/sffG/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

Ulysses is older

any far future hard scifi? that is, more believable and "realistic" interpretations of humans in far future. Doesn't have to be dying Earth.

Have you read 'Last and First Men', and 'Star Maker' by Olaf Stapeldon?

You can do better than that

Why don’t you check out The Expanse books by James SA Corey.

They’re ok

Any fantasy/adventure/romance that is self aware that its paganism?

alright
you are mom chokes on my enormous benis

Help me remember the name of a fantasy series.

The first book was about a fat spoiled prince who gets sent to a remote part of the kingdom where he is supposed to learn how to govern. He sucks at it and people try to take advantage of him, but over time he becomes more manly. At some point he gets struck by lightning and afterwards he develops some kind of magic power, which turns out to be related to some evil god or something.

That's all I remember.

Sounds neato

I feel like such a pleb for loving this so much. My first warhammer book. Definitely got me interested in the franchise.

Postan! 2-3 threads left before deadline!

Read online: www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/soi.aspx
E-book: archive.org/details/TheCompleteWorksOfHPLovecraft_201412 (including like 30 additional stories)
Audio: youtube.com/watch?v=aFZrqYn5f_0

Is this series really worth the time invested?

>implying
Wolfe come to mind, and I'm sure that there are more authors that are consistently better.

Wolfe is technically sci-fi since there's no magic, at least there isn't in the Solar Cycle

The Vorrh, maybe?

Why can I immediately be immersed into China Mieville's works but for the life of me can't get into Terry Prachett's writings?

Golden Age, John C Wright. Super-future civilization with technology that causes as many problems as it solves.

Serious question:

Why doesn't Steven Erikson try to rewrite GOTM?

Malazan gets recommended so much online, yet always with the preface of 'Gardens of the Moon makes no sense, just struggle through it". If he wrote a more readable introduction to the series, surely it would boost Malazan's popularity, and allow more readers to get into the series?

It seems to be widely regarded as a piece of shit book, so I see no reason not to alter it?

i can't stand either tbph, but i find mieville particularly dreadful
>look it's london, but it's not london
>look at these guys, they have beetles for heads
>i wonder what it would be like to have sex with one
>communism
at least pratchett has some (some) funny moments and isn't expecting you to take his novels seriously

>Africa
Niggers?
>cyclops raised by robots
What...?

I just started posting in these thread and see that you guys reccomend BotNS and Blindsight a lot. What other sci fi books are well regarded here? I want to get a good list of books to try

Veeky Forums is full of dicks, perhaps you can answer me. How pressurized chambers helps meat to survive high accelerations?

Echopraxia

is the meat halal?

No. Just like WoT, ASoIaF and Stormlight the time invested is not really worth it. You only keep reading because you've started.

Is 'Love Minimal' a cool name for a fighter spacecraft

also how do i make space dogfighting interesting,
also what weapons should my fighter spacecraft have,

>at least there isn't in the Solar Cycle
True. But like you're implying the Solar Cycle is not Wolfes only work.

cats and dogs, mostly humans

Can't really go wrong with Philip K Dick tbph

im not that well versed in science but i seem to remember the pressure on the meat compresses it so that the force caused by the accelleration has less of an effect on it because it is more denser in the compressed form.

ASoIAF is actually a fun read, though. Even if it's not finished i'm glad I read it.

and Jack Vance. The Three Body Problem is recommended quite often but there are some that don't like it.

Right, so your bits wont jiggle around. Thanks

opinions on Clarke?

>I just started posting in these thread and see that you guys reccomend BotNS and Blindsight a lot. What other sci fi books are well regarded here? I want to get a good list of books to try

Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus if you want something ultra creative and "out there"

There are lots of sci-fi books I personally like but "well regarded" in /sffg/ is a bit tough since people disagree a lot.

PKD is well-liked here. And he is great. In particular, in general most of us think very highly of A Scanner Darkly, Three Stigmata of Peter Eldritch and VALIS.

he came up with a lot of great concepts in his novels, but he doesn't write good plots or characters.
his better works (imho) are Songs of Distant Earth and The Light of Other Days, which he actually co-wrote with Stephen Baxter.
>most of us think very highly of A Scanner Darkly, Three Stigmata of Peter Eldritch and VALIS
what about Ubik? I think it more than deserves to be included with those other three.

>apu-punchau is severian
what the FUCK is going on

I think he's better than Asimov, he seems to deal with themes like the reactions of society to technology better. Still kind of shallow in my opinion though.

>what about Ubik? I think it more than deserves to be included with those other three.

You're absolutely right. My mistake, Ubik is one of his best

Welcome to the patrician-sphere ;)

glad you like it user

>I think he's better than Asimov
is that supposed to be a compliment?
haynes manuals are more exciting than asimov

Wizard Knight my man

Thank god for Sanderson-sama

The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. Rest of the solar cycle by Wolfe, or 5th head of cerberus or Wizard Knight for fantasy wolfe. I'm reading Latro at the moment and its fantastic.

Hyperion is also really great. Really satisfying plot and characters.

>cats and dogs, mostly humans

so that's a "no", then

>Hyperion is also really great. Really satisfying plot and characters.
I unironically agree with this.
I will never forget the Shrike for as long as I live.

I think I'll read Ashton Smith's Zotique cycle before Vance cause I've read in multiple ocassions how he was the original Dying Earth writer and how Vance was very influenced by him. Also everything else I've read by him is great.

What does /sffG/ think of Iain M Banks' Culture novels?
I found them all very entertaining, particularly the AI characters, the Ships and some of the unique aliens, but the only novel which has stuck with me is Use of Weapons.

pretty sure they're popular around here
I've only read the first two (Phlebas and Player of Games) and personally I found the first one lacking but the second one a great easygoing adventure sci fi
just started the third one (Use of Weapons) yesterday and it's looking good so far

I'm a fan. Despite the slightly ridiculous utopian aspect.

Consider Phlebas is my favourite - I know I'm in the minority there. But it was great seeing it from the POV of someone critical of the Culture, also at a point in history before the Culture became totally dominant. And it was a very wild ride.

I hated the fat guy on the island sequence though. That was fucking disgusting. IDK what Iain M Banks was thinking.

Which one of these is the best?
Locus Fantasy
World Fantasy Awards
Arthur C. Clarke

Why do good books end up with such bad cover art. I am like 99% sure BoTNS would be more widely read if the cover weren't so dogshit.

What's /sffg/'s opinion on the Sad Puppies?

>Arthur C. Clarke

Best by far

No way is that a real cover.

>Space opera edition
>>What's your favorite space opera?
Don't have one

>>is the genre dead?
Naw, just over filled

>>what are the best space opera books that have been released in the last 5 years?
Perilous Waif by E Williams Brown
williamscorner.blog/

doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.

What are the most interesting novels in this list?

greatsfandf.com/overlooked-books.php

lmao I'll start writing it thanks fag

sounds like a stupid name tbqh, it's like a Iain M. Banks name except without any of the things that make his ship names interesting

Almost anything by:
John Bellairs
Lord Dunsany
E.R. Eddison
R. A. Lafferty

Stop listening to idiots. GotM is, technically, the worst of the series, yes, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's just inferior than the others. There was a non insignificant time-span between releases, Erikson grew and improved as a writer.
GotM isn't even bad. It's just your first exposure to the universe, the narrative style and Erikson particular way of constructing and telling a story.

Malazan isn't perfect, but it's certainly among the better epic fantasy series. It's an acquired taste, and GotM is everybody's way of acquiring that taste, thus its 'reputation'.

Question: What's everyone's favorite instance of a character going 'enough is enough' and just letting loose? Sanderson is a hack, but apart from him I can't think of too many others. It's a power fantasy to be sure, but it's enjoyable.

Webnovels are novels too

Worm had a few of these

The thing with Alexandria and the final battle cheif among them

The former was kind of bullshit though in that she probably should have gotten the death penalty

I’m on book 6 and loving it. It’s mostly been improving in quality as it’s gone on so unless books 7 and 8 turn out to be total garbage I’m in it for the long haul.

Avram Davidson is interesting, especially "The Phoenix and the Mirror". He's quite Wolfean.

So in medieval times a lot of people thought (I presume unironically), that Virgil - the very same author of the Aeneid - was not just a poet and author but also a magician, a Magus. Some of them would open Virgil's books at random pages and use it for divination and they thought it was literally magical. This is legit real history and people thought like this for hundreds of years:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortes_Vergilianae

And the premise of this novel is to say, ok, what if Virgil actually WAS a Magus and could actually do magic. And classical gods and shit.

Really haberdashers your hazelnuts, as they say, so to speak.

Few moments like that have ever been as satisfying to me as Merlin of Chaos revealing his true form as a Lord of Chaos and annihilating an ogre.

>Question: What's everyone's favorite instance of a character going 'enough is enough' and just letting loose?
Cnaiür urs Skiotha REEEEING at Kellhus so hard that he became the God of Hate

muh Zelazny nigga

>What's everyone's favorite instance of a character going 'enough is enough' and just letting loose?

Hmm. It might be Theoden leading the charge into the Battle of the Pelennor fields. The combination of the really shit time he'd been having for years prior to that, seeing the armies sieging the city are too big to defeat, not knowing what happened with Aragorn, basically the near certainty of knowing he's going to die on this field away from home.

It's high time to slap a bitch and that's what he does.

As I remember it he charges down that hill and outpaces all of his bodyguards, and absolutely no one can stand in his way... until THAT confrontation.

Or it could even be Eomer's transition into apeshit mode after he learns Theoden is dead, when all the riders around him are just screaming DEATH

ugggh dude I'm gonna finish The Thousandfold Thought tonight. The first book was a fuckin snore but I'm definitely into it now.

I'll check those two out.

The first book is one of the best in the series, but only on a re-read. On the first read through it's pretty rough.

Pic related.

Tightly wound protagonist is slowly losing his mind. Story ratchets up tension until it explodes in unforgettable violence.

Absolutely perfect pacing. Dont know why more people havent read this book.

>>What's your favorite space opera?
Alastair Reynolds

>>is the genre dead?
Nope, Expanse is doing great on TV, the book series is only a half-dead horse by now, with new entries being solid. Also, here were two different Star Trek series on last year.

>>what are the best space opera books that have been released in the last 5 years?
Poseidon's Children was just fine. The Luna: New Moon books were interesting enough, although they only take place on the moon pretty much.

>tfw want to read, but can't get motivated

Just start reading wtf. Instead of reading my worthless post you could have read two highly rewarding sentences.

turn off your computer, put your phone into another room, it's not complicated

>What's your favorite space opera?
Vorksovagian
>Is it dead
No there's loads of good shit of late
>what are the best space opera books that have been released in the last 5 years?
off the top of my head for fun stuff there's Vatta's Peace, Vick's Vultures and Poor Man's War
For legitimately good stuff there's the Ancillary books

What if the two sentences OP would have been reading were from the Julia sex scene in Too Meme The Lightning?

Can anyone think of any good fantasy where the main character is a vampire?

I was wondering about this earlier and all I could think of was vampire as villain stuff or gay ass Anne Rice style books

hope that helps

Literally everyone except Dracula is a narrator lol

Man Red Rising doesn't work well on a second read, all of the twists become annoying when you know they're coming

How is Dick not on that website? Dick is the best.

yeah but he's the main character tho

>For legitimately good stuff there's the Ancillary books

tfw want to read something new but no idea what so I'm just downloading like 20 books again

I kinda miss going into bookshops and finding something new

I liked book 7 as much as the 6.