/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General:

Is there anything lovecraftian out there that is decent and of greater length than his stories? I love cosmic horror stuff, not because it is scary but because it is interesting.

On a side note: Lovecraftian things seem to be more Scifi than fantasy. So are there any fantasy with lovecraftian elements?

Can anyone recommend some "non-Tolkeinesque" fantasy?

I love LoTR but I'm getting bored of fantasy that just recycles his tropes (the standard fantasy world of short Dwarves, tall slender Elves, bearded wizards etc.)

Do you want tall slender Dwarves, bearded Elves, and short wizards?

I wondered why the other thread advanced so quickly. Now, I see.

Anyone got any good fantasy reccs where children are forced into power? Like young princes having to act like kings etc? Not a loli/weird thing but find the idea interesting.

About an un-tolkien as you can get while still being good

Scifi works better with the works of Lovecraft, it allows for more interesting psychological horror imo. I'd recommend Nick Cutter's "The Deep"; the audiobook was pretty good too if that is your style of reading.

Have you read At the Mountains of Madness?
It's pretty much the novel-length.

Can anyone recommend me sci fi for a fantasy lover?

I almost exclusively read fantasy, but I'm running out of fantasy books I like, so I'm reluctantly venturing into scifi just for more reading material.

I know nothing about scifi authors and I don't even know where to start. My favorite fantasy are long, epic, adventurous, worldbuilding-heavy series like Bakker and Glen Cook.

I've always been subconsciously turned off to scifi for some reason because it all just feels a little ridiculous and hard to take seriously, with aliens and lazer guns and what not. Rationally, I know it's not any more silly than muh magic and dragons and demons, but for some reason it feels like it is to me. Maybe I was turned off to it by really cheesy shitty scifi as a kid or something. Either way, I'm willing to give it a try now, and I'd like some recommendations.

Have you read Dune? If not, start there. You'll also see where Bakker-chan got all his ideas from that he didn't steal from Tolkien.

Also, Shaeönanra did nothing wrong.

The Craft Sequence

Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Edgar Rice Burroughs,

Ok, I'll try it.

A list of names doesn't help me much. What are they known for or makes their work different from other scifi?

depends of what you like in fantasy, high concept stuff, militaristic settings, good old aventuring on weird-ass worlds?

When someone gives me an author's name I usually just go a look up some of their works and see which one sounds like I'll like the most.

Or just search for their most famous work.

this just came out last week. i havent read it but it might be what you're looking for, even if it is sci fi.
tell us how it is user.

Like I said, worldbuilding and adventuring along the lines of people like Bakker and Cook. I like a leisurely pace and a lot of detail--for example, I'm able to enjoy WoT, but Malazan rushed through the story too much for me. High concepts I don't like, even my favorite authors bore me with the endless philosophical monologues (particularly Bakker). Militaristic settings I can appreciate but are often overdone--I like realistic but not overly "gritty" portrayals of the soldier's life, like Glen Cook did in Black Company.

Yeah, but I'm looking for a more in-depth scifi reader's perspective on where the author's niche is. Like if you asked me that about fantasy, I'd say read Abercrombie for good characters and mopey fatalistic themes, Jordan for excellent worldbuilding, fun comfy story, but mediocre plot and prose, Wolfe for top notch prose, interesting characters and a philosophical lecture every other page, and so on.

>Malazan rushed through the story
>Malazan
>rushed
What the fuck?

Okay, maybe rushed is the wrong word, but skipped over the details and expected the reader to remember too much. I keep getting lost in the various locations, races, and mechanics of magic because they're only explained once, kind of inadequately, and you're just expected to know how it works from then on. I'm not a huge fan of Sanderson, but I love the way he introduces new mechanics and things you'll need to remember--he explains them exhaustively more than once, and recaps them every now and then.

I never bought in to The Name of the Wind hype. Should I be fine with not reading it now that it's evident that the final book will never come out?

is there a way to get all the mainline malazan books for maybe a dicounted price or something? like how the GoT books came in a set for like 50 dollars.
malazan is a series i know i want to read all the way through but i can imagine tracking down each book being a pain in the ass, especially in the same edition.

Tangentially fantasy-related, but I want to add some horror to my diet.

Anyone got any real comfy horror, with a suburban or traditional manor setting? I was driving home tonight and all the unlit houses in the suburb were so cozy.

>skipping over details
Did you even read the series? Malazan is incredibly detailed. Also basically every important concept or event gets mentioned several times and explained several times, but almost never the same way twice. In that way you gradually learn the more complete picture of things over time. A good example of this is the Warrens and how they work. Basically every book past, I think Memories of Ice, reveals more information about the Warrens and how magic works.

Also don't know how you can get lost in places when every book has at least 2 maps, some as many as 4 or 5 maps. Also a dramatis personae at the start that lists every named character categorized by affiliation/race, and an index in the back that does the same but with additional characters who were only mentioned and so didn't show up in the dramatis personae. There's not even that many races.

Anything similar to Berserk?

I read the first two books and didn't enjoy it enough to keep going.

I was using audiobooks, so I didn't have the indexes or maps. That might have been enough to keep going--maybe it's just one of those series that doesn't translate well to audiobooks.

pastebin.com/4Xt64GyK

Sci-fi novella I gave up on writing about six months ago because I could never get the very beginning to work.

I don't like the language employed and probably won't finish it but any criticism would be appreciated. Would post more than the prologue except again, I feel the whole beginning sucks.

The proposed cover art doesn't though, so I scanned it in.

I know the creator said Guin Saga was a major influence, but the main influences for Beserk are all visual Hellraiser, Evil Dead and Euo Medieval art.

For author I think fit the themes and styles of Berserk, the Black Company stuff by Cook seems the best fit, but for pure edgy fantasy there is also Mark Lawrance.

>listening to books
Malazan would probably be traumatic in that format. Was it abridged too?

The Haunting of Hill House

Traumatic is a pretty good word for it.

No, it wasn't. I'm not that bad.

Just use the library. You don't have to own it.

Imnreading the exorcist and while it's almost 100% identical to the movie, still recommend.

I think user wanting them all in the same edition implies he is looking to own it

I managed to get 9/10 in hardback for around $20 :3
Probably the main reason I took the plunge and read them.

I read it, I like reading your concept more than the piece itself.

I found verbose as well as opaque. A lot words but nothing said.
I understand it was just the prologue but it is just too short to really criticize without seeing more.
The dialogue was decent, overall I say potential for sure.

As I always say. Female authors (most) start off their books great. Great world, great mechanics, great social cohesion... Then their cunnies kick in and everything goes to shit. I don't know if it's because women are sexual creatures that crave dick 24/7 or what.

Case in point, Anita Blake by LK Hamilton. Although it was her decades old husband / bf leaving that kicked off that particular fiasco. She tried coping with it by "being young" started some 3some polygamy relationship (bleed into her writing) and has been shit since. She tried to start back writing the Merry Gentry books a few years ago after fans hounded her for one... It was about the protagonist turning into a "size queen" and deep throating a bunch of fae Lord's dicks. Even the lovecraftian ones.

Kinda like how Lynch's wife leaving him turned him into a cunt moping after that red hair cunt(jesus Christ I got flashbacks when reading red seas, thought it was Rothfuss and that Deanna cunt I was reading).

You tried Neal Asher's Shadow of the scorpion yet?
I also told you the Mech series by Bv Larson.

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Trilogy sama. Give it up. People are onto you. They will not read.

I fully intend to read if they float my way.

Maybe try Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, or

I really hate this "if you recommend a book I dislike, particularly an older one, you're pulling some sort of con and need to stop" meme

I listened to all the Malazan books and understood the series. That user sounds like the low iq user that used to hang around here a few years ago. Shit is obviously explained and he still comes asking for explanations.

Library at mount char, Iron Dragon's Daughter, hull zero three, metro 2033, Roadside picnic.
If you want something pulpy and easy to digest try the "undying mercenaries".

comiserations

Scott Thomas' Westermead has none of that and is instead inspired by folk magic and ghost stories. I'd say Lord Dunsany's fantasy is not tolkienesque and features plenty of weird stuff.

>So are there any fantasy with lovecraftian elements?

reposting from last thread

Clark Ashton Smith's stories had different settings where he mixed fantasy and lovecraftian influences. His main ones were:

Averoigne: A medieval era French province assailed by evils of the night.

Hyperborea: Antediluvian tropical continent filled with lovecraftian monsters.

Zothique: Far future in a dying earth filled with necromancers and weird beasts.

>used to hang around here a few years ago
It was last year user... Don't go to the light.

Finally got 3 parts dead. Will read sometime in the next 6 months. Will shill along if it's good.

Tne only reason I read it years ago was because good fantasy that wasn't Tolkien clones were scarce. Shit has changed now. I recommend to ignore it. You won't be missing much.

Anyone read this yet?

>real comfy horror

Anything from M.R. James is horror comfort food, same with Poe's classics. I'd reccomend Adam Nevill's collection Some Will Not Sleep and if you want to get your weeb on Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan, youkai are max comfy.

>Nick Land
Hmm

Are horror books actually scary?

I read Stephen King's "It" once, and at the end I was pretty spooked by how much of my life I'd wasted on it

Right back at the older crowd shitting on the newer works. I guess it's only fun when they can't fight back huh?

I can see the trepidation, but his fiction is genuinely unsettling - the man's basically a Lovecraft protagonist, except with meth as the source of his madness rather than a peek at the Necronomicon

Which newer works do you mean? The old "Rothfuss is shit, Sanderson is anime" meme?

>The old "Rothfuss is shit, Sanderson is anime" meme?
Naw. The anything new is shit meme. Why do you think people lash out if it seems like you are a dino? The dino user lashed out a lot... Well people are fighting back and they don't like it.

Yes, there's plenty of scary and unsettling themes and scary situations. Which one works for you particularly is the tricky question.

King is babie's first horror author, he appeals to modern readers because he excels in creating relatable and believable characters. He shits the bed in the fact that his plots are weak and stupid long, in horror plot is the most important thing and it works best in medium sized offerings. When his time comes he'll be remembered but nowhere near the genre's titans.

Why don't you save your memeing for when that actually happens instead of becoming what you despise then?

What are the titans of horror?

It's only recently that the groan fag started posting again. I made that macro months ago (prob a year plus) and only got to use it less than 10 times. I want our memes to survive my eventual an heroing. We get new users every week. Let them save it.

>We get new users every week. Let them save it.
That's... Too sad for words user :(

Poe
M.R. James
Arthur Machen
Lovecraft and his circle particularly Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard
Thomas Ligotti

There's plenty of others who've written essential books but these are the ones who've written an extense body of work and at some point or another advanced genre conventions forward, most recent being Liggotti and overall most influential I'd say HPL. You could boil down most modern horror stories and make them fit according to the style of one of these writers.

At the start of the week I said that I would read Valis and see what the fuss is about. Having just done so, I still don't know. Regardless, it was an interesting experience; the author's struggle to grasp the meaning and implications of being hit by a beam of pink light which imparted upon him divine wisdom and knowledge of his past and future lives. The first half was forbidding, too oblique and esoteric. Indeed, I nearly dropped the book here, which is something I rarely do. The second half is more successful, wrapping up some ideas in a more traditionally novelistic way.

The mix of fictional and non-fictional elements is for me, the ultimate appeal of the book; anecdotes drawn from the author's life, discussion of Gnostics and Pre-Socratics, the tension between PKD and his Horselover Fat double, and the beguiling cameos of what must be stand-ins or composites of David Bowie and Brian Eno.

I'm glad I finished it. If nothing else, PKD concisely explains his ideas about the nature of reality (via Heraclitus; true nature conceals itself in manifest structures) and this will inform into my subsequent reading of his books. There are several intriguing images and ideas which I will be thinking about for some time; the black iron prison, the universe as living information/world as language, the cyclical nature of time, man as his own savior. In this way, the book will have a life outside itself, as the best books will. Still, I can't help feeling the book should have been more coherent, and that it was badly written. 3/5

Maybe try Radio Free Albemuth? I understand it was a version of the same basic story written earlier into his mental episode, and so more coherent.

Anyone read this series? Worth giving a shot? It sounds like fairly standard Heroes Journey 80's Fantasy which I'm down for, but you never know.

I'll get to RFA at some point, but I'm put off by suggestions that it's basically a first draft. I'd sooner read Galactic Pot Healer. I noticed pottery is a recurring motif in several of his books I've read, and the premise of that one interests me. And I have Maze Of Death on the shelf unread. But before all that I'd like to read another author.

where should I start with Le Guin, with the fantasy or the sci fi? I've heard great things about both Wizard of Earthsea and Left Hand of Darkness so I've narrowed it down to both of those.

I only read the first book. It is okay. I like that the author actually has the main characters solve problems and take the initiative unlike other stories where the characters are constantly just reacting to the plots of others.

I actually ordered the illustrated hardcover just yesterday. I looked at a preview of the book and it seemed really comfy.

Hey, thanks man, I appreciate it. I expected a "fuck off" but then again I've never really spent much time in Veeky Forums.

I know it doesn't say a whole lot and that's sort of the nature of a prologue if the initial chapter takes place before it (which it does). It's been difficult to write as it started out a young adult novel because I wasn't sure I was ready to write so openly and honestly yet. It quickly became a prequel and therefore I guess not a prequel really anymore (I wanted to do something like The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, where kids were about to see the story mature as they grew into adults).

Although I wanted to employ the vernacular ideal for YA fiction, it became increasingly apparent that I was writing something 11-15 y/o kids wouldn't really understand, so it became a novella instead, which is kind of why I stopped at 172 pages and it has no ending.

Maybe I'll post more, I just didn't feel like it was worth completing. The first chapter involves the sister being given a pendant w/ a clock in it as a birthday gift from her protective brother and it plays a role in her (eventual) psychic abilities, as she's tested by the group the brother belongs to before he betrays them to smuggle he and his sister out of the city.

Interesting that you enjoyed my concept more because every two chapters is separated by detached segments where the antagonist converses with an AI named Bream (the pendant) and it reads more like that preface than the book itself, though the language is totally different.

Everyone on Veeky Forums wants to be an author but no one writes anything. It's a surprise when someone actually does.

>Shit is obviously explained and he still comes asking for explanations.

Yeah but he was low iq, I don't remember, was it something 70-80?

>just finished Dune Messiah today
>mfw
Is the third book more like the second or the first? I liked the first a lot because it was more about the ecology of a barren planet described in detail, and how people survived and even thrived on it with their unique customs, it wasn't a Space Bureaucracy Simulator. Then I read messiah which was actually a Space Bureaucracy Simulator.

>I read the first two books
And yet you complained about it rushing? Nigga you did not even reach the main plot.

>i can imagine tracking down each book being a pain in the ass, especially in the same edition.
Was fairly easy on Amazon.

So who will turn out to be a hidden Chandrian?

Is grimdark fantasy unfair to female readers?

The main toon, I forgot his name

Grimdark fantasy is unfair to everyone, that's part of what makes it grimdark

What book is she talking about? I'm actively looking for books with gangrape every twenty pages and can't find any...

Play Rance.

Not a book. Also not grimdark. ALSO written by a woman.

Has rape though.

Are romance novels unfair to male readers?

>Written by males for males
>UNFAIR TO WOMEN!
>CHANGE IT NOW!
>CATER TO THE 5% AUDIENCE INSTEAD OF THE 95%!
>HEAR ME ROAR!

Books labeled grimdark usually aren't worth reading, so it's not really unfair.

What would you class as normie fantasy, something like Harry Potter? There needs to be a chart for this.

Anything popular with reddit

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>Womameme in top 10

kek
Were you trying to prove my point?

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