What are some "modern" books that Veeky Forums uses for inspiration for their games?

How are these? Do they have anything to do with the Cosmere or are they one offs like Elantris

Logan Nine-fingers had a hard life

Excellent taste

They tie into the cosmere, both Elantris and Warbreaker.

...

Warbreaker does in a number of ways from minor (one of the worldhoppers in the interlude is originally from warbreaker) to potentially major (the sword Szeth gets at the end of Words of Radience).

I don't think Steelheart is related at all.

Shevedieh and Javre are best fantasy duo

>/pol/
>>le Leddit XD

Thanks for you valued contribution to the thread.

'In for da ride on the dragon.
youtube.com/watch?v=qYZPdGrB9YM

Thank you for your quality shitposting.

yous welcom user

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

Unironically the greatest series of books (save the last one) of all time.

You sir, I like you.
Working on finishing the last chronicles right now, it's a tad too much linden for me. First chronicles are some of the best reads I have ever experienced.

Frankly all of Mieville's books really. I'm particularly partial to his short story collections for anything involving horror, because nothings more terrifying than running a WoD game set in Looking for Jake.

First Law is in a weird spot for me, because I enjoyed the characters but they are still bad books. Or rather, they are badly written.

For the fact that its a trilogy, there is actually stunningly little plot. Lots of things are in motion, but almost nothing actually happens. Its too little things of importance, stretched over too long a time.

On top of that, he doesn't know how to write and ending to save his life. Its was less of a problem for me on the first two books, because I got all three of them at once in a deal, but each book doesn't so much 'end' and 'stop'. Nothing is ever really resolved or comes to anything like a conclusion, each book ends feeling like there were 3 chapters or so that the publisher accidently left out.

There's also some weird narrative choices that screw over characters not for any good reason but just because something has to screw them over for tone. Like, everyone hates Logen Ninefingers for being a teamkilling fucktard sometimes. But the way the book is written makes it very clear to the reader that *isn't Logen*. We get clean chapter breaks between Logen Ninefingers and The Bloody Nine, and everything handles those two as if they are two different characters, rather than just one dude who occasionally goes batshit on people. Hell, the two personalities actively resist each other. Whatsherface from the Empire gets literally possessed by otherworldly demons, and even she never gets that same kind of "these are different characters entirely" treatment.

I'm okay that other characters in the story treat Logen like shit for what they see him do, but the fact remains that what the hell is going on here never actually gets addressed. Putting the reader in this weird situation where literally everyone but us sees this guy as a dangerous psycho, with no explanation for why we shouldn't as well.

If you want to run a game involving a magic university, Name of the Wind does more to create a magic school setting in half a book than The Magicians does in its entire run.

Say what you will about the main character but the worldbuilding is top notch.

I havent read Elantris yet, i didnt know they tired together

Steelheart is a totally different series. More of a modern book but still super good

I don't know if badly written is the right phrase. His prose is fine, especially the fight scenes. I do agree though, The First Law was very...unfocused? As you said, nothing really seems to happen/change. You could argue that it's thematically appropriate (Bayaz running everything behind the scenes to ensure the status quo), but if so it didn't really work.

Have you read his standalone novels? IMO they work a lot better in terms of plot/pacing, mainly as they use mostly new characters and try to tell an entire story in a single novel. Sharp Ends (collection of first law short stories) is also pretty great, for the same reason - Abercombie's strong points (characters, fight scenes, dialogue) come through well and his weak points (plot and overall story) aren't as relevant.

BOOK 3 WHEN

>worldhoppers
What in the hell. I just started Words of Radiance. I'm at the part where that Thaylen chick jumps off the Reshi greatshell, did miss it?

I would love to run a game in this setting. Low magic in the ruins of high magic precursors. So good.

Too fucking depressing.

Do the greatshells look like Chamsfiends?

I wouldnt think so, not exactly. And Chasmfiends are a breed if greatshell, but they all have different morphology

For example, the Reshi "Island" that I mentioned, they talk about how the characters ascend from it's low scooping flanks to it's high head, where the sway of its movements through the ocean was very slight. I would imagine they would look a lot like Chaurus from TES, in terms of body layout

I wouldn't worry about it, in one of the Stormlight books (I think it was the first one, but i'm not 100% sure), there's an interlude chapter where a bunch of people meet and talk about vague cryptic shit using assumed names.

It's less of a main plot point and more of a fun throwaway chapter Sanderson included for the OTT superfans who read every single cosmere-related thing and dissect it all to try to fit it together.

Christ. Why do I keep investing myself in 2deep4u fiction?

TES, Destiny, Cosmere, it never ends

When I started listening to the Writing Excuses podcast roughly 10 years ago, Sanderson was just this random Fantasy writers who hung out with two other random Mormons.

And then he exploded, and became one of modern Fantasy's household names. I suppose it's really worth it for any fan to go back and listen to him talk about worldbuilding and such without that burden of fame being present already.

>China Mieville

One of the worst writers I've ever read, frankly. And I've read America 2040. The mere mention of him turns my stomach.

Really? What books of his have you read? I'm curious as to what soured you on him.

I used The Black Company series as an inspiration. The campaign was awesome. Even managed to pull off that bittersweet ending from the last book.

Perido Street Station. Everyone was raving about it, saying it was on the same level as literature, etc.

I thought it was really clunky, desperately in need of editing, edgy, poorly contructed, and more infused with his political soapboxing than any philosophical point. There are multiple passages in the book that simply should have been cut for brevity's sake, like him basically saying "nukes are bad" and "murderhobo characters are horrible". Didn't really need those two-dimensional asides in an edgy Fantasy book.

It's a shame, because the whole Remade thing could have been great body horror. I'd read a book exclusively about those people. But in the end, even Mieville's prose didn't sit well with me. As others have said, the man abuses his thesaurus to the point where he's got it chained in the basement and administers daily whippings.

And frankly, I don't like him as a person, either. The man has nothing to say to me on or off paper. He's nothing more than a thief of my time, and I'm quite sour, as you can see from me feeling the need to point this shit out when I see him mentioned. I'd have put the book down hadn't it been the only book I had with me at the time.

Read the standalones; his desire to keep each one far more contained forces him to focus and not write a trilogy for the trilogy's sake.

I will admit that reading him can be hard sometimes, though. I hate seeing authors fuck characters over and over again because THEIR world is dark and thoughtful.

Sometimes good things happen to people, Joe.

Cook is the best. The Black Company, Tyranny of the Night, and Dread Empire are some of the best fantasy series out there. Even some of his standalone fantasy is baller as fuck. I've reread Swordbearer a million times.

>Shevedieh and Javre are best fantasy duo
They are excellent, though my favourite characters in the series are Nicomo Cosca and Glokta.

>like him basically saying "nukes are bad"

IIRC contextually it was the character going "these are the kind of chaotic magical forces I'm working with, fuck it up and we all go down" in response to birdman asking him why he's taking so long

And really, Veeky Forums loves him for the worldbuilding more than any kind of plot or writing he has. The Bas-Lag series is basically more traveler's guide to a wacky kitchen sink world than anything that's a coherent story, and bad or not the whole thing's got a lot of bits you can rip off from

I want to encourage you but...so many spoilers.

The first two books (of last Chronicles) are pretty solid. The third was Great tier. The last was not. I'll leave it at that.

It's a real pity the second book was a rehash he took his divorce out on book 3.

Yeah, warbreaker is (thus far) the only thing from Sanderson I read (only the free online version iirc). I really liked it. Would gladly read more set in the same world, but afaik it's the only one.
Anyways, I second this suggestion

The sword shows up at the end of the second book in the Stormlight Archive series. It's some horrifying abomination that makes the other super swords in the setting shit themselves.

That's the thing. I think the worldbuilding is just meh. Lots of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink stuff. I'm a big proponent of internal consistency, and it reads like he just throws stuff on the page without thinking. A good example would be the Khepri, and a lot of fans seem to get up in arms about how original they are, and they get pissed off when someone misunderstands and assumes they're anthro bug people.

And they're based on an Egyptian god, just taken straight from the pages of history. That's not something that screams good worldbuilding to me.

Personally, I found that to be a bit of a struggle to read.

But that's just me, ymmv.

...

Yeah, Perdido Street Station is honestly really rough. I like it, but I like it for mostly things like Motley or Yahg or other characters who are complicated and interesting.

The Scar is better, and Iron Council is also wildly better. Embassytown isn't bad at all, and Kraken alternates between being a weird mess and a fucking fantastic mess.

And then there's Railsea.

It's shit. Among other things there's this character... (summary nicked from TV Tropes)

> Ka-Poel, A 19 year old girl with the appearance and build of a small 14 year old. In addition to likely being the most powerful mage in the series, a common tactic for her is to jump up on enemies' shoulders and stab foot-long needles into their spine.

>Mieville

le steam meme face

By "The Magicians" you mean the
Harry Pooter on meth and dysfunction" series that got made into a TV show?

This fucking series was like being a backup porn star. An endless handjob from the fluffer that just gets frustrating cause you can never come.

Veeky Forums doesn't love him. You love him.

>it's a tad too much linden

wut

Brandon Sanderson is the only person left alive who could have taken over for Robert "45 pages to describe the roof tiles the character is running across" Jordan, and I mean that as an insult.

His writing his absolutely atrocious, forsaking any sense of wonder or mystery in the genre of FANTASY for the sake of sterile, quasi-academic-but-not-really, overly complicated effusions of "magic" (there's nothing magical remaining once he's done describing it) and "world building" (so much information that won't ever be important again once he's done writing about it for 10,000 words out of his 100,000+ words of relatively nothing until he brings it up again as nigh-deus ex machina to pull him out of a corner). No living author can take a phenomenally crafted concept or character at it's beginnings and turn it into a complete and utter travesty so effectively as he can. Everything he writes starts so strong, but, unfortunately, he just keeps fucking writing.

Every book reads like he's trying to render Tolkien, but instead of leaving the majority of his world building outside of the stories is side primers or glossaries, he includes them; instead of tight-walking the border of purple prose, Sanderson's work reads like a confusion of notes that should have been scrapped at an editor's table, with none of Tolkien's talent to support his overly verbose style.

Sanderson is the protypical example of the modern fantasy writer who should have been writing screen plays or video game scripts instead of writing books. Everyone I've ever met who loves Sanderson's writing has never bothered to read anything outside of modern fiction, with a handful of examples like the Lord of the Rings.

You want verbose world building that still carries of sense of wonder and magic? Read The Once and Future King, and put down Sanderson forever.

>Every book reads like he's trying to render Tolkien

I'm sorry, what?

Bas Lag's steampunk is only three of his books user. Four if you count Railsea as steampunk.

What counts as "modern" how recent?

what's modern? published after 2000?
Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and just all the 17th Shard wiki, eh
Eberron books by Baker and Bassingwaithe
Steven Erickson

before 200, approx.
Lawrence Watt-Evans, Esthar
Tanith Lee, oddly
Glen Cook, Black Company
Andzei Sapkovsky, you know what
Ursula le Guin, Earthsea
Roger Zelazny, Amber

But the only reason that hack has a career is because of the steam meme that was big when he started

I haven't actually read any of his novels, but his short stories are breddy gud.

November 14 user

Also unrelated but has anyone else tried the Graphic Audio audiobooks for The Stormlight Archive? They're fucking amazing

Veeky Forums pls go

For pretty much any space-related campaign, Peter Watts is great.

tell me the reason for nipples on men

Am I the only one who got the distinct impression Sanderson had been playing a lot of Morrowind right before he wrote Mistborn?

Yes, I tried them and to say they're fucking amazing is a FUCKING understatement.

I do not share your opinion, I find them quite good. Not the best but different in a good way to make them quite enjoyable. Also, the series has one of the best endings I ever read.

Also, the book 3 will come out both as a book and as an audio book. Graphic Audio audiobook ofc

I am triggered by the lack of context to modern. After 1990? 2000? 2010?

I read this trilogy when I was depressed. In retrospect, that was not such a good idea.

Yeah. I had to drop that show because it got to the point where I was yelling at the TV.

"Maybe you guys should, I don't know, STOP FUCKING EACH OTHER and WORK ON YOUR GODDAMN LIFE THREATENING PROBLEMS?"

I get it. The blonde chick is insanely hot. But she'll still be hot after you deal with the fact that a super wizard is trying to kill you and everyone you know for reasons unexplained.

>The blonde chick is insanely hot

Oh lawd yes.

Although to be fair fucking each other is required to solve several problems. Sex magic yo.

I couldn't take the blonde chick's character seriously at all because of 5 second films.

Powermetal is also where I get most of my campaign ideas, and the best part is that none of my players will ever know.

Not at all, it was the first thing I thought when I started reading it

>Say what you will about the main character but the worldbuilding is top notch.

i wouldn't say that, most of the setting is not very detailed and the parts that are detailed are hit and miss.

This book was great, but why the fuck did he have to bring vampires into it? It made no sense whatsoever.

This and second one are great for steampunk, horror and gave me some npc ideas

I got the same vibe from bits of the Stormlight Archive. Sanderson must have loved Morrowind.

Metro 2033. 2034 is awful, but 2035 is good, different to the awesome book than was 2033 but good non the less.

When the fuck is book 4 coming out

I've read The Once and Future King, enjoyed it, and I'm still reading the next Stormlight book when it comes out.

The only recently read "modern" "book" I've read was Worm and I'm currently in that CYOA Worm game run over discord, if that counts.

Other than that it's all just Forever War, The Damage Done, and The Killing Fields.

The latter two increased my motivation in getting that the Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now inspired DH2 game going

The main character of warbreaker is the old sword instructor in stormlight