/SffG/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

Worm kind of, but it takes a while to kick in.

If it helps, it's a classical tragedy about well-intentioned villainy

>The first assignment in English One is called a Reading Reflection. It asks students to write about their reading habits: how often they read, what they read, what they feel they take from their reading.

>What have our students been reading before they come to our class? Some – a very few, and almost always women – have read 19th century classics: the Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens.

>Some – a very few, and almost always men – have read 20th century science fiction (Asimov and his ilk), and some of the Beats and their offspring: Kerouac, Bukowski, Burroughs.

>The next and much larger group have read The Hunger Games, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, some or all of the Harry Potter series, and a lot of autobiographies, either by sportsmen (the men) or by women who have been held in dungeons for years by rapists (the women).

>The final group, about the same size as the group of Hunger Games readers, read their and their friends’ Facebook pages, their own news feed, and the occasional copy of a women’s or a men’s magazine. None, unless they have been made to by their high school English teacher, has read anything by an Australian author.

>>Some – a very few, and almost always men – have read 20th century science fiction (Asimov and his ilk),

>>Asimov and his ilk

Why would someone be so rude /SffG/?

Kaladin amounting to basically nothing was part of his arc, like it or not. Syl literally spells this out at one part, telling Kaladin it's okay to be the one saved instead of doing the saving for once. If Sanderson had Kaladin say the fourt ideal and again manage to save the day, the climax would have been the same as the last two books. As for the conflict feeling smaller, that's logical. Books one and two were about ancient evil coming back. In Oathbringer it's already arrived, so things change from completely preventing it, to managing it; which will undoubtedly feel smaller. I do think a bit more thought could have been given to showing the state of the world. It's supposed to be going to shit, but we hardly notice it. This is because of Urithiru being the main location, and it is basically untouchable.

Powerlevels are the same as they have always been. Shards were always incredibly overpowered, and they still are. They were hardly used this time, but from some text we can safely say thay a full shardbearer could fight on rougly the same level as current Radiants. And while a shardbearer, or a Radiant could fight off dozens of people easily, they are easily overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Something Sanderson has repeatedly stated. Radiants will probably start getting their armor in the next book, which will truly make them unstoppable to normal soldiers, but that's just a part of fantasy.

Also, fuck Moash.

it's cool but also hyper obvious at least if you describe it like that. saw it coming a mile away! nay two miles even

Has anyone read Cloud Atlas? It is any good? Or pulp trash? The premise seems interesting.

>the climax would have been the same as the last two books

I don't think that is necesserily a bad thing. When the buildup was going I was ready for the sweet sweet release but instead of that I was left with Kalading in ambiguous state for three more years. The climax would have worked, even if predictable.

>Powerlevels are the same as they have always been.
That is true but before they were managed in a good way, keeping shardbearers constantly on their toes. In this one Adolin at some point killed 50 people as if they were nothing, not to mention Blackthorn. And honestly I didn't have an issue with all of this before, it's just that the final battle this time felt very winnable from the beginning. Maybe it's not the shards but rather clear winning conditions.

>showing the state of the world

I do think we were shown a lot of destruction but on the other hand lots of people were seemingly going the same day by day which doesn't add up considering that parshmen were everywhere and should have influenced everything.

This book was about Dalinar's journey most of all, so him getting the (literal) spotlight at the climax was fine by me. The entire battle would have been lost handily were it not for Dalinar's awakening. I'd almost call it a deus ex machina, but I get the feeling there's more the the awakening that we know so I'll hold off on that judgement for now.I do think that Kaladin's arc this book could have been done much better. Expanding his time in his hometown would have helped for starters.

I don't agree with you about shardbearers. If anything, they were significantly downplayed this book. Adolin hardly got any fighting done. Remember the plateau runs? Where he and Dalinar would literally take on entire armies by themselves to make room for their troops?

The Parshmen thing was easily explained away by Sanderson having them all pack up and leave instead of sowing widespread chaos like they easily could have.

The worst part to me by far was how Amaram, and most of all Taravangian were turned into comically shallow villains at the end. Where before Taravangian was an incredibly interesting character.

Ilk isn't inherently rude, and maybe her tone just reflects her less than friendly opinions on science fiction. Some people really seem to dislike the genre, from other writers to scientists.

>that feel when Daniel Black book 4 and Wild Wates book 3 isn't coming out till mid next year
Plz kill me

I think it's time I got stuck into this bad boy.

Any decent enough books that centre around vampires?

twilight

Bought some books for Christmas, r8 my list:
Dune
The Amber Chronicles (Omnibus)
Anathem
The 4th Turning (Non-fic)
Snow-Crash
Neuromancer

I have. Kind of gimmicky but definitely worth a read imo.

Could work. Depends on how you handle the twin interacting with other characters and physical objects.

All shit except anathem

Anyone read this?
Is it good or should I watch the anime ?

i havent read it honestly but the anime is fucking excellent.

Wild Wastes is a harem series though where the protagonist proceeds to collect an assortment of monster girls and fuck their brains out much to the delight of his first wife who is an orc.I don't remember any rape in it.

These were the last Fantasy genre books i've read, unless you count dystopian apocalyptic books as fantasy.

there's rape in it, but you probably wont like it. The books use weird terms for some words too

Also is there any fantasy books that dont have romance in it? Those get pretty boring fast

M-mean.

The Gap Series is brilliant but it's hardly a rape novel. That's just the prologue. It's rape actually done for plot reasons and character development.

I'll show you some character development.

People here shit on Dune for reasons I've never fully understood, but it's definitely worth reading. I prefer Snow Crash to Neuromancer, but you'll get to decide for yourself. Not a bad list, you'll have a variety of stuff to choose from.

> I don't remember any rape in it.
Well he mind controls a bunch of elves to watch him fuck all his wives and triggers their pleasure centres to force them to enjoy it. That's pretty rapey.

Holy fuck you're really pushing this Wild Wastes shit
Might actually read it

How do you feel about elves in fantasy? I always see that people say that they are overused. Especially when people use the Tolkien template for elves. If you were writing a fantasy story, how would you change them from how they're usually portrayed?

Webnovels are novels too

A standard all authors should strive for.

Make them fae. Make them alien. Make them not understand exactly how humans and mortality work. Make them smell faintly of brimstone. Make them kidnap children for their tithe to Hell and leave monsters in the cradle and not get why the humans are so angry. Make them pay you in gold coins that turn into dried leaves the next day, make them think dead flowers are valuable and jewels are just junk, make them enchant you so when you try to speak you sing and when you try to sing you speak and think they're doing you a favor.

See: The Broken Sword, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Lords and Ladies.

Most Veeky Forumsfolk don't understand that Tolkien elves are themselves a subversion, a kind of unfallen mankind that has ethereal nobility due to their sinlessness but no concept of mercy as there was no need of redemption, as opposed to actual folklore-standard elves that were neutral in the War in Heaven and live in a cursed halfway state between Earth and Hell.

>If you were writing a fantasy story, how would you change them from how they're usually portrayed?
I would change their name to something other than "elf" but otherwise keep them exactly the same.

Dalinar Ascended. He is probably going to be Honor's new Vessel.

When will authors realize the there's no such thing as a good love triangle? The Kaladin/Shallan/Adolin nonsense almost made me drop the book for good. Thankfully it only lasted one book, but that fat fuck Sanderson better not bring it back in any of the future books.

go hard fantasy.
>wood elves castrate males that dare to enter their forest
>dark elves are cannibals
>high elves are basically obove everyone and kill for fun or enslave other races
and so on.
maybe theres some book around about a travling through elf territory as a human or other race and you have to deal with all the bullshit of the knife ears.

Blindsight

Most people who think they're doing Tolkien template elves are actually just doing idealized Super-Aryans.

>When will authors realize the there's no such thing as a good love triangle?
you are wrong
that said, regular vanilla lovey-dovey courtships developing into full-on cooperative married adventures are far superior

>that said, regular vanilla lovey-dovey courtships developing into full-on cooperative married adventures are far superior
Are there any fantasy series that actually do that? I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff.

>Adolin managed to unceremoneously kill both of the interesting antagonists last book for no reason
>Thanks to Adolin Amaram and Terovangian must now become far less interesting versions of themselves in order to provide a challenge because we can't just have it be the marbleniggers possessed by Satan
>Mashadar, after being evicted from Shador Logoth in 1990, has apparently just now settled down into Urithiru to hold another pointless spiritual battle
>Drehy is a fag
>Women are suddenly soldiers now
>Kaladin literally cannot stop himself from being a fucking pussy about the Parshendi despite having killed literally hundreds of human beings and parshendi alike in his life

The only good things in the book were Moash's reaction to being told he was going to be suicide-charging that city with a ladder by the Electric Nigger Highlanders, and Dallinar's flashbacks to him being Lu Bu.

Don't bother trying to subvert elves, it's been done to death.

Anyone know books that are good and well written like daniel black? Where they use magic to build shit?

Where is the user who shilled me this novel? give me similar recommendations

Ahh, the old Jeanette + Therese character, eh?

Where should I start with PKD?

At the beginning like a normal person.

Why at the beginning. I mean which of his novels to read first.

>This book was about Dalinar's journey most of all
I agree but Sanderson himself brought a lot of attention to Kaladin's moral struggle only to leave it unresolved. It's not like I need Kaladin to become a bigger boy every book (even though I do) but establishing the situation only to leave readers blueballed is a dick move.

>shardbearers

Okay I guess it's not really about them but rather the scales of armies. In the first book we had 100k alethi in the camps and an unknown amount of parshendi somewhere on plains so killing 500 people in a battle didn't seem that unreasonable, later when we learned that there weren't that many parshendi in the first place 6 years of massacre became questionable for me and now I just haven't decided what to think about all the numbers.

>The Parshmen thing

One of the things I don't get is how many armies do parshmen have? Is what we were shown everything they have to offer or did yellow spren made them consolidate all over the world?

>Taravangian

Why, wasn't his whole shtick to try and save at least some people from Odium by serving him? He got that.

>Amaram

His and old king's plan was kinda strange: to return Honor by resurrecting voidbringers sounds remotely reasonable, but then why did they decide to serve them?

Litrpg are novels too

Review the first two books.

Does the Super Hero sales user lurk in here?
I remember a while back someone talking about bismuth in sffg....

Do Androids Dream or Ubik.
Three Stigmata is his best work.
Maze of Death is pretty good too.
A Scanner Darkly is overrated.

Just read "All You Zombies". Soooo, I don't really understand

Haven't read too much sci fi
only some of Asimov's robot and Foundation series
I want to get into Heinlein
What's the best one to start with?

Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I do call myself a Heinlein fan but I must say that most of his other works (that I have read) honestly are quite disappointing compared to Moon.

Would that not be a reason to read the other books first?

Couldn't finish neuromancer, but thought Snow Crash was engaging. I started reading Anathem and Dune at the same time and discarded Anathem for Dune since Anathem starts with 100% uninteresting exposition and Dune starts with an interesting plot.

everybody is the same person

Eh, I guess, but only if you really want to get into Heinlein. Otherwise Moon is basically enough, it cover all of his favourite topics, except incest, and does it better or at least as good as any other book.

I have not read any of his juveniles, there might be a couple of diamonds to check out there. If any other user would have some recommendations.

Anybody read the Tales from the Flat Earth series? I don't normally read series that go beyond 3 books but i'm curious about it.

That novel is approved.

>wood elves castrate males that dare to enter their forest
>dark elves are cannibals
>high elves are basically obove everyone and kill for fun or enslave other races
y-you've been reading wild wastes I see

wait wat.
i havent actually.
does that happen in wild wastes?
i thought this was general fantasy since thats how different elves are described in many fantasy novels.

Is that the one with the skeleton army or am I mistaking it for one of the 40 other books with the same "dude in a hooded cloak holding two daggers on a blank background" cover?

That's what the protagonist said in wild wastes. He asked the 3 types of elves those questions.

maybe i should give it a try.

I enjoyed every heinlein juvenile that I read. They're not amazing or anything, just comfy. Citizen of the Galaxy and Tunnel in the Sky are favorites.

It will depend on your writing power. I could easily see it done crappily in some YA book where the main girl can see ghosts and spends half the time moping and being emo about it, with this twist as some "dark" backstory for one of her friends.

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

It was one of the most hilarious things I have seen. especially the stuff with the soldier ant

I don't know if he lurks here but I have read the book if you have any questions.

nah, its very common. He just switched around common DnD characteristics

When are you releasing wild wastes 3?

Are any of the new canon Star Wars books good or are they all just as bad as The Last Jedi?

>Star Wars books
>good

just as bad. few can be viewed as mediocre but there are no stars like dark rendezvous

Hah, yeah it does feel like that author is doing self-promotion here for his series.

It might work out better in the long form. I told someone who was normally plot-blind about it and they figured it out

I'm guessing it would work better if she is solid but can phase through things

Currently reading Kaleidoscope Century as per the "degeneracy" infographic. Not sure what I think of it yet.

Stop reading escapist "literature" and face life head on, you soyboy bugmen.

>face life head on
The fact that I have to do this on a daily basis is the reason I like escapist literature.

Come join us friend!

> you soyboy bugmen
try learning to write not using memes.

My favorite subversion of elves is Acranum's portrayal of elves as a Luddite aristocratic ruling class that got BTFO by the industrial revolution.

I wish someone would write a novel like Arcanum.

>chatelaine thecla
>the claw

>magical engineering
unironically mahouka.

I really enjoyed this, certainly going to read Way Station. Any other great books that span millions of years (inb4 I've read Stapledon)?

>span millions of years
I liked it anyway.

god damnit wolfe

Wait so can the MC and others see both twin sisters? Can they both inyeract with physical objects? You could make that work if you established that the twin sisters had some sort of power to conjure up things out of their minds. Otherwise you would have to end up explaining how a lot of the situations would work if only one sister existed, like in Fight Club. But if they do both physically interact with the world, then why does the knife specifically break through the illusion? You would need to explain somehow that the knife has spell-breaking properties, which, in turn, could make the twist too easy to anticipate.

Also, if you figure out a way to solve all of these problems (which I think you could be able to do) I would recommend not including the "third" twin, it just seems corny as fuck, and the "sibling develops multiple personalities because of the death of a sibling" has been done in a very similar way in Brent Weeks' lightbringer series.

Death's End, the last book in the Three Body Problem trilogy.

>real literature