-----
--- 21917688
Cultivation Edition

Previous thread: >>21908871 →

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

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

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

>Thread theme
https://youtu.be/rZZxdDQubTs [Embed]

Glory days of progression fantasy when?
--- 21917730
sneed
--- 21917736
I enjoy reading about Dwarfs in fantasy setting and generally love reading about underground adventures or exploring underground ruins and what nots. What fantasy books would you recommend for this, /sffg/?
--- 21917740
First for women mc and women authors
--- 21917749
Why is goodreads such a pile of shit?
I want to find new stuff to read and sort by genres and stuff
Porn websites give me more power with filters than this piece of crap
<genre/tag> <genre/tag> <genre/tag> since_year:2000 blacklist: author:female protagonist:female
Why can't you do this?
--- 21917758
Imma repost this for some help fag to help.
>>21909028 →
>>21909028 →
--- 21917764
>>21917736
Dwarven Nations Trilogy by Dan Parkinson
Stormblade by Nancy Varian Berberick
The Gates of Thorbadin by Dan Parkinson
Dark Thane 
All of them are set in the dragonlance universe
--- 21917765
>>21917749
Amazon bought them then laid of most of the developers.
--- 21917766
>>21917758
Find a decent narrator voice and put the entirety of the text through ElvenAI. Your only choice.
--- 21917778
>>21917765
It's fucking cancer
Why can I sort porn but not books?!
I don't even want recommendations I just want to sort with tags so I can find something interesting
I hate bezos so fucking much it's not like shit isn't tagged on goodreads (albeit improperly) you just can't sort by them
--- 21917805
>>21917766
>ElvenAI
They want e bux and only allow 10k characters per month.
I would probably finish the entire series faster by eye than spend a year plus turning one book into an audiobook.
--- 21917810
>>21917778
Use their API then.
--- 21917820
>>21917810
Can I easily use this or do I have to jump through 200 hoops?
Starting with making an account
--- 21917824
>>21917764
Do I have to know anything beforehand about Dragonlance as a setting or can I just jump straight into the books?
--- 21917875
>>21917824
Dwarven Nations and Gates are set hundred of years before the Main storyline so you can jump straight into them.
--- 21917925
>>21917392 →
>Malazan: butts and thicc ladies
Hmm, tell me more.
--- 21917952
>>21917778
Stop watching porn it is cancer
--- 21917958
>>21917952
>he thinks i "watch" porn
Sorry to tell you son but I didn't mean 3d trash
--- 21917988
I just read the released chapters of Ave Xia Rem Y and I really liked it. I consume a lot of chinkshit and this is the first "standard" cultivation novel I've read that was natively written in English not counting cradle. I have to say that this fact alone really elevates it, there's always something lost in translation especially when authors try to be "profound" or whatever. The characters and plot are pretty decent. Overall I would definitely recommend it.
--- 21917990
>>21917952
Momcest porn is Kino tho?!??
--- 21918013
>>21917988
It's a weird one to me because by the name it SHOULD be a cliche parody sort of deal, but it's actually just a xianxia story played straight.
--- 21918051
>>21917483 →
--- 21918073
>>21918051
Is
>Yet there was no wind in the chamber.
A sentence fragment?
--- 21918120
>>21918073
I guess it's technically a complete sentence, it just starts with a conjunction, which is awkward in the first paragraph of the book.
--- 21918161
>>21918120
>expecting a fucking Conan novel to use strict grammar
baka
--- 21918166
>>21917673 →
That kinda reminds me The Raven Tower, which has a large boulder as a character with a twist. Maybe litrpg isn't the best choice for trying out various narrative experiments like that since from my limited experience that isn't the focus at and most likely not what the readers want. You say it was well reviewed, which is interesting though. Maybe that's mostly from people who wanted something more, but it's probably for some other reason.

I'll guess at a divisive ending: the sunflower uses the girl and all other characters as nutrients and plays it up in a really melodramatic way. Then it also reveals something where the reader feels tricked because it changes a lot and there was no reasonable way for the reader to anticipate it.
--- 21918172
>>21917765
Amazon bought Goodreads in 2013, 10 years ago.

>>21917810
>>21917820
The API is no longer available.
--- 21918222
>>21917925
Erikson loves big ladies and he makes that quite clear.
--- 21918489
Any DnD-like novels?
--- 21918535
>>21918489
Depends on what you mean by that. There are literally several 100s of novels set in the official DnD campaign settings. There are also many novels that people say are like DnD but it's questionable at best whether those opinions can be trusted.
--- 21918544
>>21918466 →
To be fair you can't base a world where gods exist and interact with people off of ancient pagan belief systems, which were all post adhoc interactions of people with different founding myths.

Something like Christianity really is a better model for that; God has a distinct moral philosophy he expects in followers and has the ability to interact directly with their hearts if need be.

It really depends on what you want to do with your gods and your setting. In Lord of the Mysteries, for example, the gods are all super-powered former humans who ascended to godhood and can barely hold on to their own sanity. The scriptures and the organization of their churches don't even matter that much to them (if they do care its a personal preference), all that matters is the anchoring of their humanity by the prayers of the devout. Without people caring about them, they'd turn into monsters.
--- 21918567
>>21918166
The black company has talking menhir rocks as characters, you never see them move but they move when you are looking away
--- 21918582
>>21918567
spoopy
--- 21918589
>>21917805
Right but, where else am i supposed to get the voice of grey delisle to read smut to me?
--- 21918601
>>21917688 (OP)
Infinity Gate, Pandominion #1 - M.R. Carey (2023) 

Infinity Gate sets up for the books that will come afterwards. It's not a self-contained story at all. The story opens with an unknown narrator who announces that the events of this story have already happened and now they're presenting it to the reader. The book ends with the team, who are introduced in the opening, having all came together to do whatever they will.

Those who go into this book blind may have a different reading experience than those who have looked a synopsis or other material provided by the publisher. The story and characters didn't go where they initially seemed they would be going, at least they didn't for me. I was initially disappointed because I only saw what the premise was, infinite variations of Earth have become available, and that's true, but also misleading in that it's mostly background rather than the focus. I wanted to this to be about a civilization that begins exploring alternate Earths and interacting with them in various ways. Instead the series will probably be about The Pandominion, a federation of a million Earths, versus The Machine Hegemony, who have at least a similar number of Earths.

The three primary POVs almost exclusively proceed in linear fashion rather than alternating between them, with the third being more than half the book. The first is a middle aged Nigerian woman who builds the gateway to other Earths. This part tries to explain how it could theoretically occur, and it seemed reasonable enough, but only because I wouldn't know. The second is a young Nigerian man who in his attempts to escape destitution ends up with a life beyond his imagining. I thought the drama of his life in Lagos was more interesting than the military SF it becomes. The third is a teenage lagomorph girl, who is decidedly more of the anthro variety rather than the sort that have a few animal features. Many different sorts of humanoids are presented as characters, though almost all are mammals.

The central theme is about empathy. The organics refuse to believe that the synthetics can be sentient while the synthetics refuse to believe that organics can be anything more than instinct. Neither believes the other has an inner life. The Pandominion also excludes all non-Pandominion Earths from being real and thus anything can be done to them. Sometimes the allegories became a bit heavy-handed for my preference, though I think my tolerance for extremely inclusive AI rights has waned. I also didn't think the ones about colonial superpowers were handled that well.

Maybe it will be different in the next book(s) but I would've liked to have more of an exploration of how the many societies differ, even when accounting for the homogenizing force of interglobalization, than about a war between individualist and collectivist civilizations with the viewpoint party doing their own independent stuff. Even so, I'll read the next book.

Rating: 3.5/5
--- 21918617
I'm still slowly making my way through Consider Pleibas. GOOD FUCKING LORD there is so much padding and meandering and why do hard sci-fi authors like to write and write and write into the void MONGO WOULD BE APPALLED stupid fucking decisions like taking the Idiran captive with them and letting them move around even after he crushed the mass detector thing. I don't care about all this brooding nonsense. I want the damn plot to RESOLVE already. I feel the ship's crew is there to be there, to serve as plot devices and characters to bounce off of. Their motivation to be there and be crew members even, and presence is flimsy at best. Dumb decisions for the sake of plot.

>>21917988
Try Heaven's Laws: Prodigies.
--- 21918623
>>21918617
Yeah, it's pretty bad and that's what I wrote about it. Amazing that he managed to get it published and have a long series.
--- 21918626
When did you realize this was his best work all along
--- 21918664
>>21918617
>Try Heaven's Laws: Prodigies.
>read reviews
>MC says it would be okay for his love interest to have sex with other men while they are together
>she gets raped later on
Nice try, cuck.
--- 21918671
>>21918623
It's clearly all an allegory for his personal beliefs but seen through some shroud of confusing mist, that is, the Culture('s existence) vs. Idirans. I can only hope other books are better or more wild wacky sci-fi stuff. Maybe I'll move on to something else. I had a good time with Demolished Man and I would like to find more like it. I have a small ~50s-60s backlog.
>>21918664
>MC says it would be okay for his love interest to have sex with other men while they are together
I don't remember anything like that.
>she gets raped later on
Then the MC murders the dude and they find a way to unrape her, restoring her hymen then the MC and her get married and dual cultivate for the rest of the book SPOILERS
--- 21918712
>>21918671
Recently I realized that I've read at least one sff novel published in almost every year from 1950-2023. I'm missing a couple, though I'll see about that soon. Before 1950 is a lot more spotty though.
--- 21918757
>>21918671
>spoiler
Not good enough, he should have murdered her too
--- 21918801
>>21918671
Meh, even if that review made the cuckiest parts up the descriptions still made him seem like a beta simp type of character. I can only imagine it being an exercise in frustration to read that story.

>>21918757
Reminds of one chink novel where one of the women in the potential harem is raped and kills herself over it. I am a massive purityfag but that doesn't mean I want to see rape victims get murdered.
--- 21918809
>>21918757
She didn't have any control over it because the guy who did it was some spoiled family pampered strong son with a history of RAPE and the only reason he died was because MC used space powers, of which he was a prodigy (get it?) in and nothing personnel'd the guy, which then started a war with their family. But MC's dad is super strong and so is MC's waifu's mentor so they helped out and trained them and things happened and it's been a while so my memory is fuzzy.
>>21918801
Meh okay dude.
--- 21918812
>>21918801
>>21918809
Dont care, if a woman doesnt bite off her tongue to escape being raped (necrophilia obviously cannot be held against her) then she didnt do everything she could to not be raped.
--- 21918816
>>21918812
I don't remember what she did or didn't do but okay. I hope you have a good night, anon.
--- 21918820
>>21917778
Christ you’re an insufferable little whiny bitch.
--- 21918826
>>21918816
Hey no, argue with me :(
--- 21918832
>>21918820
Fuck off bezos
--- 21918910
>>21917688 (OP)
A sci-fi story based of that picture would make a pretty interesting read i think:
>Some insane chinese scientist tries to make it possible for cultivation to actually occur.
>Has to genetically splice human dna with bugs and phtosythetic plants to make it viable.
>Literally creates a race of cultivating bugmen.
>To counter the tide of bugmen yuropoors take the cyborg route.
>Mod themselves with mini nuclear reactors and become effectively imortal.
>But in the process sterilize themselves with radiation exposure and can no longer procreate >Americucks try to seach out less dratic means.
>End up tapping into other dimensions and discover mana is a thing.
>All goes ok for them for a bit but the mana they've been utilizing attracts mini cthulu's.
>So even though they become basically wizards, the more mentally weaker of their number gets body snatched by invading aliens from the recesses of the tapped into mana void.
>These were known as the advancement wars...

God dammit why can't someone competently write shit like this?!
--- 21918914
Okay so what has Rothfuss been doing exactly for the past twelve years? He pumped out The Wise Man's Fear in under four years and then he stopped. Isn't there supposed to be a third book? What happened?
--- 21918926
>>21918910
You have to pay for fetish material or write it yourself.
--- 21918941
>>21918914
Ive heard no less than three entirely disparit explanations for the book not yet being out
>the first draft was dogshit so he is rewriting the entire book
>he is mentally unwell and this somehow means he cant do anything
>he is scamming his agent
The last one has the most evidence for it. She literally came out publicly and said that she had to sell some of her own personal assets to be able to buy more time for rothfus to write, and she also said that she has yet to see any writing period.
--- 21918944
>>21918914
Masturbating to cuckold porn and he contributed to some video games as a writer as a kickstarter stretch goal.
--- 21918952
>>21918944
Its a weird thing to know that a famous author might have busted a nut to some of the porn youve written.
--- 21918959
>>21918952
Fantasy cuckold porn or mundane?
--- 21918972
>>21918959
Dont judge me
--- 21918977
>>21918172
> Amazon bought Goodreads in 2013, 10 years ago.
And they haven't done anything with it since. They bought it for the data, same reason they bought the IMDB.
--- 21919002
>>21918972
>Dont judge me
That automatically makes me assume you are writing in the "true story" genre.
--- 21919020
Do you hate prologues that have no obvious link to the main plot of the story? I wrote one and they only feedback I got was they had no reason to care about the character(s) since they never appear again and it's confusing. I mean, sure, but that wasn't its purpose.
--- 21919027
>>21919002
Oh god no, dogshit assumption anon.
I write incest erotica, which naturally has some element of cuckoldry. If I take some time to detail the experience of the cucked party, i will get many much more clicks. I dont like it but i do what i have to do, so dont judge me.
--- 21919029
>>21919020
Did yoyr prologue have any purpose at all?
--- 21919033
Dwarfs should be medieval German themed, not Scottish. Scots don't have a culture of artisanship and war(unless you count bar brawls and beating up unarmed protestors...).
--- 21919046
>>21919029
My idea was for it to initially show the world was harsh and full of magic, but the main purpose was to foreshadow some mysteries that don't become apparent for at least a book or two. So on a reread you go "ooh!"
--- 21919051
>>21919027
>Oh god no, dogshit assumption anon.
It was mostly a joke, anon.
Incest commonly borders on cuckshit in many different ways, most common sharing because of course you can't expect horny mothers, sisters, aunt, daughters etc to be satisfied with just you.

The sort where the protagonist steals his family members from another guy are less of a turnoff than that to me.

Do you publish on storiesonline, literotica or another site?
--- 21919066
Been stuck in a rut last year with just about every book I pick up ending up beinga total flop I drop midway because of how shit it is. Decided to just pick a couple of authors I liked and go through their works even if they're not their magnum opus. Fuck me did that ever do wonders for my reading enjoyment. Even a mid Zelazny blows 90% of the other shit out there out of the water.
So far I've read
>Lord Demon
>A Night in the Lonesome October
>Dilvish the Damned
>Doorways in the Sand

And recently went with Vance for my latest one
>Last Castle
And I enjoyed them all greatly.
I'm either turning into a >muh prose litfag or I really just had terrible luck with the titles I picked last year.
--- 21919081
>>21919033
Dwarfs should be Italian renaissance themed.
--- 21919084
>>21918941
do you have a link to the agent stuff? it doesn’t make sense
--- 21919130
>>21919051
Literotica, and yeah when i do it i use the other family member that was cucked.
>because of course you can't expect horny mothers, sisters, aunt, daughters etc to be satisfied with just you.
I absolutely can expect that, im the author after all.
--- 21919134
>>21918820
Kys bezos
--- 21919139
>>21919084
>https://www.reddit.com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/i1na9e/betsygate_facebook_post_and_comments_documentation/
Inb4
--- 21919146
>>21919130
>I absolutely can expect that, im the author after all.
Based. I admit it's more of a thing in the "incest harem" genre or the semi-realistic incest drama ones where reality gets in the way, e.g. dad is too nice to expect his daughter to sacrifice her chance at a normal life for him.
--- 21919175
>>21919146
>e.g. dad is too nice to expect his daughter to sacrifice her chance at a 
As a reader my suspension of disbelief is like a slab of depleted uranium. I like when its written in some outrageously convenient way that makes it possible for them to live in some version of reality. Hell even the "and somehow nobody ever found out" thing doesnt bother me.

But something that does bug the shit out of me is when an author makes their stuff realistic simply for the sake of it.
>ofcourse it doesnt have a happy ending, thats how real life works :)
Like holy shit blow it out your ass you sanctimonious gout goblin.
--- 21919208
Outside of Neuromancer and Burning Chrome, William Gibson is the middest of mid-tier science fiction authors.
--- 21919220
>>21919175
Yeah, I like it when authors try to sell me what I like in a way that makes me believe it even if I looked at with skeptical eyes but I would rather forcibly suspend my disbelief than try to cope with what I don't like.

Authors have a tendency to add epilogues that just rain REALITY on their ridiculous stories, too. Yes, I totally needed the epilogue to tell me which character dies randomly, cheats on their s/o and gets divorced, gets knocked up by a random person, moves on from the happy harem situation with a random person or whatever else.
--- 21919226
>>21918166
>I'll guess at a divisive ending:
Not quite. The ending is a bit more complicated. There are some things that don't add up during the story, but the curse of being a LitRPG webnovel is that all of those things could be explained by the author being lazy or not trying too hard to be consistent. I saw dozens of such stories. So when it is revealed that the Sunflower...doesn't exist...and is merely a traumatic creation of the girl's mind that helps her deal with the fact she kills things and drinks people's blood to survive, it makes me feel lied to.

Like, I'm sure I saw similar stories before and executed better, this one had potential yet didn't quite nail the right way to execute the idea. I call bullshit on the author explaining it as 'unreliable narrator'. Big pile of shit, unreliable narration means the PoV might be mistaken or seeing things not quite true, but there's a difference between unreliable narration and straight up false reality presented from the PoV of a character that doesn't even exist.
--- 21919233
>>21919208
Wrong. The Bridge trilogy and the Blue Ant trilogy are damn good, especially Idoru and Pattern Recognition. They just aren't hard-scifi.
--- 21919246
>>21919220
>I would rather forcibly suspend my disbelief than try to cope with what I don't like
Wisdom
--- 21919331
>>21918926
And who would i pay to write it?
--- 21919391
>>21919331
>>21918952
--- 21919482
>>21917008 →
>I've waited over twenty years for a postmodern/poststructural analytical discussion of my series (Malazan Book of the Fallen). In fact, I'd just about given up hope that these elements would ever be noticed (how many students of philosophy read Epic Fantasy? Well, at least one!). I was lucky in that my initial foray into fiction writing (a Creative Writing program at the University of Victoria) was in the midst of the Magic Realist movement in literature, which as you know is explicitly deconstructed in terms of narrative reliability, while also openly challenging notions of objective reality. Magic Realism of course is deeply connected, philosophically, with Existentialism (made metamorphic beneath tyrannical polities), and all of this led, in a roundabout way, to metafiction. Alas, most metafiction struck me as too obvious, and I remembered wondering, way back then, if there was a way to make metafiction subtle. Then I began to wonder if one could make metafiction a hidden meta-narrative embracing a postmodern, poststructural story. Turns out, the answer is yes, as epitomized in the Malazan Book of the Fallen (the cipher unlocking the metafictional element to the series is found in Toll the Hounds). But for me, all of that was just me grappling with a growing uncertainty regarding almost everything, making the process of writing the series a kind of dialectic, not only between me and myself, but also between realities: ours here on Earth, and that other one being a made-up Malazan world. I would hasten to point out that so much of what happens in the series is in actual homage to traditional fantasy (especially sword & sorcery): I grew up loving dramatic clashes, battles and sword-fights, dragons and all the rest. Without all that cool stuff, how could I hope to appease my fellow fans of fantasy? So, despite the overarching, philosophical considerations I was exploring, the Malazan tale is also all about Big Scenes Where Cool Stuff Happens (lest we forget!). --Steven Erikson
--- 21919526
>>21917688 (OP)
The fuck is happening with Senjak family lore in Port of Shadows book?
Cook is getting weirder.
--- 21919536
>>21919526
>the fuck is happening in a cash in "sidequel" released almost 20 years after the last book in the series
it's a mystery
--- 21919539
Amy decent fantasy stories with the Hero's Journey?
--- 21919575
>>21919482
As a someone who hasn't read Malazan, trying to imbue the work with deeper themes or ideas is a very, very fine line to walk. 
But after reading fiction for my entire life my opinion is this: If a seasoned reader cannot see what you are talking about in your work, you fucked up.
If you only a person familiar with the works you were inspired by can see what you intended, you fucked up.
If a seasoned reader cannot intuit things from your writing without context, you extremely fucked up. 

There's a lot of place for subtlety in Fantasy, but one thing appears to be imperative: you need to provide basics by yourself, always. Give the reader all the tools necessary to understand what's going on. You need to not coddle the readers, but by assuming they can invoke understanding for your message out of the void is a doomed endevour. If you write more than one series and expect the reader to be familiar with both, or build upon your earlier stories, then it can be somewhat forgiven, but the talent and understanding necessary to pull it off raises exponentially, not linearly. 

>t. The rare (In Erikson's mind, at least) philosophy student that reads Epic Fantasy. 
In his description of his series I see the fault of many philosophers - they think just because they can write something and evoke a feeling then it somehows becomes profound and worthy. That is not the case. Fiction is multifaceted, and to raise above merely telling a story one needs to write something truly uncommon. In short - Erikson appears to arrogant midwit thinking he's better than he is, I'm still unconvinced to read his series. Not one person managed to convince me it's worthwhile.
--- 21919580
>>21919139
>This article is right: authors don't owe their readership books, but what about the publishers who paid them
KEK 
OH SAY CAN YOU SEE
--- 21919681
>the hobbits walked for a while and then they stopped to eat and nap, and then they walked some more, and again they stopped for lunch, and soon they were on the road again, but not for long before they stopped to eat
When do things start happening? I'm like 170 pages in
--- 21919690
>>21919681
Remember to skip the Bombadil arc, it's boring as hell.
--- 21919692
>>21919681
It can drag a bit, I understand, but to me the portion of the book starting from where Gandalf gives Frodo backstory on the ring and down to Hobbits meeting Tom is one of the best parts of the books. There is a weird suspense of them traveling around village roads and forests while evil wraiths hunt them.
--- 21919704
>>21918617
HOLY BUTTFUCKING TITTY NIPPLESI FINISHED AND WHAT A SHITTY BOOK
WHAT A SHITTY ENDING
WHAT A SHITTY ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF TIME TO GET TO THIS ENDING OF THIS SUBPAR SCI-FI BOOK
--- 21919716
>>21919575
Erikson's idea of profound is having his characters spout banal monologues in between of an incoherent recap of his tryhard tabletop games.
--- 21919838
Is The Painted Man worth reading? My colleague recommended it to me - usually I'll read dino-fantasy like Dunsany and Peake so not sure it'll be worth my time.
--- 21919839
>>21918601
your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF
--- 21919921
>>21919226
Oh, well, yeah, that's the other way to go about it. Various examples come to mind.
--- 21919925
>>21919838
It's not. Resume as you were.
--- 21919930
>>21919704
You ignored many warnings.
--- 21919995
>>21919930
I never read his/your review and now that I'm done with the book, my efforts to search it have failed. So link me.
>reading reviews before reading a book
I'm not one of those "likes to be spoiled" faggotrons.
--- 21920008
>>21919995
Has not knowing anything about it before you read it worked out well for you overall?
--- 21920035
>>21919995
>my efforts to search it have failed 
1. Look at the OP of this thread 
2. Open the warosu link 
3. Search "Consider Phlebas"
4. Realize you have a skill issue
--- 21920162
>>21919995
excuses aside, be glad. you're one of the few sci-fi fans who are neurotypical enough to realize the culture is fucking horrid shit. you have now realized you don't need to read the next 10000 pages of that trash and your reading schedule for the next few months has been freed up and you get to read something good now. i recommend lyonesse by vance
--- 21920239
>>21917736
I had a lot of fun reading through the Out of the Abyss dnd campaign.
I tried to play it with my friends but we only got like 20% through before it fizzled out, but honestly just reading the book is an adventure in itself.
--- 21920240
>>21920008
I always go into books as blind as I can. I don't even like to read the back-of-the-book blurb anymore, anythhing beyond a very brief/mild summary of course.
>>21920035
Joke's on me. I was typing "Pleibas".
>>21920162
I probably won't continue, at least any time soon. I did grab some Vance standalones but that wasn't one of them and I don't recall being interested in the past. I'll figure it out. I'm never without something to read.
--- 21920249
>>21920240
probably for the best. vance has a pretty peculiar writing style which i definitely wouldn't call difficult but it does help have gotten used to it before picking up lyonesse (it's a series not a standalone), which imo is his best work.
--- 21920253
>>21920240
Addendum: I did recently read Feersum Injinn by the same author and enjoyed it a lot so maybe I had hope that The Culture would have been good, at least the introductory book.
--- 21920261
>>21920240
If you wanted to truly go in blind then have a huge list of books and use a random number generator. Even better, you don't even know what's in the list and someone tells you what to read. Even better than that, the person provides it to you with any title or author known. The best would be entirely random text presented to you.
--- 21920265
>>21920261
what a retarded suggestion
--- 21920273
>>21920265
That's what makes it so appropriate.
--- 21920278
>>21920261
Recently I grabbed a bunch of books from the Sci-Fi and the Fantasy Masterworks torrents on /t/. My criterion then was whatever sounded neat title-wise. That's how I found The Demolished Man and I loved it.
--- 21920286
>>21920278
It's easier to luck out with a curated selection for sure.
--- 21920327
>Read book about post apocalypse from jewish author
>humans are irredemable ignorant retards, and just nuke themselves again as soon as they recover from the first nuclear apocalypse. the one jew in the setting is a saintly ascetic

>read book about time travel by jewish author
>main character ends up having gay homosex with himself

>read book about telepathy by jewish author
>main character ends up staring at his baby sister's vagina and describing it, no this isn't related to telepathy or the main plot at all

i think i'll start checking the author's biography from now on.
--- 21920343
>>21917740
The bestiality themed doujins are his best work, he should stop with the incest ones.
--- 21920366
>>21920253
Consider Phlebas is probably the worst Culture book.
Player of Games is often recommended as starting point for this reason. Personally, I really loved Use of Weapons.
--- 21920370
>>21919681
I enjoy the idle part of the book, make me feel comfy and tiny as a hobbit
>>21919690
it's strange more than boring imo
--- 21920374
>>21920327
titles of the books aforementioned?
--- 21920377
>>21920327
>Read book about post apocalypse from jewish author
>humans are irredemable ignorant retards, and just nuke themselves again as soon as they recover from the first nuclear apocalypse. the one jew in the setting is a saintly ascetic
Miller was not a jew tho.

>read book about time travel by jewish author
>main character ends up having gay homosex with himself
Heinlein was not a jew tho. 

>read book about telepathy by jewish author
>main character ends up staring at his baby sister's vagina and describing it, no this isn't related to telepathy or the main plot at all
Ok which one is this? 

>>21919704
Be advised that other Culture books are better, but not by much.
--- 21920385
>>21920374
>>21920377
canticle of liebowitz (ethnic jew converted to catholicism)
the man who folded himself
dying inside by roger silverberg
--- 21920389
>>21920366
How hard does Player of Games jerkoff this Damage game?
--- 21920397
>>21920327
>read book by the Dick himself
>obligatory khazar female character with fat tits
--- 21920420
>>21920397
title
--- 21920421
>>21920397
Descartes liked Khazar milkers?
--- 21920447
>>21920389
had to look it up to remember what Damage is. might be mentioned once, but doesn't occur in the plot at all.
--- 21920453
>>21917688 (OP)
I'm not too into sci-fi but 2001 and its sequels scratched an itch for psychedelic hard science I didn't even know I had. Any more like it?
--- 21920456
>>21920385
I don't find any info about Miller jew origin.
I've partly read Canticle up to some chapter after the second part because the tone became kind of pessimistic but I still have in mid to finish it
--- 21920488
>>21920456
it's circumstantial. here is my evidence for that supposition:
>At school Miller had called himself an atheist but in 1947, at the age of 25, he converted to Roman Catholicism
>Miller is also the third most common surname among Jews in the United States (after Cohen and Levy), from the Yiddish cognate of Müller, which would be Miller (מיללער) or Milner[10](מילנער).
>he bombed a christian monestary in ww2
>he made a misanthropic jew-worshipping book

that said, the first chapter of canticle is unironically great, i agree. brother francis a cute and it's a pretty optimistic story for its subject matter
--- 21920547
>>21920420
Most of his novels lol
>>21920447
GOOD then
--- 21920550
>>21919925
I'll still need to skim the Wikipedia page so that I can politely pretend I read it when my colleague asks me if I enjoyed it.
--- 21920580
>>21920397
>khazar female character with fat tits
i will now read your book
--- 21920881
>>21920327
>i think i'll start checking the author's biography from now on.
--- 21920970
>>21920488
>he bombed a christian monestary in ww2
lot of allied soldiers bombed christian building also the fact in itself spawned the trauma in him and fear of losing culture, science etc
--- 21921031
/SFFG/ Recommendations:

Read Reverend Insanity, Lord of The Mysteries, Neuromancer, Hyperion, The Prince of Nothing

Also read The Wandering Inn, Between Two Fires, Mother of Learning, Cradle, I Shall Seal the Heavens, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Poppy War.
--- 21921186
>>21920881
>Sauron's orcs
>contemplating how to fuck off and raid after the war
>Saruman's uruk hai and half-orcs
>loyal till the end
--- 21921189
>>21920970
actually only one soldier bombed christian building in ww 2
his name? walter m (or as i like to call him j) miller junior
--- 21921413
>Lord Randyll is of the view that you might benefit from a good hard raping
How did someone so based father someone like Ser Piggy?
--- 21921502
>>21921413
based
--- 21921509
I am getting close to the end of Mother of Learning. I think it started off really slow, but the later characters are really cool and it really starts to pick up a good pace from the middle on.

The lich character is cool as fuck. He actually seems very similar to the main character from the Sylver Seeker litrpg and I absolutely love it.
--- 21921518
>>21919838
The first one was alright.The rest was bad.
>>21917736
I liked "The Dwarves" series by Markus Heitz,I read them in german,but It has been a long time since I read them.
--- 21921559
>>21919580
Whats funny? Im genuinely not seeing it. If you sign a contract and then fail to fulfil it...????
--- 21921589
>>21921559
it's funny because it demonstrates dismissiveness and contempt of the people who appreciate your art and servility towards the richfags you're tied up with
i'm not shocked or anything. this attitude is why i don't feel bad for pirating. it's just so funny how she said the quiet part out loud like that
--- 21921625
>>21921509
I just finished re-reading it. Comfy.
--- 21921631
I wanna read Kingkiller chronicles but I don't think I can bring myself to start something with no end in sight. Am I missing out because I've heard nothing but good things about the 2 existing novels
--- 21921636
>>21921631
The main character spends the first two books simping over his crush, but the worldbuilding and overall plot are pretty good.
--- 21921717
>>21921509
>>21921625
>Time loop
nope.png
--- 21921732
>>21921589
>it's just so funny how she said the quiet part out loud like that
What precicely gave you the idea that a publishing contract was ever "the quiet part"?
--- 21921836
vampirebros
I agree with the anon that said the ending felt like an ass pull and rushed.
but still a good book

book 2 release date announcement soon according to the author
--- 21921849
>>21921836
Vampires are one of the dumbest concepts ever
>what if human, but le hecking immortal
>what if human, but eat le blood
>what if human, but le burn in sun
I hate the popularity of such a stale and retarded concept whilst truly cool shit never makes the spotlight
--- 21921856
The absolute pinnacle of literature
--- 21921860
>>21921856
I disagree, the homoerotica I've been reading is much better and I refuse to elaborate.
--- 21921874
>>21921849
It makes a lot more sense if you recognize vampire myths as being about Jews.
>drinking blood to treat porphyria, a common hereditary disease among the ashkenazi
>repelled by silver (sound money) and crosses
>large nosed Eastern Europeans
Burning to ash in sunlight is an exaggeration of them sunburning easily and the immortality is either a callback to Judas as The Wandering Eternal Jew or a commentary on how hard it was to get rid of them for good.
--- 21921880
>>21921874
>vampires are kikes
Huh, it all makes sense now
No wonder you see vampire tv shows all the time but no werewolf kino
--- 21921883
>>21921880
>he thinks werewolfs are cool
You dont get to have an opinion
--- 21921887
>>21921883
The coolest part is where they become a wolf
I like specific werewolf concepts, I disagree with the main schools of thought regarding werewolves
--- 21921907
>>21921887
Name one(uno(1(01(.)))) specific werewolf concept that is cool
--- 21921908
>>21921874
there was a /pol/ infographic comparing vampires to Jews and werewolves to Aryan Indo-Europeans.
--- 21921914
>>21921907
No longer being human
--- 21921919
>>21921914
So vampires are cool too?
Are you seeing where im having trouble taking you seriously?
--- 21921928
>>21921908
That one's mostly correct but relies on since-disproven models of how Neanderthals related to modern humans. The reality is that most of the (((vampire))) behaviors were selected for during recorded history by neighboring empires repeatedly killing off the Hebrews' warrior classes, from Egypt to Babylon to Greece to Rome.

>>21921907
Werewolves are a metaphor for berserker battle-trance behavior.
--- 21921933
>>21921919
I think he was forced to watch twilight as a kid (or worse yet read it), and it has left a mental scar on his psyche. 
I mean I don't like vamps either, but because 
>muh undead
I also don't like weres, because I don't like dog fuckers.
Both of those subgenres have been turned into housewife romance shit, but I see they are moving away from them and going to ayyy lmaos these days.
--- 21921936
Why is it called a "litRPG" as if it's a roleplaying game? When I first heard of the genre, I thought it was like a choose-your-own adventure with encounters that can be resolved by simple stat checks and combat mechanics, but apparently it's just a genre of fantasy where RPG mechanics like leveling up are tangible in-setting?
--- 21921944
>>21921936
It's a sort of subgenre of the more broad "gamelit", which is anything where game-like mechanics exist diegetically. LitRPG is just more specifically those mechanics being RPG stuff because those tend to be a lot more 'hard numbers' than some other gamelit stuff, I guess.
--- 21921947
>>21921936
You answered your own question fagget. It uses the rpg mechanics in the plot to tell a story. Them having defined boundaries means ass pull shit has a small chance of happening.
Stats sheets are shit, but someone using something everyone thought useless in a different way is always entertaining. Thinking outside the box.
--- 21921953
>>21921944
litrpg is a catch-all as far as I'm concerned. I don't think a litrpg means the book needs to have a bunch of fucking numbers listed as if it adds one shit to the story or plot.

The only people that want stats are the literal fucking autists who can't understand what is happening without it being spelled out to them. Like sanderson fans.
--- 21921967
>>21921836
>>21921849
>>21921874
>>21921880
>>21921914
>>21921919
>>21921928
>>21921933
>Vamp*re and Werew*lf fiction
Cringe
--- 21921979
>>21921947
>someone using something everyone thought useless in a different way is always entertaining
That is so... Bland to me. It feels like it just constantly comes back to "this ability is actually busted if you put in a modicum of thought" and that's just really... Underwhelming to me. Like it's never using an actually quite minimal ability in an effective way, for example.
--- 21922008
>>21921967
fuck off papist
you will never understand the gothick
--- 21922012
In the lore of a tactics video game I wanted to make, vampires were under a vow to protect humanity against the forces of darkness, that's why they can only come out at night and need humans to survive and such.
--- 21922041
>>21921979
>Like it's never using an actually quite minimal ability in an effective way, for example.
Read more. This happens. But there is also the busted abilities doing busted things.
--- 21922064
>werewolf furry and a picturebook comicsfag
vampirebros win
--- 21922068
>>21921509
I thought he was a better writer in volume 4.
--- 21922073
>>21921849
Hairy paws typed this post
--- 21922087
>>21922073
Sadly not
--- 21922089
>>21921953
A group of westerners invented "game lit" as an umbrella term because some people (allegedly) complained that some books tagged as litrpg didn't have a system and such. For instance early in the genre (in the west) was Drew Hayes' NPCs series which was definitely game oriented but kind of not litrpg. More "Guardians of the Flame in reverse". So I can see the logic, but I am personally not fussy about it.
--- 21922184
>sets up a continuation of a based series
>it stops because he's old

fuck
--- 21922191
Is there a word or phrase for when the text of a book is crafted to reflect the meaning of the text?
Like the prose becoming more schizophrenic as a character is losing their mind.
Or like in house of leaves where the text is formatted to look to the reader like it is described as in the book.

I wanna call it diagetic prose but i dont think thats right.
--- 21922206
>>21922184
I absolutely hated the ultrasonic hive weasels in that series. It was such a cocktease, a fascinating picture of a future galaxy with casual antigravity and FTL, wasted as a backdrop for medieval weasel-hive politics.
--- 21922240
>>21917688 (OP)
Anyone got any decent Zombie novel recommendations like Day by Day and Arisen?
--- 21922247
>>21921944
>>21921947
My main concern is it being called "litRPG" like it's short for "literary roleplaying game" or something. Like the last word of the genre is "game", but it's not a game or even a CYOA, it's just a book.
--- 21922250
>>21922222 →
--- 21922255
>>21917688 (OP)
What fantasy settings do dragons best? Especially elemental ones.
--- 21922257
>>21922255
dragonlance
--- 21922264
>>21922247
Just get over it already. It was named by Russians.
--- 21922284
>>21922041
Examples?
--- 21922308
>>21922191
Ergodic
--- 21922315
Never read Banks, is this book a good start?
--- 21922344
>>21922255
Shadowrun

Elemental dragons are hard gay. Earth dragons are just giant lizards, shadow and air dragons are anemic faggots, poison dragon is an earth 'dragon' with the gum disease gingivitis, ice dragon makes no fucking sense, electric dragon is kinda based like Freddy Mercury but still dies of AIDS at the end.
--- 21922385
>>21922264
I'm over it, I'm not going to try to change it, I'm just curious of the logic behind the genre name. Why are you so defensive about it?
--- 21922386
It's time to read Malazan. And if you have, it's time to re-read Malazan.
--- 21922416
>>21919575
>As a someone who hasn't read Malazan
stopped reading here
--- 21922652
>>21922012
Legit an interesting concept, if vampires are actually the good guys and work as agents of humanity and only survive on their charity to help protect them from other shit
--- 21922654
>>21922386
I want to but I don't have time????
--- 21922660
Classic fantasy where the protagonist contemplates being an hero?
--- 21922689
>>21922386
I have em all sidelined on my eReader but I gotta finish my asoiaf reread first
--- 21922784
>>21921856
>lightlark
it's shit, but props to the author for taking advantage of the social to actually sell the damn thing
--- 21922824
>>21922784
I only know about it because I got really high and watched that 7 hour long video on it by krimsonrogue in one sitting bc it kept popping up in my recommended
--- 21922844
>>21922386
the subterranean press copies are beautiful
--- 21922845
>>21921732
i don't understand why you're being a nigger. did i offend you in some way or are you just retarded? i meant that the quiet part was the nonchalant contempt for the readers. i'm sure you understood that very well, so why are you pretending to be retarded just to start a fight?
--- 21922859
Okay I finally read the review and I actually didn't like the post-story content. I liked the Culture vs. Idiran info dump which I thought should have been placed far earlier, but whatever; the "what happened to everyone" bit felt cheap. Also check this one out.

I liked Unaha-Closp and the way he was written as a sentient, rights-having machine.
--- 21922890
>>21922844
>that dust of dreams cover
much better than the dinosaur cover
who is that supposed to be in the crippled god cover?
--- 21922901
>>21921907
rule 34 xxx
tags
werewolf
vampire
--- 21922947
>>21922859
Different anons like different things. I don't think your spoiler is that uncommon though. He was definitely one of the best characters.
--- 21922968
Do you guys like anything by Anne MacCaffrey?
--- 21922987
>>21922844
Who's on the memories of ice cover and the crippled god cover?
--- 21922994
>>21922987
>memories of ice
Pannion Seer

>crippled god
not too sure. havent gotten there yet.
--- 21922995
>>21922987
>>21922890
Idk who thats meant to be, can't be rake but I can't think who else prominent had white hair
Topper? Can't be him tho
--- 21923002
>>21922844
Is that toc on reapers gale?
--- 21923007
>>21923002
yes thats toc
--- 21923032
>>21919482
Big scenes where cool stuff happens is why I fell in love with Malazan. (I.e. Siege of Pale, Coltaine's chain etc.)
--- 21923067
>guy in crippled god cover still unknown

Hello?????????
--- 21923081
>>21923067
it's a female at the stand of lightfall. likely to be Yan Tovis
--- 21923092
Is Gardens of the moon actually as hard to get into as I've heard people make it out to be?
--- 21923093
>>21923081
Yedan is one of my favorite characters of the whole series and I'm not even a gay
Man is based as fuck
--- 21923116
>>21923092
Not at all. Here's a video I share that possible new malazan readers should listen to. For background, this guy is Erikson and Esslemont's developmental editor since 2006. It should ease you into wanting to read the series cause he hits all the popular questions and misconceptions. 

https://youtu.be/3_fr8yMpTvE [Embed]
--- 21923133
>>21917688 (OP)
My favorite wolds in all science fiction are Asimov's Aurora and Solaria. The former is a kind of ideal exurbia, the latter some extreme of fully automated rural socialism in which everyone is apportioned an estate far as the eye can see, 20,000 for a whole planet, the inhabitants of which live for 1000 years or so. When he has Trevize land on both, it's the most magnificent episode in all science fiction.
--- 21923135
There really needs to be a blanket ban on female MCs
--- 21923142
Anons, I have a question. Do you think fantasy readers would accept a writer who is also a prose stylist? Someone interested in writing complex, dense prose similar to what literary novelists write? Yet, writes in the fantasy genre. Or do you think that sort of prose would be looked down on in favor of commercial prose of the kind Martin, Sanderson, Jordan, and the like write. I am curious.
--- 21923152
>>21923142
I think it's pointless to talk about these things, the work will speak for itself
--- 21923163
>>21923092
Not at all, it's kinda like Dune
--- 21923216
>>21918832
>>21919134
The troglodytes in this designated thread for the illiterates who can’t even comprehend real literature can’t even come up with something original. How utterly pathetic, but what more would you expect from those who read children’s books?
--- 21923219
>>21923142
Do you want commerical or critical success?
--- 21923229
Literally every Dune book, and I mean literally every one

>Atreides main character squats in some cave and spews out 2deep4u monologues about humanity n shiet
>cartoony villians from this weeks Planet Asshole are planning a scooby doo-tier assassination plot
>it succeeds because jokes on you, the Atreides WANTED to die
--- 21923275
>>21923219
I was not talking about myself. I just wondered, say, if you had someone writing on Faulkner's level, or Fitzgerald, and they wanted to write Fantasy, would they sell or be welcome. Or are they looking for people who write commercial prose.
--- 21923295
>>21923142
Read Titus Groan right now, anon.
--- 21923300
>>21917749
I wish there was a website like novelupdates or *booru for western books. Searching by tags would be very helpful.
--- 21923307
>>21919681
>t.doesn't enjoy walking in the countryside 
Grim. The lackadaisical pace of the hobbits is intentional, both in plot and tone (to contrast their later journey, and because walking through the rosy english countryside is kino).
--- 21923309
>>21923142
Fantasy is such a wide genre that you will frequently find opposing opinions. Getting hate for the style of prose is almost guaranteed, but it also won't matter much. Some people who read fantasy read machine translated texts. They consider it to be good enough, because they want to know what happens in the story.
tl;dr the story and characters matter more than the prose
--- 21923325
>>21923300
Shelves are tags.
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/
Put whatever after genre.
--- 21923347
>>21923325
It's nowhere close to the same thing. The tags I'm talking about describe elements of the story. Eg a wimpy protagonist or a strong protagonist.
--- 21923348
>>21921967
--- 21923359
>>21921967
But Anon, I am writing a book about vampire hunters.
--- 21923361
>>21922844
Huh, they really look nice. Can you even buy copies like these anymore or are they out of print?
--- 21923362
>>21923359
you should make the vampire hunter have a vampire lover
--- 21923367
>>21923309
Alright, I think I understand. It’s just sometimes so strange that you never see people as talented as, say, Pynchon is with prose writing genre fiction.
--- 21923371
>>21923362
The premise is that it's one family adding firsthand accounts to the same book over several centuries, while simultaneously creating encyclopedic entries about various types of species of vampires they encounter and how to best thwart them. Eventually one of the guys gets it in his head after reading some stories from one of his predecessors that the only way they can solve their main problem is to make dhampirs. This does not work out and leads to a sort of... Frankenstein's monster, or Grendel situation, and a lot of very angry anti-vampire purists.
--- 21923379
>>21923295
Alright I will
--- 21923436
>>21923142
>>21923295
>>21923379
excellent example in response to anon's question because titus groan does things like spend 10 pages describing the "hilarious" and wacky slapstick antics of kitchen staff
only a great appreciator of prose could possibly bear excrutiatingly dull subject matter like that
--- 21923440
>>21919575
>t. Bakkerfag