/SfFg/ Science Fiction and Fantasy (and sometimes Horror) General

All that comes to mind is City of Saints and Madmen, it's bretty good but the least good parts are the ones that are too memey and randumb, and most of the squid-parts fit that description. I am fairly picky though and would still recommend it.

I picked up dune. Thoughts on the sequels?

>we live in the most tyrannical bureaucratic-police state the world has ever seen
Okay Mao

even places like the USSR or communist china have more free speech than todays west
Certainly the Nazi's had more freedom in every regard.

>no women authors, no women protags, no urban fantasy, no out spoken liberals, no "fighting the nazi's/religious/evil corporations" story tales
Hi Larry

>Don't talk to me about fighting tyranny, we live in the most tyrannical bureaucratic-police state the world has ever seen, while our government denies that we even exist as a people or a nation, liberals have no issue with this.
>liberals have no issue with this.
Yep liberals are cheering on Trump

>the dumb thing
>the even dumber thing
n-no Satan

Im a few pages into House of Leaves. Anyone read it?

webnovels are novels too

Can we discuss Space Opera and Planetary Romance?
>Golden Age
C.L. Moores Northwest Smith stories
Leigh Brackets solar system stories and Erik John Stark stories
>1960s New Wave
Samuel R. Delanys Babel-17 and Nova
M. John Harrisons The Centauri Device
Frank Herberts Dune
>contemporary
Dan Simmons Hyperion
Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space series
Ian M. Banks Hydrogen Sonata
Gardner Dozois and George R.R. Martin have edited two retro throwback anthologies, Old Mars and Old Venus. And Dozois has also edited a New Space Opera anthology.
The comicbook Sword of Ages

What other works would you recommend?

Shit's insane and intense, the least like a book book I've ever read, I think if I had advice for someone first time reading it, it'd be to not be afraid to skip a bit when you think that'd heighten your experience

Authors have said there are no typos in that book user. Keep that in mind

The first two are alright. Don't read past that.
If you must read all the Frank Herbert books then under no circumstances read the shit his son has written

Can you please go be 13 years old some place else?

So i can skip that three page foot note?

fucking a!

I just read Lord of the Rings in it entirety and now I'm mad at Peter Jackson for leaving out Tom Bombadil, changing Saruman, making to Eye of Sauron a literal giant red eye and for leaving out the part at the end where the four hobbits return to the Shire and kick ass and take names and Saruman gets his comeuppance.

The scouring of the shire is in the directors cut

don't forget Faramir character assassination

Hi

BotNS

Yep, forgot about that too. Also changing the order of things so that Shelob attacks Frodo in ROtK instead of at the end of the Two Towers and Pippin and the palantir.

>leaving out Tom Bombadil
Can you imagine how ridiculous this would've looked in a movie? Adaptations need to change things in order to fit the demands and take advantage of a different medium. There's no reason to get upset about it.

Why no women protagonists?

But the protagonist of the library at mount char was a woman & I liked that

Could I get some more psychological horror recommendations, please? Is Ligotti a good way to go, or is he just a depressing edgelord? Furthermore, and as a side question, are there any classic literary novels that have horror elements? I vividly remember the nightmare of the horse being beaten to death in Crime and Punishment.

women are for breeding
not adventuring

I'm the original poster, not the guy you replied to but I'll answer your question anyway.

Governments and NGOs do all kinds of fucked up things: organ harvesting, ethnic cleansing, slavery. There's no reason to assume any of this would change in the future. There would be plenty of even more fucked up things for them to do, in fact. Nerve stapling, cloning etc...

My idea wasn't for a military academy ala Ender's Game. Rather a school that would create supremely capable individuals destined for high positions in society. It would be created by a cabal of politicians who believed that the vast bulk of humanity isn't suited to rule and so rulers must be created. Those who excel in military aspects would become officers and fast-tracked for promotions. The academically minded would move towards important scientific organisations or political positions. This is hardly a new idea. If you look back even a few hundred years or so. The British set up schools in their colonies to create a class of local rulers who later went on to rule the independent nations. Public school boys were taught how to manage an empire and shoot a rifle, not how rivers were formed or where Manchester was on a map.

Just bought 3 dune books from a thrift store

Don't lie to him like that, user, it's rude.

Every time I read reviews for Ligotti, I always see people saying he's a pessimist and his stories are sooooooo bleak duuude, and I have to wonder at whether the stories are actually good or people just like being shocked by abject despair. I find that stuff boring because existential crises aren't a novel concept to me. Any teenager can bemoan the nature of the universe, but a writer should find something significant in their insights. Is he better than that, or just an edgelord for the depressed masses?

>read Dune
>eh its okay
>read Messiah
>what is this shit
Do I stop now?

I read a few of his stories and it just felt something like a more modern Lovecraft (with better prose), if that makes sense. I didn't really get anything out of it. I'm not much of a horror fan, though.

Now you know how I felt when I watched the movies in theaters. Even then I cut it slack for not fucking up anything really bad and doing a solid job.

The Hobbit on the other hand... Literally the first book I read that didn't have pictures in it, the movies were soul-crushing.

It's all incredibly grimdark, first book is almost as good as blindsight, the sequels drop off really hard but Maelstrom is still readable.

Best part of that book. The squid civ rocketing away from Jupiter at the speed of light to escape the vacuum collapse was kino.

Messiah forms a nice epilogue for Dune proper. The rest of the books are for Herbert fanatics only. NEVER read the sequels by his son.

Twenty Thousand Leagues is an all-time favorite of mine. It's one of the main reasons I came to love reading
The Mysterious Island builds on it and makes Captain Nemo an even greater character

1) Men rarely write women well, imo
2) Woman writers are far more tempted to self-insert, and somehow seem to be (in my experience) better at writing men than they are at writing women, or than men are at writing women.
3) Le strong independent woman, and various sub-archetypes (the witty bitchy woman, the thunder-thighs Xena/Leeloo/Black Widow/ad nauseum type, the inescapable Mary Sue, the prickly tsundere girl who only looks out for number one, different combinations thereof; my least favorite is taking a male archetype that is tired and true and just slapping tits on it, as if that somehow makes it unique) is a trope that was done to death thirty years ago but due to socio-political pressures has mostly not been allowed to die or evolve by successive generations of genre fiction writers.

One of the things that I think GRRM unironically does well (unlike the show) is play around with these female character tropes in new ways and with more of an emphasis on realism (Brienne, just like an actual IRL woman, cannot actually be a super badass without also being freakishly huge and ugly, and as a result socially stunted; sometimes beautiful bitchy women are also spoiled, egotistical, and incompetent, re: Circe, etc.). But his attempts are less noteworthy for their stunning success than for the fact they are made at all, since this is so rare.

The biggest/most common problem with female characters as a whole is the instinctive and overwhelming concern of the writer that if they possess any significant flaws, then they wont be properly strong and independent, and this in turn results in an annoying character, at best.

All that said, this is obvious and intentional shitposting; even if he actually believed it, that's not how he (or likely she) would phrase it. This same person pops up all over the board posting almost the exact same thing in three or four stock variants, presumably due to an intense and permanent case of itchy buttrash over the (largely justified) "womameme" meme, combined with an intense and debilitating case of autism, driving xir essentially to larp as a semi-sentient strawman.

>not reading the version with pictures in it

I can't help but wonder if my parents will get me something like HP or GRRM for Christmas since they don't really know anything specific about my tastes.

How do authors of epic fantasy keep track of what the fuck is happening, and create an interesting story?

It seems hard enough with one protagonist.

The first Narnia movie left Santa Claus in and it was amazing.

Did someone say squid?

>Literally the first book I read that didn't have pictures in it
Man there are some very nice illustrated editions of The Hobbit, you missed out.

You could just tell them what books you want. Or ask for amazon gift cards if you're self conscious. That's what I do.

The first Narnia movie was also made for 10 year olds and there's a reason only Prince Caspian got replayed all the time on basic cable.

I had read the lord of the rings in its entirety before the movies came out and I enjoyed them very much. Yeah they didn't do things the same way, but that's pretty much always the case with movies. There's stuff I think the books did better, but the movie really brought some scenes to life. The bridge scene in Moria was incredible in the Fellowship movie. It still holds up even today. There's so many things the movies got right or did exceptionally well, I find it hard to really care that they skipped stuff or changed around plot elements.

I mean, if people really care they'd just read the books.

Which one of these guys has made up more words, do you think?

I just finished that last week.

Someone answer this riddle please. The answer is suppose to be a book.
>this word you shall find in two parts, one in an arena outside,
>where the sound of hooves beat the ground, as throngs watch little men ride,
>not full throttle nor slow, they go at steady speed,
>the second part is what's done when breath stops, and when the body has no more blood to bleed.

I want to read a Star Wars book because The Last Jedi left me disappointed. Is the Thrawn trilogy good?

Post a recommendation chart, I'm genuinely curious what books you like.

>An opinion's worth is measured by how few people share it
A contrarian? How original :-)

Well sanderson has a lore editor but for more i would imagine some combination of mindmaps and spreadshits.

All star wars expanded universe novels are trash
see here instead
I would particularly recommend the two Golden Age examples

...

Congratulations on your first drawing!

First Dune is good and a must
The second and third are optional
Don't read past that
Don't read the sons trash

But the Tom Bombadil part was the peak of the series.

>I mean, if people really care they'd just read the books.
People are lazy and want to be entertained. Reading is active, not passive, and thus requires some effort.
And we all know that you cannot be kept properly entertained if you make some kind of effort.

> It still holds up even today
I mean the movie came out in 2001, not 1901. It wasn't that long ago.

What web novels are people reading?

Careful user, my mememeter indicates that you're reaching dangerous levels.

Fuck it, I found hunters and worms of dune for a few bucks. I'm going to read that shit. Back in the day I remember starting them and Jesus, I can write a better fanfiction.

Also I'm getting hyperion. Is discontinued so I can only chose between two expensive editions. I'm gonna be pissed if I get memed in to a bad book.

>lore editor
Is this an editor in the sense of a person who works for him, or in the sense of a piece of software?

I started reading PKD this year. Can anybody recommend a book that will blow my mind as much as VALIS did?
Here's what I read by Dick this year:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - 5/5
Ubik - 4/5
VALIS - 5/5
A Scanner Darkly - 3/5

>repost from last thread

You might as well read the old John Carter stories. I got a collection of the first five (the ones in the public domain) and read it in between other stuff over a year ago. Aside from the invulnerable protagonist, it's actually quite good, and a lot of fun to see the origin of so many tropes.

I've got Hyperion in my backlog, will probably read it in the next month. I enjoyed Dune although it's a lot weirder than the older stuff. I understand some of the hate it gets -- it's good but overrated -- but the shills claiming it's unreadable need to fuck off. I suspect that it was the go-to "literary" SF novel for a few decades until BotNS kicked it off that perch. And BotNS is a superior work, but that doesn't make Dune bad.

On the modern side, I'm going to do my usual shill for Count to a Trillion. It's not for everyone, and even if you like it you will find parts you need to tolerate, but it's worth a shot. The author is highly genre-aware and the story has tremendous scope.

Please answer! What book is the riddle talking about?
If you answer I will read blindsight, ada palmer, and botns of my own free will.

What words can it be? The second one should be death or something like that, the clues for the first one makes me think of circus, Colosseum etc.

Go for A Maze of Death or Three Stigmata my dude

Three Stigmata

So my web novel/ warlock in a magus world rip-off starts off with child rape yet purely to create an edgy survival urge in the mc.

Does this immediately turn you off a series?

My instincts are to say Ben-Hur.

>how do I keep track

Plot maps, extensive character lists and wrote ups, they write the whole story from the ground up.
Amongst other things, if you want to do it you need to use trial and error to find something that suits you.

I'll keep an eye out for those, thanks!

why is he a commie, though? I though England had a caste-system like india.

>Does this immediately turn you off a series?
Yes, to the point where I believe your question to be bait. I would assume it's edgy for the sake of edgy garbage and/or that the author doesn't actually know how to write sympathetically so he has to resort to emotional blackmail by making something bad happen to a child.

>SotS 2017
>still putting off Elantris and Warbreaker sequels
>moving from one YA to another YA nobody asked for
>Mistborn Era 2 won't end till fall 2019
fucking ree

Pls respond, my need is great

It's not really emotional black mail.

The mc merely inherits the childs body, their apparent survival causes renewed efforts to kill them. Thus spuring the mc on to kill her would be murderers first when she would otherwise have no need to do so.

Will 2018 finally bring it to us? Or will the publishers wait till the TV series starts airing to maximize impact?

Umm you can’t write when trump is president sweetie. Overthrow the us government and maybe Rothfuss will write more.

Right, I forgot he said that.

youtu.be/dW8efme5eSU?t=7386

>If you want the book to come out faster, help me impeach Trump!

Man, I'm so glad I never pay any attention to authors as people.

Very unReddit of you.

Second part sounds like death, die, dying. Something along those lines. The first part seems like it's intentionally meant to throw you off.
>where the sound of hooves beat the ground, as throngs watch little men ride
>not full throttle nor slow, they go at steady speed
My first instinct was that they were talking about a Merry go round. dosn't explain the beating of hooves, but fits the rest. This gave me Merry/Dying. Meridian. No idea if that's helpful at all, I'll think on it some more.

You know, I kind of liked Name of the wind and found Rothfuss' writing style quite pleasant but my god, the second book is just awful. So much so it killed any interest I had in the series so I don't care what happens to it now.
Who's making the TV series by the way?

variety.com/2017/tv/news/kingkiller-chronicle-series-showtime-lin-manuel-miranda-john-rogers-1202600152/

Any thoughts on the Farseer trilogy? good? bad?
They're short, so I just might go through them anyway but I'd like to hear some of your opinions.

That's better than WoT being in Sony's hands at least. I am slightly curious what they're gonna base it around. Kvothe's parents? Someone from the academy?
I just don't see what's interesting enough about that world to create an original series. It's not like Rothfuss did some decent world building...

you really need to work on your fake /pol/ posting. you niggers are doing this all over Veeky Forums. at least put in some quality work.

>SF&F author listing with ratings and summaries:
>>greatsfandf.com/authors-full-list.php
why is Stephen Baxter not even on this list?

>The most numerous unjust omissions will be relatively recent authors--and "recent" goes back a good number of years

Do you actually believe he reads? LMAO

And very un4chan.