/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

Looking for good pulp, or even trashy pulp.

Minute Maid Orange Juice.

It's shit compared to 1984.

>not remembering that Dorcas and Jolenta were lovers
That's gay.

>Recommend some SFF books from your country (not America)
Aniara, Kallocain.

>What was the last non American book you read
Susanna Clarke is British so I guess that'd be Jonathan Strange.

>Recommend some SFF books from your country (not America
I don't suppose any of them have been translated. Plenty of surrealists have, though: Victor Brauner (check out his paintings, too), Gherasim Luca, Max Blecher, Urmuz.

Bourne is meant to be good, but Southern Reach becomes significantly less interesting after Anihilation.

Just finished reading Dune for the 2nd time.
Genre literature really isn't tha good, uh?

Is Paul a mary sue?

>how accurate it is compared to our current global situation

Yes, cause we all pop pills to desetisize ourselves, we live in strictly genetically secluded casts, and we periodically have State orgy.

Stop being edgy. Xanax and degeneracy are Veeky Forums memes.

degeneracy is fucking real man

you say that now but maybe it would do you good to sometimes just take a break from the internet and just observer the world around you, user.

Soma is more like an amphetamine/opioid mix from the description. Both are problems in the US. We have filter bubbles and tinder.
This focus on the details misses the point anyway, it's more to do with
>Amusing ourselves to death
as in, letting ourselves be controlled by the abundance of distractions. You're pointing out that nobody actually plays centrifugal bumble-puppy but ignoring the fact we spend a hell of a lot of money on increasingly complex entertainment systems.

Sexuality and substance use have always being a part of the human experience troughout the centuries and if you think about you can actually see how our modern society is actually quite repressive about all of this.
Think about all the stigma about sexual assault and drug possess.

This I can agree with

Jesus fucking Christ, Veeky Forums, I stopped by to share some joy at finally finishing my foolish foray into the aptly named inert and weepingly bad Stone of Tears and can finally pick up a good series with Deadhouse Gates and see this shit.

The idea that you owe something to the future and can't just fuck and drink and smoke and snort and shoot all you want without destroying society grew out of the Western cultural agreement that we all just want to make our children as happy as possible. There are brilliant, successful, well-adjusted and happy people who grew up on the streets, abused drugs and sold their bodies and there are wastes of human existence that can't even think critically who had every golden opportunity they could ever want delivered to them under ideal conditions and never had a want, need or care in the world.

You can't decide which books everyone should read because you're never going to read all the books and therefore cannot possibly judge which ideas are worthy of memetic transfer.

the fuck are you talking about

I guess even /sffg/ isn't safe from Veeky Forums's brain armchair of feels.

Where's the Brave New World where everyone is fine with being rigidly controlled, drugged-out humautomatons because it beats any alternative they can think of? Huxley wasn't making brilliant social commentary, he was being a spicy little tween about stuff he doesn't like being THIS BAD FOR REAL YOU GUYS without providing any alternatives.

>Huxley wasn't making brilliant social commentary, he was being a spicy little tween about stuff he doesn't like being THIS BAD FOR REAL YOU GUYS without providing any alternatives.
Oh, like you’re doing now? Huh? Huh?

I'm not the one insisting children read my posts in school and calmly and rationally approach the issues they raise before taking the final test on the matter to determine if they "got it" only to have the real world fling issues with unsatisfying conclusions and to be continueds accompanying them at such a dizzying velocity that they elect a reality TV star President of the United States.

I'm all for introducing tough issues to students to teach them constructive ways to approach them, but maybe associating intelligent conversations about race relations with agonizing, punitive-seeming school reading assignments isn't the best way to prevent white supremacists rallies down the road.

The alt-right is literally mad because Obama was giving them too much homework.

Huxley didn't insist on any of that either.

This. The arguments used by people that say that Brave New World have come true would be just as applicable on a number of historical and ancient eras and civilizations. Honestly it fits quite well with ancient Greece.

>The idea that you owe something to the future and can't [just do whatever the fuck you want]...grew out of the Western cultural--
Stahp. You blatantly don't know anything about any "cultural agreement" Western or otherwise. I know it's cool to mindlessly trash white people as the cause of every single problem but if you want to actually be a cosmopolitan instead of an ersatz cosmopolitan-flavored dipshit I would urge you to actually spend a few hours looking into how both modern and historical societies function.

>Some people grew up selling their ass for smack on the streets and turned out fine but other people didn't have to.
OK? You sound mad but you didn't actually say anything here.

>You can't judge books because you, personally, can't read everything ever written.
Meanwhile in the real world, cultures (consisting of multiple people, you'll notice) do in fact manage to transfer ideas across both space and time. How curious! It appears people manage to form aesthetic judgments after all.

>Where's the Brave New World where everyone is fine with how things are going
That book already got written, it's called Brave New World.

Yeah why teach people to calmly and rationally approach issues when we could be teaching them to...?

>race relations
>alt right
>BLUMPF
Drunk, or stoned?

i like it when the space ship goes zoom and the guys swings a sword with his big arms it makes me happy

also when u get mad u get more power :)
beat the bad guy by being rly rly mad
xd rawr

Very boring from a story perspective
Long winded especially

The people making these arguments have never been outside, don't have enough friends and don't live a healthy sex life, so they think everyone uses Tinder, everyone is doing X or whatever drug they last heard about and there's an orgy on every street corner.

is correct

>Stahp. You blatantly don't know anything about any "cultural agreement" Western or otherwise. I know it's cool to mindlessly trash white people as the cause of every single problem but if you want to actually be a cosmopolitan instead of an ersatz cosmopolitan-flavored dipshit I would urge you to actually spend a few hours looking into how both modern and historical societies function.

I left out the part where it came from post-WW2 America because "think of the children" became a Western meme after all the victory sex and I'm guessing from the short nature of your responses after this one that you saw one thing and got jacked on how right you are and just turned on autopilot without the cruise control.

>OK? You sound mad but you didn't actually say anything here.
I was saying the common argument for "working for real true personal betterment" is invalid. Academic nurturing doesn't guarantee an intelligent and effective human being.

>That book already got written, it's called Brave New World.

That one doesn't count. It sucks.

>Yeah why teach people to calmly and rationally approach issues when we could be teaching them to...?

Taking the monkey see, monkey do approach is blatantly not working. My point was that you're not actually teaching those things, you're associating intelligent conversations about race with a forced march through To Kill a Mockingbird.

A video of Killer Mike talking about the history of the American Civil Rights Movement would be more engaging, if you want an example.

>tfw there's not an orgy on every street corner
Gonna go read me some Heinlein.

Mah nigga. Were Clarke and Asimov even trying?

That's actually an exclusive view of the world among 90's kids and 90's kids accessories in places like Veeky Forums. 80's cartoons were pushing toys and social media gives postmillennials an early crash course in social consequences, the 90's was the magical time when youth culture was dedicated to melting your brain to the point that there are now adults who can't deal with anything without resorting to the calm, soothing maturity of Rocko's Modern Life.

The convergence of alternarock sensibilities and an unapologetic devotion to manic glee has created a nation of people who find any system that makes sense threatening.

Bobby H knew what's up.

>tfw no hypersexual society where sex is socially similar to going out for a smoke with someone in our zeitgeist

I would have no clue since I was born behind the Iron Curtain and got cable just a year or two prior to getting non-dial up internet.

...

no gay stuff tho

A book with plain prose and great worldbuilding? Need inspo for my own book

Isn't there hints that Ben Caxton in Stranger have experimented with men? Anyway, the lack of homo stuff is one of my problems with Heinlein.

The lack of GRI in general is a problem.

Is terry goodkind necessary reading?

I feel like I don't understand enough about fantasy literature by having not read the entire series as a teenager.

He's an objectivist and also into BDSM

...wow

I think he's one of the most ridicu-, let's say critcized, fantasy authors.

...whoa

...wuht

...wuuuuhhh

The only Sanderson I've read is the stormlight archive. Is any of his other work worth reading while waiting for oathbringer?

Not really. Warbreaker is quite good but there's loads of better books by other authors out there.

Name 3

Absolutely mandatory.

Nice. Iain M Banks 'Culture' novels have some great passages involving megastructures.

did somebody say Book of the New Sun?

Non Sanderson fantasy?

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Howls Moving Castle
A Game of Thrones

To mention the first that come to mind.

I guess this isn't technically /sffg/, but I assume it has some crossover so I'll ask anyway: is the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson worth reading? Would any anons here recommend it?

> this isn't technically /sffg/

I have no idea what you mean by that, you'll have to explain how I've offended you instead of just posting a reaction inage

I ain't offended mang, just confused. Did you not check what thread you're posting in or something?

>I guess this isn't technically [related to] /sffg/, but

She appears to be operating under the assumption that Baroque Cycle is historical fiction and not really /sffg/ material.
If you can stand Stephenson's autistically longwinded style, then yes, it's worth a read. I both enjoyed it immensely and nearly died of boredom.

Mistborn book because Vin is one of the few decent female characters Sanderson wrote. In book one when she barely talked until [CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT]

How do we address the serious dearth of little girl protagonists?

You don't know pulp until you have read the "Lensman" series by E. E. Smith.

Robert E Howard

So Daniel Black is just some fat loser's fantasy of having a harem because he's a pathetic loser?

Yes?

>reading wish fulfillment fantasy and not expecting wish fulfillment

anything like this?
goodreads.com/book/show/18108609-the-sort-of-dark-mage

this was unexpectedly good. i assumed it was some indie drivel but the first and second one was amazing. too bad theres no eta on the third book.

the berserker series by fred saberhagen

Yes and no. Paul is meant to be a Mary Sue, but he's meant to be a Mary Sue who can't control anything and ends up not being able to do what he's supposed to. He's tormented by his conscience.

Him being a Mary Sue is also a bit of a point of the novel. Remember Kynes in the desert.

No one's ever written a good fantasy locked room mystery, right? Good.

anyone know any scifi/horror/weird books about strange small towns or communities. something with similar vibe as stuff like Twin Peaks, Wayward Pines, Salem's lot, Under the Dome, Welcome to Night Vale, Harvester(video game), Silent Hill, Alan Wake

Is God a Mary Sue? He keeps fucking things despite his amazing powers and everyone either worships him or is punished until they learn the error of their ways and starts worshipping him.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney has an idealised 1950s suburbia/small town. All pleasant routine and domesticity until the spores from space turn up. Read it anyway.

Finished Absolution Gap this morning, breddy gud, why was The Prefect so bad? Will the next Reynolds book be better?

>I guess this isn't technically /sffg/
??????
It's fantasy, or if you want to get specific, historical fiction. How isn't it sffg? No if you were talking about Infinite Jest.. then Yes that isn't sffg.

Any good books with tripods besides The War of the Worlds and the John Christopher books?

amazon.com/dp/B00P03SFPY

because it seemed like straight up historical fiction based on the blurbs I've read, which is neither science-fiction or fantasy, you giant sperg. how the fuck am I supposed to know if there's actually magic in the book or some shit?

Not all fantasy has magic. You fucking normie slumming scum. If you actually read you would know this. Speculative Fiction falls under SFF. If it's tech related, it's scifi, anything else, fantasy.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

H. P. Lovecraft is waiting for you user.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror, The Festival, The Colour out of Space, The Strange High House in the Mist, The Dreams in the Witch House.

Fantasy =/= magic. It means fiction with fantastical elements. Magic is a common fantastical element used in fantasy stories, but it's not the only one that exists.

you're right. even though, based on what I read before coming to this thread, there seemed to be no fantastic elements in the series, and it seemed to be based on Earth in real countries with real people and real discoveries, obviously I should have somehow concluded that the series had fantasy and sci-fi elements.
thank you, user. next time I ask about a book I'll head over the TV Tropes and spoil the whole thing for myself so that I know these things beforehand. i'll also word my posts more carefully so that people don't autistically hone in on one thing and ignore the rest.

I'm just finishing Jack Vance's third Demon Princes book. I haven't been bowled over by these as much as his other books, but they have all been very satisfying reads. Vance's tauter style, sense of pace, and visual style gives these books a moreish quality; and the mix of detective, spy and sci-fi novel tropes is very pleasing. Lots of interplanetary jetsetting, assumed names and double identities, phone calls with hidden meanings, meetings at promenade cafes, discretely rooting through people's rooms, going through local newspapers etc - with the odd fist fight and ray gun going off. This mix of 20thC genre writing tropes is very appealing to me.

Anyone got recs for books like this?

Have anyone here read French (or the original Japanese, for that matter) edition of Koji Suzuki's S/Sadako? I absolutely adore Rasen (barring the epilogue; also, I was really disappointed via both Loop and Edge), I really liked the first Sadako 3D movie, and I need to know, how the book fares in comparison to those two.

SPANK ME HARDER RON PAUL

goodreads.com/book/show/427475.How_Starbucks_Saved_My_Life

say one bad thing about BotNS (something legit, not like "I won't ever read it for the first time again" or something).

>For the first time in his life, Gill was a minority--the only older white guy working with a team of young African-Americans. He was forced to acknowledge his ingrained prejudices and admit to himself that, far from being beneath him, his new job was hard. And his younger coworkers, despite having half the education and twice the personal difficulties he’d ever faced, were running circles around him.

for fucks sake

I thought #3 was the best of them, although they were all worth reading. #4 has a hilarious ending, if you feel like it's kind of weak don't worry, the last paragraph makes up for everything.

I'm trying to think of something but I can't.
I guess it takes a while to get the story going? But I guess that's sort of the point of what Wolfe is trying to do?

The background and world building were neat, but I didn't really care about the plot or characters.

The generational transfer of the Autarchs' consciousnesses both seemed somewhat silly/high risk (how was that kept up for thousands of years?) and didn't seem to change Severian as much as it probably ought to have. I know there are counterarguments but that part always seemed a bit sketchy.

Really great. John Savage and Lenina are essentially an antithesis of the pedantic Winston and Julia romance. As expected from an actual scholar and not some sort of anarchist journalist