/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

David Gemmell is the king of heroic fantasy. I suggest his Drenai series and Rigante series.

>What covers do you like?

I told you perverted freaks to stop touching my fucking daughter. If I catch you near my daughter again, God so help me, I will cut you.

What does this meme mean?

What does it look like?
Stop trying to steal intellectual property from us.

What constitutes "good" action scenes in your experience?
Which authors/books do it best and why?
Are there any literary equivalents to Kung fu movies?
Is there even such a thing as an "action book", like there are action movies? Or is it effectively impossible to extend that long in text without getting boring?

sexy young beardless dick

Reading action scenes blow by blow gets very tiring. Most women skip fighting scenes altogether and only want to know who survives.

>Which authors/books do it best and why?
For pure emotional impact REH is the best ever. Reading his action scenes really feels like he was right there watching it happen first hand and writing it all down as it transpired.

>look ma, i posted it again

Does fanfiction fit into /sff/?

Any of you ever read Richard Sharpe Shaver? He was a real weirdo, wrote these stories about rapey gremlin men called Deros living in secret underground. Only he thought it was all real - he got hired by Amazing Fantasy in the first place off the back of crank letters he wrote to them about his "experiences" in their territory. Kind of like Lovecraft, only less varied.

lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-shaver-mystery-the-most-sensational-true-story-ever-told

Watts published The Thing fanfiction, so sure.

Sometimes

So he was the abducted by lizard men instead of greys? And he lived to tell about it?

Thinking about reading Ancillary Justice, yes/no/maybe?

I dont know

first book is good, the rest is crap

Fuck. Does it work standalone?

Where should I start with Guy Gavriel Kay? As I understand it there's two major series, the Fionavar books which are like runoff from working on the Silmarillion, and the "historical" fictions like Lion of Al-Rassan, Last Light of the Sun etc. Is Fionavar worth reading at all? And is there any order in which I should read the "historical" ones?

Unrelatedly, has anyone read the Mythago Wood books? They were recommended to me by comparison to Diana Wynne Jones's Hexwood, which I liked as a teen but am not sure I would like now.

kassad's chapter in hyperion

>the rest is crap
Why is it crap?

Agree with the other user. First book great, the rest is crap and too narrow in plot compared to the first (moreover the first is somewhat self contained)

>Where should I start with Guy Gavriel Kay?
Start with Tigana. It was the first book of his I read and I loved it.

>Unrelatedly, has anyone read the Mythago Wood books?
See It's a meme.

There's a lot of sword fights and choreography in Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books. I heard the author was a keen fencer. These are mostly short stories - any longform fiction with exhaustively described fights would be boring. For the wider readership, emotions, reactions and motivations of characters is far more interesting than the angle of a sword thrust, or manner of parrying, or footwork. If this isn't true in your case then you may be genuinely autistic or have the wrong idea about reading.

It doesn't have to be exhaustively described or go into minutia, but I was wondering if anyone had just extended an action scene for a whole book, with there never being a static scene where people are just talking, or a narrative exposition scene, like a movie that's a solid 1.5 hours car chase. Like Crank in book form, there's a plot, and characters, but it never stops or slows down.

Something like that will exist but I think it would be terrible. A book can have a fast pace and lots of dramatic events, twists and diversions, however - isn't this the way of modern books? I wouldn't know because I barely read anything from the 21st century. But even those, I think, would need to have slower parts for to tie things together. It seems like a bad idea to be breakneck in any novel length work.

I think guns and tanks are cool. Is this sufficient reason to read military science fiction or would I need an interest in duty, patriotism and the chain of command to keep me hooked? I really don't know what to expect from this genre.

Seconding this, his story was one of the best of the pilgrims in my opinion.

Also I always thought Shadow Over Innsmouth had some great action scenes

Probably depends on the book. I imagine some will hook you with the characters and action, and others will require you to be interested in strategy and moved by patriotism and so on.

New purchase lads.

Anyone read it? Is it any good?

Yeah, I got a kick out of it.

Going by only the cover, I'd say anyone that's not a Warcraft fan should stay the fuck away from that.

>2017
>Judging Fantasy books on their cover

What is wrong with you?

How old is this? are there multiple books specifically about jaina? cause the one i read like a decade ago was pretty terrible.

Thoughts on the Stormlight archive?

I see it's in the selected section in the OP. Would you recommend any other series on that list instead?

The Lion of Al-Rassan is a kick-ass book, and A Song for Arbonne is great, too. An intriguing mix between fantasy and alternative-reality historical novel. Pretty unique stuff. The Last Light of the Sun was good too, but it has been a really long time since I read it. May need to put it on my reading list again, sigh ...

It's truly great epic fantasy. The 3rd novel drops later this year and I'm very excited. I'm currently reading Steven Erikson's Malazan series... pretty good too.

Try the "Starfist" series by Dan Cragg (he was a genuine high ranking non-com in the USMC) for down-and dirty infantry stuff and the "Honor Harrington" series by David Weber for epic space battles between giant spaceship fleets. And of course the classics like "Armor" by J. Steakley, "Forever War" by Haldeman and "Starship Troopers" by Heinlein. They are all a cut or two above the rest of what you will find in this genre.

There is no genre better for judging by its cover. The vast majority of fantasy is pure garbage, and the covers always let you know you can ignore it

How long will you live?

>not judging books by their covers
I've got a 100% success rate for picking books SOLELY by their covers! I also have a 100% failure rate of reading books I was recommended despite their appearance.
Size, proportions, paper weight, font style and size, the author's name, the relative placements of the title, binding style, and material all contribute to a book's quality. Sight, smell, sound, texture, and even taste determine the merit of a book far more accurately than any purely textual analysis.

For the record, my favourite book is a recent paperback edition of Dune, with a glossy black cover, thin translucent paper with a smooth creamy texture, a solid and loud response to impact, good flexibility and slackness when opened, an earthy yet caustic musk, fine sharp edges and corners, and a bold black serifed font.

Is this a good cover?

>glossy black cover, thin translucent paper with a smooth creamy texture, a solid and loud response to impact, good flexibility and slackness when opened, an earthy yet caustic musk, fine sharp edges and corners, and a bold black serifed font.
I hope the trees for the wood pulp were grown on a SOUTH facing slope, it would be quite shocking otherwise. Faggot.

Are the John Carter books worth a read?

Would any of you be interested to read fanfiction that I wrote? It's practically /sff/ (Avatar fanfiction)
Not having any expectations but I've seen worse things being written and it's a fun exercise.

>Avatar fanfiction)
What type of Avatar? Abatap from tv or airbender from co?

Lay it on me, let he who has not written fanfiction cast the first stone. Believe me, whatever it is, I've read worse and enjoyed it.

I started the first one a couple of years back, but I couldn't make it past the first few pages. Just give them a try, they are in the public domain on gutenberg.org and manybooks.net.

The Name of the Wind or Prince of Thorns?

I never have, but rather than looking down on it I always feel like I'm missing out.

name of the wind

Prince of Thorns is the worst thing I've ever read. Worse than fucked up fanfiction written by filipenos who'd never seen the source material. Worse than Hollywood adaptations of anime. It's the most hackneyed, cliched, pointlessly edgy, mary sue bullshit ever devised by man!

I really like it. Currently reading the chapters being released online on tor.com ahead of the launch of book 3.

I read the first chapter involving Kalecgos. Second chapter starts with Baine. It's not like I wanted to read a story about the character whose name is in the title or anything.

Apparently Jaina is only in about a third of it, according to reviews. Great.

Thanks man

Does Veeky Forums really hate prince of thornes that much? maybe i should check it out.
what i learned is, that you should do exactly the opposite of what the anons here say
Veeky Forums said the blade itself is shit too, but it was pretty good

>Veeky Forums is one person

No, but they all shit on the same authors...

Have fun, we'll talk after you meet the MC's mentors, Fu Manchu and the magical negro slave he freed. Or maybe you'll balk at scaring a ghost to death with pure willpower. Or maybe, just maybe, you'll make it to the totally tactical and genius temper tantrum strategy to prove you're not immature by smashing a sculpture during a meeting to embarrass your father. No, you won't even make it past the first page.

name of the wind is a great book don't cheat yourself user

name of the wind is ok, but i fuckin want to murder kvothe

if he didn't pine over that uninteresting skank it would be a 9/10 instead 8/10

I like kvothe

it's a shame patrick rothfuss is turning into a massive faggot and won't finish the 3rd book

Gotta save them kids with stupid charities

Flowers for Algernon, y/n?

>but they all shit on the same authors...
No we don't. It's the vocal minority that shit on books. The majority just doesn't care enough to correct them. If you are stupid enough to listen to one or two anons on a thread that has at least 70, instead of doing your own research then you deserve what you got.

I finished Name of the Wind yesterday. Overall I think I liked it, but boy did I have some. The whole thing could have been trimmed by at least 20% and nothing of value would be lost. Far too long for how much Nothing happens over the course of Kvothe's life story. Some characters I found interesting (like Devi), but the majority were either bland, shallow, or both. I could never tell Simmon and Wilem apart, despite them supposedly being Kvothe's best friends. The two are completely interchangeable in any scene they're in. I won't even start with Denna.

It starts off well enough, but the parts that aren't a fun rapid-fire series of Nothings are a real slog. Give it a shot and drop it when you can't be bothered anymore.

Tbh I found the bothing parts super comfy

>don't burn pewter too much or your body will come to rely on it!
>if you use stormlight too much you will become incredibly tired
Why does branderson sanderbun write these side effects if they never come into play?

Books where the hero has a big pebis but his gf has a bigger pebis?

It's average. The world is interesting enough but few of the characters are really good and the whole thing, story and prose, is kinda boring. If you have a couple of days, want to read a long ass series and have nothing better to do go for it I guess.

>taste
>For the record, my favourite book is a recent paperback edition of Dune, with a glossy black cover, thin translucent paper with a smooth creamy texture, a solid and loud response to impact, good flexibility and slackness when opened, an earthy yet caustic musk, fine sharp edges and corners, and a bold black serifed font.
Serious or not, I enjoyed reading this.

It serves as an explanation as to why they aren't used even more. If there was no downside, a lot of plotholes would arise.

But at one point in the first mistborn novel they straight up burn pewder for 17 hpurs straight. Also used semi-constantly for much of the books.
It's also implied that while stormight makes you tired, the vitality improvement far outweighs that, making it a complete non-issue. Kaladin uses stormlight in his most tired moments

sure, why not. as long as it's not the blue people Avatar.

Today I bought Fifth Head of Cerberus and The Knight, very excited.

Don't forget that he's credited with inventing the idea of "mind control rays".

Makes me cry
Captcha: Water Saltillo

if Rothfuss really wanted to shake things up, he would have made Kvothe and Denna explicitly just friends. or maybe they have a really awkward ONS in the second book and Kvothe grows out of it.

they actually have a fairly complex relationship when looked at from another angle, but Kvothe's constant fawning and Denna doing her thing ruins it. plus it frees him up to date literally anyone else, because pretty much the majority of the female cast is a more interesting prospect than Denna.

I want a book series that's the closest thing you can get to Power Rangers/Super Sentai for adults.

Recommendations?

I think Conan is superior in most ways if you want to read something from that era. For ERB I'd actually suggest Tarzan instead, because even though Tarzan was more popular back in the day John Carter ultimately ended up being more influential, to the point that anything interesting about the stories has since been picked clean and become completely cliche. The adventure stories more influenced by Tarzan have kinda died out though, so you're probably not as inured to what makes it great.

Denna isn't really supposed to be interesting though. More like an archetype that embodies the ideals of the lover.

Is it true that there are conservative themes in Gene Wolfe's work?
Also are there any conservative/somewhat right wing fantasy authors that you know of ?

My problem with Denna has very little to do with Denna herself. It's more that so much time of the book is devoted to Kvothe pining after her; going into Imre every day for weeks straight hoping to just catch a glimpse of her, and the eye-rolling dialogue the two exchange each time they happen to meet. I found it beyond tedious and prayed for it to be over.

GW is very Catholic

Literal, unironic communist propaganda. Shitty humor, bad analogies to modern society, and forced complexity.
How anyone likes him is beyond me.

How is it Communist propaganda? Please explain.

Here you go.