/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

I admit starship troopers was a bit of a let down . Was one of those 'movie was better' kind of books . But god help you if you think The Forever War was bad.

The prooblem is that it doesn't prove what the thought experiment is created to illustrate. There is no proof that syntax is different from meaning, it's entirely an emotional appeal.

Please leave, r/asianmasculinity

I want to try Lovecraft.

Which of his books should I start with, and why?

Any good books similar to Berserk?

The divine comedy

Just finished, literally within the last five minutes, the last book of this series.

Wool was compelling and interesting if not the most inspiring writing. I remember feeling annoyed at what I thought were plot-holes and the unsatisfying ending of the book. I had trouble visualizing exactly the size and scale of the Silo (especially how narrow the spiral staircase is) until at least halfway through the book, but once I finally got it I felt like it had an excellent sense of place.

Shift was frustrating and annoying at first. The initial main character was almost intolerable but I suppose that the author was making a point. I wish it had been more of a pleasure to read those parts of the book though. Once it got to the meat of its story, I was eventually won over by the eeriness of the setting. Very otherworldly. I thought the comparison to the afterlife was heavy-handed but probably only because it fit so perfectly.
I didn't care much about Jimmy's story but I understand why the author thought it needed to be told.
I did really appreciate how well the author was able to construct such a radically different setting that still fit exactly into the world he'd already created.

Dust I just finished, still forming opinions. Finally got all the storylines put back together which was satisfying after the frustration of the last two books. By this point I got really tired of the way the author kept setting up "obvious" or "inevitable" deaths to establish a sense of urgency, but then drawing them out as long as he liked. It felt manipulative especially after having put up with the same shit in the last two books. I enjoyed the very sensible resolution to most of my "plot holes" from the first book.

Overall the series was compelling but frustrating at times. I appreciate how the author set out to write a story as ambitious as any grand-scale space opera sci-fi, but confined to just a tiny corner of the Earth. He made me feel awe and wonder about a subject that might've seemed uninteresting. The entire conceit relied on only one or two pieces of imaginary sci-fi technology (albeit big ones). I wonder if the author intended the series to be a grand metaphor for the dreams of sci-fi readers, if he imagined pulling the wool from our eyes with a simulacrum of the Fermi Paradox. If you've read it you probably know what I'm referring to. I don't know if that was the theory behind the design of the books or just a side-thought that he could work in nicely.

I feel like there were some loose ends, but maybe just things I haven't figured out yet:
What happened to Silo 40 and their friends? In the very end of the last book servers 40 and 38 are still running incredibly hot even after Silo 1 bombed them.
Is the reader to believe that they came so close but didn't quite make it, didn't quite solve the mystery?
How do the oil wells work? The silos are are too close together for them to have independent wells.

To Kill A God

That looks terrible. Is that your book?

I wish I was that good of a writer

Where do I start with Asimov?

You don't

How far along are you guys?

Kaladin's story in Stormlight Archive's first two books is kinda like that. He has ups in downs as a soldier, going from ordinary enlisted to slave to high ranking officer over the course of two books, then after that his military rank kinda stops mattering.

First couple Legend of the Galactic Heroes novels

Find a book with his name on it and then read it.

I don't have a good reads. I have actual, physical shelves that I can look at if I want to remember what books I've read or want to read.

Stories: Dagon: it's one of his first.

Call of Cthulhu: it's his easiest to read.

The Nameless City: a good example of his style.

As for physical books, grab any old anthology. They're all good

Are they any good?

Foundation trilogy.

What a shitty way to try to act superior. You're not even good at it.

The Mound, because it's very relevant today.

I wasn't acting superior, I was stating a fact. I have actual shelves, I don't need virtual ones. I figured that's what goodreads is for, people who don't have physical books.

Stupidest post I've read in awhile.

I liked them. I don't know how high your standards are, especially for translated novels.

thanks guys

Sanderson.

What are some expansive and interesting fantasy worlds?

Hyboria
Earthsea

...

Yeah, a thought experiment is not meant to be a proof. It's meant to be an illustration of a concept that might be hard to understand if all you had to think about were a dry proof.

I don't want to talk out of my ass but I think I can remember reading that Gödel did prove that point anyway.

Is Analog a good magazine?

...

Undying Mercenaries
Galaxy's Edge
The Revelations Cycle

There is the Falkenberg's Legion set by Jerry Pournelle. (The omnibus goes by the name the prince if I remember right).

how the hell do you decide on what to read next

Haven't read it. It sounded interesting back when the hype was heavy around it but I never got around to picking it up.

Hell yes. I just wish Smylie hadn't fumblefucked his way out of ownership of his own creation. We'll probably never see the end of Beseiged or the follow up to the Barrow now

Not the dude you're replying to but kek that was specific

I just look at blurbs on Goodreads or Wikipedia or whatever until I feel curious enough to start reading something, and then I download it. If it's any good I keep reading it.
I do build up a backlog but I don't often pick my next book from there. It's not as much fun to read something as an "assignment," I prefer to just pick up whatever I'm interested in right there in that moment. Makes it easier to get started.

I usually just read Veeky Forums approved material but recently I pirated perdido street station and I think I'm enjoying it. Cactus people are fucking stupid though. Feels like WoW.

Good good.

What's the best near future scifi book that has come out in the past 5 years? I want to read something like gravity's rainbow.

'Armor' by John Steakly is okay. It does the 'Rogue Moon' thing though where the cool science-fiction premise is just a backdrop for character study. Steakly isn't as good a writer as Budrys IMO but lots of army-faggots supposedly like Steakly.

I'll never understand why when a book is written is used as a criteria for anything.

Answer the question and tell us how many you've read this year then.

Random choice from the unread pile.

My finished pile for the year looks to be 54.

It makes sense if you've served in the military as it's basically the ideal world if you create a government based off the ideals of the military. If not the concepts of duty of honor fall a bit flat because you haven't been in a environment where they're highly prized.

I think 6? I don't write down when I read them, but I read about 1 book a month on average so if I had to guess it would be 6 books finished this year. Why do you track them by year and not month? Month seems a better gauge of how fast you read.

I don't write them down either, but I try and keep ones I've read in a separate pile. Goodreads is fairly popular here (for tracking) and anons frequently post about the yearly challenge it has, so I started making a new finished pile on January 1st.

Top Priority:
>other books by authors I like
>books recommended to me by people whose taste I trust (only 2 people fit this criteria)

Middle Priority:
>books recommended by authors I like on their personal blogs
>books recommended to me by people I talk to about books a lot (mostly family in this category)

Lower Priority:
>books I pick up off the shelf at a book store because they look interesting (there's a whole process for this too, I don't just grab one at random)
>books that are talked about a lot in /sffg/

Lowest Priority:
>everything else

I just put them on the shelf when I'm done. I have a stack on my bedside table of "to read" books, but once I've read them they get shelved until I want to reread, then they get added to the stack again.

>Goodreads is fairly popular here (for tracking) and anons frequently post about the yearly challenge it has
I don't really understand the point of it. I'd rather just read what I want, when I want, instead of trying to force myself to meet some goal. That turns it into a chore.

>I just put them on the shelf when I'm done. I have a stack on my bedside table of "to read" books, but once I've read them they get shelved until I want to reread, then they get added to the stack again.
That's how I did it before I started buying books like a madperson.
>I'd rather just read what I want, when I want, instead of trying to force myself to meet some goal.
I personally don't have a goal. It's just kinda cool to be able to look back at the end of the year and say "Wow, I read over a hundred books this year." instead of just "I read a lot".

Because it's sci-fi. I want to see a realistic depiction of the future, that's why I asked for something like Gravity's rainbow.

>realistic depiction of the future
Not sure if you're in the right place then. Maybe you'd find political blogs or something like that more interesting. Not memeing.

What do you make of Myke Cole and his books?

Library-in-boxes user. That you? How your container sex dungeon- i mean library coming along?

First tell us how many books in total you read. Only this would tell us if we dain bive you our help.

...

Dude i don't keep track, maybe 5-7 a year? I know it's not much but whatever

GRRM and Neil Gaiman are doing a kickstarter to make a No Mans Scam/Scam Citizen with Neil deGrasse Tyson.
thedailybeast.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-talks-joining-forces-with-george-rr-martin-on-a-space-video-game
>Space Odyssey, which describes itself as “an awe-inspiring gaming experience of galactic exploration and colonization” in which users can “explore space, colonize planets, and create and mod in real time,” has quite the team behind it. In addition to Tyson, who is serving as the game’s scientific expert, there are the concept artists behind games like God of War and Final Fantasy, as well as a few people you may know by the names of Bill Nye, Neil Gaiman, and George R.R. Martin, the architect of Game of Thrones, who are aiding in the creation of several of the game’s galaxies.

The developer, Big Red Button, is perhaps better known for SONIC BOOM: RISE OF LYRIC for the Nintendo WiiU

No. There's a difference between having been immersed in a culture and respecting it. His military ideals are incredibly juvenile, it feels like he wrote it based off his g.i. Joe play sessions.

anything with a female protagonist that gets raped?

>Hey guys I need some porn
You are too dumb to live.

you are too rude to post.

Yeeah, the 2nd Locke Lamora book really does go to absolute shit. Might be the most baffling plot structure I've ever seen, it's like the writer just got bored half way in and decided to drop every non-main character, every plot thread and just start writing random pirate shit out of nowhere. Not even fun pirates but some noble strong womyn trash, had decent female characters in the first part unlike this Rothfuss sex ninja tier hamfisted shit, it's like he got lobotomized half way into the second book, him and Rothfuss must have been copying the same fanfiction.net story.

Also it's been half the trilogy and I'm not sure this Sabetha actually exists. Fuck it it's not worth it, I'll get my tomboy fix elsewhere.

The translations are kinda dry, but definitely readable. You can also watch the anime instead, if you're not repulsed by chinese cartoons.

TUC question.

When the No God whirs up and everyone starts losing their shit, why didn't Akka and friends just start zapping it with magic? It had no chorae attached at the time.

>IDEAS GUYS: THE LUDO
video games going mainstream was a mistake

Games take even bigger scribts than books, how are they gonna oversee that while writing asoiaf? Good book writers doesn't translate to good game writers anyways.

Just finished The Shadow of what was Lost due to a recommendation by someone in here and it was a decent read.

Started the Lightbringer books right after and after a few hours of the audiobook it hasn't hooked me yet. Does it take a while? The whole light as powers thing has been really poorly introduced so far.

Dream PTSD? Bad writing?

>He thinks gurm still works on Winds

It just seems stupid. Sonic boom team? They're genuinely terrible. Tyson? He's such a fuckng anti artistic pseud. A gaiman game with some help from people like Avellonne would be great. As it stands it seems like they're almost intentionally doing a shitty project

Well, the concept is good and no one have managed to pull it off yet so I'm glad people keep on trying. However,
>implying I'll give them my money before they show me a playable game

Another nail in the coffin for ASoIaF, I'd be mad if I had not already given up hope long ago.

It's an edutainment 4X game, the pop-science nigger just wanted some celeb names to stick beside his own. They'll likely write small scraps of flavour text that could fit on post-it notes.

Whether someone has managed to pull it off is arguable. Eve is great. And since there are so many writers they're probably not going for pure simulation, and there are great space rpgs out there.
Also you shouldn't be too afraid of funding kickstarters if you know what you're doing. But you shouldn't fund this, obviously

Codex Alera any good?

>no one have managed to pull it off yet

>Eve
Eve doesn't really (to me, that is) feel like the same kind of game. This feel more like, the quite specific, kind of game NMS tried to be. A RPG but without a fixed storyline, unlike KoToR for example.

>you shouldn't be too afraid of funding kickstarters
I'm not impossible to convince, I've supported 3 or 4 Kickstarters over the years. A very big dose of skepticism is healthy when it comes to Kickstarter.

Let me specify. No one have yet managed to make a good visually striking, open world space exploration RPG. And that's just my opinion.

The Diamond Age

first book of deed of paksenarrion (after that it's more traditional fantasy)

My vacation is coming up soon and I'm trying to find some books to enjoy myself with. I was hoping someone here could help me decide what I should go for.

I've been thinking about taking up the rest of the Hyperion Cantos. I've read the first two and enjoyed them (actually still need 50-ish pages in Fall of Hyperion), but the time skip to Endymion doesn't sound appealing to me. Should I continue or is it best to let it be?
Alternatively I've been considering Niven's Ringworld, it sounds intriguing enough. Is it any good?

But really I would love some sci fi recommendations. I love the grand settings, like Hyperion and Foundation, but I don't have much time to read outside of holidays and thus have a hard time picking something out, because I don't want to waste my time/money. Any help or recs are appreciated.

>Having people invent or find out things in prehistorik fantasy

Please don't
Ever

Why not?

People don't invent the wheel and invent writing in the span of a week

>People don't invent the wheel and invent writing in the span of a week
That's just bad writing, not an argument against the concept of inviting the wheel in fiction.

I think I'm on 36 for the year going off of what I've added to Calibre in 2017

Not too bad considering I didn't read everything for several months

About to read this, what am I in for?

>>What are you reading
Fevre Dream.
Two-thirds done. The steamboat stuff is comfy and the vampire stuff is interesting.

>>Book last Read
Promise of Blood (Powder Mage, #1)
Enjoyable enough, not the smartest book but kept me entertained. I like that the book begins just after the oppressive king and his wizards have been usurped and killed. The different types of magic as well as the fect that they are not always understandable are interesting, though the constant reminders that "a powder mage can give a man a telepathic handjob at two-hundred yards just by burning powder" and whatnot got old really fast.
How are the sequels?