cool man

>>24808035
You're a manchild filtered by greater works

>>24804958
>>24808065
How does it feel to be so mindbroken about getting filtered by a guy that never knew or cared you existed that you ritualpost for years about him?

>>24808065
I enjoyed all of these. Now what retard?

>>24808081
>wolfefag seething incoherently

Is that fool character in relam of the elderlings series a woman? If not, I refuse to read.

>>24807373
Just because it doesn't move the story forward doesn't mean it's filler. You need time to flesh out characters and build the world.

>>24798024
First Law was so wretched I never bothered to read anything else by him. Abercrombie's popularity continues to mystify me for the same reason litrpg stuff does.

>>24807748
yea I can't complain since everything else was good. I hear some people like the later series more than the first. I'll get around to it.

I put off reading Dunk and Egg for far too long. What a breath of fresh air

>>24807893
I Didn't really feel anything from it. I stopped at the meeting on the tree planet or whatever. Which was like 10 or 20 pages in if I remember right.

>>24808526
it's the greatest 6/10 ever written.

I'm on the first story, I've never dropped a book before, besides Tales of the Dying Earth, other than just being too busy to finish it, but this is miserable, and Neil Gaiman's short story already made me consider dropping it, but this first Elric story is such a miserable slog. Talk me into sucking it up and getting through it.

I love sword and sorcery, I just finished reading all of Lieber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories and have been excited to start Moorcock, but from what Ive seen this is supposed to be some of his best work?

>>24808853
Quitter.

>>24808853
start with Von Bek

>>24808853
>Be excited to read sword and sorcery book
>First story is about an antisocial loser who lives vicariously through pulp serials and includes vivid descriptions of British teenage boys masturbating in the gym showers.

What were they thinking?

>>24808853
I dropped it as well, but not because it was a slog. I have no clue where you're getting that from since it's a pretty fast paced pulp story. I dropped it because Elric and everyone he knows is made to conveniently forget his potions (you know, the thing that has basically been keeping him alive for however many decades up until that point) when he goes into battle with them on the boat. I didn't need to read anything else to know that this retarded author does not give a single fuck about internal logic or consistency. Which is a shame because I rather like his flare. Maybe one day I can force myself to be a total moron with no self respect or standards so I can finish it.

>>24808915
I'm only on the first story. I'm a few chapters in and there has been no action yet. I got to the torture scene, and it includes a lecture about how bad torture is and trying to find a way to morally absolve Elric.

>>24808936
The scene I'm talking about is basically right around the corner.

>>24808936
torture scene was based. The entire scene before that with him riding with his gf in the storm contemplating life and death and a horrible future to come was so good.