/sffg/- Science Fiction and Fantasy General

They'd bring roaches to clean up all the dead skin and fingernails, but the roachmeisters would have to keep it kinda secret because it's gross.

Just an ordinary man who wants Wright to be Chesterton and VD to be Campbell. They're not, but they try, bless their hearts.

what did he mean by this?

The field is too splintered now for there to be a "new Campbell", it's all about niche presses and (god help us) self-publishing.

Anyone here sent emails to authors and have them reply?
Most of the ones for me have been super arrogant all on their high horses "I'm so much better than you"

post the replies

An editor with enough talent could bring the field together. A niche press could gather the cream from self-publishers and Wattpad, shape and mentor them, and work word-of-mouth magic so we've heard of them.

VD and Castalia are banking on the anti-SJW/Gamergate/Euroidentity people to carry them, though, so IMO quality's never going to be as high as they want - no incentive, write as bad as you want as long as you criticize the right people. Which is of course what Tor et al do half the time anyway. I just want Mom and Dad to stop fighting and take us to Disneyland.

Does anyone remember that kid who sent a bunch of letters to authors in the 80s for a school project? Had a bunch of poorly formatted questions about intentionally including symbolism. I remember Asimov wrote an epistle and Ayn Rand just said "No, that's stupid."

>and (god help us) self-publishing

What's wrong with self publishing?

To me it seems like that just gives you more control over what ends up in the books and what has to get cut because the publishers don't like it

>tfw the author didn't reply
>spent 2 hours writing the email

I cried after a week of realizing the reply will never come, I've been shitting on his works ever since, serves him right

What's her name?

it's the new meme. You end up doing all the work of a typical publisher (editing, marketing, promoting, spamming, etc). You get bigger cut, but you work more. And like trad publishing, your chance of success is just a dim...

>marketing

I do that by giving people ARCs and have them viral market the book, doesn't take too much effort.
The readers do almost all of the marketing and promoting work for me.
And editing is also a non-issue since the same people also give feedback

Just off hand, how many copies does a self-published SFF book typically sell? A couple hundred?

And there's no one with a million years of publishing experience that can help you polish. Your options are solo or crowd-based, neither of which are worth much.

I'm making drivel to get money, I'm not making literary works that will stand the test of time, if I cater to what my readers expect and want, they will buy all of my future works

And that's what's wrong with self-publishing.

>I'm making drivel to get money
Are you the Plagues and Priestesses guy?

Nope

My quality is good enough for me to sell enough so I can make a living out of this, it helps that I can write fast

I can't say I'm not jealous.

I want to write literary works that will stand the test of time, though.

First for charts

~improved version~

Chuck Tingle is that you?

Dinosaur user is that you?

You still haven't "improved" it faggot.
DELETE THIS

>Pounded in the Butt by user's Big Post

What does /sffg/ think of T. H. White? What are some good books by him other than The Sword in the Stone and The Once and Future King?

>What are some good books by him other than The Sword in the Stone and The Once and Future King?
Anything that isn't Arthurian shit.

interesting, I want to hear more about your experience.

What do you think are the best written 'mystery' SFF books? Slowly unraveling plot and intriguing circumstances, that kind of stuff

>a Breeks's book.
What?

>Bonehunters Chapter 7

What do you faggots think about pic related?

Anyone here ever read Chuck Tingle?
What are his books like?

>actual photograph on the cover
>authors name is larger than the title
It failed the book cover test and is thus shit.

I didn't originally post the better cover because the ant version is the only one I can find.

This one has a larger version along with more books of the same series

Still a photograph, more apparent on book 2-4. The answer should be clear user.

Not him, but i think it goes like this:
>make goodreads author account
>give ppl ARC
>they like it
>they spam their friends with it
>gets bigger
>people ask you questions on goodreads/Twitter /failbook
>you answer in a non splerg
>they like you
>they go out their way to shill your book
>more people read
>Hollywood is out of ideas
>they are buying book rights up and down town
>they buy your book
>made into successful tv show/movie
>rake in the dosh
>have avid fans who want you to dick them down
>live the life

I would put good money on Red Rising getting a movie deal sometime in the near future .

>implying

>Elizabeth
It's shit.

I keep warning you guys.
Female authors aren't good

I don't judge books by their covers nor did I read the blurb but tell me if i am right.
It's some Joan of Arc book, she falls in love with the guy on the horse, and she is wearing the chainmail helmet. The guy on the horse thought she was a guy all along and is surprised when she does her reveal.

How right am i?

The guy's social media game is pretty great. Otherwise I don't see how a story so unapologetically traditionalist/admiring of space Nazi Romans could get so popular.

>young married protagonist, this is portrayed as a positive
>combat repeatedly glorified, occasional begrudging admissions that it can be bad sometimes
>Sometimes Golds gas Red villlages; this is entirely in the background and is never compared with the Holocaust
>Main character threatens to gas his own village to test the character of the petty bureaucrat that rules it
>No character ever advocates democracy, even the technocrat acknowledges it never worked
>Main character comments often on how fun it is to be a space Nazi Roman and how awesome the things they built are

>tfw no official artwork for Revelation Space
>don't even know what else to search to find book artwork for

I emailed Sanderson once like 2-3 years ago to get a copy of Aether of Night and White Sand. Finally got a response months later (pretty typical) containing the two books as .pdf files and an apology for such a long response time.
Ended up not even reading them.

K.A. Applegate was alright.

The cover barely resembles two characters which rarely, if at all, meet in the actual story.

It's about a woman that has experience in working as a mercenary. The family of evil wizards she originated (but got chased out of) from is no longer trusted enough by the king to have any of the legitimate of their name rule their duchy so instead he appoints the woman to rule it and she has to unfuck all the vicious magical and physical traps put around the place, as well as help improve the life of the people inhabiting Africa-tier villages.

Turns out that the evil wizard family poisons kids to teleport their souls into the corpses in the short span of time they're able to before the body is really dead This results subplots of evil wizards with fucking strong magic masquerading as little kids that want to kill shit

There's also multiple side-plots about the woman's former mercenary company, another ex-mercenary that has proven to be the half-elf king of the slav-tier-poor kingdom that neighbours the previously mentioned one, and some thief that is turning his life around with the help of not!Jesus. Both are relevant because they kill some evil wizard children

Sorry if everything's so convoluted but it's been a while since I read the books and I haven't been able to find the last one for sale here in slavshitstan, which makes me unmotivated to read the thing again.

There's also dragons and some evil turk fuck amassing an army in the not!Mediterranean to do evil guy shit. The fourth book ends with him ready to march on not!Europe and I suppose he dies in the last book or something

Kek, if your post is some sort of meme reverse-psychology magic designed to entice me into reading that book then you're doing great.

The book overview on goodreads makes it out to be your generic "capitalizm is ebul guise lol" dystopia.

What makes a "good" fantasy novel?

What separetes a "mediocre" fantasy book from a classic? I've read a little of both but I don't think my literary tastes are developed enough to form a conclusion.

If I want to become a writer at some point in the theoretical future, what pitfalls should I avoid?

I like my fantasy heavy handed and heroic with loads of classical references, like the Malazan Chain of Dog's arc.

Thanks for your response user.

I realize that not everybody's into classical references but getting into the classics actually seems like a good idea.

There is one capitalist. He is sick of the space Romans LARPing around the solar system having grand old wars with each other.

This doesn't really happen, apart from when it does and the author realizes the studio wants to butcher your story and turn it into a period romance drama with occasional grimdark happens.

There are IP squatter firms that buy movie rights to moderately popular works, some of them self-published, just in case someone really wants to make a movie someday.

Murder in Cormyr

>by user's Big Post
So he is impaling himself on my fence post?

A book from Brent Weeks. I find it easier to remember his name by writing it like that.

I only read this one, where he explains the inner workings of the "Tingleverse". Surprisingly not shit (depending, of course, on how you feel about butts).

wh-what?

Why aren't you reading Dresden Files?

imgur.com/gallery/e2rYv

Trashy prose and plot, too long.

Because a zany premise is no substitute for good writing and nobody's convinced me it has that yet.

Because it's urban fantasy and reddit-tier, whatever the hell that means in regards to a book, and everyone on this board has to act superior to something. Since everyone else on this board looks down on genre fiction, the people that like genre fiction picked urban fantasy to look down on.

i just picked this up. it was kind of ok.

will also be reading the new ken macleod book soonish.

Hi Veeky Forums, this is my first post here.

I'm currently on the hunt for a good fantasy read that isn't Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, because I've read them all.

I'm semi-interested in Malazan, but I'm not really sure if it's for me. Got any good recommendations?

Not looking for fantasy books that are typically for children, like Harry Potter etc. Thanks.

I did. It was alright.

You literally said nothing about your tastes. Look in the OP for generic recs.

I don't have much interest in urban fantasy

>Karin is tough as nails, in spite of being about 5 feet tall, and cute as a button were it not for her intimidating demeanor. She has mastered Aikido as well as several other forms of martial arts, allowing her to use the comparative size of her opponents against them, as well as competition level firearm proficiency.

okay.

How autistic do you have to be to not understand what someones taste is when they list a line of books, then say one of them is not preferred? They're literally all epic fantasy books. What more do you need?

>all ultra generic popular shit
And there's epic fantasy books in the OP, retard. Do everyone a favor and hang yourself.

the malazan books were ok, but prepare for feels at the end.

joe abercrombie writes pretty ok - he writes action oriented fantasy where all of the established tropes are undermined somehow - basically most of his characters are cunts.

terry brooks and raymond feist are ok, but it's kind of like reading some DnD club's AAR, especially feist.

i've read lots of pulpy shit i can barely remember. good signs for a pulpy fantasy novel are if they've basically set it in a pseudo version of a real european country (author is trying something well researched), or have angus macbride-esque cover art. in the end it's all pseudo-europeans whaling on each other with swords and demi-god powers. the only difference is the flavour.

also: james barclay was ok, as was andrejz sapkowski, guy gavriel kay, terry pratchett (for lols), m d mclachland and maybe neil gaiman i guess?

Ofcourse it's generic. Why else would I come here, if it wasn't to look for things that isn't as generic?

I saw those, and again, not sure if that's for me, hence why I'm asking. There are sure to be tons of other books you could've recommended thus far, but no, here we are. What a pointless remark you're making.

Thanks man. I believe I'm going for Malazan, heard only good things about it, and I like immersive lore.

I'll have your other recommendations in mind.

I think Wright's writing has unfortunately stopped improving since City Beyond Time, I suspect from a combination of having to write to feed himself (for a while, apparently he has a day job again) and starting to buy into his own hype a bit. He used to be more modest, some of his comments defending his Hugo noms were pretty pompous.

On the other hand Iron Chamber was a legitimately challenging concept so I think he's still trying to push his comfort zone.

Anyway, Wright has a better claim to being the new Van Vogt than the new Chesterton. In fact I think Wright has improved on VV.

The problem with self publishing is twofold. The first is that publishing houses provide services beyond just printing the book: they also do marketing, art, and editing. It's possible to do that on your own but it's more skill/knowledge on top of just being able to write. You can still pay for these services of course but now the burden is entirely on the author instead of being shared with the publisher.

The other is the lack of filtration/curation, which makes it harder for readers to identify what they like.m these aren't insurmountable problems but they are real.

Maybe you just put them up on a pedestal because you're the one that emails authors regularly apparently. And they, (like any musician actor or entertainer who is sick of fans demanding their time, attention, and input) were mildly short with you and you got all butthurt,

People writing drivel to eat isn't something unique to self publishing user.

What a faggot.

He wrote much, much better fiction with David Hartwell, except Hartwell worked with Tor so he's only been helping with the Count to the Eschaton books, and also Hartwell died recently. Wright claims Vox Day is a perfectly sufficient editor but I don't see that at all, the beginning of Somewhither was a mess and I couldn't get into it, and Iron Chamber had more of that pomposity and sermonizing. Iron Chamber edited by Hartwell would have been amazing.

The inconsistency about how magic works, how powerful it is and characters limitations are enough to drive anybody insane.

What sci fi books/series have the best atmosphere like The Forever War? I've heard Old Mans War, Starship Troopers, and Ringworld are pretty good choices. Looking for humans vs aliens but not just a battle book. More like war, loss, progress, long amounts of time passing, survival, etc.

Considering Old Mans War literally just recycled both The Forever War and Starship Troopers it isn't a particularly good choice unless you like ridiculous amounts of the same.

Armour.

>Armour
Eurofags get out! REEEEEEEEE!

Huh. I recall the version my brother didn't want me to read being spelled English-wise. I read it halfway anyway, probably didn't get any of it.

>Klapistani

I really want to write a war drama fantasy. What would you recommend for me to develop a prose that can fit the bill?

The Iliad

Hartwell dying was the worst thing that could happen to sf, honestly. Now we are left with the banal identity politics that celebrates lowest common denominator multiculturalism. Sometimes genius knows no social or cultural precedent - sometimes artists are more than their ethnicity and sexual orientation. David Hartwell let Wolfe do what he wanted, by and large. Will a new editor at Tor even buy Wolfe's next book?