Book of the New Sun lmao

>>81712351
I've started reading Shadow of the Executioner

>>81712376
Okay two mentions of that series at the same time. How good is it?

>>81712405
real good

>>81712405
however I'm pretty sure /lit/ does or at least used to jerk it off as hard as Infinite Jest, though I haven't visited in awhile

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Pic related.

Best sci/fantasy series you've never heard of.

Dystopian future earth discovers the technology to travel to a dimension that's basically renaissance fantasy, and sends "actors" over to portray fantasy heroes for an audience who experience it all in vr. Everything predictably goes tits up and escalates to the point where both worlds are unrecognizable by the end.

Author is a black belt in 2 or 3 different martial arts and it shows in hit fight scenes. They're violent, adult, and philosophical in a non-profit way.

>>81712506
fuck off, Matt.
And get better cover artists.

>>81712506
Oh I remember reading part of this a long time ago, as a kid I went to the author's book signing, I think he did the novelization of Revenge of the Sith. It seemed interesting with some of the actors being gimps sith PTSD.

How is this /tg/ related?

>>81712561
We don't talk about matt these days. 2016 was a bitch.

>>81712563

He did indeed.

>>81712579

Because anyone who suggests talking about genre fiction on /lit/ has never been to /lit/.

>>81712506
Also, non-reddit*

Fuck

>>81712614
>Because anyone who suggests talking about genre fiction on /lit/ has never been to /lit/.
Doesn't answer my question on how this is /tg/ related.

>>81712579
Fantasy books led to the creation of rpgs and nowhere else to discuss them

>>81712673
>>81712579
>"I'm a needlessly obtuse faggot who thinks fantasy novels aren't /tg/"

Go back to talking about goblin tits or something.

>>81712673
It's a /tg/ trope. Whenever people mention books, comics or tv shows, there has to be a shill in the first 5 posts.

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>>81712351
The Black Company
Arguably you could stop after the first three books, cause the ones in the south kind of go off their rocker, but all in all their good reads.

>>81712999
I really liked the first and second Black Company books but the last one felt like the Battle of Five Armies with nonstop crazy shit and Croaker becoming more OP. I thought the ending seemed like it was heading in a more grounded direction and have been thinking about picking it up again. Should I not?

>>81713373
It definitely does not get more grounded, but I'm not going to say that they were bad. A lot more characters and an entirely new plot gets introduced after they fuck off to "I can't believe it's not India." If you're looking for something to read and like the style of writing I will recommend it, but if you want something "grounded" then its gonna disappoint in some places.

>>81713446
The thing I liked most about the series was the sense of 'war diaries from a random unit in a HoMM game'. Most of the stuff going on was way above the pay grade of the main characters, with the exception of Raven who always seemed like a typical D&D character. Croaker was just some guy who was old enough to keep his head on his shoulders. Soulcatcher was using the black company and no one cared too much. Once Croaker started being epic quest guy I pretty much checked out.

I might read more if they can keep some of that feeling of brothers in arms just doing what they can, even if it heads more into LOTR terf.

I've enjoyed The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Modern fantasy, if that's your thing. Any wizard that carries a .44 is cool in my book.

>>81712405
It's good, but the quick mentions are because the /lit/ fantasy general will recommend it everytime as the best book to ever be written.

>>81713540
The first book of the south definitely starts to rekindle that feeling of the original, but by the end of it all it's about like the third. where they're focusing more on individual characters and the overarching plot.
Honestly I think I'd recommend reading The Silver Stake if you finished the third, because it doesnt tie in to the Books of the South and sets the tone for what to expect if you keep going with the series. Silver Stake is basically an epilogue of the third book so little new ground will be tread.

I'll recommend Doc Savage. I've been reading them for a couple of years now, am on book 32, and let me tell you it is a great inspiration for gaming. There's one book with a lost civilization who has been in an underground cavern complex since the Ice Age, it's pretty great.

>>81712999
I've started reading that, but It just didn't stick with me.
I much prefer the Garret P.I. series by the same author. It's a more violent/hardboiled version of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in a fantasy world, and it is great.

>>81712351
I really think the Witcher books are great and vastly out class the games
Don't let that dogshit TV show trick you into thinking that's where they are like
Also more /tg/ related I read The Man of Gold, the first Petal Throne book and while it was kind of a mess it definitely has some of the most intriguing world building that I've seen in a while.
It's basically fantasy world that was conquered by space faring humans millennia ago and its been so long all their technology is just magic to everyone.

>Thread Question

Before we all get bogged down listing the classics, how about we try to list some recent stuff? What is your recommendation that has been written in the last, say, 10 years?

Personally I've just read the first couple of books on Miles Cameron Masters and Mages series, and it was pretty good, looking for the third one now. First book is about a magic student, slowly becoming an adventurer, the second is mostly about war and battles.

I actually think that Latro is my favorite Wolfe series. It certainly makes me want to run a game set in the Mediterranean. It’s a very fun adventure, even if it wasn’t completed.

>>81714180
the traitor son was better, i didn't really like how m&m ended, whereas traitor son just got better as the series went on.

>>81714180
Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan.

Great book, and you can't get more tg related than Gareth. Check his rpggeek page of credits (sort by rank or you'll be scrolling for ages). Thing I like best about it is every character has actual sensible but not entirely overlapping goals that get them into trouble. No idiot balls.

Fuckin' rad story and setting.

>>81713618
Dresden is good shit. The fact that it's actually a well build epic fantasy really sneaks up on your first time reading it. There's a point where's you're reading a bunch of goofy wizard books, and you realize, "Wait, all it all fits together and was actually foreshadowed."

Also, zombie t-rex.

Also also, Jim Butcher is one of us and hasn't had his balls completely snipped off by woke publishing.

>>81712506
Is he not writing any more novels? The last one I saw from Stover was 'Test of Metal' i.e. the Magic: The Gathering novel that was retconned out of existence because it broke the universe.
I have all of his Star Wars novels, admittedly.

I just finished Red Sister, what did I think of it?

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I have read several fantasy books including the hobbit but honestly none come close to this. Howard manages to describe everything so efficiently while still giving the important details.

>>81723157
I've read three of them so far

The Phoenix of the sword
The Frost giant's Daughter
and The God in the Bowl

All amazing stories with great prose. Felt like I was in the stories themselves when i read them I was so engrossed

>>81712380
>Shadow of the Executioner
Do you mean Shadow of the Torturer?

The Name of the Wi-
bahaha sorry I can't even say it.

>>81712614
>Because anyone who suggests talking about genre fiction on /lit/ has never been to /lit/.
Any sort of discussion on /lit/ is pointless. I once started a thread asking for their opinions on Shakespeare, explaining that I didn't see what the big deal was. Holy shit, just hundreds of posts blaming Jews for me find Romeo and Juliet to be silly.

>>81717465
Wasn't impressed as much by the sequel, but Gutter Prayer was boss.

>>81723202
Tower of the Elephant next. Easily my favorite Conan story Howard ever wrote.

Waylander (i think that was the name?)
Anything Terry Pratchett to get some shenanigans inspiration

>>81724640
I mean, I do enjoy jerking off to Evola as the next guy. But I get your point.

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I really liked De Bodard's Obsidian and Blood series as inspiration for an Aztec themed fantasy campaign.

Been listening to Fellowship of the Ring as narrated by Andy Serkis while working. Him trying to get close the voices of the other actors is a nice touch. I don't know if comic books count, but I have been reading Battle Chasers and it's a fun read. As for actual books, I'm about elbow deep into Fadhrd and the Grey Mouser, and I'll go as far as recommending all of those books. The interaction between the two leads and the world around them is pure inspiration fuel.

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Also, Daniel Polansky's "Low Town" series was worth reading if planning a campaign involving fantasy crime. Crime as in drugs, murder and betrayal not happy go lucky Ocean's Elven...

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And finally, if you prefer Mil-SF with a twist of cyberpunk I would recommend Gavin G Smith's Bastard Legion series.

>>81712351
>Second Apocalypse
Is really good though, peak kino /tg/lit/. Not for the squeamish, desu.

Oops, sorry, sort of drifted into general /tg-friendly books there, not only fantasy...

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>>81712351
The Edge Chronicles had a pretty popular thread recently, what do you fine anons think?

>>81712351
Appendix N

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Meme artwork and endorsement. Edgy book titles. But goddamn if these books aren't fun to read.

It's more sci fi than fantasy but Jack Vance's Deamon princes series is a good source of inspiration for me.

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>>81712351
>reccomend some books
The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs is the best Appendix N book you haven't read.
>>81713618
>Modern fantasy, if that's your thing.
I enjoyed Sunshine by Robin McKinley. It's actually urban fantasy with a romance subplot, but done well enough I enjoyed it even as a guy. And it's standalone, so easy enough to check out.
>>81713960
I haven't read it, but I'll keep an eye out.
My pulp recently has been the Dumarest novels by EC Tubb. A major influence on the Traveller rpg, but they went out of print for a while and, while known of, weren't as widely read as some of the other influences.
But reading some helped Traveller click for me. Every planet the protagonist visits has something strange going on, some weird custom or law or weather or natural phenomenon that gave a background or cross current to the real plot. That's a good practice for a GM, to keep a sci fi game from just being dudes with guns.
And it's firmly in the pulp tradition of sci fi, before sf split into several separate genres. So the hero can still solve problems with his mighty thews or punching the bad guy, another good lesson for rpgs.
>>81717465
I didn't he did fiction. I'll have to check that out.
If anyone hasn't seen it, Pirates of Drinax by Hanrahan is one of the best modules not just for Traveller but I think in the history of the hobby as a whole.

>>81712506
it's off the charts crazy by the later books but this series is really good

>>81732285
yeah. ended up re-reading this after finishing the latest trilogy.

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>>81712351

>>81714890
this. I liked how m&m started more like a slice of life thing with the MC being on the fringes of the big plot and making his way in the big city but he ends up an overpowered mess complete with demon waifus and magic swords.

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>>81712351

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>>81714180
he also writes historical fiction as christian cameron (his actual name). The hundred years war stuff in particular is top tier.

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>>81712999

The Books of the South are good, anon.

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>>81732595
That one is actually good. Over the top, high power fantasy, but good. Except he can't quite write romance from a female perspective, there's one flirtation scene that's kind of cringey. But it leaps out at you all the more since the rest of the book is better written, so that don't let that scare anyone off.
I haven't caught up on the series though. I see there's a sequel, which was definitely left open, but I no longer follow series' as religiously as I used to.
I think I like his Monster Hunter International books better overall. I binged on those at one point. Less relevant to fantasy /tg/, but you could definitely do a modern Monster Hunter campaign in any number of systems. (It got its own rpg too, but I don't have it, and I'm not aware it caught on much outside of fans of the novels.)

>>81732285
>But goddamn if these books aren't fun to read.
They really aren't. Couldn't go through even the first one.

>>81732348
Another good inspiration for Traveller is the Stainless Steel Rat books by Harry Harrison.

>>81712579
/tg/ uses the one drop rule.

I hadn't gotten engrossed in a book in a while with college and stuff but I've recently found myself delving into some stuff I've been recommended in the past. I read through Lev Grossman's The Magicians trilogy and was pretty entertained, and have also started on Discworld, which seems to be a bit more my speed.
The thing with Discworld is there's 40+ books, so I'm looking for other reads in that humorous vein to space the books a bit, don't wanna go through them all in a single chunk.
I can't tell by the descriptions in the thread so far which books fall into that category of having a sense of humor. Doesn't have to be completely fantasy, either, I'm a big Hitchhiker's Guide fan.

>>81712351
Do you want actual novels or would novellas and short stories fit the bill?

>>81735439
If you're going to jump into Discworld I'd highly suggest looking up a reading order. Discworld is more like 6-ish separate series of books all taking place in the same setting than it is a single 40 book series or anthology. Reading them as series is a good way to break them up and you'll get the most out of it when you're not jumping around having to remember lots of disparate storylines.

>>81712351
Not Fantasy but A Canticle for Leibowitz is pretty good.

>>81735569
But it's book by book, not chapter by chapter, right? I can finish Colour of Magic without worrying I'm starting a couple different series?
I looked up a reading order but one of the suggestions was just "chronologically" so I decided to go with that as I usually do.

>>81735596
Book by book, yes. Reading by order of release is also good because there is definitely character arcs and progression from one book to another, like that one troll that goes from movie extra to policeman. The industrial revolution books especially do this, with an invention that happens in one book showing up in about three others afterwards.

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Ryan's latest book is a return to form.

>>81723152
That Mark really wants the YA audience

Long shot, but does anyone know the title of a fantasy series about a mute protagonist who pairs alongside a demon? (I think he carries a polearm for a weapon) Been looking for ages

How are the Tales from the Sorcerer’s Skull anthologies from Goodman Games?

>>81712579
Appendix N, nigga.

>>81735596
I mean, Colour of Magic is the first one, but it's a little weak (also the Light Fantastic is a direct sequel, and there are other books with the main character from it, but it is also introducing the world), focusing really hard on specifically parodying a kind of fantasy that's fallen by the wayside a little.

Personally I found you can start almost anywhere and it'll be fine - the first or second one I read was right in the middle.
That said, Guards Guards, Wyrd Sisters, and Mort each make a good place to start, as the first book in 3 of the respective sub-series

I started reading Night's Master by Tanith Lee, haven't finished it yet.. I've meant to read it for ages but only got to it now. It's been very good so far, and I'd heartily recommend it to fa/tg/uys who haven't read it yet. On non-fiction front I'm reading the Decline and Fall of Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, which I'd actually recommend as well. It's not exactly the latest word in historical research, having been written over 200 years ago, but it's an interesting and well-written account of a time period with a whole lot of inspiration to offer for roleplaying games.

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>>81714180
Really enjoyed The Siege books by K.J. Parker. Eager to see where the third one goes after how the second one ended.
Land Fit For for Heroes was also a good romp, but I'm a sucker for the intoxicating rage of Richard Morgan's characters. Damn does he do a faggot character justice. Now if only he could make another Takeshi Kovacs novel.

>>81735587
Went on a post apoc kick a few years ago, and Canticle and Earth Abides repeatedly left me feeling disconnected and reflective on the petty little things in life.

Can someone please recommend fantasy books with DnD/traditional fantasy worlds with a serious tone and without too much gore/sex, something like LotR or even Record of Lodoss in book form?

Are the DnD books any good?

>>81732375
Yeah, book four is borderline incomprehensible

>>81740260
The Belgeriad

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Read The Worm Ouroboros
Read The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath
Learn what worldbuilding was like before Tolkien. Because brother I promise you that you ain't the next Tolkien.

>>81740260
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen R. Donaldson
Elric of Melniboné, by Michael Moorcock
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, by Fritz Leiber
The Earthsea Cycle, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Morte d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory
Conan the Barbarian, by Robert E. Howard
The Lords of Dus, by Lawrence Watt-Evans
Jirel of Joiry, by C. L. Moore

>>81740735
>The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen R. Donaldson
>the series filled with literal rape mindnumbing depression and relentless negativity
Come on, man. I couldn't get myself to even start the second book. It's the exact opposite of what I am looking for.

>Elric of Melniboné, by Michael Moorcock
>Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, by Fritz Leiber
>The Earthsea Cycle, by Ursula K. Le Guin
>Le Morte d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory
>Conan the Barbarian, by Robert E. Howard
Excellent suggestions but I know of these, Fafhrd and Conan are closer to what I am looking for. I want what is basically a well written, grounded DnD/PF/Dungeon World campaign.

>The Lords of Dus, by Lawrence Watt-Evans
>Jirel of Joiry, by C. L. Moore
I'll look into these, thank you.

>>81712351
>/tg/
>literature

lol

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>>81712351
Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books.

>>81744526
Eeeeh the fourth stormlight really dragged on and had a similar revelation payoff moment as book three.
First two books I've reread endlessly though

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>>81712351
Angel Mage is pretty interesting.

>>81712351
>ctrl f Dying Earth
>ctrl f Lyonesse
>not found

yall monkies need some Jack Vance in your life.

>>81744583
Fantasy slavery and all that it implies is cool

>>81712469
probably more so now because the right wing types outside of the /sff/ thread all decided they like wolfe for being catholic

>>81737183
Look up The Painted Man, The Vagrant, Bartimaeus Sequence, Ill-Made Mute
I don't think any of them fit what you're asking for but I might be wrong, so see if any seem familiar

>>81740260
The book in the OP is a good fit for this.
Party goes on a quest with a paladin, a thief and a mage, goblins are terrifying enemies.

>>81712351
Neverness by David Zindell (and the sequels) are technically science fiction, and technically transhumanist; but thematically humanist and leaning towards classical fantasy literature.

>>81712351
Where can I read all of the Fafahrd and the Grey Mouser stories for free?

>>81746775
google ebooks irc or something similar to get a guide and work it out for yourself, should be pretty simple
you could check mobilism too but they're better for new stuff

Read the Three Body Problem series for some good cosmic horror sci-fi

>>81712351
Lawrence Watt-Evans is good
And of course Howard

>>81746775
libgen
bo-ok

>>81746859
>it's another Chinese can't into theory of mind book

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>>81740260
>recommend...
Raymond E Feist' s Midkemia novels. Loosely based on or at least inspired by a campaign, but actually good, a rarity for that genre.
The Deed of Paksenarion books by Elizabeth Moon. Follows a female mercenary as she levels up into a paladin. Seriously, she gets the warhorse and everything. And there's a raid on the Moathouse if you know to look for it. But still good in its own right.
>Are the EnD books any good?
No. They're really not. There's something about the tie-in or licensing that selects for very bad.
The least worst of all of them are the early Drizzt novels. They're at least readable at a light entertainment level. Even there, I wouldn't recommend them to a compleatist who's going to continue on through the whole series.
Then I'd put the Dragonlance novels next. They were big at one point, and I enjoyed reading them in middle school, but I don't think they hold up well.

>>81744526
Lolno

>>81730041
Picked the fuck up. Getting the first book now. If it turns out to be shit I'm coming for you.

>>81741315
You said "serious tone", not "MLP".

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Another good series is Ian Tregillis "The Alchemy Wars" trilogy. Set in the 17-18 th century with alchemy, sorcerors and clockwork robots it may look like the usual steampunk fare at first glance, but this is rather steampunk's bitter cynical half-cousin.

Also Tregillis Milkweed Triptych, starting with Bitter Seeds, is nice if you're more into Call of Cthulhu.

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Mark Smylie's "The Barrow" reads as a (complex) fantasy scenario. And in a good way. Be prepared for some explicit sex scenes though.

>>81750992
>Jaime Lannister is cucked to death by author's gay self-insert and a cannibal corpse
Can't believe I read this shit.

>>81712579
It's more /tg/ related than "cyoa"s, jumpchain, drawthreads, cheesecake, vidya discussion, etc

>>81729618
Im just about to finish up Serkis' recording of the hobbit myself. Kino.

>>81714180
Reverend insanity.
Normally with cultivation novels you have read one, you have read them all, but RI is just a wild ride, from the MC to the world building, its something else.
Fang Yuan has become one of my prefered characters along Conan and Aragon.
>>81714890
With the traitor son I found it to be the contrary, the first one was exellent, the second was good, the third meh etc. The more the dragons appear the less I cared.
Tough the Wild was a top tier idea, and I loved the irks and other monsters.

>>81723157
>>81723202
Conan is top tier pulp.
Jack Vance and Clark Ashton smith are also very good, the characters are much less than conan as they are tricksters/adventurers more than a warriors tricksters like conan tough.

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>>81712999
>mfw they invite Limper for tea
That motherfucker was a unit, though. Maybe because we rarely see what an actual Taken can do beyond "cast big spells".

>>81732059
Peak YA books, heck they hold well for adults too, specially for anyone than has been raised be a lot of worse YA books like harry potter.
>>81732285
Abercombie does one thing very well, and that's the characters. The plot or the world building are at some points embarrasing, but the way he makes you understand everyone is quite masterful. Compared to the classics would be harsh to him, but of the recent crop he is at least decent.

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>>81723157
Check out the Bran Mak Morn collection. Doomed last king tries to save his dying people. I think Howard wrote couple of his best stories for the character even if he didn't really get to explore him all that much.

>>81732348
>The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs
Only thing I didn't like was how the ending just happens and story ends. Entire approach to magic and book becoming a travel journal at points was amazing.

>>81740735
>The Lords of Dus, by Lawrence Watt-Evans
>Jirel of Joiry, by C. L. Moore
Little points why are good? FIrst time hearing about them.

>>81740705
>The Worm Ouroboros
very well, I'll take you up on that

>>81753342
I read the first book of Lords Of Dus, Lure Of The Basilisk, in high school, and it's always stuck with me. I recently tracked down the other three books and it was the most satisfying read I've had in a long time. The hero is a likeable enough idiot whose main attribute, apart from being an eight foot tall furry hominid with a skull for a face and glowing red eyes and making really, REALLY bad decisions, is sheer bloodymindedness. I mean, the guy means well, but there are so many points in the book where you just want to shout at him. It's actually refreshing to have hero who is at once superhuman and very fallible.

C. L. Moore is from the same Weird Tales magazine that gave us Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith, and she was considered their equal, if not their better, even if she had to use her initials so readers thought she was a man.
Jirel is a complete raving nutter and it is my firm belief that it is only her stubborn contrarian refusal to die, making her usually the only survivor of any adventure, that makes her the designated hero, by attrition.

any love for the Malazan series? It's my favorite

>>81753272
Honestly I think many writers can use Howard as an example for writing short but detailed sentences. The guy’s stories flow but never drag on.

>>81753314
I’ve heard about that. It sounds pretty cool, I’ll check it out.

>>81741315
Most of the really good fantasy I've read either has a lot of gorn or a lot of porn or both.

Um, I could recommend
Thraxas, by Martin Millar under the pen name Martin Scott.
(clever collision of fantasy tropes with a fat, drunken smartass private investigator and his more competent half-orc half-elf barmaid ex-gladiator sidekick.)

The Particoloured Unicorn, by Jon DeCles.
Again, I'm going back to high school here, so my memories are hazy, but I remember enjoying this one. I think there was a sequel written recently. There is a sea-elf orgy, but the lights are out and it doesn't go into details.

Giant of World's End, by Lin Carter
Read this one from my father's collection as a kid. Good Dying Earth genre cliffhanger stuff. Was supposed to be the start of a series, but Carter ended up only writing prequels.

Transmission Error, by Michael Kurland
A teleport error sends a trio of convicted criminals from Earth to a fantasy realm, so it's an isekai, like Blakes 7 meets One Thousand and One Nights.
Another one from my dad's collection. Kurland is one of my favourite old hippie SF authors, part of the triumvirate who wrote the Greenwich Village trilogy starring themselves.

The Fallible Fiend, by L. Sprague de Camp
A demon prince is drafted into servitude on the mortal plane, summoned to serve a wizard in exchange for iron, which is exceedingly rare on his home plane. He eats the wizard's apprentice in one of those hilarious cultural misunderstandings and ends up in a travelling circus.
Another one from the school library at Balmain High. Apparently part of the Novarian series, which I must track down and read the rest of.

I'd recommend the War Of Powers series by Robert E. Vardeman and Victor Milan, but OHOHOHOHO, it's porn. Sorry, it's porn. I mean, WINGED CAT GIRL porn, but it's still porn.

>>81753582
Never got the appeal, but it sures is recomended in those threads.
>>81753731
Howard was a master.
>>81753516
Noice, noted.

>>81753306
Kind of and he's actually funny but i'd happily read joe writing northmen for the rest of my life.

>>81712405
It's like Jack Vance, but written to be purposefully obscure and with the least reliable narrator possible. There's aliens and Christ imagery. Some Borges slips in as well

You really, really have to be paying attention to the text in order to get everything out of the series in a way you don't with most genre fiction, which is partly why it's memed so hard in /lit/. They're good books though.

If you don't find the personality of the hosts grating (I've seen them called soiboys), the Alzabo Soup podcast gives a "deep dive" into each chapter of every book in the series, in a very conversational tone and with no spoilers

>>81753734
>Most of the really good fantasy I've read either has a lot of gorn or a lot of porn or both.
NTA, but make on with the gore/porn/gorn recommendations. Just label that shit and both ends of the horny spectrum will thank you.

>>81754194
Oh, well, like I said the War of Powers. A great rollicking lusty swashbuckling horny good time.

>>81754389
Already noted and will be checked.

curse these threads. I just keep adding more to-read books.

>>81754938
I will save your time. Many recommendations are crap. The truth will set you free.

>>81754957
it's fine. one needs to read more than just top shelf stuff. how else will you recognize crap?

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>>81746664
Damn, its Vagrant,recognize it from the badass cover. Thanks anon!
Have you read it?

>>81755792
I haven't read far in it but it's fun.
Stopped like one chapter in at first because I thought it was gonna be super edgy but it's actually a really funny book.

>>81753582
I like Malazan, but I feel like there's too much going on, like Eriksson has ideas for more than one book series and doesn't really know what to focus on.

>>81757350
true, it's hard to follow at times

>>81757546
Aside from it being hard to follow, there were points where I was perfectly clear on what was going on but had a hard time caring. The sheer amount of named characters makes it hard to give a shit about all of them. As I said, I still like the series as a whole. I like the world, I think Erikson's good enough as a storyteller, and there are plenty of characters I like. Bridgeburners are cool, so is Anomander Rake and his kin, and there's something about Malazan Book the Fallen's handling of gods that just works for me. I like most of the individual parts of the series, really, it's just all that stuff shoved into one series that's a bit too much.

anyone tried the new karsa orlong erikson's done?

>>81758079
I haven't really tried anything after the main Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Karsa Orlong was probably my least favorite character in the series, so something focused on him doesn't seem too appealing.

>>81753582

Big fan. Its the first piece of fantasy outside of sword and sorcery that I read where I didn't skip paragraphs and entire pages. I usually skipped clothes, food, singing, and anything that didn't involve the plot (while trying Sanderson, GRRM, and Robert Jordan)

>>81753582
yeah. for a genre where similarities are tending to outweigh differences and as much as its influences are detectable, particularly Cook, there's really nothing quite like it.

>>81712405
It's good, I liked Book of the Long Sun better Wizard Knight was meh.

Is Gormenghast good?
I read "Boy In Darkness" when I was a kid and it scared the poop out of me.
I only realised it was a Gormenghast story years later, looking it up online.

I still am known to mutter "My loins! My terrified loins!" at times.

>>81712999
Best depiction of Wizards I've ever seen in fiction.

>>81760433
yeah its great, but its not really 'fantasy' as much as its gothic weird fiction, with more in common with Wuthering Heights than Lord of the Rings.

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>>81740735
>Elric of Melniboné, by Michael Moorcock

It bugs the shit out of me how under appreciated Moorcock is in fantasy. So many tropes that are popular now were made popular by him.

>>81760451
How so?

>>81760584
They're petty, shit talking, vicious little cunts.

>>81712999
Only read the first book so far and really enjoyed it. I was not expecting the fairly detailed gang rape of a 9 year old, or the blatant self insert, but other than that the books depiction of wizards and magic is pretty cool.

>>81760473
Silly bugger, it popularized only shitty tropes.

>>81760473
People prefer the various modernized ripoffs. Same as Asimov.

>>81761666
>blatant self insert,
this element of it only grows

>>81760606
I always assumed that was a given.

>>81755792
another series to check out

>>81753287
True. Mainly because you generally see the Taken counteracting Rebel wizards' spells and vice versa. You don't exactly perceive them as individual power houses they are until the Silver Spike which hammers the point home just how lucky the Black Company had been up to that point.

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>>81747073
Entirety of Riftwar Cycle can last you fucking forever.

>>81738901
I was pleasantly surprised by this one as well. Taking the piss out of everything while having a fucking meltdown trying to manage all the ins and outs of a siege was weirdly entertaining.

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>>81738901
>Now if only he could make another Takeshi Kovacs novel.
close enough.

>>81764067
Yea it was, and it sounded like it might be the beginning of a new series set in more limited space colony scope.
Shit it looks like he's got a sequel short story/chapter on his home page with comments alluding to a 2022 release.

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>>81763885
While very different in focus (politics, city logistics and PR rather than siege craft), would still recommend the sequel.
Shame the one female character was absolutely useless, unlike the bartendress and carpenter in sixteen ways

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The Traveller in Black, by John Brunner is a good collection of stories that I don't hear anyone talk about these days.

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The Magic Goes Away, by Larry Niven was some good 70's fantasy, treating magic as a non-renewable resource that can be depleted, as an analogy for the oil crisis.

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Mordant's Need is Stephen R. Donaldson's lesser known fantasy series, set in a world where all mirrors are doors to other worlds.

>>81764191
I haven't trusted parker not to emotionally fuck me since the first series they did, does this one end in misery porn too?

>Ctrl+F 1d
>Zero hits
Pathetic

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Approved_literature

>>81764409
Ah, I wouldn't say it is misery porn.
Mind you my comparison is Carol Berg who just revels in unhappy endings and compounding piss poor decision making
But the siege books don't punch you in the gut. More like a dark bittersweet chocolate.

Most recently I read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and I can't recommend it enough. Obviously Asimovs stuff is great and I've been rereading The Edge Chronicles though I don't have all the books so I need to track them down.

I recently read the Dragon Masters from Jack Vance. It wasn't as Vancy as other of his work, but I thinks its the Most wargamy ones I read. I really love how the two factions got they troops too. And its quite short, about a hundred pgs or so.
A good fun romp.

So any good modern books? Something than actually feels in another world, and not a 21 century american with swords.

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>>81712351
What are some good books with rune magic?

>>81764516
>No Gemmel in fantasy
>No David Drake in either Fantasy or Sci-Fi
Yes. That is a pathetic list.

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>>81712351
Can we talk sci-fi too? Because Ringworld is pretty based.

>>81772651
I need to reread these because all I can remember from reading them as a teenager is sabbatical, bluehairedchick, hindmostfindshisballs, and "DO YOU RISH"

>>81772707
THERE AIN'T NO JUSTICE

Two newer ones I've started and am enjoying so far are the Belisarius Saga by David Drake and Eric Flint, an alt-history series with the Byzantine and Malwa empires being used as catspaws by time travelling AIs, and The Mongoliad, a big name collaborative secret history series edited by Greg Bear and Neal Stephenson, written to raise the bar for swordfighting in fiction.

I've been meaning to read The Commandment Trilogy, by Derek Bickerton, set in 4th century AD Greece. He was a professor of linguistics, more known for his non-fiction scholarly works. When I was a kid I read his only other novel, King of The Sea, and it kind of haunted me, despite all the dolphin fucking.

I read the second part of The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, the trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson, set in the Enlightenment, and enjoyed it enough that I'll have to find the others.

I've been meaning to read Lord Dunsany, since learning he was the inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath.

Is Amber good for /tg/ inspirado? Or the Barsoom series?

>>81775145
I'm almost done with Amber and it's great, good sense of deep character histories and plenty of weird shit.

>>81769070
Red Wolf Black Leopard is great if you can handle the gay sex scenes

The very, very explicit gay sex scenes

And the part where the male MC gets raped by the hyena women with dick long clits.

It's really good though.

>>81775211
Sounds awful desu, so I will pass. I'm fed already with coomers in this board, I will not seek them out in fantasy land.
Pretty sad that's the only novel than has been recomended too.

I'm very engrossed in the Dune series right now, just started Children of Dune, going up to Chapterhouse because fuck Brian Herbert raping his father's corpse.

Any other works, old or new that are very heady and toe the line between scifi and fantasy?

>>81775512
Book of the New Sun, but it swings more into Fantasy aesthetic over Sci-Fi.

>>81769070
How modern do you want, and what makes a setting feel like another world to you? Quite a few books in this thread seem pretty modern to me. To recommend something that hasn't been mentioned yet, I read some N. K. Jemisin some time ago, whatever the trilogy starting with the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is called and the first part of the Dreamblood duology. They were pretty good, felt different enough from our modern world, and should count as modern. The first series is a high fantasy story where relationship drama between various gods and such divine drama's impact on the mortal world is a major focus, while the latter is set in not!Africa, in a city state with spooky religious dream magic that neighboring cultures find creepy as fuck. Or did you mean modern as in set in a world with modern technology? Mentioning swords made me think this wasn't the case and you meant books published relatively recently, sorry if I misunderstood.

>>81775526
I was hoping something that swung more towards scifi

>>81775631
Hyperion Cantos

>>81775512
There's Dragonriders of Pern, that's pretty much an SF series disguised as fantasy.

>>81724425
Never actually read it but everyone on the internet seems to suck the dick of that series, is it actually bad?

>>81775211
even with marlon trying to offend as many people as possible this is a great book.

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>>81775512
This is basically name of the wind in space with a dune influence and quite recent. The Quantum Thief qualifies in a different way with its hard sc-fi being so extreme it's effectively magic.

>>81776042
It's really not worth it. For how long they are, very little happens, and very little of it is actually good. Feels like a children's book where the protag is super special and the best at everything he tries to do. And also he's a proud cuck.

>>81776042
eh the first book is ok for what it is, the second is a big waste of time and showed patrick up for the giant fraud he is.

>>81776046
Yeah sure fruity creampie

>>81712579
Appendix N.
If you don't know what that is you're a filthy casual and need to leave the hobby.

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The Mystical Journey: The Book of Elandor, by K.J. Siirila

In another life, K.J. Siirlia was the wielder of a great magic staff, with which she laid waste to many mighty warriors, leaving them rended and ruptured.

>>81735596
It's book by book. If you want a good stand alone example of what Discworld can be to see if you like it start with Small Gods.
>In a hundred years we'll all be dead
>Yes. But here and now we are ALIVE!

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>>81712351
"Sword of Rhiannon" - Leigh Brackett

>>81760473
Although Moorcock himself often is a preachy asshole, I do, by and large, enjoy a lot of his books. Particularly the earlier ones.

Hammers Slammers is pretty good stuff for Mil-Sci-Fi.
As is 'The Last Fleet' series; which goes into some fantastic detail on how to play a compelling commander/leader type character.

>>81712405
Didn't particulary care for it. As someone mentioned, it's Jack vance with unreliable narrator.
I felt it was overdone and came across as the authour being a try-hard.
I gave up reading after about 100-150 pages.

Joe Abrecrombie.

Y/N?

>>81776042
It's cool if you like watching train wrecks. In the second book, the protagonist has sex for the first time (after, like another anon said, proudly being a literal cuckold), and he's so good at it that it convinces a murderous sex goddess (actual goddess) to not murder him so she can have sex with him again later - and when he learns to use magic for the first time, he's able to use it to defeat this (once again, literal) goddess. That's the level of Mary Sue you're working with.

Braindead shills will defend this by saying that the MC is an unreliable storyteller, but one extra degree of separation from a shit story does not make it any less shit.

>>81776285
>Braindead shills will defend this by saying that the MC is an unreliable storyteller
yeah. the problem is it's already explicitly supposed to be kovthe delivering the straight dope vs the legends surrounding him, like his account is already a notch down from what's been banded about. that there's another level to descend is a bit of a stretch in terms of intent and like you're saying even if it was, this isn't redeeming anything.

>>81746339
Only the Dying Earth short stories.
Eyes of the Overworld and Rhialto the Marvellous were shit.

>>81776245
i'm a big fan but in this case I need to give a lot of credit to the guy who does the audiobooks. Abercrombie does dialogue I like to begin with, and outside of Pratchett these are the only fantasy books to ever make me laugh, but Steven Pacey takes it to another level.

Like some other anon said his weaknesses are barely there world building and basic plotting but with characters like these and how he can deliver an action sequence I could give a shit. In this case a medieval conferderacy with not-arabia to the south, barbarians to the north and not-italian city states over the sea, it does the job.

Interestingly in his newest trilogy he's jettisoned the magical and higher fantasy elements almost completely outwith a soothsayer character and a few other things, with Bayaz almost completely off the page.

>>81770495
>Things aren't on the list
>He doesn't add them himself
Let me guess - that's because you can't justify their presence nor write it in less than 3 simple sentences, isn't it?

>>81776400
OK.
Thanks.

>>81765316
The Edge Chronicles are great, are the new ones any good?

any recs for organised crime/space cartels whatever in a scifi setting?

>>81776245
Yes, in moderate amounts.

>>81776042
Over hyped books, the first one showed some promise as it had some decent prose and it seemed you had to read carefully to see the subtle stuff, wich was literally squashed out after the second book. And the authors knowing he juggled too many stuff and couldn't really fulfill it, has been for what, ten years or so without delivering the third one.
That without counting how shit the majority of the characters are or ridiculus stuff than hapens, specially in the second book, than read like a literal naruto fanfic.

>>81712469
Okay, what the ever-fucking FUCK is up with Infinite Jest?

I have this ex-friend who's become some sort of psychotic social climber who for a while wouldn't stop with a canned line that he was reading Infinite Jest, and he was never able to satisfactorily explain to me what it was about or why it was good, just some vague impressionistic crap. I think he was only obsessed with it because he got it into his head that it was liked by "high-status" people.

It was fucking spooky.

>>81760473
I just think the "weakly protagonist who needs drugs and magic to be powerful" didn't catch on compared to more savage and manly types.

>>81778763
Because deconstructed character are a lot less powerful than main archetypes.

>>81713618
He carries a revolver because wizardry fucks up technology..... but your average semi auto pistol is WAY less complicated than a revolver.

>HURR revolvers don't jam, lololol
Maybe not, but if the timing is off, say because of some present tense wizardings, you'll break the gun and/or lose a hand. And reloading it is a hassle, even if you have moon clips. If your semi auto is jamming consistently enough to be an issue try cleaning it from time to time and don't limp wrist it like some kind of commie faggot. Also, maybe buy a model from a company not based in fucking Brazil. Even the shitty Hi-Point in my collection has only jammed once or twice in all the years I've been plinking with it.

>>81776481
No, because I'm not the kind of autist that writes in wikis. I'm not that retarded.

>>81753582
its also my favorite series, just recently started to reread it, currently on House of Chains. Ive really been enjoying it on reread, theres so many smaller hints, foreshadowing and tidbits of other things going on that I missed on the first run. And the Chain of Dogs broke my heart just as bad the second time as the first
If Mallick Rel doesnt get some karmic justice in the Karsa trilogy being made im gonna die angry

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>>81779891
But you are even more autistic, since you bitch about shit that you ultimately don't care about

What does TG think of Gamelit? Which is apparently writing stats and outright admitting to using RPG-esque mechanics in a novel that is inherently based or inspired on RPGs as a setting. And not always directly, where the character is aware that the world operates on game mechanics and rules, but the inclusion of stats is still tied to the narrative and the description of action and progression of plot.

>>81782130
Hate it, it destroys my immersion. The only one than I can think than did something similar and I liked is Grimgar or the neet isekai og.

>>81782130
cancer

Has anyone got any recommendations for good egypt-themed fantasy? I'm planning a campaign in a deserts and pyramids setting and inspiration would be good.

>>81783968
the dreamblood duology by nk jemisen

the first book is about an occult serial killer stalking the royal city while a bunch of politicking goes on between notEgypt and notKush. a couple of priests of the goddess of dreams (the patron goddess of notEgypt) are sent to find the killer.

>>81783968
not fantasy really but wilbur smith has a series of door stoppers.

>>81784165
Dreamblood's definitely African-themed but I don't know if there's anything specifically Egyptian about it. It's worth a read either way, though.

>>81780789
man I really wanna reread specifically so I can pick up on those tidbits. But it's also a huge undertaking

Have you read any of ICE's books?

>>81784329
Jemisin has been explicit in saying its based on ancient Egyptian culture, with the neighbouring empire (where the diplomat character is from) is based on Ancient Abyssinia/Kush/Nubia

Anyone able to recommend books with a decent amount of focus on guilds that are depicted realistically, or at least close enough to seem so for someone who hasn't deeply studied the subject?

>>81785986
all of them, my first read through was Eriskon's main 10, then ICE's 6, followed by ICE's Prequel Trilogy, in that order. He isnt quite as competent a writer as Erikson, and definitely has a different style, but his books cover a pretty interesting number of plotlines that dont get explored as much in the main 10, and he definitely improves over the course of the series.

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>>81712351
I like just about everything Jay Kristoff has made. This one came out recently and it's about everything you'd want from a vampire hunter story. I will say i liked his Nevernight trilogy more. The dude is great at making edgy shit enjoyable without hitting the cringe pedal too hard. also a cool guy in real life.

>>81723157
I own this and really question how his stuff is so readable at almost a century old, especially when i compare to some other authors like lovecraft at the time who are way less readable.

>>81776042
I liked both of them. They're slow, but i enjoyed his writing. shame about that third book never fucking coming though.

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>>81753582
>>81780789
I finished reading Deadhouse Gates for the first time a while back, holy fug I wasn't prepared for the feels at the end.
Plot spoilers:
Best Fist Coltaine did the impossible, led 30k refugees across the desert to safety. The savage barbarian warlord, despised for his past as an enemy of the Malazans, gruff and misunderstood...but proved his honor and fulfilled his duty to get his new-found people to safety. He leads the final stand to buy the refugees enough time to get behind Aren's walls. The 7th Army and Malazan soldiers gladly follow him to their deaths upon the mounds. Corporal List's final message to Duiker, "I've found my war." Duiker forced to watch helplessly as the people he has shared so much with are overran and killed, betrayed by Pormqual's refusal to rescue them. Remembering someone telling the legend of the Wickan warlock whose soul was so powerful it took a dozen crows to carry his soul to the next life, and when Coltaine is crucified/killed, thousands of crows arrive to carry his soul away. The Malazan nobles trashing Coltaine's name and undermining everything the Chain of Dogs did to keep their refugees alive...only for the historian who lived it all and saw it firsthand to die a tortured death on account of a coward and fool, the truth of the entire journey dying with him.
I wasn't expecting a happy ending, but damn that was an absolutely tragic ending, and I loved it. I was way more invested in the Chain of Dogs arc than the others, I honestly didn't even care much about the other three main arcs (Felisan/Heboric, Kalam, Icarium/Mappo/Fiddler and company). I'm assuming Coltaine's reincarnation and Duiker's soul-in-a-jar will come into play in later books. Time to buy Memories of Ice...

>>81788639
Because at those times every writer had to be, to a degree, a literati. if you didn't pepper your work with flowery prose and references to classic all over, you were looked down be other writers. That only will start to change with Hemingway too, but Howard was too sanguine for that. He wanted the guts, the feel, the action.
If you read Howard or CAS, you will see what I mean. CAS has a lot of fun writing, searching the obscure word for this or that than gives the adequate form while resalting his own culture, Howard didn't care.

>>81790673
Clark Ashton Smith literally read the dictionary cover to cover.
I only know of two other people who did that, me and one of my old friends from work.

>>81712614

>2016 was a bitch

huh

>>81788025
The last of his books I've read is Return of the Crimson Guard, and I do plan on continuing with his others eventually. It was a bit hard to follow all of its plotlines (even by Malazan standards), but I did enjoy it overall.

>>81789330
Man.
One of the most powerful parts of any book I've ever read.

>>81791913
the Return of the Crimson Guard is a little messy just due to the number of plot threads he tries to wrangle, his books do improve after that, and honestly if youve read all the main 10, the last 3 of his, Orb Scepter Throne, Blood and Bone, and Assail, give some nice added closure to some plotlines left open form the main books. The end of Assail in particular is pretty great.

>>81789330
Memories of Ice is well worth the read, although as a gentle heads up you wont be continuing the Chain of Dogs related arcs in that one, as the focus is back to the events on Genabackis

Reading this thread reminded me how much out of the loop I am and why I always struggle when playing with EFLs - we just have completely different reference base, rather than any sort of language barrier.

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>>81789330
Coltaine is THE MAN.

>>81792269
What's an EFL?
I Googled it and all I found was Electronic Football League.

>>81793743
English First Language. You normally just say native speaker.

>>81788622
Yea just finished this, echoes of between two fires. His other stuff is as good?

>>81775211
>fuck the gods tracker

>>81740735
>The Earthsea Cycle, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Seconding this. The first three Earthsea novels are some of my most cherished books, but book 4 was written after the author became a RadFem; every male character suddenly becomes incompetent or evil. Yuck!

>>81795582
Yeah, they're great books. Tombs of Atuan is probably my favorite. There's just something absolutely brilliant about the way the atmosphere of the Tombs is built and described. Very few books, fantasy or otherwise, have been as good at getting me to feel and visualize the milieu plot is happening in.

>>81769086
The Runelords by David Farland

>>81793743
>>81793887
English First Language
As opposed to English Only Language, or EOL. Also known as "native speaker". Know the fucking difference, because it's huge and nasty.

>>81795582
how do you guys deal with this.some great books i like such as Wild seed written by big badass black bitch octavia butler, i mean i still like the book but cant always not see all the liberal politics they insert into their stories.

did read left hand of darkness by leguinn. it was alright

>>81796732
if the story is well written and interesting and happens to contain someones political agenda, whatever it may be, then ill give it a chance

but if its clearly just a hackneyed vehicle for preaching a narrative its a hard pass.

Same way ill watch movies or listen to music where i may not agree with the viewpoints of the creator, as long as the product itself is good enough. People these days often seem to have lost the ability to separate art from artist

>>81796815
>if the story is well written and interesting
ok
>and happens to contain someones political agenda
why?

As in - what's the point of reading someone's soap-box? Especially if it seems to be a goal by itself, rather than agreeing with any particular soap-box.

>>81796732
With the years I just lost the patience, if I sniff any preachiness, I just put it apart. Wich excludes lots of new USA novels.
At least it made me explore LN and chinese novels and discovered some gems.

>>81796884
i suppsoe everyones tolerance level for it is different, for me its a matter of subtelty and/or how well it fits with what else is going on in the narrative.

As an example, in Book 5 of Malazan, the nation of Letheras is a pretty clear critique of western capitalism, which ive heard a hundred times, but it serves a worldbuilding purpose, as well as a actual part of the narrative without feeling forced in the slightest, so im not going to discard the book just because of the author exploring that idea.

>>81796732
Most of the stuff I come across feels tacked on out of fear of some kind of denouncement or publisher interference. It's really a quite shit state of affairs.

>>81796964
Oh, so you mean it that way. I was thinking the opposite - that you are actively fishing out for soap-boxes for the purpose of soap-box by itself.
Makes sense now. Not that I'd do that myself, but I get the point. Then again, I barely read fiction anymore for quite a while, so there is also that (no, it's not a choice, it's just my job that requires from me to do a fuckload of technical reading and that eats time for reading simply for fun)

>>81796732
By not being American and not giving a single flying fuck about American Culture War. Oh no, the book has [Allegation of Some Political Views], the horror! Then the actual content turns to be comic-book tier.
Grow some fucking skin.

>>81796884
The story being well-written and interesting is the point. Best books are written by people who have genuine passion for what they're writing, and genuine passion often involves author's philosophical, moral and political views. We wouldn't have very many great novels if writers were afraid of putting their thoughts and feelings on paper. Half-assed pandering is a problem, passionate proselytizing is not. Heavy-handed preaching is also a problem but mostly just because it's poor writing, something that usually disrupts the flow of the story.

>>81797194
you think the culture war is only hapening in usa, imbecile

>>81797194
Not that relevant if all media is politically infused to some degree whatever your personal ambivalence. It's rarely anything but to a work's dettriment.

>>81797653
... it only does, Yank
You would know, if you weren't so busy fighting in it.

>>81798071
Must be tough being Amerimutt and retarded

>>81797229
>You can't have good book, unless you turn it into a board to preach your believes
That's literally the exact reverse of how you make a good book, you moron. And it's ALWAYS heavy-handed, because that's why it was done in the first place - someone cared more about their politics than they cared about making their book good.

>>81798346
I didn't say you have to preach your beliefs, anon. I said preaching your beliefs is fine and passion is the key. And no, it's not always heavy-handed, and no, including politics in a book doesn't automatically mean that preaching is prioritized over writing a good book. War and Peace is largely about Tolstoy's half-bullshit views about history, but Tolstoy blatantly and often explicitly trying to push his views on the reader doesn't make it any less of a great novel. Nineteen Eighty-Four is both an interesting story and political as fuck. Good books are made from skilled writers writing about something they give a shit about, and things people give a shit about often involve politics in some form or another. If you think politics in books is always heavy-handed, it's because you personally only notice and recognize the most heavy-handed of messages.

>>81798721
Nigga, you might be genuinely retarded. Because it takes to be brain-damaged to confuse "book is about something and has theme(s)" with "book is a mouthpiece for the writer".

>>81799211
It also takes something other than a normally functioning brain to to jump from a work containing "some political agenda", which is what was being talked about, to a work being nothing but a mouthpiece of the writer. Why the fuck did you even bother responding to my post if you insist on talking about something completely different?

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>>81712351

Love me some Mark Lawrence.

>>81800169
Read prince of thorns, never got anything more than a meh out of it, the edgy mc or the world didn't stirr, and only ended the series because completionism, does he improve with the next series?

>>81800365

Yeah leans a lot more into light hearted comedy to counter the overload of edge within the thorns trilogy.

Protag is vastly more enjoyable, trilogy is more like a buddy cop series between a Viking Warrior and Noble Rake with a hint of edge every now and then.

>>81800691
Hows the worldbuilding? Because it seemed PoT would deliver a good post apocalipsis world but it ended pretty meh and too cartoony medieval.

>>81800365
Prince of Thorns is one of the worst written works I've ever read. I hate it so much. It came in with an interesting hook and fucked everything up with his maximum edge.
I would never knowingly start another book of his if that's his level of writing.

>>81712351
I just read his Between Two Fires and it was fucking incredible. Maximum dark age kino

>>81800762
Yeah, was pretty bad. Tough the worse /tg/ book I was recomended was the black company. Blatant self insert croaker, dumb not aragon with edgy name raven, the Villians where dumb as fuck but op, the world was bland (with the only interesting part being the desert), The Lady with the self insert was cringe and the company itself made little sense, they didn't behave like profesional medieval merc, nor where they heroes or did anything that interesting and was bored to death at the third book end. I think I started the fourth and never touched them again about fifteen years ago so the memory is a bit fuzzy.

>>81800725

Very similar Medieval tone, it does expand a little on tech and stuff. But around the same as Thorns.

>>81796732
This, it's like the recent Joe Abercrombie trilogy. I like his writing, but I noticed a pattern:
> The male characters get badly mangled
> They're ineffectual, or evil assholes
> The women get off with little more than scratches
> Also women are generally 'better' at most stuff than men
I mean, this IS a grimdark setting. Is it too much to ask for women to just end up as messed up as the guys? The main male character ends up losing two limbs, and yet he's still depicted as more evil than his endlessly scheming wife.

>>81798721
One author got kicked because he made an anti-abortion joke:
> https://nickcolebooks.com/the-ctrl-alt-revolt-controversy/
The context is that an evil AI is pondering when to take action. When it realizes that humans are willing to destroy their own young to further their goals, it thinks "I need to get them before they get me."

>>81797194
You think communists can't unperson you? It can happen anywhere. Free speech is dead.

>>81783968
Adrian Tchaikovsky did a series where one of the books is set in not-egypt, like all his stuff it's pretty cool, especially as the notegyptian pov guy is a fuckin wereraptor/werecrocodile

>>81712405
I didn't get into it at all. Bored as shit and only kept going because of the hype. Not sure why everybody fellatiates it so much.

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>>81775145
Check out The Book of Wonder. It's a book of fantasy-world short stories, mostly with a dark twist. I wasn't feeling the vibe of The Gods of Pegana, and quickly gave up on that. The King of Elfland's daughter had a cool setup, but seemed like it ultimately didn't know what to do with itself and just bumbled around until it was time to end things. It felt like a short story padded to novella length, so maybe Dunsany's just better at the former? The Last Book of Wonder / Tales of Wonder had some good stories in it, but had a lot that I felt were unremarkable, and overall fell well short of The Book of Wonder. I'm not far enough into The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories to give an opinion on that. And... I think maybe I've read one other book by Dunsany, but I can't think of it now, so maybe not?

But definitely check out The Book of Wonder. I think it's quite good.

>>81723157
I'm a bit ambivalent about the Conan stories. While I don't think Howard is a master wordsmith, he has a knack for making things colorful and evocative. And the situations and settings are often pretty interesting. In true pulp fashion, however, the characters tend to feel rather flat, and there's little human warmth to the stories, and little exploration of human emotion, psychology, etc. (other than the obvious surface stuff). I also find Conan, the character, to be pretty uncompelling. So there's a lot I like about the stories, but none of them have blown me away due to what they lack. Your mileage may vary.

>>81760473
Most of the stories in the main saga are good, and some of the early additional novels, but after a while, I feel like Moorcock lost touch with what made Elric good (or just got tired of it) and changed his approach for the worse. I'm not sure how Elric plays to modern readers though. It might read as unnecessarily angsty and edgy to those who have already had to put up with too much of that shit, when it preceded the wave. Also, some of what it does has been subsumed into the zeitgeist of fantasy, and so may not have the sparkle it once did. (Back in the day, my friend, who has never been much of a reader, made fun of the Lord of the Rings movies for being incredibly hackneyed and cliched, and I had to point out to him that most of that shit came *from* LotR in the first place. And Elric may have a similar feel to some folks, though to a lesser extent than Tolkien, which has infected everything.)

>>81796732
I was honestly underwhelmed by The Left Hand of Darkness. I think part of what gave it its power was how out there the gender-changing thing was to people, and I'm like: "okay... and...?" Don't get me wrong; I don't think it was bad--just not worth the hype.

>>81795582
I'm a liberal and never made it too far into book 4, because of the navel gazing. Not sure how I would've felt about the message of the book if I'd continued to read, but I feel like Le Guin's previous contributions to fantasy and scifi were enough to give her a pass if her later stuff was less than stellar... sort of like a band that was great for a decade or more, and released groundbreaking material, but is now past their prime and just kind of coasts along, occasionally releasing mediocre work.

>>81795582
its a great shame i knew something was wrong once book 4 hit
also any one read the Doppel Ganger Chronicals?

>>81802328
I agree with most of that, but I think the fact that they're short stories rather than full-length novels helps a lot. In a longer story I'd start to miss stronger characters and better written character interactions, but in a short story the energy of Howard's writing is enough to keep me thoroughly entertained.

>>81802328
I don't think Howard ever wanted to be called a wrodksmith, even some of his best friend were masters at purple prose and find the adequate(and obscure) word to make the work more foreign/evocative , what Howard seemed to want was to release gutural parts of his works. And I don't know, first time I seen called the epitome of Grit as Conan as uncompelling, he sold me when the not-Cossacks left him to die strapped to a tree and he fucking bites and drink the blood of a vulture than was starting to peak at him. Conan was often out-smarted, out-muscled and in definitive out classed, but never gave up until got what he wanted (then he could just packs things and leave).

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>>81802450
Whatever could you mean?

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>>81801412
>American going full American

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>>81801412
You think the right, the American right, never un-personed anyone?
You think you ever had free speech?
Study your own history, you're repeating it.

>>81809971
mccarthy was right

>>81779801
It's pointed out to him more than once in the series that modern pistols are way more reliable that revolvers. His response was "indiana jones". The real reason he uses a revolver is because his asthetic is 50% dick tracy 50% john wayne

>>81713618
It's a good series, but Jim Butcher's habit of creating artificial drama by having characters who are close to each other not share crucial information is extremely annoying.

>>81809971
McCarthy was literally correct and everyone he challenged and went after was shown to be a Russian agent or Communist once the Soviet archives were opened. Also note that he wasn't involved in the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities because he was a Senator. He didn't stop them from speaking, he went after them because they were actively working against the nation's interests to further that of a foreign power, like the Cambridge Ring in the UK.

>>81779891
>No, because I'm not the kind of autist that writes in wikis. I'm not that retarded.
I take offence to that as someone who edited wikipedia back when it was new.

>>81806255
Nobody wants to be a wrodksmith, anon.

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You know how people here like non-traditional fantasy like The Black Company, Joe Abercrombie's The First Law or the Malazan series.
Well imagine a comic which matched those in every way but also had to have better writing and imagination because a webcomic must constantly be keeping people interested and can't skimp on detail because it's text on a page.

That's Unsounded, a which manages to combined horrible violence, humor, cool fantasy and well thought-out characters into a long and consistently updated story.

>>81818231
Ditto for Unsounded

surprised to hear support for jim butcher. i read one of his books and it was a cringe overload. also, main character is such a pathetic obvious self insert

>>81820976
Was the TV show any good? I thought Laurel's dad from Arrow was a terrible choice for the lead, he's supposed to be this huge thug in a tiny apartment and a tiny car, not a slim, svelte, stubbly man.

>>81818231
Unsounded is dope

>>81820976
Never got the Jim Butcher also, I think the first ones wasn't bad, but the rest were more of the same with very idiotic choices for world building (fomorians...).
And also read the Alera ones, more of the same, the idea of the elemntal magic, could be fun, the execution, again sub par.

For my mental health, can anyone tell me what they liked about the Black Company? I really never found it to be "good", but as so many anon like it, perhaps I missed the point.

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>>81818231
Dropped

>>81821350
I like most of the characters. The writing style grew on me, it seemed somehow off at first but I ended up really liking it. I liked the sort of low-level perspective on all the crazy bullshit going on the earlier books had, with the company being a relatively mundane group of men caught up in the struggles of nearly godlike sorcerers. I think they're overall solid books in terms of style and storytelling, I think they do the whole morally grey protagonists thing better than most books who try that, and I think the contrast between the company's relatively low and mundane level of power and all the high-powered magical bullshit going on around them works well to create something that feels pretty fresh.

>>81812763
>everyone he challenged and went after was shown to be a Russian agent or Communist once the Soviet archives were opened
... not a single of the people he personally pointed matched