/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

Orphans of Chaos

>invites reddit
>complains about threads becoming shit

Hugos woke up the shitposters

Traitor Baru, almost all of Pratchett's girl books

Any got any recommendations for nautical/pirate fantasy.

I've read Inda (sea sections are great), the Gentleman Bastards book with pirates (worst part of the entire series), Narnia obvs and Treasure Island if we can count that.

Not sure where to go next. I know Liveship Traders is obviously somewhat about boats but I didn't like Hobb's Fitz books much so I'm not sure on that.

Any suggestions?

I haven't read it but Fellengrey by Scott Thomas is described as nautical fantasy. He is a great writer mixing in his fantasy a healthy dose of folk magic and horror given that he is primarily a horror writer.

Also a little more in the horror vein there's William Hope Hodgson's "The Boats of the Glen Carrig".

Anyone else order from Thriftbooks? For the third time, they've sent me the wrong books and I'd like an alternative if one exists. The first two times I got romance books and poetry books, but at least this time I got the Dark Tower VII and The Name of the Wind, which I might at least read someday.

Explain?
I google "Veeky Forums science fiction reddit" nothing comes up.

I think it's just a sign of the times.... Just look at the average comment length in the last thread and compare it to something posted a few years ago.

I get it, it is possible to make a point in few words. Maybe you ask a question, maybe answer one...however when most of the comments in the general are short, there's a problem.

I think the best illustration of this decline is the reception of The Great Ordeal by R scott bakker. This is the type of book old Veeky Forums would have loved. There's just so much to talk about...and I admit, for a few generals there where some ideas trown around...however a huge amount was shitposting and low effot "omg his prose is bad" type of stuff...

Go to google and type "asoiaf forums literature" and find the bakker general, or go to the "second apocalypse " forums...judge the difference in content between those places and this one...absolutely pathetic.

This is only one example, but it happens with most series. Why should I make an effort and post something here if only shitposters respond? Why choose Veeky Forums over any other website ? For this light type of conversation there's always reddit. I can visit once a week and sort by "top", there's no noticeable difference in quality between the two websites.

So that's why I stopped contributing. I visit a few times and find 2-3 posts worth reading in each general...however if I want to actually discuss something, there are better places.

Try Tales of the Black Raven by Seth Skorkowsky(mostly book 2 has pirating iirc)
Retribution falls by jay ketty(found it shitty, other anons liked it though)

>FIST FUSION
>Around the world, people are punching things. This is nothing unusual. But one day, people's fists begin fusing with the things they've punched, giving their fists related properties. A plastic surgery disaster breaks her mirror, and can now reflect sunlight. A baker kneads his dough, and can now make infinite breads. In all the excitement at the discovery of these Fist Fusers, a new brand of boxing called Fusion Boxing has emerged, pitting the superpowered pugilists against one another for fame and fortune.
would you read y/n

I don't have a positive suggestion but I can suggest you avoid "Pirate Latitudes" by Michael Crichton even if you are in a very yarr mood. The story is very predictable and the detail is light. To be fair, it was published posthumously.

>omg his prose is bad
“Do not mistake me, Inrithi. In this much Conphas is right. You are all staggering drunks to me. Boys who would play at war when you should kennel with your mothers. You know nothing of war. War is dark. Black as pitch. It is not a God. It does not laugh or weep. It rewards neither skill not daring. It is not a trial of souls, nor the measure of wills. Even less is it a tool, a means to some womanish end. It is merely the place where the iron bones of the earth meet the hollow bones of men and break them.

You have offered me war, and I have accepted. Nothing more. I will not regret your losses. I will not bow my head before your funeral pyres. I will not rejoice at your triumphs. But I have taken the wager. I will suffer with you. I will put Fanim to the sword, and drive their wives and children to the slaughter. And when I sleep, I will dream of their lamentations and be glad of heart.”
Sheltered liberal canadian boys writing on war is a fucking joke

Crichton absolutely went to shit like halfway through his career, shame desu

>not liking Cnaiur

Fuck right off

thanks dudes

He would make infinite raw dough, not bread you idiot/cause things to change under high temperatures.

There's this cool thing called metonymy, you should check it out!

I'm confused by Miles Cameron

His covers look like kids books, his writing's some weird attempt at being middle ages European from someone who has clearly never spoke anything like that and there's needless attempts at edge

Who is he supposed to appeal to?

Explain to my why this is shit. And I mean literally explain...open your heart and in your infinite kindness write at least 5 sentences making your point...
+1

That's a real shame, you seem to have some concrete thoughts on the subject. What do you think could cause a bit sci-fo resurgence, akin the astronomy in schools you references?

...

Speaking of which, has anyone aside from chartfag and myself actually read Jemisin's non-Fifth Season/Obelisk Gate books? Broken Kingdoms is my favorite of hers, but Killing Moon is the best standalone.

I read the first two Inheritance books but didn't stick with the third.

Mix of not liking the perspective and realising that they're all pretty much romances.

She's a fantastic prose writer but I'm not yet sold on her plots and worlds.
The city in Inheritance is really interesting but I didn't find the world as a whole convincing

This is making me want to read Jemisin, good job whoever made this.

Not me

A while back you guys memed me into reading The Postman, which is trash.

How do I trust you again?

Read A Handmaid's Tale.

Go to bed already bakker. Your books are bad.

*The Handmaid's Tale

He isn't worth it

These threads were never good, and I've been here since the very beginning

take off the rose-tinted glasses

still don't know what this means

Flatland is the best SciFi novel. Prove me right.

Can someone recommend me a scifi book about a generation ship? Just finished this and i liked the concept

iep.utm.edu/daoism/
The Dao is the way

Orphans of the Sky

I didn't really dig the dream shit in the books. Read it years ago can't remember why i dislike it, maybe it's in my goodreads review.

How was book 2 say it released recently, it was a not-Egypt setting in book one right? Some water problem? Read too many interesting books between book 1 and now.

>expecting star wars
Is it because of some in the body like jedi have(this case cerebellum and cessing)?

You think the horny young stud is gonna get some milf pussy next book while the statue watches?

>Orphans of the Sky
cheers mate, ill check it out

About 1/3 of Chasm City. Book is set in a bigger fictional universe, but it's probably one of the best standalone sci-fi novels I've ever read. It's really good all around. Tight, focused, story. Interesting characters. Nice pacing. Decent prose.

Here's a list of books that feature generation ships:

goodreads.com/shelf/show/generation-ship

I was promised GRI in this book, and it turned out to be complete shit.

It's a not crusades against monsters, in a not England... and they praise god and magic in the same breath. Sun magic /heat is from God, nature/natural is from the devil, but I'm sure it will be revealed as all the same in the end (not that I'm reading to find out).

The captain had access to prime milf pussy that pulsated anytime he behaved proper in front of her. I'm sure he could have been groin deep.. but he didn't.. even though he just came off anotber campaign and he didn't get no pussy in ages.

The book itself was an utter slog to get through, two anons are known to have tried and dropped it. They don't have my autism fueled ocd to complete a task started.
I had to force myself, book took longer than usual for something of that length, because I always found other things to do instead of reading.

I did like the wyrm though, they made me actually enjoy dragons.

Read at your own peril, and if chart user says something is shit, don't try to prove him wrong... then drop the book quarter way through.

>you guys
>sffg is a collective hivemind
When suggested something, go and do research on it. It's your own fault.

When people ask for book like 'x' we give them the closest to 'x' that we read. It's up to you to see if it's what you like.

Finally finished the Red Rising trilogy. I loved it but why am I so pissed off?

Because by the time they get to Valhalla you know exactly what's going to happen more or less

So the resolution is unsatisfying

SHINY DID NOTHING WRONG

Lack of fresh memes.
Gri, hating on chart user, dinosaurs and anti-dinosaurs, obsessing over bakker all lent a cinder of purpose in our lives. But now that these things have lost their appeal, we are strutting around like a chicken with it's head twisted off.

We need new memes, we need new books to discuss, we have to breathe life back into our little general. We can't stagnate like outer lit and only discuss 3 books.

Read Aurora, by Kim Stanley Robinson.

I'm not a huge fan of his -- I liked his Mars series just okay, and I'm currently reading 40 Signs of Rain, which might be the worst book I've ever read. But Aurora hit me like a ton of bricks.

Cause you know Lysander's gonna kill everyone as soon as he's able

Screenshot this, if Pierce Brown does it I'm sueing

>reading The Postman
It's harrowing to know that a Kevin Costner movie was better than the book.

I'm trying to write a low fantasy story, and one of the characters I have planned is an escaped harem girl who crossed paths with and joined an outlaw group lead by a Joan of Arc meets Robin Hood type character. My idea behind her is to have sort of a reverse damsel in distress, she starts out naive and helpless, is taken on by our "heroes", and through her time with this band of outlaws grows more world weary and develops useful skills.

I want her background as a former sex slave to be relevant, but handled maturely. This is meant to be low fantasy but not GRRM-style excessive cocks, cunts, shitting and gore. I kind of want it to feel more pulpy, with the low fantasy setting being there mostly just to ground the world and story in logic. I think to Griffith from Berserk when I think of inspiration, just with less prodigy at swordfighting and evil betrayal.

I'm kind of stuck trying to figure out how to handle a former sex slave character. Any ideas on how I can handle something like that without seeming fetishistic or exploitative, but also relevant to her character? I don't want her becoming some femme fatale sexy character, her past is something she more or less keeps quiet about and she doesn't use her "experience" with sex to charm men or anything like that.

Oh, and before anyone says I'm writing some SJW shit I just want to say that it's not like that. I think female characters and leads are interesting and often fun, but too rarely done will in favour of Hunger Games perfect self-insert shit.

Anyway, just some thoughts and tips would be cool. Like if you were writing or reading about a character like this how would you want it handled?

I'm pretty sure someone who has been raped all their life would be jumpy, nervous around men. Certainly wouldn't want to fall into bed with them unless they really had to.

Cast the word "SJW" out of your head - you're not doing anything wrong by wanting to make female characters stand out as real people and not constellations/playthings of male ones.

Where are the little girl protagonists?

In YA

can someone post a link to "Story of your life"?
Can't find a PDF online.

>relevant to her character
How does she act? Former slavery could change a person entirely or make them permanently depressed. Showing how she behaves in the present will indicate how she dealt with the past. She might be open to having sex in the present, she might not want anything to do with it. She may develop a soft spot for others who are still slaves, or she may coldly brush them off and look down on them from a "well I got out, why haven't you done the same?" sort of view. She may have overcome the past entirely, and become a well rounded, compassionate individual. According to your story idea, her view on it may also be changed by travelling companions. Have you decided what sort of outlaws she's travelling with? How criminal are they?

Been reading a lot of fantasy lately and it seems that the more detailed and specific magic is the weaker the book is as a whole.
Would people say this is an actual trend or just what I've read influencing my view?

ebook.bike/books/127681

This sounds interesting to me. You could perhaps add a revenge story in there too.

I kinda agree. Lack of detail can be frustrating sometimes, like Raymond E. Feist's books for example, but it never really bothered me in Earthsea. It depends on the kind of story. I think Robert Jordan and Trudi Canavan both strike a good middle point of having enough detail to establish clear, logical rules without being overly elaborate. Sanderson often just goes too far a lot of the time. I think a good general rule is too little detail isn't necessarily bad, but too much is never good.

ty annon

I listened to it on my commute, that's the proper medium for it. I don't think I would have finished it had I sat and read it. I've listened to the others as well. Again, I wouldn't have actually read any of them, but they're pretty decent when you're exercising, playing video games, sitting in traffic, etc.

>Aurora hit me like a ton of bricks.
Well, glad to see someone else felt this way. I actually liked the Mars trilogy quite a lot, although I understand why some didn't.

I don't think anyone really reads those "other" KSR books. Just Mars, The Years of Rice and Salt, Aurora, and maybe 2312.

>escaped harem girl
> she doesn't use her "experience" with sex

Wouldn't a harem girl lack experience, relative to other sex workers? After all, a harem implies a limited supply of partners and I doubt sultans bothered overawing their harems with prodigious feats of foreplay.

Under this premise, it's going to be hard to see why a band of outlaws would keep her around except for sex. I could more easily see a world-wise prostitute, like Ros from Game of Thrones, join up with a band.

>I'm pretty sure someone who has been raped all their life would be jumpy, nervous around men.

I would think prostitutes are generally wary of men but learn to handle the situation, within limits of experience.

>Been reading a lot of fantasy lately and it seems that the more detailed and specific magic is the weaker the book is as a whole.

I like Vancian magic where the caster is limited to a certain number of spells memorized yet the spells are very specific. I guess that would be an exception to your observation, assuming you liked Jack Vance's fantasy.

What's the ideal number of characters for a main party?

3

gq-magazine.co.uk/article/gq-sex-and-relationships-anka-radakovich-on-sex-in-prince-jefris-harems

thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/29/inside-gaddafi-s-harem-the-story-of-a-girl-s-abduction.html

dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-394769/I-wife-No2-Kings-Harem.html

quora.com/What-was-life-generally-like-for-the-women-in-an-Ottoman-Sultans-harem

If each is PoV no more than 3

If not you can got to 5

Anyone here read Theodore Sturgeon? Been wondering how good his stories are

30 is good

How was the series "The Remnants" by K.A. Applegate?

Can anyone tell me what this sci fi book is even though i only have a vague description? I think its a spaceship filled with Humans who discover a planet occupied by Avian aliens (it may be reversed) and both sides have to deal with their own politics and plotting and first contact. Someone recommended it to me months ago but i forgot the name but it sounded cool

I just finished WoT and now I need something else stupidly long but still enjoyable to fill my time, any suggestions?

Malazan

Thank you.

>I ordered Old Man's War from my local library, am I in for disappointment comrades?
Don't have super high expectations because it's kind of a casual story. Some really great ideas but it doesn't really go anywhere and doesn't have an epic overarching structure.

It's just kind of a casual window into the world of a super-advanced scifi military I guess.

Plenty of message in there but it's a quick and easy read. Almost like eating sugar.

>Don't go into it expecting a bunch of battles and combat, it's far more of a political treatise about why people serve and (IMO) why Italian fascism was/is appealing
All Heinlein ever. Not that I don't enjoy his stories but yeah, the dude was a fascist.

And fucking perverted. So not all bad.

Thanks, I'll read up.

>Wouldn't a harem girl lack experience, relative to other sex workers?
Sure, I was speaking generally. Like I said she wouldn't be using sex as a tool anyways, that's not her character.
>Under this premise, it's going to be hard to see why a band of outlaws would keep her around except for sex.
They're a band of do-gooders lead by a female who has taken the lost harem girl under her wing. I'm not saying the other members of the band don't have eyes for her, but they respect their leader enough to not try anything.

From what I've sort of planned out so far her lord is already dead, either killed in a mutiny by his soldiers or killed in an attack by raiders. By this world and era's standards her life wasn't bad, and she bore him no ill will. But for a couple of reasons she was in grave danger after he was slain and needed to escape.

Behavior wise I don't want her to be like a rape victim. She didn't live a bad life, she pleased her lord and he pampered her in return. Her and all the other harem members were taken at a young age and never knew anything else.

Her lifestyle was a vapid one though, she lay around, looked pretty, and did what she was told. So when she becomes a member of a group of so-called outlaws that put themselves on the line to help the weak out of a sense of duty, it's something she has struggles understanding.

The state and tone of the world is something I'm still playing with, but the general premise is that it's set in an empire on the verge of a collapse. Spread too thin, and now being ravaged a plague that is causing the empire's wealth to flee north in fear of it. Taking advantage of this, a Mongol-like tribe of raiders are biting at the military's heels. Sacking towns and castles, pillaging and taking. The outlaws that most of the story is seen through are largely military deserters and common folk with nowhere to go, people who weren't content with just sitting idly as the people of the empire are abandoned and left to die by plague or raider.

That said I'm trying to change the setting in a way that lets me give them a more Robin Hood and the Merry Men. I'm trying to make things less dire without changing the idea too much because I do like it. I don't want it to be like some episodic version of the Seven Samurai where they defend one village then head to the next.

Just trying to get the setting, the characters, and their motives set in a way that I like. An escaped harem girl turning into a more world weary adventurer is something I've wanted to explore for a while, there's other details about her that I'm not sure how people here would react to so I'm kind of reluctant to spill every bean but it's a kind of character I want to try and I want to try and I guess the big thing is I want to do it without seeming fetishistic or smutty.

Leviathan Wakes, 1st of The Expanse.
That has a generation ship that itself goes through several generations in the books.

Well, sort of.

>writes multiple books about libritarianism and free love, including one where the multicultural society on the moon nukes the evil racist earthers and is recognized as a independent state by communist China
>this one book about military service proves he's a fascist

I bet you think The Prince is serious and not a satire that Machiavelli wrote because the Medicis broke his arms.

The Postman is funny in retrospect once you learn that the author is a huge beta male.

The entire message of the book is basically
>RRRRREEEEE! FUCKING CHADS CAUSED THE APOCALYPSE!

Also fun is the part where the author advocates infanticide if the boy is even slightly masculine.

>I bet you think The Prince is serious and not a satire that Machiavelli wrote because the Medicis broke his arms.
>tfw I got rused for 5 years

100% this.
I'd suggest looking up his more recent stuff as well.

It's not even that bad desu, I quiet enjoyed it.

Signs you're reading a bad fantasy/SF book

So anons, I loved this. The end was kind of meh after some of the amazing stuff before and I honestly didn't like the almost magical shit at the end but still it was a ride. So now I'm sitting here wondering what to read next. I tried revelation space and while it ain't bad it feels lifeless. And I'm warry about reading prelude to foundation etc because I hear that the quality went to shit and I don't want another Dune situation. What to do.

Rape out of the blue, never mentioned again, doesn't visibly affect the characters personality etc.

The Scar by China Mieville

Don't bother, they probably haven't even read the book. It's just virtue signalling, they do it when Ender's Game is mentioned too.

It's hilarious people think it resembles fascism though.

...

I don't get it are you saying I'm a Swede?