/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

Apparently the Watch series is so much better if your Russian.

Thread I made last night got me nothing so..
What are some other short stories/novels that touch on the themes used in The Last Question by Isaac Asimov? The whole end/creation of the universe/god really interests me

>futa
>whose gender is a mystery

if it has a dick, it's male

quit trying to complicate things just to keep from admitting to yourself that you're gay as fuck

Genesis

What is the best from Asimov? Is it absolutely necessary to read all of his works or can I do well with I, Robot and Foundation (skipping Foundation and Empire, and stuff like that)?

I don't care for him, particularly, but Clarke's works often explore becoming a god. Also Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon.

In my opinion Asimov's best are short stories, particularly Nightfall, The Last Question, and The Psychohistorians. And of course you don't need to read all of his work, the guy wrote a shit ton. Read as much or as little of him as you want, whatever looks intriguing to you.

what no i admit i'm gay. the character has a penis and a vagina, one of which was added surgically. we never find out which., and that's what the term means.

Decided to look up futanari on Wikipedia, found something kinda interesting.

>To restrict women from accessing prohibited areas and to avoid smuggling by hiding items in the belt bag, guard posts were assigned to perform body checks. In historical records, it can be seen that guards liked to joke about this matter quite frequently, resulting in various stories and even poems.

>what no i admit i'm gay
Wait, earlier you said
>hot girls
So are you gay or bi or what?

Skip I, Robot it's the Robots series you want not a random unrelated short story collection.

Robots Series → Foundation.

gay tranny

Okay, I know it's a sffg meme or whatever, but are there any books like the beginning cutscene of dark souls where a whole awesome creation myth is laid out? Books similar to silmarillion where a mythology is created to immerse oneself in?

Well, that opens up, like, five more questions. Never mind then.

The best creation myth I've seen in any /sffg/ material is probably Talos' play in the middle of 'Book of the New Sun.' But that's about 10 pages in the middle of 1000 so maybe it's too much for you. It's also painfully esoteric so you might feel like you wasted your time. I always thought that Dark Souls felt heavily Dying Earth inspired so it feels like the most appropriate recommendation to make.

Also King's Field is better.

Have read and absolutely loved BotNS, but not Dying Earth yet, even though I own it. I'll check it out, cheers user! Also
>King's Field is better

That may be so, never played it. I'll look into that as well

I meant more Dying Earth as a genre rather than specifically Jack Vance but if you're a fan of BotNS and Souls you should take to it. Lots of hopelessly obscure lore and talkative weirdos all over the place.

Talk about a game, get a book recommendation? Sounds fun. I'll say... Radiant Historia.

Paradise Lost by John Milton?

Could be good, but I'm pretty familiar with Christian stories already. I suppose I could just seek out some foreign holy book, but it still wouldn't be the same as if a single person invented it all from scratch. It seems strange to me that the fantasy genre is so overflowing with Tolkien clones, but nobody has bothered to write some kind of completely (or I guess just mostly) original mythology the way he did.

>nobody has bothered to write some kind of completely (or I guess just mostly) original mythology the way he did.
Because mythologies should make some sort of sense in their symbolism and meaning, whereas conlanging is just throwing random letters together.

The Faraway Paladin

Well, is hopelessly a side note, but "my diary desu" may apply as I wrote an entire mythological background as the backstage for another story

It was first intended as a satire for overpowered characters in audio visual media, Dragon Ball Z to be precise, but it grew to be something I actually enjoyed to write

Can't really tell is based on anything, but to my surprise years after I wrote it I could actually find fragments of similar stories in the Marvel universe and more recently on the Warhammer 40k setting

Is crazy how things develop in unexpected ways when you less expect

By that do you mean it would be too much work for the average author? I suppose it would probably be more easy and lucrative to just vomit a poorly edited 8 volume series that rips off Tolkien or worse ASoIaF into the mainstream than to carefully create something artful.

>audio visual media
So, media sensed with sound and sight, as opposed to media sensed with taste, smell, and touch.

There's a ton of shit like that, it's just that not much of it is very good. Tanith Lee's Tales from the Flat Earth, for instance.

Think more on the lines of videogames, television, and anything printed

I think you're right and that's a good reason why the idea should be explored more often. Something about how most people regardless of culture or background would come up with very similar themes for their own mythology really seems to have a deeper message about how our minds work. I'd like to see more of that sort of thing and less of the DnD-campaign-put-on-paper thing.

>Is crazy how things develop in unexpected ways when you less expect
The phrase you're going for is "least expect". But yeah, it is interesting how far ideas will change and evolve over time.

The joke was to point out how you said "audio visual media" when that's a pretty redundant phrase considering that all the media we talk about here are audio and/or visual.

So so, many ideas out there are not even scratched, and yet again not deeply explored

I wonder why so many authors still miss the wider field of imagination when there is so much to explore

Is almost a given this thread is for printed media only, although slowly expanding

But yeah, maybe I shouldn't be lazy and name things one by one instead of giving short phrases

>But yeah, maybe I shouldn't be lazy and name things one by one instead of giving short phrases
Sounds good.

So, we're talking about mythologies now?

Not a people person, aren't you

He's got the tiny dong syndrome. Or legitimate, non-memeing autism.

Mmm, maybe? No, not really. Sorry, I'm a bit out of my mind right now from meds and a dire lack of sleep

Well shit I feel bad now for saying you have a tiny dong. Feel better

>Horus Heresy

Since the books are done by a smattering of different authors it's an uneven experience. Generally anything by Dan Abnett is great, the other authors not so much. It's a shame because it could have been an epic saga in capable or more consistent hands but as says they fumble the execution (particularly Horus' fall)

Agreed. It's also ironic/poetic that with the benefit of hindsight it's obvious that Moorcock was a born pulp writer.

Eh, my fault for staying when it was clear to me I had no clue what people were saying. I need to kick my ass to sleep anyway. And thanks.

Moorcock? More like Moorcuck!
>criticized right-wing writers for their views
>never criticized left-wing writers
He really is the Alan Moore of fantasy.

...

I need that website where the patrician dude catalogs and reviews all the SF&F he's read and gives star ratings. I can't find it on a google search. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

>m-muh safe space!

I love these /sffg/ meta pictures. Do you have any more?

Not him but this one was always my favourite.

Foundation and Empire rocks though

How the fuck is a book NOT on Amazon Kindle wtf. Too Like the Lightning more like Too Like the Grt on Kindle amirite??

Also Three Body Fans, Cixins shorter stuff is pretty good too. Wandering Earth is a fun novella

I love the Mule I want his autograph.

Exactly. The saga of the mule and the other section about that Galactic Empire general were great.

Now when the dust has settled, what's your opinion on Wheel of Time?

Started Pandora. Seems like Wolfe did the Latro thing with Aurora, Illinois and it became Dawn. Makes me wonder what other fictional Illinois towns are actually real. I don't know what Barton could be. I don't remember any specific features of Medicine Man, other than that it was on a river. But wasn't Castleview supposed to be close to Galena? Shit like this is why I waste so much time on Google Earth.

*crosses arms beneath breasts*
*smooths skirt*
*sniffs*
*tuggs braid*
It's comfy desu. Not flawless but no fantasy really is.

I like it, it's comfy as fuck with likeable characters and fun world building. It's no thought provoking literary masterpiece but it's a good read.

Been reading alot of Warhammer for awhile, some of the books are meh but most are good. I just finished reading Mechanicum, i liked it. Going to reread Legion.

Read the Night Lords Omnibus, Eisenhorn Omnibus, Ravenor Omnibus, any Gaunts Ghosts.

Any of the Chaos sided books are more entertaining to read.

I've was in that state last year. It sucks because I felt like I was being normal, but at the same time I knew all the dumb shit I was doing was not normal.

...

>everything fantasy rips off Tolkien and GURRM of Thrones
Kys. Your type is not welcomed here. People stopped copying Tolkien decades ago.

Haven't read Moorcock, but I find it hilarious that Ballard was part of the New Wave. The movement, in theory, is all about bringing a higher level of writing to the genre, but Ballard doesn't have nearly the talent necessary to do that. I expect, given that his most famous work looks like grimdark fantasy schlock, that Moorcock is the same way.

So are you going to pretend to be me? I don't see any polposting itt, unless it was deleted?

These influx of redshitors are really fucking with our general... they feel this is /b/ with books. And they can troll without consequence.

Yeah, here.
greatsfandf.com/site-overview.php

It's a blog. There you go. Search through the archives with ease now.

Eragon and TNotW both read like shitty attempts at copying Tolkein. The former more in more fantastic aspects like magic and elves, the latter in worldbuilding. Neither of them really have any clue what they're doing though, and fall flat on their faces.

I need to make a macro for reddittypes pretending to be sffg.

Old sffg members what you thing for a concept? A variation of this pic with the reddit logo hiding behind the mask?

Not either of those guys, but I take it you don't like Wheel of Time. Why not?

Redshit loves WoT. They expose themselves when they post about it.

I hate repetition in books, tugging is not a character trait. I think the fucker who wrote pic related sampled too much from WoT. "Tuggs god-braids".

Are you reading the same JG Ballard I am? High-Rise and The Drowned World are well-written, prescient and profound explorations of psychotic reversion. Granted, I haven't read any of his short stories, which he is well known for.

As for New Wave, it's inconsistent. I've read Great and unreadable things by the same authors.

As for Moorcock, it is interesting that he worships Leigh Brackett in that she is firmly within the pulp/adventure writing school (and her Martian stories are superb.) However I continue to be underwhelmed by him; I read His 1966 novella Behold The Man, a meandering and navel-gazing existentialist time travel story with cardboard characters where everybody is a pervert or sexual deviant. I also read a fair way through his Hawkmoon series (Runestaff) and it was formulaic sword and sorcery done dispassionately (obvious hack work), and so I quit halfway into the third book. Perhaps his Elric will redeem him if I get to it.

I'm not that guy, but there is (used to be?) a general consensus that the Wheel of Time books were terrible. Even fans admit that after the third volume the series takes a drop in quality, the only debate is how steep that drop is. Beyond question, it lasts a long time, with some of the books in the series being 1,000 page tomes where nothing of significance happens. There are issues with the characters as well, specifically nearly every female character being somewhere on the harpy spectrum, and more. Plus, the series in total is almost 12,000 pages, and, while some fantasy fans find that appealing, I always think of the fact that I could read 40 good books of 300 pages or less instead, and that's always going to be the better option in my mind.

>I always think of the fact that I could read 40 good books of 300 pages or less instead, and that's always going to be the better option in my mind.
I feel the same. I'm not sure I'll ever understand some writers' fascination with giant, sprawling series (people ripoff Tolkein, but LotR was only a trilogy). As soon as I look at something like Horus Heresy or Discworld, I immediately throw out the idea of reading all the books, and I just try to read the ones that sound the most interesting.

Why is urban fantasy such a black sub-genre? Nothing but black authors and black characters. I don't get why that demographic dominates.

I have read both High-Rise and The Drowned World, and I disagree with you entirely. What about them is prescient? They are divorced from reality, not just in terms of setting (it's sci-fi, so of course they should be), but also in terms of characterization. People in Ballard's books don't act like people, which completely frustrates the New Wave ambition of exploring the human condition. Psychotic reversion is a fine idea to throw into a pulp sci-fi work, but it's a made up condition, and what does it illuminate about the real world? You can analogize it to depression, to general social angst, to any number of things, but not with any depth. So I disagree with them being profound. And well-written? They are serviceably written, I wouldn't go any further than that.

I don't post them unless it applies to a post. Otherwise it would be spam / avatarfagging. And I don't spam. Lurk moar if you want to see them all. But here.

TUC EXCERPT WHEN???

If you just keep saying it maybe it will become true.

Just speculating, but it could be that typical fantasy is so deeply tied to Medieval Europe, they feel they have to try something different if they want to have a cast that isn't 99% White.

That makes a world of sense.

>I'm posting it sffg

Hi pol/r9k/reddit. It's not filled with black authors and black characters. Please stop racebaiting.(I think the mods ban for blatant signs of that here. Either way they delete your posts).

Look at pic related for Urban fantasy books.

You don't read much do you?

>only gives Wolfe 4 stars out of a possible 5

Aram that you?
Like my new pic?

I like tits and consensual fucking, what should I read?

Put simply, High-Rise anticipates the way people in modern urban society can live physically among eachother while being psychologically isolated by modern architecture and media. This technology allows these people to inhabit a new estranged psychic reality, reverting to a lizard-like state of cool detachment, eschewing sentiment and compassion, insidiously removing the previous bonds and assumptions of civilisation. Given he is writing this in the mid 20thC it is prescient of the tower block phenomenon, and the way 21st century human beings isolate themselves with television and the internet.

From what I have gathered, he treats gated communities of the rich in other works similarly.

Anita Blake later books, or Danielle Steele.

>every book a master piece
How does he do it?

>High-Rise anticipates the way people in modern urban society can live physically among eachother while being psychologically isolated
But they aren't psychologically isolated at all in High-Rise, that's why the entire building goes to shit en masse. There aren't holdouts, in Ballard's book everyone is on the same psychological wavelength.
>This technology allows these people to inhabit a new estranged psychic reality, reverting to a lizard-like state of cool detachment, eschewing sentiment and compassion, insidiously removing the previous bonds and assumptions of civilisation.
Which is why I don't think Ballard's writing says anything about humanity, because this isn't what actually happens in high-rises and it makes the characters more alien, not less so. Ballard criticized pulp for having aliens, while populating his books with things apart from humans.
>Given he is writing this in the mid 20thC it is prescient of the tower block phenomenon
He wrote High-Rise after tower blocks were already a thing, and the breakdown he paints isn't one that occurred in the real world.

I like High-Rise, but I think it's pulp. Different than golden-age pulp, but pulp nonetheless. Thus my amusement at the disconnect between what Ballard espoused for science fiction and what he produced.

Evidently more than some. But no really just repeat it in your head and you'll trick yourself eventually. All that shit you're consuming will taste the sweeter.

>The Black Jewels
Fuck, I tried reading that. Problem was, I just never cared about any of the characters. And the way that book uses rape in nearly every character's backstory really dampens my emotional response to it. "I got raped" oh, everyone gets raped in Black Jewels, who cares?

Notice in High-Rise how the breakdown becomes increasingly local, with region being pitted against region, then floor against floor, then neighbor against neighbor. In this sense he is writing of the gradual psychological alienation of people as they become enthralled with their own new subjective reality. Psychologically they become more apart from eachother - so they are holdouts in this psychic sense..

Ballard has a lot to say about humanity, but it's the antisocial and barbaric aspects, the ever-present ancient instincts beneath the modern veneer of civility; selfish, and violent ways. He is interested in how the veneer CAN slip due to modern constructs, but he is not dealing in absolute rules. He's not so simplistic as to say that tower blocks will make us barbaric, but he speculates how in a perfect storm of circumstances it can happen by degrees.

>in a perfect storm of circumstances it can happen by degrees
The perfect storm he depicts is some condo owners having kids while other condo owners have dogs.

I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

Not him, but High-Rise sounds like everything I hate about dystopian fiction. Bullshit logic to make a bullshit social statement.

Settle down "user".
You know as well as I that we still have a few weeks left.

A vampire harem does sound hot tho.

Nevertheless, there's truth in Ballard. In any neighborhood there is antipathy and petty grudges between groups. Some people hate dog owners, some people hate cats for shitting in their gardens, others harbor simmering resentment of those with children who make noise. Look at vandalised lifts and walls of graffitti in ghetto blocks, and the ways that a breakdown in communal services like garbage disposal and launderettes can bring simmering resentments to the fore. He's writing about all of these sorts of tensions which are a part of modern communal life.