Thread 24835665

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:
>>24823223

>Thread Question:
What's your favourite decade of sci-fi?

Dunsany is KING

>>24835665 (OP)
The most important scifi/fantasy writer you've never heard of is Edwin Lester Arnold, whose writings set the stage for the later work of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician and Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation are two of the most influential works to the two genres, but are nearly completely forgotten by time.

*filters you*

>>24829278
Yes.
And Soulcatcher is my waifu, so don't even think about it.

Chuds can read Red Rising now, apparently the author reposted pro-Charlie Kirk content.

>>24835790
>Needs political affirmations to read literature.
The difference between educated and propaganda pig is the willingness to consider both sides equally, before taking a stance.

Is this book any good?

>>24835845
Why don't you read it and find out.

>>24835855
Reading? in my il/lit/erate board? No we only bait each other about religion and politics here.

>>24835718
Your """taste""" in books is SHIT.
Fuck off and kill yourself, newfag nigger.

This is the same anti-intellectual nigger, who posts like Bakkerfag, and has been spamming and trying to stop discussion because of Yev's reviews for 3 years now. Any time Dunsany is mentioned, it's usually by this 14-25 year old newfag.

>>24836019
>low IQ filtered by Dunsany
COPE
>In a wood older than record, a foster brother of the hills, stood the village of Allathurion; and there was peace between the people of that village and all the folk who walked in the dark ways of the wood, whether they were human or of the tribes of the beasts or of the race of the fairies and the elves and the little sacred spirits of trees and streams. Moreover, the village people had peace among themselves and between them and their lord, Lorendiac. In front of the village was a wide and grassy space, and beyond this the great wood again, but at the back the trees came right up to the houses, which, with their great beams and wooden framework and thatched roofs, green with moss, seemed almost to be a part of the forest.
I am 38 and far more well read than you will ever be.

>>24835845
it's good but quite derivative of gormenghast (i mean look at the cover)

go back schizo

this book is GOD

Picked up two Ted Chiang collections today I got Exhalation and Stories of Your Life. What's the consensus of his works around here?

>>24836246
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=41160292

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=223380

>>24836179
Do I need to read the first one?

I just read three novellas by this guy.
>Elder Race
>Made Things
>Hungry Gods
The first two were really good, the last one was meh.
The weird part though is that they all follow the exact same format.
>level-headed young girl has to deal with some weird magic old guy
methinks this warrants some freudian analysis

>>24836246
he is unironically the best scifi short story author ever

>>24836392
Nah

>>24836179
Is this book about being so ugly that you become based?

What are the best books for escapism, sense of purpose, feeling like you have friends, everything has a meaning, etc? You know what I mean

>>24836505
LOTR or Terry Pratchet books or something even better - human contact. Chin up anon

>>24836369
Youre lucky you missed the one about the British Indian tranny and his lesbian girlfriend that save the world from an evil alien.

>>24836350
yes absolutely, the first one is even better, but this one feels more mature but still

they are absolutely glorious if you like raw psychopathic grim dark

>>24836369
I've only read children of time, which I really enjoyed, but it seems he releases a new book every few months. Is he a ghostwriter, some AI machine or something else? Not even Sanderson pumps shit out that quickl

>>24836505
well I'm not one for recommending any YA but maybe you can go for something light like Mistborn by B. Sanderson?

>>24836400
the merchant & the alchemist's gate trounces every other work of short fiction not written by Ted Chiang and it's not even his best

It's so good

>>24836626
Starts to get pretty bad around book 5. Reads like he just lost the passion he had for it.

>>24835790
>reposted pro-Charlie Kirk content.
holy... the ned flanders of moderate conservatism... I think I'm going insane... help me niggerman!

>>24835665 (OP)
Am I the only one who finds Dune a bit painful to read because of the way in which the Fremen just kill everyone they fight effortlessly? It's really hard to take the Sardaukar seriously when every time we actually see them do anything, the Fremen kill 300 of them and then say "oh but two of our illiterate sandnigger people died in this giant knife fight against the eugenic supersoldier space marines" and at one point they suggest that when the Sardaukar went on a deliberate pogrom against the Fremen as hard as they could, they were going 1:5 with them even though they have the best of literally every kind of equipment, air power, and the best trained troops in the galaxy.

This is just silly shit, completely takes me out of the story. I find myself having to make excuses for how it's possible. I like the writing, but the constant stroking off of these retarded desert savages makes my eyebrows bounce off my brain stem every time I read it.

>>24836697
>Can't into suspension of disbelief.
Why are you even reading fiction nigger?

>>24836702
It's not even really a suspension of disbelief thing, it's thematic. By this point in the story I'm inclined to believe that the Fremen, without Paul's assistance at all, were perfectly capable of raiding the Imperials indefinitely and nothing was ever going to stop them. The Sardaukar went negative against them in the scene where they rescue Paul ffs, he hasn't taught them the space jiujitsu yet. The Harkonnen can't possibly be a serious threat to them.

I was pissed at the film for doing this, now I see it's actually just as absurd in the book.

I decided im gonna jump into sanderslop, but only feel like reading stormlight archives. Do i miss out a lot by not reading the other books?

>>24836626
The Ace books are dogshit design wise, but yeah, great books.

>>24836752
Other stuff doesn't really start leaking in until the most recent 2 books, and even then no you're not missing anything.

Going forward Stormlight is essentially the required reading for the rest of the cosmere, not vice-versa.

>>24836735
>Yeah bro it's just impossible to believe that anyone could galvanize disorganized groups of fanatics into a well-organized popular insurgency

you might actually be retarded

>>24836752
No. Stormlight is a self contained story but references from mistborn and other stuff do bleed through. Stormlight was the first Sanderson books I read and there were references to things I didn’t know but it doesn’t really mean much besides Easter eggs. I’ll do a reread once the new one comes out after reading all the cosmere books and then understand the references.

>>24836756
You're missing my point intentionally. The Fremen at no point appear to NEED organization. They're already better than their enemies, even when they are being subjected to "Pogroms" they kill more of their oppressors than are killed. Fenring draws even more egregious attention to this when talking to the Baron. Just in case you might have been mistakenly thinking that there were some kind of stakes for the Fremen after being told repeatedly that they're better than everyone else, they are also better than the Sardaukar before Paul even joins them.

The story is framed in such a way that whoever the Fremen are fighting feel like the underdog even though that is clearly not the intended framing. This is abysmally clumsy writing.

>>24836753
>>24836758
Thanks anons. I might give other books a try if i like stormlight, but for now i want to read something without the feeling like im missing out

>>24836778
Enjoy. He gets shit but the way of kings is one of the best fantasy books released in a long time.

>>24836778
You'll be fine, enjoy it. Way of Kings is a great book, I like to think of it like an inspirational sports movie in fantasy book form.

>>24836772
well they DO go from killing a few assholes when convenient to conquering the universe

>>24836400
name someone better

>>24836246
He's very good. He's one of the few authors still writing golden-age-style sf short stories (at least one of the few actually managing to get published).

>>24836392
Clarke, Bradbury, and Sturgeon were better.

finna read some gene wolf kino

>>24835734
I disagree with the way the author sees the world, but I enjoyed the books. Incredible series.

>>24835734
Currently reading the first book and I'm not sure what the fuck is going on at this point but I'm getting bored

>>24836697
You're forgetting the only time when the Fremen are allowed to take a 'loss', where a bunch of unarmed Fremen women and children fight off a Saudarkar armed raid while all of the Fremen warriors are away BUT the last surviving two or three Saudarker managed to kidnap a single child. Yes it's completely slapstick retarded

My only issue with Dune (but it is a big one) is I never really liked Paul. As a plot device, he’s fine. I like the idea of someone so charismatic he inspires fanaticism. Everyone in the book is in love with him. I'm told how charming he is, but i never feel that he is. He just seems like any talented teenager

>>24835665 (OP)

I’m finishing up my first novel. I’m at about 105k words and have a couple chapters left. I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s a kind of malaise I’m dealing with. The creative part is over, and now I’m just engineering all the plot threads together to close it out and land with a sufficient emotional beat. But there’s a sense of imposter syndrome and anxiety about completing it.

Spending the last year writing and rewriting each chapter, feeling isolated, feeling exposed and inadequate, has been torture. Writing a book, like really trying to make something great, is incredibly difficult. I understand why so few people do it, and why even published books don’t always feel satisfying. Writing a book is hard.

>>24837059
>The creative part is over, and now I’m just engineering all the plot threads together to close it out and land with a sufficient emotional beat.

good books do this thing where all of the threads are flowcharted and storyboarded so that they run smoothly to conclusion before before you ever start writing

if you're feeling a sense of imposter syndrome it may be because you are an imposter. the good news is that most writers aren't even self-aware enough to know that they are imposters. you know that meme that's been going around, "you make it perfect later uwu :3"? it's horseshit.

>>24837336

You’re confusing books with cartoons again.

>>24837391
ngmi

I finished Perdido Street Station. Ending was a little rushed and spotty (the big revelation coming from some brand new character who only appears in the last chapter, ehh) but overall it was a good book, I think.

>>24836369
Could not fucking stand Made Things and I think he's a pretty decent novelist.

Gonna read Neuromancer for the first time. Hopefully it's good but I hear people consider it overrated.

>>24836520
it's a collective, like honor da ballsac

>>24837569
sci fi is a coherent lineage. there's no reason to read it if you don't want to participate and there's definitely to reason to read it if you care about what "people" think.

>>24836697
Just stop reading sci-fi, its not for you mate.

>>24837681
>sci fi is a coherent lineage. there's no reason to read it if you don't want to participate
I don't even know what you mean by this, I'm reading the book because I want to read the book.
>and there's definitely to reason to read it if you care about what "people" think.
I'm just saying that it's considered a landmark work of Sci-Fi and I hope it lives up to that.

A household humanoid robot that will do anything you want, orders ship next year. $20,000, $500/month subscription.
https://youtu.be/LTYMWadOW7c
If you want it to do anything complicated, it will be remote controlled by a human.

Are there any decent fantasy/sci-fi books that focus more on trade/economics?

>>24837882
There are surely web novels that do that. You could ask in /wng/. Other than that, I only a few personally and if you've asked before, it won't be much that's new. My most recent read is about a fantasy government, which has some overlap, though not all that much.

>>24837889
Never read a web novel before, and this is my first time asking. Which government novel did you read?

>>24837847
that's one step closer to my android wife

>>24836638
I just started book 5, it does seem to take a notable shift. I've yet to decide if it has become "pretty bad"

>>24837847
won't be buying this until it can get on my roof and replace the shingles

>>24837896
Legalist, 5th book in The Grand Illusion series.

>>24835734
>>24836998
Malazan's characters have no depth. What's the point of a story with over one hundred characters when not a single one is actually interesting?

>>24837882
Neptune's Brood by Stross focused pretty heavily on (interstellar/no-FTL) economics if I remember right.

>>24837936
*4th

Hey can you fags reclaim your Reverend Insanity dipshit and the statsfag who apparently leaves reviews here? We (/wng/) really don't want them.

>>24838021
Their infamy grows...

>>24836772
>The story is framed in such a way that whoever the Fremen are fighting feel like the underdog even though that is clearly not the intended framing. This is abysmally clumsy writing.
uuuhh anon you do know that the fremen and Paul are the bad guys right? just because they are fighting against a fat gay pedophile doesn't mean that paul and the pro-genocide fremen are the heroes

>>24838050
The protagonist is always who the reader must side with regardless.

>>24837847
I've read that one.

>>24835790
finally... Dune for Chuds

What are books with a similar vibe + setting with Votoms/Mellowlink? Do I just read Battletech stuff?

>>24835734
Does that omnibus actually exist?

>>24838195
I downloaded it and it nearly broke my old tablet, so it does exist in some form.

>>24837012
I was the same. I pushed through to the second book and then things clicked and I enjoyed the series going forward.
>24838195
>Does that omnibus actually exist?
Only for e-readers and even then I would not recommend it. A key part of reading Malazan for me was going through the glossary and dramatise personae and it would be incredibly unwieldy doing that in a document that covers around 12,000 pages. Imagine trying to search for something in there, your e-reader would explode or would be pulling results from all 10 books.

>>24838402
>>24838195

thoughts on this?

>>24837012
I honestly can't see what's great about Malazan, same here

>>24836752
Starting with third book SA gradually incorporates other cosmere books' elements, characters, concepts and even plots. One of the 3 main characters basically linked to other cosmere stuff starting with Book 2/3.
To the point that Book 5 has too much other Cosmere shit that you are expected to know about to care or your enjoyment would be actively undermined.
I personally hated Book 5 because of that.
That being said - other Cosmere books are mostly 7/10 books so I don't know if anyone respecting their time would bother reading them.
Sanderson has fucked up with SA. First two books were pretty good.

Recommend me something pulpy

>>24838750
https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=pg+pulp

>>24836998
What about Erikson’s viewpoint don’t you agree with?

>>24837938
Brutally filtered … Trull, Karsa, Felisin, Kallor, Mappo … where did you stop?

>>24837940
>>24837936
Thanks, I've added both of these to my reading list.

>>24837847
https://youtu.be/f3c4mQty_so
Wall Street Journal review of it. I expected it to be effusive, since they're so pro-business/corporate/tech, but it really wasn't. The reviewer noted that nothing was done without a human and it had many problems.

When it's working better, I wonder if it will mostly be for those who can afford it and want it, to be a relatively cheap way to have people from undeveloped countries working for them as servants at far less wages than would have to be paid in a developed country. If you got someone for 5/hours a day for all 30 days, that's 150 hours. $500/150 hours is only $3.5/hour. Even if it's only 50 hours per month, that's only $10/hour. They didn't specify how much humans can be used.

Next up in culture wars, are human-piloted robots taking all the jobs from illegal immigrants? (I don't know how much of a joke this is).

Read Reverend Insanity.

>>24838979
>>>/lit/wng

>>24838979
I did, its ass.

>>24836752
Stormlight is so ass. Just read mistborn og trilogy, maybe the sequel if you like it THAT much.
Yes, you miss a lot of stuff, because the gay ass marvel verse is referenced every goddamn time, and you'll feel like an idiot.

>>24838021
Why wouldn't people who want to discuss webnovels congregate in the webnovel general? It's hardly our fault that web novel readers are often dangerously mentally ill

>>24838552
pozzed. read something else.

>>24839124
THE WAY OF KINGS was based, but I dropped the series by the end of WORDS OF RADIANCE when I realized the rest was going to be Marvel bullshit, which explains why so many normies love it.

>>24839146
Ok, I admit it was pretty good, but the series gets progressively worse which made it retroactively shit for me.

>>24839152
How far did you get?

>>24839159
4th book. I've read the reviews for 5th out of curiosity, and it was almost unanimously agreed that it does pretty much everything even worse, so I gave up on both, the series and the author.

>>24839138
what do you mean? is it not good?

>>24839146
it's Sanderson my dude, it's doomed to become a pile of shit

>>24839166
>I gave up on both, the series and the author.
Don't rule Sanderson out entirely. The original MISTBORN trilogy and ELANTRIS are good reads.

>>24839193
It's. Pozzed.
What's not to understand?

>>24839193
he means there's a gay character or some shit, /pol/ rotted brain

>>24835734
ngl , got filtered by the slop that is the first book

>>24839209
I know, I've read the OG mistborn and i think the first 2 books of the following trilogy, also the Legion novella, and I admit I like them quite a bit. But they had the same issue, they got progressively worse with every entry. I think I liked Legion the most of all the Sanderson stuff I've read, flawed as it was.

>>24836697
Herbert believed the whole "hard times make hard men" theory of history, which is why the scrappy desert savages are better than everyone else. It's exaggerated because he wasn't big on subtlety or nuance, but he was making a point when he wrote them that way, he wasn't just making them Mary Sues for the hell of it.

>>24837563
I really liked the idea of it but it felt like a book with half the fucking chapters missing. The homunculi backstory is given in an honest-to-god exposition dump, there's a buttload of named characters who are either immediately killed or play no long-term relevance, massive emotional scenes are just skipped.
Seriously, this could've been a best-selling 600-page novel cum movie. It should've been. It's like he phoned in his own book.
The most egregious sin he committed, however, was not finishing the main damn emotional arc.
1. The main character lies to the homunculi about her true affection for them.
2. The homunculi risk their own lives to save her.
3. T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶t̶o̶u̶c̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶e̶m̶o̶t̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ whoops I mean fucking nothing, there's no character development at all. It literally just ends as soon as they defeat the big bad.

>>24837549
I read two books inside of a week. The first was Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. The second was Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones.
1. PSS was a technical marvel. Extreme amounts of skill, creativity, and worldbuilding. Well-wrought characters, fascinating plotlines, and a mysterious and engaging world.
2. HMC was a bit of a whirlwind. Strange concept, few characters, not a lot of plot. The story wanders this way and that, there isn't really any escalation of any kind, and at the end of the book all the characters literally bustle into the same house and tell the protagonist the story's over.

And yet. The first book felt like a bit of a slog, to be honest. I wanted to read it, sure, but I was also making myself read it. Whereas the second book was actually difficult to put down. I stayed up late to finish it.
There is some undefinable quality to writing that cannot be learned, I think. The author must find it in themselves. It was sort of like the difference between a realistic painting and a symbolic painting. Technical skill is not enough.

>>24839166
I actually enjoyed Rhythm of War because it was slow, character focused and dialogue heavy which I like. I can see how people think it would be boring, especially because of pacing issues but I think Wind and Truth did it much worse.

Reading the dying earth. I am so mixed on Cugel. The guy swings from absolute piece of shit moron to barely capable a lot and I still find myself cheering for him. What a funny guy.

>>24836664
Ned Flanders was a parody of Christian fundamentalism, he wasn't supposed to be a moderate at all. And not even Ned has takes on MLK as spicy as Charlie.

>>24839433
If there was any substance to it that would be great. Instead it's just back and forth characterization that goes nowhere, because the status quo has to be maintained for whatever reason.
Sanderson's writing process:
What, someone's figured something out about themselves? Nah, let's go through that process 2 more times, one wasn't enough, let's bash the reader over the head with "the message", whatever it could be.
Oh, and remember that thing that happend in the past? I'll remind you another 3 times, because you're a fucking reatard that can't retain the simplest information for more than 300 pages. I need to be overly explicit in explaining my and my character's reasoning because my audience is literally a bunch of mental toddlers, I must extend that expo dump by another 20 pages.
Hmm, I should spice this pretty decent so far scene with some quips, that'll improve it without fail.
I don't know who directed Avengers but I want to suck his dick so much.

Probably something like this.
Rant over.

>>24839382
I was getting fantasy heist and revolution fatigue at the time I read it. Found the whole setup of a pretty interesting world just to do a heist silly and the revolution focus odd because it ended with basically only token reforms.
>Seriously, this could've been a best-selling 600-page novel cum movie. It should've been. It's like he phoned in his own book.
I do wonder if his novellas are just ideas that he either couldn't develop into series or couldn't sell to publishers as a series.

>>24837940
>>24837882
Merchant Princes also by Stross is also really focused on economics. If you want to give it a glib summary it's a story about an import/export business.
It's not fantasy but I highly recommend you read
The House of Niccolò. It's historical fiction and exactly what you're after.

>>24837336
>hasn't heard of discovery writing
Good authors have the flowchart but leave wiggle room. The ratio between flow chart and wiggle room may vary per author.

>>24837059
Just keep putting one word after another.

>shit starts happening in malazan
>changes perspective
sick of it

>>24839498
Ned Flanders was a parody of a decent neighbor at a time in American history when that was understood by the mainstream to be a good Christian.

>>24835665 (OP)
The Coming Dark, #1 - D.J. Molles (2025)

The Coming Dark is set 5,000 years after the Godbreaker series, which I didn't read and didn't know it was, though it seems to have minimal connection. In that, humanity is in miserable enslavement by alien species. In this, humanity is in enthusiastic servitude to an alien species. The story keeps faking out the reader into thinking it's going to be about one thing, then pivots to another idea, then another, then another and so on, until it finally reveals what it's really about. All of this is undercut by the title, the synopsis, the Goodreads description, the promotional material, and everything else. So, I don't really know what the point of it all was. Is it better to be go in blind and be surprised by being jerked around or know what to expect and go along with it? The unfortunate part is that once it got to the main part, it wasn't what I cared about.

Humanity has been designated as the galactic police by the most advanced species, who claim to be literally unable to engage in violence. Thus, humanity is sent wherever they're needed to protect the weak and pacifistic against the aggressive. The advanced societies of the galactic civilization only admit species that have completely forsworn violence, so humanity doesn't get to be part of that. There are only around a million humans remaining, because if there were too many, they may become a threat.

This isn't a book where humanity realizes that living in servitude is bad and they overthrow their masters. Instead, there's various metaphors regarding the military and its relationship to the rest of society. All thematic material and anything of depth is pushed aside when the aliens arrive. When you're fighting for survival, should anything else matter other than survival? That's about the only question that remains.

There were a lot of good combat scenes, death everywhere, and all sorts of exciting things happening, but I came to realize that in this context I didn't care. War against aliens who won't or can't communicate and only want to destroy, destroy, destroy isn't enjoyable. I find it boring and don't feel emotionally involved or engaged in any way. I enjoyed all the lead up much more than the main event, which isn't how it's supposed to be, or at least not how I want it to be.

The next book seems to be much more of the same, and I assume third book would be as well, so I'm stopping here rather than continuing on. If an author only has a single series I like from them, then that's how it is.

Rating: 2.5/5

I'm starting to think there's no way Malazan is worth reading

>>24839602
it's not, don't waste your braincless

>>24839602
It's enjoyable overall, but it's so dang long.

>>24839602
I would have told you it's worth it after the second book, but I can't say it after the third.

>>24839595
your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF

>>24835665 (OP)
Quick, someone wax poetical about the Culture series.

>>24838846
>What about Erikson’s viewpoint don’t you agree with?
Politically and spiritually he’s very outspoken and I don't align with him on much outside of the fact that we both have vaguely western values. I do agree with his anti-grimdark outlook however. Individuality, optimism in spite of hardship, and compassion are big themes for the series. Two of his literary inspirations covered those themes much more effectively. That being the Black Company (it’s not grimdark) and Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. However he does so on a scale that I haven’t seen anyone else do it even attempt to do. He’s able to achieve things with character development on a scale that’s so over the top ridiculous. yet it works. That’s the selling point of the series. I also appreciate that he never once stops the story for exposition.

>>24839602
Book 1 is bad. Book 2 has a slow start and then gets excellent. The rest of the series has peaks and valleys but ventures into kino on a regular basis. I generally don’t recommend it though. It’s my niche series and you can’t have it.

Finished this today and holy shit, what a fucking load of garbage it was. It was the most edgelord thing I've ever read, with a main character with Gary Stu levels so high that it makes Kvothe jealous. How is this so popular? Does it get a lot better with the sequels and is it worth reading on?

>renarin gay out of no where
Why? For what purpose?
4 books and not a single hint and now hes gay for a fucking alien
Fuck you sanderson

>>24836697
Dune is weird in that there is all this interesting world building that is literally destroyed by Paul and the Fremen.

>>24839941
A Mormon wrote a gay character?

>>24839941
Google image search “Rlain and Renarin” for fanart.

>>24838846
>where did you stop?
Book 10. Karsa is just a stereotypical barbarian and I genuinely can't remember any of the others except Kallor. They're all just so generic. I do remember Kallor, but his only character trait is being a huge asshole.

>>24839595
your """reviews""" are GREAT
DON'T FUCK OFF

>>24840009
you read 10 books of a series you did not like wtf is wrong with you

>>24840009
This is why I don't recommend Malazan to anyone.
This is your average fantasy reader.

>>24839893
I keep hearing that all Mark Lawrence books are all shit. I know he is popular because of SPFBO and thats about it.

>>24840034
Good to know, I always see his books in the discount basket, tempting me.

>>24840034
Apart from Prince of Thorns I've only read his library trilogy. The Book That Wouldn't Burn was genuinely great, second one fell off quite a bit and then the third one was complete dogshit. From what I've gathered he seems to be a very uneven writer.

>>24839893
The others are just as bad. Motives are shit, character development feel like asspulls and it is overall a shit trilogy with rushed ending

>>24836702
>just ignore shit writing and enjoy
Some of us have read more than one book, so we're able to compare.

>>24840034
I thought his Red Sister books were fine. At times they were schlocky and cringe, but I never found them offensively bad. Helps that they are quite short.

>>24839813
Down the road, newfag nigger.

Mercy of Gods
>far future
>mankind has lived on a not-Earth planet for 3000 years
>planet had existing life when mankind arrived
>main characters are team of biologists
>aliens come and conquer the planet
>aliens take main characters to their homeworld and make them continue their research
>main characters continue research
>have love triangle between head researcher, main character, and woman possessed by good alien nanobots (totally not protomolecule btw)
>other characters have constant mental breakdowns and depressive episodes
>drama-and-angst.jpg
3/5

/lit/ approved?

>>24840337
I found this pretty interesting until the end. I really hate the plot device of 'I have to do this and can't tell anyone about it, therefore drama'.

>>24840367
Yes

anyone ever read the Guin Saga by Kaoru Kurimoto? There's a shitton of books but I assume if it was any good i'd have heard of it by now.

Is 3 body problem fine as a stand alone?

>>24840601
I mean I would never consider reading another book by the author... so... kinda?

>>24840525
I don't think it was ever fully translated which is why it's not really known in the west but it's still pretty big in Japan and influenced a ton of shit. Berserk, Arslan, Tekken, Dorohodoro just to name a few.

>>24840022
I bought the whole series at once so I figured I might as well finish them.
>>24840025
>This is why I don't recommend Malazan to anyone.
I agree, if you want a series with good characters I wouldn't recommend Malazan either.

>>24840607
Best answer.

>>24840367
Yes. Bretty good and was thinking of getting Jonathan Strange from her, as well

>>24840337
>The Mercy of Gods has been praised for its...exploration of themes such as resistance and individuality under authoritarian regimes.
sounds like libtarded slop

>>24840367
Not really, you and the others are bots

>>24840601
No, it's the worst book of a middling series.

>>24840525
Yes, I book the physical copies as they were released. It's still a light novel series, so it was only okay. The anime really makes a huge mess of it as it goes on, skipping entire volumes at a time between episodes.

>>24840367
One of my absolute favorite books. Sadly Jonathan Strange didn't grab me at all.

look at this dude oh nonono

>>24840009
>Karsa is just a stereotypical barbarian
what. Karsa is anything but that

>>24840918
>>24840009
Yeah this guy didn’t read the books or is retarded for multiple reasons

>>24839602
it's one of the rare series that gatekeep by itself by having a not very good 1st book

I just got introduced to red rising and was going through the first book. Enjoying it so far but holy hell the sheer amount of mental illness in the community for it has me just a but reluctant to go through the rest of it in case it turns into some leftist propaganda or something

>>24840947
At this point I'm convinced it's a psyop by the early fans to get people into the series.
I got hooked instantly, it's an amazing book, and it only gets better as Erikson grows as a writer.

>>24839602
>he got memed into reading Malazan
Happens to the best of us, anon.

>>24839595
your """reviews""" are WHATEVER
LEAVE OR REMAIN DO AS YOU PREFER I AM AMBIVALENT REGARDING YOUR CONTINUOUS PRESENCE

>Franck pitched the concept to Abraham as a science fiction retelling of this narrative. Abraham was drawn to the idea, viewing it as "The Book of Daniel as the biblical version of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four," exploring the theme of maintaining individual identity within an authoritarian empire.
OH MY HECKIN' SCIENCE, IMAGINE TRYING TO BE A GOOD ATHEIST INDIVIDUALIST LIBERAL JEW IN A HECKIN' AUTHORITARIAN DRUMPFIAN FASCIST EMPIRE!!!

>>24835665 (OP)
Can we get rid of fantasy from these threads? Fantasy sucks.

>>24841037
Meds

>>24841040
i just repeated exactly what i quoted in similar language though

>>24840331
>newfag seething at guy who has been making post for three years
LOL

>>24841038
enjoy your dead threads

>>24841038
imo good sci-fi is better than good fantasy, but great fantasy mogs great sci-fi
and fantasy makes up much more of written fiction than sci-fi anyway

>>24840771
As someone who's only read JS&MN so far;
>One of my absolute favorite books
Oh good! I've been meaning to read this, I'm glad it lives up to the hype. Collins slim bibliography made me wary of her other works.
>Sadly Jonathan Strange didn't grab me at all
Well shoot, maybe I'm not ideologically compatible with anon. Hopefully I still enjoy this next book tho

>>24841092
It's an objectively well-written book but it was very ~British~ and as someone not from there and not that well-versed in their history and historical culture I think it just didn't land for me. Had it been shorter I'd have probably enjoyed it more, but since I already wasn't that into it it became a bit of a slog getting through 1k pages of it.

>>24841011
Just don't give a shit about the fandom and enjoy the book. If you're enjoying book 1 then you're already on the right path because it's the weakest. Book 2 improves upon it immensely.

>>24839514
Thanks, I'll check both of them out. House of Niccolo seems right up my alley.

>>24836179
unreadable writing

>>24839869
I spent six months reading all ten main books and, when asked, regularly turned people away from reading Malazan, despite loving it (both peaks and valleys, its not perfect). How can I recommend a fantasy series to the average person that would consume hundreds of hours of their life ? It's almost arrogant to assume someone has that kind of commitment of both time and energy.

I've been on a Malazan break since May. I finished House of Chains and don't feel like going back despite enjoying them.

>>24841277
that's why i don't even bother recommending those books
people who actually crave for epic fantasy will eventually stumble into the series sooner or later anyway so why bother persuading internet strangers to read them

>>24840367
It's good

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_book/1029811-sffg?book_id=50202953

>>24840337
this is fucking halo but instead of the protagonist being a 7ft tall super soldier with a holographic girlfriend killing grunts it's a science nerd figuring out how to grow plants for the covenant and whining about how we need to stand up for our democratic institutions. gaytarded slop/ 10

>>24841281
you don't have to read shit books anon

>>24841363
Par the course from the dudes who wrote Expanse I'd say.

Why is Malazan getting so much hate?`I've read two books so far and enjoyed em both

>near the end of my Bakker reread
>AGAIN
Bros, what the fuck do I move onto...

>>24841496
Something good

>>24840786
The vest is kino, but the ponytail, eyebrows, and beard are all cringe as fuck.

>GotM
loved it
>DG
meh
>MoI
meh
>HoC
loved it
>MT
loved it
>NoK
shit
>BH
meh

Haven't picked it up again since then about a year ago. The highs are really high, but there's just so much boring slop to wade through. It having millions of uninteresting characters I can't even begin to care about, over the top saturday morning cartoon villains and every other character name being just some random word are only the beginning of my gripes with the series.

>>24841467
people who hate them tend to really hate them.

As we’re talking about Malazan, I recommended these dictionaries if you use an e-reader. Makes reads easier

https://www.thefictionary.net/

>>24841516
Im reading through BotNS so if there's one for that I'll get it for sure

>>24839320
What are you reading next?

>>24839893
>Finished this today and holy shit, what a fucking load of garbage it was.
We've been saying this for YEARS.
>>24840034
>SPFBO
What is this?

>>24840601
No. You need to read the series to fully appreciate it.

>>24841467
I think a lot of people can't just roll with not having everything spelled out up front. Gotta have that "subject verb object" structure writ large at all times. With Malazan, you just kind of go with it on vibes and trust that most things come around eventually, probably.

Any time I see reviews of a long, dense book/series talking about how hard it is to get into things, it is inevitably this, amd I've learned that books are generally richer in the end for being put together that way.

>>24841467
It's made in the last 3 decades, too new for the pseuds.

Finally at the final portions of The Last Legends of Earth. Mm-mmh!

>>24841523
From Sando? Nothing. Either Blood Song or Devils.

>>24841539
>Blood Song
Looks good.
>Devils.
By Joe Abercrombie?

>>24835665 (OP)
Legalist, The Grand Illusion #4, L.E. Modesitt Jr. (2025)

Legalist is the 4th book in The Grand Illusion series and takes place ~450 years before the 1st book, Isolate. That means this can be read as a standalone. There are no overlapping characters and much is different about the Imperium of Guldor from the prior trilogy. The main problem in doing so though is that the book assumes you're already familiar with the peculiarities of the setting, so it doesn't go over them much. However, due to being a prequel set centuries ago, most of them aren't relevant yet.

Dominic Ysella, 33, is the elected councilor from Aloor and a member of the Waterways Committee. A water rights legalist by trade, he felt that he could better serve his country by being in government. ~50 years ago Imperador Laureous conquered the neighboring countries and formed the Imperium. Ysella's grandfather was Aloor's monarch, so he's familiar with bad governance and violent regime change. Laureous's advanced age has made him erratic and unreliable as a ruler and his heir is even worse. The only way to save Guldor is to limit the powers of the Imperador through reform, not revolution. Ysella is determined to work within the system as best he can, often covertly, to reduce corruption, promote good governance, and balance the interests of those involved.

Legalist is even more about a government in a secondary world than the previous books. There is far less action, romance, magic, and much of everything less. Ysella is devoted to improving the country to the exclusion of almost all else. He'd prefer to do everything without violence, though self-defense is permissible and necessary. He believes that progress is far better served through civility, respect, and mutual regard.

Ysella does this within the context that only certain men can vote, those who differ from the standard are discriminated against, and those with the most power murder their opposition. The indigent and vulnerable are exploited or disregarded, commerce has few regulations, and war looms. Reforming much of this isn't a current priority, as preventing a civil war and reining in the Imperador's power take precedence.

In terms of the narrative, this is almost a day by day account of Ysella's life, where each chapter is a single day. Despite that, I didn't feel that his routine was repetitive. However, as I wrote about the previous books, I don't know how much that of that is personal preference and bias. For me, Modesitt has reached a new height of enjoyment with what I've read from him with this book, and at 82 years old, he's better than ever. While I ought to read more historical fiction, there's just something about detailing a fantasy government and its political drama that works so well for me. This comes close to being everything I could want from the relatively more serious variation of this niche. I eagerly await the next and assumedly final book in the series.

Rating: 5/5

>>24841639
Allow me bros…

Your ““reviews”” are SHIT

thoughts on Footfall?

>>24841529
>With Malazan, you just kind of go with it on vibes and trust that most things come around eventually, probably.
My experience with Malazan has been:
>read Gates of the Moon
>very little makes sense
>I don't care about the events
>I don't care about the characters
>I don't care about the Whiskeyjack and the Bridgebrakers or whatever and the gay nigger elf and Tattersail and the warrens and houses and decks of whatevers
>also prose is fucking horrible
>I've known authors of pornographic fanfics with a better grasp of English language

>Red Deadhouse Gates
>still not much things making sense
>still don't care about events and characters
>even more events and characters are introduced
>they keep piling up and that doesn't make me any more interested
>prose is somehow worse

>Will I read more in hopes of suddenly starting to care about any of this?
>Nah, I have better things to do.

The general impression it left on me was that it's written for people for want a mental Wikipedia to fill out with some D&D bullshit, not a fantasy story about fantasy people interacting with each other.

>>24841529
>With Malazan, you just kind of go with it on vibes and trust that most things come around eventually, probably.
My experience with Malazan has been:
>read Gates of the Moon
>very little makes sense
>I don't care about the events
>I don't care about the characters
>I don't care about the Whiskeyjack and the Bridgebrakers or whatever and the gay nigger elf and Tattersail and the warrens and houses and decks of whatevers
>also prose is fucking horrible
>I've known authors of pornographic fanfics with a better grasp of English language

>Red Deadhouse Gates
>still not much things making sense
>still don't care about events and characters
>even more events and characters are introduced
>they keep piling up and that doesn't make me any more interested
>prose is somehow worse

>Will I read more in hopes of suddenly starting to care about any of this?
>Nah, I have better things to do.

The general impression it left on me was that it was written for people who want a mental Wikipedia to fill out with some D&D trivia, not a fantasy story about fantasy people interacting with each other.

>>24841699
Pretty gud. All of Niven's best books are his collabs.

>>24841722
i the Aren scene and Squint's shot didn't leave a single impression on you then these books are definitely not for you
DG is as straightforward as it could get

>>24841699
Goodish, except for the every single scene with the sci-fi writers who are drafted by the government to come up with ideas to understand and defeat the aliens. A constant masturbation festival about how smart and eccentric sci-fi authors are.

>>24840689
And you're a faggot

>>24841787
So what? I'm 20 and I can do what I want

>>24841805
>20 and already taking it in the ass

>>24841639
your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF

>>24841890
Down the road, newfag nigger.

Oh, my mistake. The spammer has been at it for over FOUR years, not three.
>https://warosu.org/lit/?task=search&ghost=false&search_text=%22your+%22%22%22reviews%22%22%22+are+SHIT%22&offset=192
And the first instance of his current spam format
>https://warosu.org/lit/thread/21311319#p21323327

>>24841817
giwtwm

This one has been bugging me for months so I thought /sffg/ might be the place to ask.
I started reading The Montauk Project and found the idea fascinating. Obviously, the book is a bunch of factual baloney and as work of fiction, to put in mildly, sophomoric. Still, I found parts of the narrative fascinating: the late 20th century CIA-style experiments on the human mind converging on paranormal phenomenon beyond this earth, the first-person narrator's crisis of identity upon discovering they used to be a major part of it, etc.
Are there actually decently-written novels about this kind of thing? I have come across two pieces of media that take direct inspiration from it, Stranger Things and the Chronos/Remnant video games (maybe that new Outlast co-op game too, haven't played it) so I suppose it must be a whole subgenre in the conspiracy thriller genre.

>>24840525
>>24840612
I'll give it a shot then, thanks.

>>24840095
>>24840034
I can confirm he is very uneven, probably because he never does outlines and plays everything by ear. Thought Prince of Thorns was kind of shit but intriguing, then King of Thorns is a mess that comes together spectacularly at the end. Emperor is an alright conclusion.

>>24841756
>i the Aren scene and Squint's shot didn't leave a single impression on you then these books are definitely not for you
I don't even remember who these are supposed to be.

>>24841817
problem? i'm also cross & femboy
you can seethe now

>>24841948
>>24841957
>newfags have only just discovered our resident review hater
Newfags really love outing themselves

>>24841467
they hate well written strong female characters like tattersail

>>24841639
finally, a review that isn't shit.
have you read the Corean Chronicles?

>>24842275
get that ass banned

>the coomer jeet is back
>now posting landwhales
GO BACK

Jesus Christ, it's just tropes. It's been a long time since I've read a book that is literally just trope after trope.

Why is edgy asian harry potter so popular?

>>24842283
No. He has so many series that have so many books. One year maybe I will.

can someone shit on wheel of time as hard as possible to remind me why i shouldnt spend 2 months reading those books for the 3rd time

>>24841699
pröööh :DDDDD

>>24841699
please tell me the cute elephants are frens and not the bad guys

>>24842396
No, because if that's something you do, then it speaks to deeper problems. That you would consider spending that long for a third time rather than have experiences says a lot about you.

>>24842396
It's called wheel of time because it takes a wheel fucking long time to read.

How many books can someone read in their lifetime? 6000? You want to waste that potential on rereading the same shit again?

Is there any story that's like a really shitty generic isekai but the MC is too myopic, cynical, and redpilled to enjoy it? Then just ends up alone and has to confront the idea that it's all his fault?

>>24842499
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever but it isn't generic nor shitty it's actually one of the best series i have ever read, imagine Rust Cohle from True Detective getting isekai'd to a generic fantasy land.

>>24841639
your """reviews""" are GREAT
DON'T FUCK OFF

>>24842396
>tugs braids

>>24842396
Read some WoT fan fiction instead.

>>24835665 (OP)
>read king killer chronicles
>mandatory white knight "rape is le evil" scene
>drop it

>read art of the adept
>mandatory white knight "rape is le evil" scene
>drop it

>read primal hunter
>mandatory white knight "rape is le evil" scene
>drop it

>read kings dark tidings
>Mandatory white knight "rape is le evil" scene
>drop it

I literally can't escape. Every book with a "morally grey" character has to include a scene where the author makes an appeal to foids that "yeah my character is bad.. but he's not a monster" and is gay as shit every single time

alright /sffg/ be honest.
what i'm in for? this thing is like 3000+ pages long so it better have a cool ending

>>24842904
Severian in Book of the New Sun

Which books have arcs as climactic and gripping as the ending of the Imperial Court Blessed Land arc in Reverend Insanity? Or the Three Kings Inheritance arc?

I've read quite a bit of fiction and they rarely manage to ratchet up the tension in the same way.

>>24842904
read Reverend Insanity

>>24842904
I was going to read riftwar next, hoping that an older story with a more exclusively male marketing demographic wouldn't have an author so blatantly trying to get pussy points. Is Pug a simp fag? I would prefer rape just not be in the story since western authors can't handle it with their sex obsessive and simp natures preventing them from acknowledging that rape isn't particularly worse than any other form of torture and is better than many others that those same authors will write off as being a joke.

>>24840918
>>24840923
He's a stereotypical noble savage who acts violent but has a strict code of honor. There is nothing interesting or unique about his character and the fact that he is one of the best Malazan characters is very sad.

>>24839595
>the Godbreaker series
That was a good series, you should give it a chance.

>>24841722
>The general impression it left on me was that it was written for people who want a mental Wikipedia to fill out with some D&D trivia, not a fantasy story about fantasy people interacting with each other.
The problem with Malazan is that the characters are all generic stereotypes and they never grow or change as the series goes on. Two of the main characters battle to the death in book nine and it's clearly meant to be a big deal but we still barely know who either of them are, other than that they are both stoic killing machines.

>>24841281
The next one is incredibly divisive. I love it but it’s a prequel on a new continent. And it is odd. There’s a lot of social and political subtext that is a little more blatant here than with other books. But Tiste Edur society is really cool. And two main families are the highlight. If you’re on the fence though this one is a real test of patience.

>>24842959
I cant get past the translation being so bad, I've tried. I also like plot progression and most xianxia/webnovels progress at a snails pace. I did like cradle though, even if the humor becomes somewhat unbearable in the last few books when everyone turns into Eithan.

>>24842944
Really? That sucks BotNS was on my list

>>24843038
I hate Malazan but Midnight Tides was probably the only book in the series I actually liked. Seeing Tehol and Bugg interact was fun and Rhulad was an interesting villain.

>>24843018
He’s a starts as a fanatical and genocidal mass rapist and drug addict who slowly turns into a noble savage with a strict code of honor.

>>24842959
don't you fuckers have a containment thread?

>>24841467
Malazan Book 1 is good.
Book 2 is awesome.
The test of them as dogwater except the weird one that has the Tull Singer (i think his name was). The elf guy. That one was good too.

>>24843065
Trull Sengar is kino

>>24841467
Well a lot of people have varied opinions
>a longtime resident of this general that really hates the series and foams at the mouth when you bring it up
>one guy that hasn’t read it but pretends to like it to set off previous guy
>normal fans who really like it and enjoy talking about it
>normal people that don’t like it
It’s very particular so everyone reacts differently. When Malazan discussion happens here it’s usually all over the place.

>>24843055
>He’s a starts as a fanatical and genocidal mass rapist and drug addict who slowly turns into a noble savage with a strict code of honor
...over the course of a quarter of the book, then he stays stagnant for the rest of the series. If he was a minor supporting character his lack of depth would be fine, but for a main character he's about as complex as a mannequin.

>>24841467
>>24841529
Malazan sounds interesting in theory but after four or five books you'll realize the characters are bland and the setting is a stereotypical D&D world with elves, orcs, and dragons, the author just uses fake names to make them sound more original.

>>24843024
After reading his Ashes of Eormun series, I looked into what else he's written, including Godbreaker. It hasn't gone well.

>>24843155
good thing is that he is not the main character
that's Fiddler

>>24843161
Those Tistes are anything but elf
and
>Jaghut
>Orc
you barely read the books then

Futa recs?

>>24843044
>That sucks BotNS was on my list
No, you don't understand. It's pro rape

>>24843155
No that book shows him at the start. That is step 1. He becomes more noble and less of a pawn as he loses his faith. He gives up Urugal. Then he just switches faiths (that’s when we first meet him). But he was mostly there out of loyalty and less fanaticism. That gets cut short by war. He is haunted by the ghosts of the Teblor that followed him to rape and pillage which causes him to challenge and denounce his former patron god, which gives him some peace. Then he learns to be an independent force instead of a tool. By the last book he is this all powerful being yet one with deep empathy for the common man. It’s an interesting character journey. Very unique reverse spiritual enlightenment for a savage.

why do wheel of time posters hate the Malazan so much?

>>24843287
you forgot to mention that he gets humiliated by both Rake and Traveller so now is an indecisive god
hence the god is not willing
i think he did nothing but chill with his wife in Darujhistan the last 10+ years

>>24843276
>Those Tistes are anything but elf
Pic-related.
>Jaghut
>Orc
What do you call green guys with tusks who are obsessed with power and conquest?

>>24843296
For all of its faults, WoT is leagues better than Malazan.

He maybe got the idea from D&D, but what he wrote is not elf-like at all. The tiste liosan maybe, but that's like 1/3 of them
>What do you call green guys with tusks who are obsessed with power and conquest?'"
So you did not read past GotM? Because that's just Reast, and he is fucking retired in later books to chill with his dead cat
The rest of them are just grumpy funny old men/women who hate civilization and prefer to live isolated. And despite being good fighters they are all high mages. They are probably the smartest race in those books too
There is nothing Orc-like about them

>>24843392
>>24843367

>>24842904
I feel the same way. I don't particularly care to read such a thing, but I hate how every author seems to always point it out. Same goes for things like slavery, although with that there are eastern novels that seem to be okay with it.

>>24843392
>obsessed with power and conquest?'"
So you did not read past GotM? Because that's just Reast
Isn't the villain in the second book a Jaghut warlord too?

>>24838558
>honestly can't see what's great about Malazan, same here


It's all possible fantasy Rule of Cool things gathered under one story with just enough of substance and writing skill that doesn't let it slip into fantasy capeshit but instead elevates to fantasy classics level.
It's big though and flawed too, but for many readers that amount of Rule of Cool that makes up a lot of great and epic moments is worthy enough to get through 10k pages.
Also the characters are charming and fun to read about still, and many of them are kino as fuck. So there is that.

>>24843409
the second book is the desert one
i think you mean the 3rd one and yes that guy is a jaghut, the mind broken one. He is another special case too since he got trapped into a broken realm for like thousand years. Couldn't blame him

>>24842965
>>24842904
Rape is worse than torturing moids you Incel nazi freak go meet Charlie Kirk and all the other misogyny nazis

>>24843412
>the characters are charming
What did you find charming about the characters?.

>>24843065
I might be one of the few people who enjoyed GotM more than DG. I dove into Malazan without any knowledge of its fame and criticism, synopsis just sounded cool.
And vibrant colors of Darujistan, relative variety of places, fixed basic MC (Ganoes), cool Assassin's Creed and mages' intrigues apppealed to me way more than the whole book of people surviving in the desert.
Coltain's whole part was awesome, but Felisin's whole plot was tiresome to read.

>>24843433
Some of them are giving the sense of comfort and are also funny and nice fellas to read about. Quick Ben, Tehol and Kruppe to mention a few.
Other kind of charming is in characters' exaggerated personality trait. All Kallor's scenes are joy to read because of his magnificent assholery.
Rula is so pitiful in his envy that it's fun to watch him as more and more bad shit is getting dropped onto his head.
Also Jaghuts and Imass are sometimes hilarious cause they are fucking old and immortal but still have it in them to butthurt.

>>24843454
Kallor is fun but what did you like about Quick Ben? I don't recall him having any interesting traits other than being a mage.

>>24843161
Yeah, it was recommended to me as being very expansive, which it is, but I feel it's lacking in terms of attachment to... anything basically. The world IS expansive, as in big and with a lot of cultures, but I feel most of them are presented in a very clinical way. It might be Erikson's inability to separate the writer from the anthropologist/archaeologist, but seeing ooga booga Karsa and pals analysing devolved languages in the beginning of book 4 was a bit ridiculous.
Although I've got to give it to him that when he doesn't have random characters turn into anthropologists and lets the cultures reveal themselves naturally, things are much better.

>>24841228
the fuck are you talking about? are you a mongoloid? it's probably the most straight forward fantasy I've ever read

I bet you like Sanderson

>>24842904
that's because you are reading shit targeted at retards and women

>>24842349
To this day I have no idea what started this fawning over Chinese authors.

>>24843587
sad thirsty fucks thinking with their cocks

>>24843587
Yeah, I find it odd and hard to understand too. Maybe US publishers saw that Chinese webnovels were getting popular and decided to take advantage of the situation, plus the whole anti-whatever trend. I'm pretty sure it started with those BL novels.

>>24842904
>Noooo saaaar you can't say le bad thing is le bad reeeeeeeeee!
Kill yourself ranjeet.

>>24842916
Probably some ham fisted sex scenes featuring beautiful women who are just the absolute best at what they do, if it's anything like the other stuff of his I've read.

>>24843266
>implying Corrab isn't the MC

>>24843376
Choosing violence, I see.

Here, I'll bite. WoT is for brainlets that need their hands held from first to last page. Said hand-holding expands the page count beyond reason.

I'd actually give an abridged version of WoT a chance, because the plot was there, it just didn't justify the page count.

>>24843728
>because the plot was there, it just didn't justify the page count.
the irony of a malazanfag saying this

>author at a recent con aggressively shilled his book to me as I walked by
>decide to pirate it
>asian fantasy inspired world
>asian protag
>no surprise here, the author was asian
>suddenly multiple female love interests inexplicably described as white
>dropped
pls stop throwing your fetishes at me. also you don't need to do cultivation AND litrpg stuff, man. one or the other is enough to make me drop it anyway

>>24843767
yeah there should have been 15 books instead so that all of the plot threads could be resolved nicely instead of pushing some of them into his buddy books.

>>24843728
Here's just a small number of things that WoT has that Malazan doesn't
>a coherent story
>memorable fleshed out characters that get proper characterization and development
>actual names for characters and not just random words like Blend, Antsy, Aimless, Mallet, Picker, Fiddler, Strings, Bottle, Story, Spindle etc
>magic that makes sense and isn't just random shit for whatever the author feels like at the moment

must have been a joyless retard so that you got to nitpick a character's nickname of all things
your post doesn't deserve my (you)

>>24843435
Deadhouse Gates has higher highs than Gardens of the Moon but lower lows for sure. Everything involving Coltaine, Duiker and the Chain of Dogs is pure kino. Fiddler and Kalam have good parts and bad, and Felisin's story is a total slog. Then you have all the tertiary characters who are a mixed bag. If you like the setup and worldbuilding they're great but if you don't like the large scope of the books then they feel like irrelevant filler.
Gardens of the Moon, on the other hand, maintains a fairly steady level of interesting regardless of which character or plotline it's focusing on, even though none of them quite reach the level of Duiker's story.

>>24843423
ywnbaw
>>24843639
and ywnbam you're just npc dogs for roasties
>>24843576
if I was reading books aimed at women the rape would be part of the romance

>>24839400
I think Perdido Street Station has that RPG setting feel. There are so many elements to facilitate all sorts of different and fascinating adventures, but it all hangs just barely together with a hefty dose of suspension of disbelief and nothing too big can ever happen to upset the status quo because otherwise the descriptions in the sourcebook for the setting would get obsoleted.

Just started Malazan myself and am about a quarter through the first book, it's not really written well but I'm interested in learning more about this world and that keeps me going. I've heard that the writing gets better after the first book, also I'm taking what people are saying here with a grain of salt because nu-4chan has such a tendency to be negative.

Anyone else having trouble with Anna Archives? All the links seem to be dead.

>>24843954
Yes, I was trying to download something and had to go with the third or fourth server.

>>24843917
>Coltaine, Duiker and the Chain of Dogs
This was the worst part of the book and I really don't understand why people keep jerking off Coltaine. Most boring cardboard-cutout character ever. The ending "twist" was also obvious from a mile away - who'd have guessed the character introduced as a slimy shitbag weasel was a slimy shitbag weasel who betrayed them?? GASP! Not to mention the absolute shit ending to Kalam's storyline with Shadowthrone being the most cartoony le evil dude ever. God damn I hated those parts.

Felisin was meh to alright, and Mappo and Icarium was the only true redeeming factor of the book.

>>24842349
>>24843587
Because it's written by a Chinese-American author, in English.
For some god forsaken reason, the west refuses to read actual Chinese works.

>>24843952
>I've heard that the writing gets better after the first book
It does. Gardens of the Moon was written as a film script and then rewritten to be a book. There is a 10 year gap in writing between that and the sequel which the author improves but also because he goes into more detail of the world. He still is incredibly autistic and spends chapters looking at anthropological history of races but that's his little 'tism that he enjoys.

Today, I remind them

>Itkovian = Trull
>Bugg + Tehol

>Beak (honorable mention)