/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

Can't tell if you're memeing or not because it has pretty mediocre ratings all round.

Goodreads is full of women, that's why.
They're genetically predisposed to having shit taste.

I've read Stranger (good) and Moon (amazing) by Heinlein, which of his books do I read next?

Also, any other early-ish sci-fi you think I'd enjoy?

"Ratings"
Are you retarded?

>Jack Vance
>Spatterlight Press
Oh Jesus

Ratings are unless useless for your average book.
For 'great' books they're usually pretty reliable.

>only useless*

Sorry i'm ill and tired.

>his book doesn't even have a magic system!

Is Void Star any good lads? Has anyone here read it, and what did you think of it? The ratings on amazon and goodreads are quite different.

You so funny user :3

I'm not saying that books with great ratings are great books, I'm saying that if someone tells you a book is great but the ratings aren't even much above average then you know they're talking tosh.

Hey /sffg/, my brother just got out of the navy and I want to give him some books. He absolutely loves Isaac Asimov and Dune, but I don't really read sci-fi and I don't want to get him Asimov because chances are he's already read them.Help an user out?

a safe bet would be an anthology. he might discover some new authors that way

Oh shit. Good idea. I didn't even think of that. Got any recs?

dune -> foundation -> hyperion -> culture

what i did, think it worked out great

Malazan is the best High Fantasy series of all time, I would say prove me wrong but you can't, it has the greatest worldbuilding of any series of any genre, and has amazing characters, depth, symbolism and foreshadowing.

Big Book of Science Fiction
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy
Mash Up

goodreads.com/book/show/338798.Ulysses?ac=1&from_search=true
goodreads.com/book/show/59716.To_the_Lighthouse?ac=1&from_search=true
goodreads.com/book/show/14884300-don-kichote
goodreads.com/book/show/289774.Combray
goodreads.com/book/show/27037.Confessions
goodreads.com/book/show/12287.Endgame

All of these have a lower rating and a bellow average rating, I'm not sure what it is exactly implying outside the fact that plebs aren't exactly known for their fine taste.
Or does this only apply to fantasy where it will compete with the ratings of say Rothfuss and Rowling?

Thinking about giving him Hyperion, thanks man.

Thanks man, you're a cool dude.

Have you gotten out of your anime phase recently or is it still a thing?

Fug he got me.

"High power levels yeah malazan and stormlight are fucking gay the characters are just too strong"

Implying malazan Isn't deep, "gritty" and doesn't have character development.

Yeah, "deep, gritty and great character development" is how a 16 year old would describe Attack on Titan, which is why I asked, alongside the whole Malazan being complete garbage thing.

>alongside the whole Malazan being complete garbage thing.
Malazan is okay for what it is. No need for this garbage business.

Bitch I doubt you even read Malazan, was 10k pages too much for you brainlet?

Anyone read The Night Circus? Thinking about getting it.

do you think it's for some reason more impressive because it's long?

Anything with ninjas?

Ey mate, Malazan's alright, but you're just making it sound worse with every post.

You Haven't read it.

Tell me about whiskeyjack vs kallor who lost and why?

Yes. It shows that I actually have an intact attention span and dedication

Are you memeing?

malazan is the infinite jest of modern fantasy--too many pages, not enough substance

Hey fuck It I know he didn't read it.

Also not an argument.

The thing about literature and reading in general, as you, if you get out of your anime phase, will learn is that it's not a linear race. Just compare say Absalom, Absalom! to... well Malazan.

you're reading trashy fantasy you utter pleb.

stop acting like a special snowflake just because you pretend to have read a shit series that no one else cares about

>not enough substance
I honestly don't think that is fair.

Don't bother user these guys are the real genius's they haven't read the book, so its obviously just full of filler (Toll the hounds, maybe) and its fantasy so how good could it be.

Have you read it though, so how do you know its trashy?

Holy fuck. Contain your autism.

because there are reviews by people with expertise greater than anyone here. and malazan has not earned the status of even tolkien (who isn't even the best modern fantasist).

The series has received widespread critical acclaim, with critics praising the epic scope, plot complexity and the introspective nature of the characterization, which serve as social commentary. Fellow author Glen Cook has called the series a masterwork of the imagination that may be the high water mark of the epic fantasy genre. In his treatise written for The New York Review of Science Fiction, fellow author Stephen R. Donaldson has also praised Erikson for his approach to the fantasy genre, the subversion of classical tropes, the complex characterizations, the social commentary — pointing explicitly to parallels between the fictional Letheras Economy and the US Economy — and has compared him to the likes of Joseph Conrad, Henry James, William Faulkner, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.[24][25][26]
Reviewing for SF Site, Dominic Cilli wrote, "Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen has single-handedly raised the bar for fantasy literature," praising Erikson's ambition and humor:
"The world building is done on an unprecedented scale and Erikson has left a lifetime's worth of novels on the table in the world of the Malazan Empire. So what is left to talk about? It's simple, the writing. I can tell that Steven Erikson's writing is filled with wit, charm, philosophical brilliance and a sense of imagination that would humble the most creative of authors. You will be hard-pressed to find his equal in any genre."[27]

Fuck guess I edited wikipedia as well.

>glen cook
a mediocre author. his prose style is one of the plainest and least imaginative i've encountered in fantasy.

>donaldson
another mediocre author derivative of tolkien, only le darker and edgier.

>nyrsf
pretty much anyone from that publication has bowed to SJWs and need not be taken seriously.

>dominic cilli
literally who

the people with actual critical status required to praise great works in modern fantasy don't have to be harold bloom, but they certainly aren't these yokels.

Not sure if you know, but those critics are critics who only read (or write) trashy fantasy. And comparing Malazan to even the worst of Faulkner or James is just perverse.

Obviously. But this user hasn't posted anything negative about him and even respected people have positive things to say.

I mean name a better high fantasy series.

You don't know how to think, so you copy and pasted stupid opinions from wikipedia. Lurkers of this thread may take this as proof that fantasy readers are dumb.

>social commentary
Give a good example of this from Malazan. It's probably within the limits of Wheel of Time tier social commentary.

Lord of the Rings and The Worm Oruboros. Maybe The Wizard Knight too. From my limited experience with HF.

The Lord of the Rings, duh.

Are there any books with characters similar to Thrawn from Star Wars ?

I've been meaning to read Hyperion for a while now but I've seen it compared to Dark Tower levels of decline in quality.
How true is this?

LOTR was good for its time (no disrespect, haven't read worm or wizard knight.
Lether, the Tiste Edur, The Malaz city Evacuation. Hobbling of X.

>lord of the rings was good for its time
>le critical modern man
kys

Any scifi about futuresports outside of that Culture story?

Well it was infact it defined the genre, but reading it now it seems almost cliche (because it created or popularised many of these cliches). Also good job on the second part of my arguement but since you haven't read the books I guess you won't be able to refute that.

1. you haven't read LotR, Worm, or Wolfe.
2. you probably haven't even read Malazan
3. you think your opinions are worth anything

Stop posting anytime

And am I supposed to understand what these mean? Post an excerpt of the actual events, instead of non-descript titles, you low effort faggot.

tfw reading a book that stops several times to make it clear that magic can't have clear rules

It's pre-Sanderson but it feels like a deliberate rebuke of the recent trend for anime magic

If youd read the book you would get it, if I described it it would just sound shit anyway.

but for example the letherian economy is basically the U.S and other modern economies, all of the money is "artifical" it exists on paper but doesn't actually exist in real life. In paticular it resembles the pre GFC conditions of subprime mortgages and rampant greed. And it highlights how people are dispossesd by this evil empire.

In the malaz city evacuation the local people turn on a returning army because they have been told similar to "blood libel" that the wickans (who are black) have done all sorts of crimes, even though the wickans literally died and bled for their country kinda like the jews did in ww1 for germany but even worse.

Name of the book?

Lord of the Rings is still good now you pleb, as is The Hobbit.
Why would I care about the second part of your 'argument'?

Malazan. not him tho

>the letherian economy is basically the U.S
This has been done in German, Chinese, and American literature already, in America's case, even before the GFC. And our economy isn't even primarily paper anymore.

You manages to make a high concept sound mundane, which is all too common in modern sff. Also, Dispossession is already covered in French literature and Dickens, so how does Malazan do things that haven't already been done? Additionally, government exploitation already has tons of coverage in modern literature. Why read fantasy for subjects that are already addressed in realistic literature, and with more depth, substance, and relateability (since most people don't live in lands with dragons and orcs)?

well that was just one example, there are more and its just a part of the books. For example and I Say this with 100% sincerity the only writer with similar level and depth and amount of subtle and less subtle foreshadowing is shakespeare. Canny reader is rewarded and even those who miss the subtle stuff will get the more obvious stuff.

I am greek

Anyone read Chronicles of an Age of Darkness and can give their general impressions of the series?

There's not such thing as a good for its time book. If it's shit, it's always shit. If it's good it always is. Very simple concept. Tolkien is still, just like he always was, a great writer and that's easily confirmed by his influence on quality writers (and no, it's not the dark lord and eagles or whatever you plebs seem to get from it).
It didn't define the genre at all. Unless we count the now forgotten clones that nobody knows because, well, they are dead LotR clones. LotR is a very myth driven novel and none of trash fantasy is anything like it. Not even sure which tropes people got from it specifically. There's a lot more Fafhrd and Grey Mouser and Conan in trash fantasy/video games for that mater.

Oh for fucks sake I know you are still in high school, but this is taking things too far even considering.

This is what I don't get when people talk about LotR's influence. It was a best seller, sure, but most of modern fantasy is clearly descended from pulp and D&D, high fantasy just trying to do what they do but with morals.

Well pretty much every fantasy author has read it, that's automatic influence.

Like bad Malazan, characters are super overpowered and its very gamey. Very chaotic, not bad though.

....no. I'd bet every fantasy author has read the New Testament, but it would be extremely dumb to claim it influenced them only because of that. When something influences writing, it shows, very much so. A breath of Tolkien is very, very rare, unless we mean the whole let us be edgy by NOT being like Tolkien at all.

"It was just one example, and yet if it only has a barely modern spin for a high concept field like economics, the rest of it would probably be shit"

>muh subtle writing
Post this masterful writing and analyze its techniques and depth instead of talking about it, as if its brilliance should be taken for granted.

I'll opt to ignore that idiot unless someone takes him up on shilling Malazan properly. If fantasy readers can't read with collegiate aptitude, what they shill should not be taken seriously.

Malazan's long and at times only semi-coherent

People assume this means it must be good and deep but in reality it's just a bad transcription of the author's DnD game

>Anyone read The Night Circus? Thinking about getting it.
It's alright but I got bored before the end.

And it's more literary fiction cribbing from genre fiction than outright fantasy

Obsidian Trilogy, so far it's slow paced generic heroic fantasy but I'm willing to give a book a lot of time when the hero having to remain a virgin so unicorns don't kill him is a plot point

one does not "make" memes

Other than the the Three Body problem, is there any chink novel worth reading?

Yes

get him some Heinlein, who, incidentally, was in the navy

Which ones?

Fat Years is good, Cat Country if you're willing to go old school.

Other than that it's just a case of working out what acclaimed stuff has actually been translated

>First books is fairly generic but interesting enough, with an "evil king" who isn't actually particularly evil, and a "good" queen in exile who is actually a power hungry bitch
>Second book completely derails this by having the king go literally mad and deciding to fuck over the main character for absolutely no reason, and the main character put up with it for absolutely no reason, and everyone goes along with all this for no reason at all
>The main heroine ends up getting fucked by a manlet and is never heard from again

Wow, usually series don't get this bad until the third book at least. I honestly regret reading this.

SOIAF?

...

>reading Wolfe and Tolkien after a while of reading trashy fantasy novels
I actually have become a bit retarded now. It's sort of hard to get through. Tolkien's Beowulf translation is amazing

...

Ok so I have shadow & claw here along with gardens of the moon, which series do I start? Will reading book of the new sun ruin malazan?

New Sun and Malazan do similar things with their narratives. I'd go with New Sun, simply because BotNS is self contained, shorter, and with praise by Le Guin and Asimov, is more of a classic fixture in sf. I don't think it would ruin reading Malazan, as Malazan has a more sustained study of sociology, which is something that people would be interested in, regardless of whether it stands up to BotNS.

Cixin's short stuff is good

Read Shadow & Claw but do it slowly and carefully, paying attention to every sentence. If you rush though it, you'll miss all the important stuff.

Take this example passage from Shadow of the Torturer:

"The picture he was cleaning showed an armored figure standing in a desolate landscape. It had no weapon, but held a staff bearing a strange, stiff banner. The visor of this figure's helmet was entirely of gold, without eye slits or ventilation; in its polished surface the deathly desert could be seen in reflection, and nothing more. This warrior of a dead world affected me deeply, though I could not say why or even just what emotion it was I felt...

"There's your blue Urth coming over his shoulder again, fresh as the Autarch's fish...." "Is that the moon? I have been told it's more fertile." "Now it is, yes. This was done before they got it irrigated. See that gray-brown? In those times, that's what you'd see if you looked up at her. Not green like she is now. Didn't seem so big either, because it wasn't so close in - that's what old Branwallader used to say. Now there's trees enough on it to hide Nilammon, as the saw goes."

Question: What does the picture actually depict?

>"There's your blue Urth coming over his shoulder again, fresh as the Autarch's fish...." "Is that the moon? I have been told it's more fertile." "Now it is, yes. This was done before they got it irrigated. See that gray-brown? In those times, that's what you'd see if you looked up at her. Not green like she is now. Didn't seem so big either, because it wasn't so close in - that's what old Branwallader used to say. Now there's trees enough on it to hide Nilammon, as the saw goes."

what the fuck, i have Shadow of the Torture on my bedside cabinet and planning it read it next week, how much of it is this level of blurhg?

Blurgh as in that sounded boring to you?

If you're that much of a pleb, hurry up and kill yourself, don't read Wolfe, and stay out of the Wolfe pack. No fandom needs your kind.