/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

What do you guys think of Vandermeer?

The Ambergris stuff and some of the Southern Reach was good, Veniss Underground only OK. I see he has new books coming out and I mean to read Shriek and Finch at some point. Haven't read any of the anthologies he's worked on.

I've read his works are classified as new weird.

How different is it compared to typical fantasy?

I vastly prefer the anthologies he edits, he's got a wide reach, The Weird gave me some great new authors to look for

Authors like Jean Ray, Bruno Schulz, Amos Tutuola

My dear friend, I've had this conversation about five times and it's just as enjoyable each time.

Yup, that's known. However, I've heard some debate about if Valerie injects him with a modified form of it.
Could be his own action, baseline meatbrain defence, or it could be the unmodified Portia controlling him even then.
Pretty sure it's Bruks, after he tried to kill himself.
Yeah Portia and Rors are one and the same. I think Portia was specifically designed to knock-out Icarus though. Raises an interesting question of what it's going to get up to on Earth. (My head-canon is it might go rogue from Rors and we'll have some civil war on our hands) However if Rors was destroyed Portia is all that remains and is now acting alone.
This question really exposes where Echopraxia shines. It actively implies that the entirety of the Blindsight narrative was actually just Rors fictionalising it's own death, with everything else (the buildup, the romance), just attached to make it more believable. HOWEVER the female voice Rak hears means that Rors could have intercepted Siri's still legitimate messages and it either trying to negate them with its own brainwashing of loved ones voices, or it could have somehow gained control of Siri himself. The end of Blindsight seems to imply things are very cosy for Siri, but he want inside Rors multiple times. He could easily have been brain-hacked or in someway altered. There's a lot up for debate here, and I don't have the skill to analyse the text enough.
No idea.

I agree that while Echo bangs, it's nothing on Blindsight. Also it can get very tricky to read at times, but maybe that's just me. Watt's is planning a final in the trilogy, called Omnipotence or something. Mentions it in his reddit AMAs and the odd blog post

thanks buddy, good to hear he's planning a final book

Anyone?

Any good books with sexy lizard people? Especially some where cloaca get stuffed.

>tfw I read that hentai

Source, please.

I don't remember. I usually download and delete when finished r-rreading.. Yea.. Reading. I get my sources all over the internet, including 4chins. Don't remember where I got men stuffing lizard grils from.(or even if the download link is still active, the creators search for those sites to report the links as copyright infringement).

>Southern Reach

Anyone has been able to find this series online? The usual torrent sites don't have it.

Whats your pen name /sffg/?

Pretty sure the final book is about the vampire uprising powered by portia

Hey /sffg/,
I'm looking for coming of age fantasy books for my cousin who's turning 14 but reading almost anything, so maybe no 100% YA stuff for people too dumb to read. I've read some of them back in the day until ~1995, but it wasn't quite my genre.

So far he's liked (not restricted to coming of age, just to get you an overview)
- Harry Potter
- Robin Hobb trilogies
- The Magician / Feist
- Blade whatever trilogy/ Abercrombie
- Rothfuss Kingkiller shitfest
- Lies of Locke Lamora
- Piers Anthony (about the only SciFi he liked)

Any suggestions? Thanks for throwing them out there :)

Sanderson, Nix, Fforde

The Rigante series by David Gemmell.

Though I don't know who Nix is, his guy get's it: and I would recommend Mistborn from Sanderson.

I would certainly add Terry Pratchett to the list of recommendations, some example books that might fit the age (I was rushing through all Discworld at that age): The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents;
Thief of Time; Pyramids; Mort; Eric.

Thanks, guys!

I've read Shades by Fforde back when it came out, then put the second book out of my mind when it kind of never happened. Now I see it's planned for 2018... well, back on the list it goes.

I have fond memories of reading The Belgariad by David Eddings when i was around that age.

Where do i start with Jack Vance?

Dragonlance Chronicles or Darksword Trilogy for something a little more basic; The Death Gate Cycle for something a little more unique, but still typical fantasy. They're all by the same authors and are good for young'uns.

If you like erudite fantasy with monsters, demons and wizards, then there is the first Dying Earth book, which is a collection of short stories in that setting. It's usually sold as part of an omnibus which collects all the Dying Earth books, though, so it might feel like a commitment to start here, even though the first volume is self-contained. Most of his well known and better regarded books are part of a series e.g. Demon Princes.

But I read Emphyrio which is a great one-and-done story, a science fiction, a coming-of-age and rebellion tale set on another world. It's also one of his easier books to find physically.

That's all I've read by him. I have another of his science fictions, To Live Forever, in the mail. By this time next week I might be able to have an opinion on it.

The only texts I've really read from it were Mieville; his stuff is kind of like Steampunk if it was actually about things and not just an excuse for cogs on top hats. In general it's based more on cosmic horror ideas than epic/mythological ones, but there's a mishmash of aesthetics going on; Vandermeer's stuff seems almost biopunk and very ecology-focused, where Mieville's more about uncanny forces in complicated cities.

depends what you're looking for a bit. his stuff can generally be divided up two ways - one, fantasy versus science fiction; two, heroic versus comedic. The usual recommendation is Dying Earth, which is fantasy / comedy. My personal favorite and recommendation for starting point is the Demon Princes series, five books, science fiction / heroic - I think it's his strongest work and most directly gets at the things that make him good. In general, I think his heroic science fiction stuff is his strongest work - it most closely gets at the interesting thematic aspects of his work and it offers the most scope for his wild inventive faculties. I think that personally the first thing I read by him was Night Lamp, which is very representative and fairly enjoyable.

Really, though, there's no bad place to start except for The Grey Prince, and that's not even a bad book.

He has to read The Hobbit and LOTR at least once in his life.

Go to a library

The way I see it, the message was supposed to convey that the answer was within himself.
Also, Echopraxia suffers from somewhat unclear prose at times. That's why it's confusing.
Still, I found it to be even better than Blindsight.

The chronicles of Narnia. Then tell him that most of the characters are possibly dead. Have him reread it.

fuck Veeky Forums sucks, you're a faggot and your parents wish you had succeeded in killing yourself.

What does Veeky Forums think of YA fantasy?

reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/66j7ke/ya_is_not_an_insult_please_dont_use_it_like_one/

Like any other sub-sub-genre, there are a few really good titles and a lot of dogshit ones. YA probably has a lower good-to-shit ratio since it's plagued with people trying to be The Next Big Thing™ and get a Hollywood deal, usually by writing a generic dystopia in which we learn that totalitarianism is bad.

how did you know

I enjoy reading YA, but I also like to use it as an insult.

So I'm not too sure on my thoughts.

The problem with YA fantasy is that most of it is written for adults.

>Lies of Locke Lamora
>14
WHAT THE FUG ARE YOU DOING? TOO YOUNG.
Next thing you'll say is that he read Bakker.

What little good shit there is gets drowned in a sea of bland dystopian garbage. You have to dig through ten books to get to one decent one.

Not b8. Why does this come recommended on the fantasy section of this board? I thought the sections featuring Bayaz and the Maker's House to be interesting but far too short and undeveloped. Other than that I didn't find anything revolutionary in the story or exceptional with the writing. Did I miss something?

Or shitty John Green types

Give him A Song of Ice and Fire. I was about his age when I picked the series up and I loved it. I also have a kinda similar reading history as he does, having read HP and Raymond Feist's stuf before picking up GRRM, so I think I get his taste.

I might also recommend Shadowmarch by Tad Williams.

The Baertimaeus Trilogy is pretty great. Also if he likes spy stuff and secret societies try A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch

What is some decent enough fantasy series with shit loads of magic being used, ecluxuding malazan, rothfuss, sanderson, weeks, brett, sabriel, sullivan, rowling, grossman

Dresden files, may not be your taste though. I didn't like it.

B A K K E R
A
K
K
E
R

Of course the recommendations are questionable, they are only entirely authentic to the person who made them, such is subjectivity. The science fiction charts are in reasonable shape, with the 'crash course' being the most visually appealingly by way of its concise arrangement. This could satisfiably be the only linked chart in OP, being a genuine primer with key texts in several areas of the genre. No, I didn't make it.

The other SF charts are too cluttered and too big. They also have some quirky choices which reflect an individual's taste, and overlap too often in their predictable and tedious prescription of Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein.

WTF is happening on Infinite Jest?

Which site is the best to monitor meaningful (not a shitton of shite) new releases in horror/scifi/fantasy?

Ask literally any other thread

it's good if you like feeling superior to the writer but at the same time appreciating the fun romp he creates

i envy him
publisher gave him something like half a million to write x number of books over the years
his life is set

>tfw you can't even save little severian

Pick a recent book you know is good and look at the amazon recommendations, that's what I've found most useful.

I just post this here.

BotNS is honestly the best thing I've ever read. Wolfe is a God.

Did BotNS do time travel best?

evanpalmercomics.tumblr.com/post/60248601430/part-1-of-jrr-tolkiens-the-ainulindalë-read

Found this courtesy of /r/literature

are the children the niggers of westeros?

shame i only glimpsed that there is time travel stuff and did not quite get it or have anything near a cohesive picture of the narrative in my mind.

People that read this trash have serious problems.

Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Book of Knights by Yves Meynard

Chronologically
Dying Earth

The Red Knight

Only read the first book though.

Gallancz masterworks series was great I don't know why they had to end it, then revive it with no numbers and every cover smeared in green and yellow
Anyway, try Lyonesse for his take on epic fantasy

>Only read the first book though.

How come?

That's a shit list

Garth Nix, wrote The Old Kingdom series. It's actually quite a fun read. Sabriel was the first book. Top bloke too, met him a couple years back and had a good ole chat. He's good to his fans and I like that

Why are you doing this? Are you ban evading or something?

The Eidolon

>:D

Stevian Heartbound

Don't trust that guy, don't read the red knight. The book is inconsistent with it's worship system (praising the Christian God and the sun...)
It shows a poor representation of mercenaries. These dudes just came back from a fight for their lives and they are behaving like gentlemen.

I mean with the black company you could tell that croaker and others were omitting parts, but this captain dude was straight face about it. You had this hot pants head nun who was practically drenching her girdle anytime she was around the captain, dropped hints that if he took her she wouldn't complain and what does he do? Someone who fought for months without getting w drink of pussy one? He continues to be a gentleman.

If you are a GRI aficionado, don't touch this book.

does it have some hot brother & sister action though?

Here's a thread question, approximately how many science fiction books have you read? How many fantasy

Approximately 200 science fiction for me.

Way less fantasy, probably in the 50-60 range.

how am i supposed to know that

What is this bullshit?

If my sorting system is to be believed, I've read 21 Science Fiction and 12 Fantasy books. Since the first of the year. Make of this what you will.

Not the first book. Dropped the series after that. At the end the seemingly advance of technology to come and the wyrm or dragon coming into play actually made me want to continue. He was the most interesting character in that entire bloated book, and the way he looked like he had "planned for this for a long time" was interesting. But I resisted, and still do to this day.

Some say there is GRI after book 1. But I'm not reading on. I give each book a chance of completion before I shit on it. A lot of them stretch the story out until til the end, then do some amazing finale that blows your mind. But as I spoilered above, that was the only interesting part near the end. If book 1 was so dreary, why would I read the others?

Combined? Over 700. More fantasy than sci-fi I think though.

I liked the old black colour scheme better, but it does show wear more. The post-relaunch yellow colour scheme is good and bad - some titles look great, especially more recent ones, while others are just the old art with a yellow filter on it. It also seems random which books have a gloss or matte finish on their cover or not; this matters, because the matte finished covers peel and separate a lot easier. I can't complain much, they're putting out Strugatsky Brothers books in full trade paperback.

Picture is a stack of the older pre-relaunch books - not mine, because my shelf is a wasp-like yellow and black.

After the first book, everything that intrigued me about the setting takes a back seat to fighting big bad monsters and wanking the Captain.

The relaunched fantasy masterworks is good

Can one of you angels help me decide what to read? I simply can't. I've tried so many series and grimaced at page one, and been disappointed so many times when I decided to stick through to the end that I don't know what and who to trust anymore.

All I know is that I just want to read fantasy again.

My all-time favorites are still LotR, ASoIaF, PoN and the very first Thomas Covenant trilogy. I'm sad that in both the case of PoN and TC, the latter books are terrible.

I've tried getting into Malazan TWICE but it's such a mixed bag that I just couldn't take it anymore and gave up midway during the sixth book (on my second run, it was the fifth on my first). There's something about its constant quips that's too reminiscent of capeshit, and I fucking despise the way entire characters go into the hole. For example, I'm genuinely curious how the Mappo/Icarian story is going to conclude, but I've read thousands of pages just to have it return to the spotlight... and it still hasn't. Stuff like this I simply can't abide. I feel like a hostage being made to suffer through things I hate for the small chance that I might see my loved ones again.

Other than that, I'm warm towards Elric, Witcher, Conan, and Lovecraft's stuff. I'd count The Name of the Wind as the worst book I've ever read. The First Blade trilogy was also okay, but so passable that I barely recall what happened in it. In general, I've tried a lot of series and just gave up after fifty or so pages because I felt they weren't for me.

The only thing I haven't touched so far despite its fame is WoT. Partly because I said I'd save it for when I'm old and dying in the hospital, and partly because I fear it might share in the Malazan plague of throwaway characters filling page after page, while the "main characters" that you're introduced with in the beginning are discarded.

I'm sorry to blog and probably offend people with my shitty opinions, but I'm desperate, Veeky Forums. I just want to pick up a series I'm certain I'll like and fuck off for days.

Does it have to be a series?
Does it have to be in a faux-medieval setting?

Read The Black Company yet? If not, have a go at the first three books.

Not at all. Go wild. I also enjoy Russian lit and have a guilty pleasure in Black Library stuff.

I've tried it. And like in most cases, I didn't hate it at all. But I just got the feeling the story wasn't headed anywhere in particular, and that I'd end up disappointed when all is said and done. And nowadays that's a big time investment. Is it worth it?

Are you referring to the first book or all of the First Law trilogy?
It's one of the few fantasy books out there that feels as a comfy and thoroughly satisfying read: well written and developed characters, wholesome plot, no messing about with filler descriptions, no SJW nonsense, and enough grimdark to make it believable.

You (and a lot of people on this board) really need to start reading books for the story, not because you're expecting some revolutionary masterpiece that will reinvent the wheel. Rothfuss got a lot of praise for supposedly doing that, and we all know how his novels crashed and burned (if not being drowned in purple prose first).

Yeah, my bad, I was referring to all of it. And I read some other stuff by him at the time... Best Served Cold, or something? I liked that one less. In any case, I wasn't saying it was bad. It just didn't do anything for me on a personal level.

Though, I think you're misunderstanding me completely if you think I want to be blown away by something entirely new. That's not the issue. Quite the contrary, I'm a supporter for "generic" fantasy, so long as it feels right.

I don't dislike any book because it's "unoriginal"; I dislike it because it doesn't get me emotionally involved. That's why I mentioned Malazan as a work I don't enjoy--one moment you're reading a book in the series that has characters you're grooving with, the next you're stuck with a bunch of assholes you wish would just die. This is not cool.

I have no fucking clue. What sort of autist keeps count?

The answer is "a lot."

Wow, what a complete and utter faggot

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. A slightly complex (for a short book) plot centering around an AI's bid for immortality. Somehow, smashing together all the stars in a stellar cluster (50,000?) briefly causes that mass to disappear from the universe. This breaks the Big Bang Big Crunch cycle and the AI can continue functioning for eternity (what will power it, hmmm?). This means that life will die out and never be reborn in the next cycle. Oh, and the universe is treated like an organism, with the Bang Crunch its beating heart. To reverse this madness, our intrepid feline heroes must fly a starship at 0.999999999c for 45 billion years, hopefully counteracting the momentary loss of all those destroyed stars' mass. Throw in some time dilation (always a favorite of mine), cryosleep, and a dash of time travel paradox and you have the basic plot. Did I mention the AI has achieved some level of mind control over every inhabitant of the universe? Anyway, I got some faint van Vogt vibes from this. Perhaps the wacky, barely understood reasoning behind the plot's driving forces.

I 'll give this 4/5 feline space princesses.

Where is the goodreads, catfag?

Here, on Veeky Forums :3