Science fiction and fantasy general

Still reading The Dread Wyrm

Really pissed off that de vraeli dies, and dies so unchivilrously, and dies in the exact same way that de rohan does even though he just watched gabriel kill de rohan in the exact same fucking way. He was the most interesting character with the most interesting/historical ethics/morals/worldview and had the most potential for a cool plot with his "angel (ash? Some other cosmic entity?)

I know Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword involves norse saga, but although I like a lot of both his sci fi and fantasy, I couldn't get into that book. I didn't really give it much of a chance though, just a few pages, so it might be alright.

I love Waley's translation of Journey to the West, what are some other English language books in that vein?

See here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology_in_popular_culture#Literature

But how will i know which ones are good?

How good is Brave New World, in a scale from 1984 to 10?

5.

American Gods has """"Odin""""" in it. There are no good allusions to northern European mythology in it though.

It's a bad book. Gaiman is reddit.

Just read the real thing.

sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/coo/

American Gods is okay-ish. I have tried to get through it multiple times, with little success. Last time I got to about the halfway mark, but I felt like Shadow wasn't an interesting enough character to carry the weakish plot

This wasn't so bad.

The Poul Anderson is good. The others I haven't read, but they don't look very good.

Does the 'Norse mythology' have to be considered real in the book, or can it be a background belief system as in historical fiction?

>tfw you're writing a novel series that heavily features Norse myth

I hope I can get it published.

Fucker had it coming. I more expected an about-face when he realised the Angel was not genuine.

I really liked how his entire outlook was based on huge balls and honor and violence and being the very best at violence.

That's how knights were in the middle ages; you could be a fearless killing machine and get all the privledges that went along with it, or you could be a cowardly weakling knight and be treated no better than a peasant.

He knew at all times that he was the best and he didn't give a shit about anyone or anything and he was 100% honorable at all times.

That's why his choice to wear the enchanted armor seemed really out of character

/sffg/, is this too stupid a way to start a story?

>just days after camping out for the new iPhone, the MC drops hers in the toilet
>not sure what to do she flushes it and decides to buy a new one
>her parents are so pissed the forbid her from getting a new one
>seeing her only other option is using an android phone she goes into the sewers to find the one she flushed
>there she finds a sacred temple to the god of the sewer gators where a "sewer serpent" offers her a new one in exchange for her services

>Sword of Truth.jpeg

That sounds great.

Sounds hilarious, good one.

Will a generic RPG fantasy novel that baits teenagers that it's a romance novel sell?

It's the only good idea I've had for two years

>same
i'm pretty sure i can get it published if i keep working at it

ideas are actually very cheap. everything depends on the execution.

What if you have a very original and creative idea, but you write like John Green?

well he is a nyt best seller with two movies made from his books

Consider suicide

But Veeky Forums will never accept me :^(

I am now.

>you care what people on an anonymous imageboard think

I don't have any other accompaniment with me, so you guys will have to do.

JG has $17M and hordes of adoring fans. even a fraction of his success will net you a bunch of friends and fuckbuddies

You're right, time to write my generic YA novel with zany teenage characters now.

A solid 8 for me.

Most people seem to like it much less than 1984, but Brave New World has a much more interesting and more grey vision of the future.

its called Naruto

>that moment you realize Hillary Clinton is the mother of all inhumini

Never Let Me Go is overrated.
Also, where is the love for The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi.

1984 >>> BNW
BNW is badly disguised erotica.

>blood mirror is releasing till November
>age of myth till june
>sanderson next year
>dresden files????
>locke lamora ???
THERE ARE A BUNCH OF OTHER BOOKS I WANT TOO, BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER.

Almost done with In Greens Jungles. It's really interesting, seems like I may start connecting things soon.
Is it just me or is Horn a bit too similar to Silk as a character?

Listen son ... " i caught the ball, i won the game". I know you read that at the end of obw.

Never let me go was some lame boring shit. They must have taken out everyone's balls or those tools would have revolted for being organ fodder. Effete, weak, and soft.

is the joke that its all shit?

bnw is more realistic though

a system like in 1984 cannot exist for very long being not effective, as mikhail veller laughed at 1984 saying he imagined how those spying devices, telescreens, would be properly repaired and replaced in a society like that

now, the world in bnw is effective...

1984 is largely a criticism of the soviet system, while bns of the western capitalism, the soviet system could win a few countries but eventually collapsed while capitalism won the whole world

the only questionable part of bnw it's eugenics and its efficiency, but if omit it we hardly even can call bns an anti-utopia

>tfw read non-fiction a lot
>want to write a novel in genre-fiction
>in order to do so, need to read a lot of genre fiction
>don't want to waste my time on that

ugh.

>calling my 4 OCD, Autistic hours work of love and dedication shit
Get out fagget

>the only questionable part of bnw it's eugenics and its efficiency
how so?
>would be properly repaired and replaced in a society like that
I can kind of see the point but its not like the neighbor woman kitchen sink,its implied that all shortages are faked to keep people suffering.overall the whole setting is more there as a metaphor than as a sustainable society,hell in not being sustainable can be seen as part of the delusion in the story

Why don't you actually read the best it has to offer? It's a rich aesthetic, but it doesn't seem like one on the surface.

which one is that?
>>in order to do so, need to read a lot of genre fiction
what for? are you generally a good writer?

He's talking about the awful list he made

Oh yes, I do that every once in a while. It sure has many good things. But I feel like I need to completely invest my mind into various universes that are not as good and explore them in order to understand the skills required. Every good author of genre-fiction had a vast knowledge of existing fantasy or sci-fi.
I truly am. I have natural talent for it, but writing takes 70% of work and 30% talent. Everything I ever wrote were papers, essays, critiques and good short stories.
For example, I believe George R. R. Martin lacks the natural talent for writing. What he has are extraordinary aquired writing skills, patience and puts a lot of hard work and knowledge into his novels, the results of a lot of discipline and research, but they still lack the magical touch. Which is still good.

it strongly goes against the morals and therefore would have a lot of opponents so such a system could hardly be set and supported for a while without force... it's not even the most important objection though. the main problem it's how a caste system is sustainable in practice. adding chemicals to affect the development of babies could work but probably pretty unpredictably, some epsilons could be mutilated physically while still possessing full intelligence, possibly higher than most of alphas, and what's more important, the sleep education is crap (it was actually tried btw) with no clear results, brainwashing works only to an extent and there would be inevitably a lot of betas (their development wasn't hindered by chemistry btw and they didn't take drugs as much as epsiolon) who would be unsatisfied that they can never get the job of alphas... i would predict some kind of beta revolution, lol

as for 1984, shortages in a planned economy are eventually inevitable

Looking at the main influences of my favorite sf writers you don't really need that much of it. And most of it isn't terribly long.

I really think it's not that hard to acquire the kind of working knowledge necessary. It's not like you need to dive hip-deep into AE Van Vogt or whatever. Understand the historical currents driving f&sf. Be familiar with the really important things that are getting nominated for important awards, and the good authors. And read the stuff that's actually well-written and thoughtful. It's especially useful in fantasy, where like 70% of fantasy can be entirely ignored.

It might also be very useful to read some more critical works. In particular, the Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Encyclopedia of SF are both online in full and both are extremely, extremely good. You could also read your people like your Darko Suvins, Norman Spinrad, M John Harrison, Gary Wolfe, Brian Aldiss, those sorts of things. Very good and thoughtful people.

Now that I think of it, reading a lot of philosophy, history, linguistics and then all of a sudden writing original fantasy is a patrician way.

Well, you should still read good fantasy, because good fantasy is often very good, and engaging with that kind of thing will improve your own writing. But that's more coming off of RA Lafferty and John Crowley and Gene Wolfe and Branch Cabell, not Sanderson.

(Branch Cabell HAS to be the most patrician writer Veeky Forums never talks about - certainly in fantasy)

Next on my list is Once and future king. Is that good?

>George R. R. Martin
people who shit on martin have not read true hacks.I do think he has good constraction skill but he has been half assing it and has no real endgame
>Everything I ever wrote were papers, essays, critiques and good short stories
that can be a problem, even if you have a good story it turns to shit if you can't convey it right.

>important things that are getting nominated for important awards, and the good authors.
ha, most "important awards" are given to crap books. starting with roots can result in making of an outdated product and not knowing most of the tricks/popular stories will result in your story having some overlapping concepts and your book as divergent to someones hunger games. good move would be to read famous authors who had 1 successful series while all their other stuff turned to crap.also consulting well read people because reading enough fantasy would take you years.

I like to think that the endgame is an all-out war against the Others, with the dragons playing the part of the Eagles in LotR; but then again, the political focus on the story just means that it could keep going forever since characters constantly get killed and new ones introduced.

Other people like it more than me but it's worth reading.

1) The Hugo and Nebula are mostly very good, certainly before the year 2000; the World Fantasy Awards are VERY, very good. These are not the Oscars. The WFA in particular are given out by people who really, really know their shit.

2) Roots are important for giving an understanding of the basic concepts of a genre, especially in a case like science fiction where the genre is still quite young. Yeah, obviously if you're trying to write a YA dystopia or an epic fantasy series, you should read stuff that's more relevant to those subfields, but that was not the sense that I got from the user in question.

3) I am very well read in fantasy and science fiction. I am exactly the kind of person who you are recommending be consulted. And this is what I'm telling you.

big epic war would go against the tone he had so far.ultimately I think danny will never make it to westeros and will just settle down where she is,arya will not get revenge,etc and the point is that sometimes life does not work out as expected,the whole cast is just a set up for some other heroic story, that or it will have a rushed ending where arya kills 10 people because by some contrivance they are all in the same room and other stuff like that.When he introduced the new dragon prince I lost any doubts I had.

>3) I am very well read in fantasy and science fiction. I am exactly the kind of person who you are recommending be consulted. And this is what I'm telling you.
you are telling him to read more. I meant it more as user running by concepts to make sure he did not reinvent the wheel.
>Roots are important for giving an understanding of the basic concepts of a genre
some aspects of it have fallen out of use,are played out or so moldy no one will pick it up.knowing the roots only helps when you have info about modern works and can trace the change/decline/shift of taste. I found that all this is usually secondary and most new writers have problems with keeping basic cohesion,pacing,not being repetitive and not having your agenda/interests derail the story

Is the sequel of this any good?
I fell in love with this book.

Okay, followup question to does this modification make the symbolism too thick?
>the "sewer serpent" isn't in the temple, she brings the iphone home
>that night as she's using it the serpent appears in her room and demands repayment
>she offers to return the phone but he says it's too late to do that.
>he asks if a city girl has ever seen the stars, and when she looks up she sees a single light in the sky brighter than any other
>a meteor is coming, and she is the target. The sewer serpent can save her, but to do so she must pledge her service, any request and it is done
>the iPhone she stole has become a literal apple
>"make a pact, bite the apple"
>end of chapter one

I don't think many people read it.

that is nice to know at least.
I just really liked the universe Miller built.

so what does lit think of Gordan R Dickson?

Never heard of him desu

he did his main body of work in the 70s/80s but unfortunately never got hugely popular, I loved his childe cycle series, it's about what happens when humanity collonizes the stars, and each planet takes radically different paths forward, like one is a mercenary planet, there's a psychology planet, a religious planet etc. and what happens when the next step in evolution appears, and takes it in their heads that they should be in charge

I thought that said suicide fiction and got really excited
why do we even have a pleb general

do i need to start at dorsai! or are they stand alone novels?

My favorite sci-fi books are, in no particular order:
>the Foundation series
>Time enough for love
>Valis trilogy
And
>The Sirens of Titan
>Fahrenheit 451

I like many books, but I always come back to these if someone asks what's my favorite. What would Veeky Forums recommend me to pick up?

Finished This Immoral and In Greens Jungles. Zelanzy was pretty decent, Wolfe great. Going to read starship troopers because I've never read any of Heilen, Clarke, Asimov

Ignore it, the guy's retarded. He can't take the hint that he's posted it in a dozen threads and no one's added it to the OP.

>does this modification make the symbolism too thick?
Yes, by like two orders of magnitude.

Starship troopers is pure ideology.
Prose is extremely barebones. It really needed more work.

1.) I started writing a short story a few hours ago. It's about a seed drifting on the wind that lands on a volcanic island and struggles to grow into a reproductive success. It has to deal with a caterpillar, obligate root hemiparasites and the inevitable lava flow.

2.) Are there any sci-fi novels that focus on biology? I'm talking about creatures and their habits and such. Stephen Baxter wrote a book called "Evolution" that goes into it and I've already read "Last and First Men".

Oh well, the story's kind of fucked anyway since im too uncomfortable writing about brand name products to tell it the way I had it. Ill change it up a lottle and start over

>adoing chemicals to impair the development of babies is a frightening vision of the future

What are estronegenics, mercury, lead, vaccines, mongrelization, water fluoridation

It's already happening

>still haven't read Broken Eye yet
One of these days.

Looking for a good audiobook.

Any recommemdations?

I don't want to make a thread that would probably get lost, and I'm sure you people should know.

What are some good FICTION books about board games? Involving board games. Maybe tournaments and all that. Fantasy, Sci-Fi or not.

k thanks

I've never read any of these but:
Player of Games by Iain Banks
Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Empty City by Andrew Looney

It's not that great to be honest.

Isn't player of games part of a series?

Hyperion is particularly well done. Different narrator for each of the primary characters.

just like chessmen of mars, lol

Culture series but they're all effectively standalones. It's arguably a better book to start with than Consider Phlebas anyway.

Its a Culture novel. They're set in the same universe but not a series at all.

Chessmen of Mars IS part of a series but I don't think reading the previous four books are totally necessary.

I heard it had a lot of filler.

Yep, it also has a lot of unnecessarily edgy bullshit

The sequel is only partially written by Miller, if I remember correctly. Mostly written by his son. The sequel is not so great. Really rough.

But goddamn though, that first book is one of my all-time favorites.

PTSD and depression did fuck him up.
Too bad, I feel as if he had lived longer he might have written something ourselves the one and a half novel.

On another note seems like all plebs have gone to the fantasy general.