Sci Fi Fantasy General

As an 18 year old I have to say no.
The blade itself is

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Discworld, without any doubt. They are the world and all its workings, blown open and reassembled in a beautiful shape.

Book of the New Sun is a new favourite as well and please, don't call me pretentious. I'm just fascinated by Wolfe's writing and use of normal techniques, which is mot exceptional but fairly interesting nonetheless.

By the way, anyone has read the Vorrh? Thinking about buying the paperback when it comes out - and what about Michael Cisco? Any of you guys know where one could find pdfs/reasonably priced editions?

Any sci-fi or fantasy with a little girl protagonist?

Anita Blake the Vampire Layer had a bad ass loli vampire villain in the first book.

I hope she gets a back story prequel novel one day

...

Not gonna happen, and if you read past Obsidian Butterfly you know the series is porn now.

It may be like that but the story isn't focused on those parts, you have to find it out yourself.

There's no blood spatter in the bottom left panel...

I know, it's a real shame Anita Blake became so crap so fast.
First book had so much promise, but everything just had to go south.

That is obviously the first picture in the sequence.

Anita Blake has gone from a good Urban Fantasy(even though it was written by a woman ), to a joke focused on Anita and her personal harem and why other people with a vagina always hates her, and how she is self conscious and calls herself ugly because her stepmom called her that like 30years ago, even though tens of men literally line up to run train on her "so wet, so tight"vagina.

There is also the police hate because she is a US Marshal now, but they come around by the end of the book. There is also the mother of darkest who they killed(which the first like 15+ books was building up to) and the series still isn't over even though Anita's vagina has a godhood now, once you stick your penis in there you get qn automatic power up.

What more can she do? I don't want to read about you and your 30+ boyfriends(they are aware of each other, so it's cucking with intent and consent), I want to read about zombie raising and killing vamps and wereanimals.

Is this any good?

It is alright but dated. People tend to say Malazan and Traitor Son Cycle are better versions of it.

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Everyone knows my favourite series, Solar Cycle, Lankhmar, Amber, Gormenghast.

Why do you guys hate Abercrombie?

Thanks!
I've only read Tolkien,asoiaf and Malaz. Would you recommend me the Traitor Son Cycle?

Definitely. Great series.

He is irredeemable in just about every aspect. There is nothing good in his writing. Characters are boring caricatures, writing is empty of style, he doesn't even have even the most basic descriptions, the world is generic and lacks imagination, his action scenes are a mess.

Thanks! Will read.

That is a confusing set of panels.

That's what gives the chapter with Faramir and Eowyn so much of an impact.

This thread needs more awesome pulps in it.

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Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Elric
A Song of Ice and Fire
Conan

Can't tell if new guy or Wolfe user trying to fit in by mentioning ASoIaF.

Any good books based on fairies? Looking for more Pan's Labyrinth or Changeling: The Lost style stuff.

I know there's a few paranormal detective series that deal heavily with fae, (Mick Oberon, October Daye, Dresden Files a bit) but I'd like some more options.

>unironically reading urban and paranormal shit
>that fucking picture
end life

The Red Knight series. Set in fantasy counterpart England heavily featuring Fae and other shit like that.

Red Knight is the first book, series is called Traitor Son Cycle.

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Dune's probably my favorite series, but other than that I'm a way bigger fan of Delany (Stars In My Pocket... is the best damn scifi book I ever read)

I started getting into the series that starts w Ancilliary Justice but have finished the second one yet

so I guess that just leaves Dragon Ball Z
thats sci fi, right? (it is.)

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It's worth it, trust me.

You are quite the fag

Nah, I'm the guy who asked and I know they're not very good books. I just like them and don't care. Sometimes it's fun to wonder if a native american skinwalker babe will find love while hunting monsters.

Those both look great. A bit nervous about Jonathan Strange since having a story set in Victorian England (or thereabouts) is a HUGE red flag for me, though I'll definitely give it a shot.

Red flag for what? It's not a shirtless Darcy romance, but it is quite tedious in many parts. It's a very good imitation of an actual Victorian novel.

Jonathan Strange isn't exactly unknown, it's a pretty acclaimed book. Low fantasy and very slow pacing though.

Some meta level shit

Stirner pill me on ASOIAF

I find that most books set in that period tend to be very derivative and they rely too much on the setting. They tend to all be very samey with just character names changed I've been able to guess entire passages from books I've never read before.

sfsignal.com/archives/2016/04/guest-review-children-earth-sky-guy-gavriel-kay-novel-savored-not-devoured/

Who hype for GGKs new book?

Ah. No, you won't be able to do that.
>tfw Jonathan Strange brings back the Portuguese soldiers from hell to interrogate them but he can't send them back after and they're just on a wagon screaming for weeks till he figures it out

Just finished reading The Red Knight this morning.

It's written from multiple perspectives in a similar fashion to ASOIAF, but I enjoyed it more than asoiaf.

The central premise is a large siege, stealing Poul Anderson's nature/chaos vs christianity trope from Three Hearts and Three Lions.

The most fascinating part of the book is the historical accuracy. The descriptions of troop composition, architecture, etc are fairly good.

It's biggest fault is the overuse of magic. By the end of the book it seems that every single character can use magic and is an invincible god who has unlimited potential to heal and blow things up. There is literal deus ex machina where an angel appears and brings people back to life.

The fight scenes are fairly weak.

The plotting is decent and draws together several strands without seeming forced.

The setting isn't forced on you. This isn't a book where the author wants to show off his special creative special snowflake world. It's generic fantasy england, and that's that.

6/10, because I enjoyed it more than I didn't enjoy it.

>By the end of the book it seems that every single character can use magic

They can.

>There is literal deus ex machina where an angel appears and brings people back to life.
That ain't an Angel. Oh so fair and dressed in white.

That's a pretty harsh rating, but book 2 and 3 get much better, with 3 being considered the best.

What books do you consider 9/10 and 10/10?

31
No particular favorite but a fan of old weird fiction/sword and sorcery from the likes of Howard, Leiber, Smith, etc
And more poetic or mythological type fantasy such as Dunsany, Tolkien, and such.

Also WoT of course, the Ryhope Wood series by Holdstock is nice also

I guess if I had to have an absolute favorite book it would probably be the Silmarillion.

For a series... I don't know, maybe WoT the whole setting is more or less burned into my mind though that may be more a result of reading it as I was growing up in the 90s, but I do love it.

(Spoiler) I know, I think the angel and de vraili are the most interstitial part of the book. He's supossed to be an asshole but I liked him. I also thought the hints that the angel is lying to him and using him and that the angel isn't really an angel was a nice touch (/spoiler)

>harsh rating

6/10 indicates a better than typical book, and one I enjoyed.

>what books do you consider 9/10 and 10/10

For fantasy:

Dunsany's short fiction: Poltarnees Beholder of the Ocean, In the Land of Time, Bethmoora, Idle Days on the Yann, The Fortress Unvanquishable Save for Sacnoth, etc

Burrough's heroic novels: Tarzan, A Princess of Mars

Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham, The Hobbit

Dodgson (Lewis Carol)'s Alice in Wonderland books

Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros and trilogy

Any Vance, his wit and beautiful language and absurdities are delightful.

Smith's Tale of Satrampa Zerios and Dark Eidolon, Lovecraft's Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, Lieber's Bazaar of the Bizarre, Howard's Tower of the Elephant

31. It's a bit hard to come up with a favourite, but I guess [the first and second Chronicles of] Thomas Covenant fits the bill. Also the Cugel stories of Jack Vance.

Ha, I know what you mean. I don't think I'll ever come to dislike WoT considering how I grew up with it.

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>favorite series

Flashman

Not fantasy, but a hell of a lot of fun

Sup Veeky Forums, I'm about to self-publish a satiric YA fantasy novel about a Mary Sue saving the world. A lot of the inspiration comes from Greek mythology, Dante, Tolkien, Joseph Campbell, and Manly P. Hall.

Any advice while I get myself ready to market the hell out of it in the streets of New York City?

I'd read it if not for the >YA. Good luck

My friend wants a primer on sci fi and fantasy books, I'm not an expert and I tried to distill the list into like 5 books I feel you should start with, based on my favorites:

Starship Troopers (I am an armyfag, I'm legally supposed to love this book)
Sirens of Titan
Fahrenheit 451
American Gods
And I told him to skip the first Ender's Game book (he saw the movie) and just read Speaker for the Dead

What would you add to the "further reading" category?

Give free copies to people, not just reviewers. The premise sounds abysmal and might scare some people off; it would definitely scare me off. But, if I was given a free copy, I'd read it (and I'm sure others would also) giving you a chance to prove me wrong. Get that word of mouth/word of blog going.

Lord of Light & Lion of Al-Rassan, for SciFi and fantasy respectively. Both very good stand alones.

What's the name?

Is the Mary Sue a little girl?

I WILL read it.

The Great and Secret Show & Weaveworld by Clive Barker

Pretty much my idea. The cover is definitely eye-catching enough to create interest so if I can get enough teens reading it in public, it should spread like that cancer Twilight.

What turns you off about YA? Your criticism can be pretty useful.

Just tell the name so I know what I should buy.

Did you name the main character Mary sue?

...

anyone has a bigger more detailed cyberpunk recommendation list other than the section in the op?

that chapter of Dalinar at the end of WoK, when he threatens Elokhar and then tells him "btw I'm fucking your mom, get used to it"

Saved

I'll be on the lookout to deposit shekels into your account

Much obliged, user.

I did not. Her name is Anastasia.

Hes anyone here ever read the Tschai quadrilogy (Planet of Adventure), written by Jack Vance in the '60s?

It's the first scifi book I ever read, and I remember it being absurdly good

>White Human American Male™ crashes on alien planet
>proceeds to export democracy and fucks up the equilibrium between the several alien species that had been at war on the planet for centuries
>fucking obliterates one of the enemies cities in a matter of two pages, leading the enslaved semi-humans around the planet to rebel against their respective alien lords
>finds the time to fuck several women among princesses, daughters of chiefs and mind controlled subservient slaves
>one of the enemies he faces is a cult of batshit crazy raving fat women who tries to have a princess raped by an alien troll and then burned because she's young and hot, and they hate her because they'll never have that
>kills, steals and plunders in his steel-strong conviction that his ways are the more civil and just
>fuck Star Trek's rule of non-interference, he steals a spaceship and vows to come back to bring the True American Dream to this godforsaken planet full of alien sandniggers

I had so much fucking fun reading that book, it was obviously a power fantasy of the author, but the worldbuilding was amazing

bumping

I want to give johnathan strange and mr. norrel another shot but the first time I tried it was just so boring. I got maybe 5% in before I put it down and never picked it back up

Where do you find older books, /sff/? My local chain bookstore only has newer authors, the uber popular stuff like Tolkien and Asimov, and like one book by Wolfe. Should I be going to used book stores?

I loved the original Conan stories, and pulpy sword ad sorcery in general. Is the subgenre dead though? Are there any good sword and sorcery books written in the past decade or two? Seems like everything is "epic" fantasy and if it is anything less than 6 books long it isn't getting published, so the books are bloated to hell with huge casts.

I miss that old heroic feel where authors weren't afraid to get really weird and mix in some scifi and horror.

1/10. It was a shit book. Didn't even have pages.
>That's a pretty harsh rating
No worries my brother, I still gave it 5 stars on Goodreads.

It was mentioned in this thread already, but Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, the first book being Swords and Deviltry I'm pretty sure, is a great addition to the genre.

My favorite entries to the genre used to be Conan, but honestly, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser took his place, just check out the first one at least, it's great. Still pretty old though.

I just go to thriftbooks. Though I do feel bad buying used if the author is still alive

Planet of adventure are the worst of all Vance's writing.

It's absolute garbage, and this is coming from someone who loves vance

Does this get better after the first book? It was way too formulaic and it never feels like there's an actual conflict. Everyone assimilates perfectly, everyone falls in love, they have unlimited power, food, and ammo, and only a single unnamed good guy died.

Dude no
I loved it
Pls no

I don't know why, maybe it's because it was one of my first books, but I find the different parts of Tschai as they were described actually amazing, thay have an atmosphere and a feeling that I tried to find in other works of fiction but that I was never able to replicate exactly

What are your favorite Vance novels?

Yeah Leiber is great too. I've read and loved most of the big name old sword and sorcery authors. Was more curious about any recent books that fall into the category. Sadly seems like a pretty dead genre these days. Everything is grimdark epic fantasy or urban fantasy.

It's been dead for decades, the format which made it possible is no longer a thing and the fantasy audience went from normal teenagers and young men to millenial faggots and nerds.
It was also kind of a literary movement and those appear and disappear.

What's the best fantasy novel/series with a non-European aesthetic?

Bridge of Birds

It could be argued that ebooks are the new pulp. Look in the Kindle store, you'll find a shitload of SFF titles, the vast majority of which are trash pumped out for a quick buck - a lot like dime novels or Weird Tales. We just have to identify the Lovecraft/Howard style talents who are doing good work within that format. Unfortunately there's vastly more cheap ebooks than there were pulp novels, so it's harder to separate, but they're sure to be out there.

I don't like Planet of Adventure, I'm not a huge fan of The Demon Princes, the second compilation of Cugel stories is a let down, and the later books of the Cadwal Chronicals are weak.

The Lyonessee trilogy, Araminta Station, The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Rhialto the Marvellous, The Dragon Masters, The Miracle Workers, The Languages of Pao, The Last Castle, The Moon Moth, The Brains of Earth, are good stuff. I honestly can't remeber everything I've read by vance.

What should I give a shot of his if I thought Dying Earth was hella boring plot-wise (dropped it under 100 pages in I think) but I thought the prose was neat, something with better pacing perhaps?

>Not liking The Demon Princes or Cugel's Saga.

I'm glad someone else recognizes how great the Rhialto stories are though, they're usually handwaved away as being "not Cugel".

Almost else anything Vance wrote. The Dying Earth was the first thing he ever wrote--written during the 40s, published a little later--and it shows. However, he was publishing quality work well into the goddamn 90s. The Dragon Masters is short and really good, probably a good place to start.

This gets asked every thread.

And like clockwork, the first response will always be Bridge of Birds, and rightly so because it's brilliant. Then I'll come along and recommend Under Heaven and River of Stars.

Thanks lads

What's wrong with erikson, Veeky Forums?

Shit prose, for one.

Hey friends. What are some good dark fantasy novels? Like the type of shit you see in metal album covers, or like dark souls I guess

I looked at a couple novels of his and I'm probably gonna go with Lyonesse if for no other reason than that I fell in love with this picture. I'm weak to cute girls in green backgrounds.

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart

Compared to anyone else in the genre I've read he easily has the best.

A really bad first book. Otherwise he's alright.