/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

/sffg/ Based Monarch edition

>Who is the most competent leader in fantasy literature?
>And why is it Raoden?
>What's the name of the obligatory space despot of your hard SF novel you're working on?
>What are you reading right now?
>What would you recommend?

Previous thread Kindly use spoiler tags when appropriate to facilitate smooth discussion.

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>Fantasy
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>Sci-Fi
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>What's the name of the obligatory space despot of your hard SF novel you're working on?

The Sun, everyone worships the Sun and Two Moons. It's inspired by early Catholicism taken to a pagan extreme in the far future. The main symbol of the See is the Chi-Rho, although to you the reader it feels perverted in its form, due to their pagan worship.

>most competent leader in fantasy literature

Leto II, no contest

>WoT Book 11
>no Aes Sedai has EVER done anything even remotely useful in eleven books
>in fact they often end up aiding the Shadow, whether willingly or unintentionally
>all they can do is bicker amongst themselves over who gets to lead them

Remove Aes sedai remove Aes sedai witches genocide best day of my life

Anyone know anything about Jerry Pournelles Codominium books?

historical question - who was the first to writet a real fantasy story?
it must have taken a lot of guts to say "we have this world and it's god, but what if there was another world with different gods?"
I bet that looked kinda blasphemous at the time.
could proper fantasy even exist without the secularization of Europe?

God you are retarded, no wonder you post here.

pastebin.com/raw/HZGV6jT9

The Ring of Light quintet, part 4 is here.
The story is slowly but surely coming to a close as Hao ventures ever further into the vast wasteland of his world. Following the encounter with the conciliator Uanshing in part 3, Hao comes to sudden realisations and his resolve is now stronger than ever.

The previous parts are in the previous threads but I'll also post the complete story as I finish it.

>you'll never have anyone to discuss Attanasio with

>1st person POV

disgusting

Why? It's fine for stories usually revolving around one character. I found 3rd person is better for multiple narrative and character arcs. There's benefits to both of them really.

>I am human garbage on an Urban Fantasy binge
have this old version of a chart

>chart user has actually read all of those "female urban" books
This is reason alone to never take a recommendation from him

Hi female author hater, made any anti-female post lately?

I was reading for years, if something was interesting I read it. Women can make some nice worlds and write great fantasy... but it always, ALWAYS, turns to shit when they inevitably turn it into romance shit.

Ask anyone, Anti Blake book one was a great piece of urban fantasy... then Anita's pussy started to run, and the whole series went to shit.

Reading The Word For World is Forest.
Best Le Guin book thus far. She's much better when she's short and to the point while being less preachy.

I'll generally avoid female authors just because they generally have female protagonists.

I will admit though, the Robin Hobb books are some good quality shit, lack of deus ex machina, realistic in every important sense, no moments where I cringe at how cheesy something is.

Try the Magic Bites/Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. It got sold to me as "Dresden Files but if Dresden wasn't a tool" and is actually pretty good.

Ayy, keep going user. Few people are so dedicated. Are you published? I swear I'd buy your book

>Friend asshurt the fandom for the shitty YA fantasy book he likes considers what the author says about the story's world to be canon
>Talks about how they're using canon the wrong way and that WoG isn't canon
>Tell him that when most people use canon (especially in the context of shit like fantasy) they're using it to mean "Every thing that's true about the story and its world" not the literal definition of it
>He still doesn't understand

>Reads shitty YA fantasy

Why the fuck are you friends with him?

Been a while since I read it but thinking back on it, I'm annoyed at how annoying the vast majority of the women were, they were almost always some sort of fucking Mary Sue that did little else but bully all the men with less power than they had.

Needed more Mat and pre-whipped Perrin.

>YA
>"fandom"
Unless it's a qt3.14 asian girl unfriend this faggot.

>pre-whipped Perrin
doesn't he meet her in like book 3? by the end of the series it's impossible to remember what his character was like before that

#sotrue even when he was fucking up, it was on purpose.

So I just finished the latest from Robin Hobb and now I'm in a deep book-depression and can't seem to read anything else. Should I just stop reading for a while?

Thank you kindly. You have been following the story from the beginning haven't you? Sorry for not replying, I only really have time to check the thread a few times a day on my phone. Too busy.
No, I'm not published although I write for the university magazine. Not in english mind you though I wish to be published in english because there is no market for sff in either of the languages that I read / write in. It's quite literally the closest thing I have to a dream.

Read short stories. Wolfe, Chesterton etc.

>The Strain
>Del Toro
>A book
I thought it was only a TV show...?

Which SUCKED. I couldn't stop watching though hoping it would get better.

How different is the book from the show?

More vampire sword fighting

>every WoT book has literally entire paragraphs of women getting spanked

I can just picture Jordan writing with one hand and masturbating furiously with the other.

He even looks like a Garth Marenghi.

What's a nice standalone, small-scale fantasy novel you'd recommend for someone unfamiliar with the genre? Something you could show your parents or a friend or a sibling.

The Buried Giant

The Hobbit

Finished the first Black Company trilogy. Keep going or does the quality drop in the later books?

I've only read the first one after it, it was fine. I liked how moe The Lady was.

Pretty solid for the most part

Only comes into question towards the end of the series when the PoV changes somewhat. But that's more an opinion thing

>everytime Sanderson and Rothfuss come up on /r/fantasy they get trashed

Can reddit be saved?

Staying there and leaving Veeky Forums.

Slow.
Perrin was slow.
Also I'm pissed. The women get to the Tower in book 2 and I was all excited for some real magic learnin'. Come to find out 9/10 of their time is off on wild goose chases and when they're actually in the Tower they're washing fucking dishes or some shit. Fuck.

>She summoned her awesomeness

What did Sanderson mean by this?

Is there any well written fantasy books that are sort of like the D&D format where a small rag tag group of people go on adventures? Dragonlance and D&D novels are decent but I want something that's slightly more mature and well written

Malazan was originally a D&D script

>Who is the most competent leader in fantasy literature?
Havelock Vetinari of course

Malazan is too grand in its scope though. I want something that is in between the perspective of a single hero and a vast number of characters like Malazan or asoiaf. Something akin to Belgariad maybe but more well written

Affinity for Steel

I haven't seen this happen ever. Then again I haven't been there in months. Can you sauce me a thread where that happened?

But The Dresden Files writing is shit though. Is the writing in that book also shit?

But The Dresden Files writing is shit though. Is the writing in that book also shit?

reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/4uuqf9/what_are_your_unpopular_opinions_about_fantasy/

What are some websites and magazines for those of us who are aspiring to become SFFG authors to submit their short works?

The Scientology Opus.

So looking at Rothfuss, all I need for the average fantasy reader to think I have good prose is to slap "clever" metaphors everywhere?

Yes

Is there a fantasy writer that doesn't take 30 books to write one simple plot that they drag out for so long and end up forgetting key details to it?

Can't be that bad, I mean the first three Dresden Files books were literally the author's homework from writing school that got published because he was shopping it around right as the Urban Fantasy craze took off in the early 00s.

I mean the working title for it was Semiautomagic for christssake.

No because if you hit upon a successful series you're gonna drag it out and milk it for all its worth, fuck extensive planning and a well foreshadowed conclusion

Veeky Forums, you can be like the Ring of Light guy.

Plenty.

Post on Veeky Forums doesn't put money in the bank

Is City of Stairs good or a meme?

Name ten.

literally my diary desu

It's good. Little light on the GRI but it's there. Excellent look into what the post white genocide, culturally enriched world will look like.

Half through part 2 of way of kings

When the fuck does the plot start?

Thoughts on this guy?

Doubtful, I'm reading the link and even their criticism is bad, for example:

People love the opinions of their favourite authors, what they don't like is being disappointed in them; Rothfuss is the absolute worst in this regard, the guy is a pathetic individual while GRMM derives all his self-worth from the opinions of others like a high-school girl.

Trying to find a short story I read a while back. What I remember of it is:
Earth was abandoned at some time in the past for some reason, the POV character is a low-caste engineer on a pirate ship.
The captain of the ship is a purple-skinned hermaphrodite, I specifically remember this because it had something to do with not marrying outside their caste.
Anyways, the pirate ship finds a drifting space ship, the other ship's captain comes aboard and claims a sort of a "guest right"/Hospitium thing, but the pirates intend to capture the ship and sell the crew as slaves, but (I think) the other captain kills everybody because they're actually the agent of a AI intelligence on old Earth.

It's good but the SJW themes are super heavy handed and completely unsubtle

>On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen.

really

Read the sequel first. Not memeing, it's way better by every metric and its mostly unconnected.

Just give up user, you're not even marketing it properly. No one will read.

Tell that to Tao Lin

He looks like he diddles kids desu

Does he post on Veeky Forums?

>every WoT book
Doesn't that only happen in 11 and 12?

The next Chaucer, show respect

Do I need anything other than Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy to load my work with "depth" and "symbolism"?

>"Semiautomagic", working title

... actually that's pretty badass.

"Dresden Files" is just "I want people to think this is Noir while they read this".

The writing was fine in terms of it's passable for what it was. What he does very well though was pacing, especially compared to other authors in the Urban Fantasy swamp. That and memorable characters.

Finished The Word For World is Forest. With Earthsea the best Le Guin because it's relatively short and to the point. Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness felt like she was out of things to say for 1/3 of the novels and while her characters aren't bad, they thus far didn't have the depth necessary to pull off 400 pages.
The ideas with her are the main selling point and the societies she creates, it's great anthropology, but it can become too drawn out. Luckily she never goes full fantasy world building meme autismo.
Going to finally start Dying Earth, Jack Vance is a pretty big name I've missed. Hope it's as good as his reputation says.

Jack Vance is a dated meme. Stay away

>dated
Retard

>writing was fine
Objectively wrong, fampai.

How is zotl* pronounced?

* = the o has a small line above it which is why I ask. Doesn't seem to be an alt code for it.

The Hobbit. Warbeaker if a female POV is important to them.

Elantris

>he posts white sand

Kellhus, the Aspect Emperor, is the most competent leader by far. Nobody human comes close

That's because he's a self insert power fantasy lad

This. And inb4

>B-but he isn't a Gary Stu because he has no emotions!

If anything that makes him even more so, neckbeards think that having no emotions makes you 4x cooler.

He doesn't have to be a Gary stu to be a self insert power fantasy. They often coexist, but not necessarily.

not really...nobody actually wants to be Kellhus. What would be the point? you wouldn't be able the enjoy anything. Sure, you can bang all the chicks you want and take over the world...but what's the point of that if you become a robot?

Him not feeling doesn't mean you don't feel when you self insert into his ass rape and power.

thanks for the helpful comment.

anyone care to help? I'm a STEM fag with a poor background in academic literature.
I'd really appreciate some assistance.
was Dante the original fantasy author? Shakespeare?
if you'd rather just point me towards reading material, that would also be great

Iliad & Odyssey

>30 books
Lol, the only writers that written that much are Pratchett and Norman.

Gilgamesh was much earlier.

Its cool user. Just keep up the good work and you'll get there eventually. A friend writes in English and pays and profy translator to translate her novels for publishing. They work together to match the prose ofc and it work great for her. Already has 2 published books.

Read The City and The Stars instead, or not.