/sffg/ SciFi and Fantasy General

>What is the best Asian inspired fantasy?
Books of Stone & Water by Daniel Fox

I dunno about best. About all I read that even qualifies is Under Heaven and the Braided Path, both of which were alright I suppose.

What's with all the good Asian SFF written by white guys? It'd be like if Eddison or Dunsany had been Japanese.

There are probably some good Jap or Chink writers but they write in Japanese or Chinky and don't get translated, or do but are unknown in the west.

What would /sffg/ think about a story that is a genuine adventure in which you as the reader explore the universe together with the protagonists.

The story starts when Mc1's master disappears into a sprawling ancient city that has since been occupied by a mysterious Ruler and his people. Mc2 is this master and we explore her motives and insight into these city's inhabitants and their ruler, whom they see as some sort of god king.
Mc3 is a person with unclear origins but it's implied and eventually revealed to be a diogene. The diogenes are artificially made beings out of this ruler (who is secretly dead but a shadowy organization uses the diogenes as puppets to control the city in the name of this ruler.) This organization seeks to restore humankind to their former glory and conquer the stars, without knowing why the now-dead ruler settled on this planet in the first place.
The story starts as medieval fantasy but as we progress, it goes more and more into sci-fi territory. The diogenes, children of god become clones of him, the ancient city is revealed to be the ship upon which the Rules arrived on the planet. The city also has some cyberpunk elements such as drug addiction, a degenerate and uncaring society, body alterations and a dark and maddening mood about it.
I plan to have it as a trilogy. In book 1 we are introduced to the world and it's dualistic nature (those inside the city and those outside), the 3 main characters, their motives and the decaying state of the world. The reader will discover the diogenes, the truth about the ruler and its body, the secrets of the city and towards the end the secret organization is introduced and it's taking control of the city after certain events throughout the book. Book 1 has a bad ending.

Book 2 starts with the organization, now a ruling government, and a montage of it taking control over the world through various means, and forwarding their plans. We learn of their motive and the reader might ever align with their ideals. The dead ruler is resurrected towards the end of the book. The book ends with the utter destruction of the ruling government. Good ending.

In book 3, the revived ruler becomes Mc4. We explore his motives, history and the reason he settled on this world and never went further. Most characters, both main and side, die, but for many more life becomes better. The ending is intentionally ambiguous: should we stay on our world, cherish it as our only and true home, with all its goods and bads, or should we venture into the unknown of space, potentially triggering our downfall.

I want to explore several themes: degradation of society as a bi product of technological growth, free will, the unknown, parenthood, good vs evil and the origins of evil, love as a pure connection between intelligences.

This is a massive undertaking of mine but know that I'm taking as much time as I need to make it worthwhile.

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I think once it's not the protagonist, Sanderson would let any of the "loose" characters engage in premarital sex .

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>my taste is the basis that the world should use as a template

Hobb is pretty shit.

Why do women write again?

AA was good.

The series goes downhill from there though

Name the 5 best female fantasy authors and tell me why they aren't fucking shit.

Finished The Wise Man's Fear.
No idea what to read now, loved Mistborn & Stormlight Archives, any recommendations?

hobb is fucking great
what did you think of it? i think i enjoyed reading it, but the more i reflect on it the more i really dislike it.
the farseer trilogy is probably something you'll enjoy a lot

Scott Lynch

Really? I thought the first book was really weak.

>hobb is fucking great
>Le just repeat Reddit opinion

>what did you think of it?

I don't know yet, I want to read the next book if it will ever come out, I tried the short one about Auri but I couldn't stand it for more than 60 pages.

It's the magic I love about those books, I'll look into the farseer trilogy

>Scott Lynch
Not sure if male or female.

Why are you recommending a female author to someone?
Or is this just new bait that I haven't picked up on

It is that we are just like you, you are just like us. (We're only human.)

Ever see fear of a black hat, a rapsploitation movie? Those lyrics could apply here, too.

We literally have a chart for this

It's bait, Hobb is a known Reddit pick for SJW "literature"

What could it be?

>that frankenstein cover
im allergic to any edition or any book with this specific cover.
any other sffg charts not counting the ones mentioned in op?

But there aren't any good books on that chart

Only thing of her I've read. I remember the ending being a trainwreck.

not everyone is a pathetic, joyless cynic like you
its kind of angry to think about how he's probably really proud of auri as a character. i literally cant think of a single original character from the books honestly. maybe tempi?
>mfw 3+ whole chapters about how kvothe becomes the kung fu master of sex after fucking a gullible, hot fairy
really embarrassing tbqh

Auri is original and I do like her but I don't like reading a hundred pages about her in a row.

And what's embarrassing about the fae thing and the kung fu thing?
It was quite cool and fitting for the character

Wheel of Time, Farseer, and while pretty despised on this board, asoiaf has some great characters and arcs

Yes thank you, I have read asoiaf and I am waiting for the next book in that series.

uhhhhhhh......bye lol

>Reccomending racists and child abusers

>conflating the personal life of a writer with the quality of the work
I bet you hate Lovecraft too

what did he do that was sketchy?

There was a fantasy book, I think it was written by a grill since we're on this topic. It was about dragons but it's revealed that dragons are like, jet fighters, like battle planes, shit like that. But alive.

I can't remember the title, author name, anything to save my life, I thought /sffg/ would helo

Lovecraft did not like blacks

> the only thing I didn't enjoy was how they just found Magnifico and he turned out being incredibly important both to them and The Mule

Did you actually finish FaE?

That's a positive thing though

Speaking of, it pains me to read a book, fiction or fantasy or whatever, where women are portrayed unrealistically, smart, bold, loyal, probably some other adjectives I can't think of right now, I can only suspend my disbelief for so long

is that it? big deal

its annoying for women as well

I feel like I've read that one, but I can't place it either :(

I guess most fantasy is disqualified for you

Could be, but when you're reading about a man, he can be literally anything, feminine, masculine, anything in between, it's just not the same for females, granted you may have a smart masculine women but she won't be a woman in the strictest sense yet they are always portrayed as such even if the variables are contradictory

yeah, i really really hate this. its like inadvertently pretty sexist

The closest thing that pops to my mind is the woman from "Picnic at Hanging Rock" movie, I haven't read the book so I can't comment if it's the same or similar, but there was one smart masculine woman, that was ok, because she was just that, masculine.

Just this one, and the one OP was too lazy to feature as it's quite relevant. Am I forgetting any others?

Is diverse fantasy, better fantasy?

fantasy-faction.com/2016/diverse-fantasy-is-better-fantasy

Why are you posting a corrupted image?

no.

>retarded gender chart
A chart should have just good books, not be limited by some arbitrary feminist SJW standard.

>THE RIGHT TO ARM BEARS
>What do bears do in the woods...?

oh god why

This.

Women can't write for shit either way

It depends; a variety of different viewpoints is good, but talent is down to individuals, not demographics.

not 'better', but good. there are a lot of people in the world and its probably sad and lame to never see yourself represented
>books for women
>"arbitrary feminist sjw standard"
why? why is wanting to read books in a male-dominated genre by people who are more sensitive to and have more insight into what it's like to be a woman and what women want to read and generally write better female characters considered "sjw" now? the term has completely lost all meaning. by the way, there are already a FUCKTON of "good books" charts

so much low quality shitposting eh

>why? why is wanting to read books in a male-dominated genre by people who are more sensitive to and have more insight into what it's like to be a woman and what women want to read and generally write better female characters considered "sjw" now

There are tons of romance novels around, I don't see why they should be here

this may come as a major surprise to you, but some women actually want to read books that arent of the romance genre, and that includes both science fiction and fantasy.

That may be, but they don't want science fiction and fantasy as you put it, they want science fiction for women and fantasy for women.
Those don't seem to be the same genres.

a lot of women read trash, as evidenced by 50 shades and twilight being bestsellers, but speaking as a lady who is a big fan of the fantasy genre, i do get really tired of female characters that are just so obviously written by some nerd who's had very limited contact with women in general.
by the way, if it's got a scifi or fantasy setting, its a fucking scifi/fantasy book. it might be a romance one, but thats still a subgenre. like cyberpunk or urban fantasy.

>i do get really tired of female characters that are just so obviously written by some nerd who's had very limited contact with women in general.

Then don't read books by those authors if you can't stand them

But it's piss easy to write women. You just think of a man, then take away reason and accountability.

wow, you really have an answer for everything huh.
those books usually have a cool setting or storyline, its just the female characters in particular that let them down. i didnt say they had no redeeming factors or that i "can't stand them", just that i find it irksome and wish it would fuck off for good.

oscar wilde? i didnt know you browsed Veeky Forums

Describe a female character that would be perfect for you to read.

>No Dianne Wynne Jones
What the fuck is this chart?

then write your own books and quitcherbitchin

Haven't read anything of hers besides Tough Guide To Fantasyland, which is admittedly great. What would you add?

So you come to a male dominated field in a male dominated genre and you start bitching how things are not how they should be in your opinion and that obviously, everyone should conform to your ideals of what this genre should be like.
Why do you think you are qualified?
What makes you so special?

No one actually said that though, from what I gather user just wants more different kinds of SFF, not a switch from "only X" to "only Y".

What I want is for fantasy novels to have proper female characters, I do not want good fantasy books ruined with improper female characters either because women urge the author to do so, or the author genuinely has no idea how women really are like.

The push for strong women has poisoned the well so far that you can't even write a female character that is stupid, because it would be misogynistic to do so.

If the female wants to take part in male activities in a male dominated genre then she should do it, instead of bitching about it.
The alternative is, of course, creating a new subgenre, science fiction for women. Fantasy for women.

not an empty vessel to serve as the protagonist's love interest e.g "she was the most beautiful woman i've ever seen" with no mention of her character beyond her being "kind" or something equally banal and having her be romantically involved with his arch nemesis or something. conversely, not some kind of superwoman so overloaded with 'good' qualities that she's completely unrealistic and unrelatable. GIVING A WOMAN A TON OF POSITIVE CHARACTER TRAITS DOESNT MAKE HER A COMPLEX OR INTERESTING CHARACTER. AAAAHHH. why would anyone want to read about some badass, attractive, witty genius who is never in the wrong, has no room for character development and serves as some kind of misguided attempt to appeal to feminists. fucking insufferable tbqh.
basically, what would be nice is the character having the same nuances and background and motives as any good male character. there was a thread on here earlier about trickster females in literature, and it soon became known that there are really hardly any. she can be a fucking conniving bitch for all i care, as long as she's interesting!!
cool. next time i go out to a restaurant with someone and they complain about the food, ill pass on this same advice. next time someone doesnt like a film they saw, ill tell them to make one themselves. thanks a ton user!!
for the record though, i plan to

>for the record though, i plan to

go ahead, just don't publish it.

>gay rape

So...The Sparrow?

>go to Rakhat
>get raped

are you illiterate user?
i would assume that male authors would want to write better, less transparent characters anyway. i never demanded anything of anyone, i was just venting about something very prominent in sff that i cant stand and that in an ideal world for me would be remedied. when the fuck did i say that everyone should conform to my ideals? are you an actual retard mate?
is wanting to have good, believable characters really such a fucking controversial opinion on this board?
>what makes you qualified
what makes me qualified to have an opinion on the books i read? are you serious? can you please quote me wherever i even implied that my opinion should be the be all end all on all fantasy literature from now on?

So you want a male character with a female name and feminine pronouns?

You want an interesting woman, that is not realistic, so you do want to change a genre you are not part of, I suggest creating a genre for women, so you could write your fantasies and not ruin any good books with your imperfect thinking.

Have their been any authors who got this right in your opinion? Tbqh the best female characters I've found were in historical fiction based on real people

Aw. Harsh.

I'd actually love to see this user publish something, just to spurn all the overly sensitive basement dwellers getting uppity over having REALISTIC characters.

It... isn't?

...

It... it's just one category. Actually read the thing. I wanted a section with relatable female MCs written by a female. They aren't 5 star books by any means. I just thought they were interesting.

why do you think women can't be interesting? genuinely quite curious
>the best female characters I've found were in historical fiction based on real people
yeah! and its not a coincidence that that was because they were based on real people.
austen's ladies are my favorite i think - nostalgia probably factors in there. they have their flaws definitely but are still charming and engaging and completely believable. in terms of fantasy, the grills in discworld are colorful and fun and great. alise and thymara from farseer i like a lot. asoiaf, although meme-tier literature, has some stellar female characters. its 8:30 in the morning and ive been up all night :(

>cool. next time i go out to a restaurant with someone and wah wah wah bitch moan bitch bitch

i'm sure you'll write a bitchin' book, baby, ayyyyy

you can be in it!!

Have you tried Malazan? The female characters are quite varied there.

What does Veeky Forums think of Alastair Renyolds?

A-Anyone has any opinion?

Only read Revelation Space and that was a while ago. I remember hmm digging the environment and factions way more than the actual plot elements. Will return to it at some point but on a Neal Asher mission.

Felisin da bes.

I'm getting sick of listening to podcasts while I grind in Black Desert, I want to listen to an audio book series.

What's a schlocky and simple, but good and fun, series that I can just tune out to?

I might do Harry Potter because I'd finally be able to follow a conversation about it, and books I don't like listening to actually good books. I feel like I miss details with audiobooks.

I got up to the bonehunters a few years ago then gave up, should I start again? The chained god seemed like a cool dude

Do you want actual recommendations for fun quality pulp or just trash?