/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy GeneralI woke up after 6 hours of sleep and saw the thread unmade so I post more Dragons Edition>Recommended reading charts (Look here before asking for vague recs)https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/guIyhAzS>Archivehttps://warosu.org/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg>Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffgPrevious:>>22062118
>>22073362Read valdemar
>>22073362Looks like a female dragon.
I can't read western shit anymore. I could get past the first few chapters of Scorio's sequel because it was just a man getting talked down to by a gaggle of women.I find it easier to empathize with literal genocidal bugmen than modern western protagonists.
>love interest is complicit in two attempts on the protagonist's life and attempts to rob him>they walk off into the sunset togetherwhat the fuck Vance
>>22073362Baker is kang
>>22073362Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh mmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.....................................
>>22073436Both men and women find the people of opposite sex capable of killing them hot
>>22073418you only care for what you read and not how it is written. you are a bugman in spirit
>>22073589Character and story is all that matters. Housekeeping has incredible prose but no story or character.
shallan suddenly bossing everyone around and making bandits and soldiers and slavers into her servants just by acting like jasnah isn't believable at all
>>22073694Sexist chud. Why are you so intimidated?
>>22073694Women be nagging. Happy wife happy life.
You want to know the reason why fantasy evolved differently in Japan compared to the western world? Simple. Japan's western fantasy movement was most popularized by table top games. Around that time in the late 70s and the 80s, Japan experienced a science fiction zeitgeist that motivated many writers and mangaka take inspiration directly from fairy tales, and myth of the ancient past instead of early 20th centuries novels. However only western scifi novels were massive in Japan, not fantasy novels. In fact Lord of Ring was underselling in Japan until the movie came out.They were pretty much more influenced by classical myths and the old DND artists like Frank Frazetta but with a stylized flair, instead of the usual Lotr templates that we have.
>>22073737And that's why Berserk sucks dick.
>>22073418Try I am the Fated Villain
/SFFG/ Recommendations:Read Reverend Insanity, Lord of The Mysteries, Neuromancer, Hyperion, The Prince of NothingAlso read The Wandering Inn, Between Two Fires, Mother of Learning, Cradle, I Shall Seal the Heavens, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Poppy War.
/SFFG/ Recommendations: LITRPG EditionRead Azarinth Healer, Primal Hunter, He Who Fight with Monsters, Dungeon Crawler CarlAlso read System Universe, Dissonance, Defiance of the Fall, Iron Prince.
Ohhhhhhhh myyyyyyyy
>>22074009Make /litrpg/
>/sffg/ hate women writers>book written by woman releases with half naked woman covering her booba>/sffg/ want to read it
>>22074009other anon shit on dissonance and claimed iron prince wasn't actually a litrpgwhat do you say to this?
>>22074032Oh my...
>>22074140It's a good book. Even sex-repulsed autists like it.
>>22074209I just find it funny that every time a woman is mentioned /sffg/ become mind broken but as soon as a book has a cover with a half naked woman written by a woman it is fine.
>>22074247what is funny about that? please explain the irony
>another episode of "/sffg/ is one person"
>>22074254You don't find it funny that at any other time /sffg/ will be like>written by a woman? dropped>reading female authours>female protagonist. I will not read your bookBooba book cover gets released>based>it's a good book>can't wait to read this
>>22074271consider the POSSIBILITY that you may be overgeneralizing. or don't, but it's not a great look. you're putting poor thought process or hang-ups on display. it is the funny 4chan thing to do though.
Lovecraft's first poem, written at the age of seven >"The Poem of Ulysses, or The Odyssey" (1897)The nighte was darke! O readers, Hark!And see Ulysses’ fleet!From trumpets sound back homeward boundHe hopes his spouse to greet.Long he hath fought, put Troy to naughtAnd leveled down it’s walls.But Neptune’s wrath obstructs his pathAnd into snares he falls.After a storme that did much harmeHe comes upon an isleWhere men do roam, forgetting home,And lotos doth beguile.From these mean snares his men he tearsAnd puts them on the ships.No leave he grants, and lotos plantsMust no more touch their lips.And now he comes to Cyclops homesFoul giants all are they.Each hath 1 eye, and hard they plyGreat Vulcan to obey.A cyclop’s cave the wandrers braveAnd find much milk & cheeseBut as they eat, foul death they meetFor them doth Cyclops seize.Each livelong day the Cyclops preyIs two most noble GreeksUlysses brave he plans to saveAnd quick escape he seeks.By crafty ruse he can confuseThe stupid giant’s mindPuts out his eye with dreadful cryAnd leaves the wrench behind.Now next he finds the king of windsGreat Aeolus’s homeThe windy king to him doth bringWind bags to help him roam.He now remains in fair domainsIn Circes palace grand.His men do change in fashion strangeTo beasts at her command.But Mercury did set him freeFrom witcheries like thisUnhappy he his men to seeEngaged in swinish bliss.He drew his sword and spake harsh wordTo Circe standing there“My men set free”, in wrath quoth he“Thy damage quick repair”!!!Then all the herd at her brief wordBecome like men once moreHer magic beat, she gives all treatWithin her palace door.And now Ulysses starts in blissThe Syrens for to passNo sound his crew’s sharp ears imbuesFor they are stop-ped fast.Now Scylla’s necks menace his decksCharybdis threats his shipsSix men are lost—O! dreadful costBut he through danger slips.At last from waves no ship he savesBut on Calypsos isleHe drifts ashore and more & moreHe tarries for a while.At Jove’s command he’s sent to landTo seek his patient wife,But his raft breaks, and now he takesHis life from Neptune’s strife.He quickly lands on Scheria’s strandsAnd goes unto the king.He tells his tale, all hold wassail;An ancient bard doth sing.Now does he roam unto his homeWhere suitors woo his spouseIn beggar’s rags himself he dragsUnknown into his houseHis arrows flew at that vile crewWho sought to win his brideNow all are killed and he is filledWith great & happy pride.His swineherd first, then his old nurseDo recognize him wellThen does he see PenelopeWith whom in peace he’ll dwell.Until black death doth stop his breathAnd take him from the earth;He’ll ne’er roam far from Ithaca,The island of his birth—
>>22073233How? It's quite literally only telling you the main themes of the story you're about to read, or at least that's supposed to be the intention with such titles.
>>22074271>>22074247>>22074140>shitposter tries to ruin thread by provoking flamewar>nobody takes the bait>he desperately tries to explain himself
>>22074271Current books with Booba covers are basically all trash because the market has changed. It wasn't like that back when that book got published. They'd just slap a sexy lady on any old book to move copies.
>>22073737>>22073743NoIt's because Nips are plagiaristic hacks
>>22074403berserk way better than that trash, shut the fuck up boomer
>>22074413Berserk is fucking trash. Fuck off with your cuckold hero the BLACKED Swordsman.
>>22074403>>22074413>>22074419
>>22074422you are supposed to stop reading shortly after the apocalypse. the end of part 1.
>>22074307"Blood" and "fire" aren't themes, they just set a vague expectation for tone while sounding grandiose.
>>22074446this. berserk ended with conviction just like hxh ended with election
>>22074546EXACTLY, i almost used that as an example as well
>>22074577
>>22074413Berserk is plagiaristic trash
>>22074591What is intertextuality?What is homage?What is artistic license?
>>22074605CopeBerserk is plagiarismIt's literally just Elric+Corum+ARmy of darknessthe bad guys are literally just the hellraiser villainsplagiarism 100%
>NOOOOOO YOU CAN'T BE INFLUENCED BY STUFF YOU LIKE NOOOOOOObasedjack.jpg
anyone else write a fantasy/sci-fi novel and need a cheap editor? i'm free in ten days, but you can get in my queue
>>22074619Stop defending plagiarism
>>22074623>cheap>by which I mean you get what you pay for, I'm only a proofreader
Lol. Lmao, even.
>>22074672OH NO NO NO
Is there an author like sanderson but good
>>22074709Tolkien
>>22074009Dungeon cat carl, unbound, and iron prince is shit.Fights with monster started to drag shit out for the money, and defiance followed suit.
>>22074672https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasseography
>>22073370Valdemar reminds me a lot of Harry Potter combined with the Deed of Paksenarrion, except not shit like either of thoseThere's also something disconcertingly "feminine" about it that's very offputting. Like yeah I know the author's a woman, but the prose and attitude feels like it's something that can only really be appreciated by women or homosexual men. I didn't get that feeling when I read C. Dale Brittain, Lois McMaster Bujold, or Tanith Lee - or for that matter, J.K. Rowling.
>>22073418You're making the mistake of thinking RI is a representative of eastern fiction, it's not. RI was banned by its own country, it ruined eastern fiction for me as well by opening my eyes to the fact that the vast majority of literature is written by NPCs for NPCs about NPCs through an NPC perspective, and that's why they're so fucking boring and samey. It's like a brief flash of light that exposed the reality that we live in an intellectually dead civilization.
>>22074635actually i do dialogue punch ups for free
>>22074729Why is Will Wight's fantasy interpretation of tasseography far more similar to Yoshihiro Togashi's water divination than it is anything in that wikipedia article?
>>22074709elaborate
>>22074763thats a weird name, never heard of him
jsut watched the witcher season 2 and i wanna check out the books. don't want to tread the same ground again. is it book 3 i should be starting at?
>>22074672He also ripped off the "MC finds out he's the only unsouled" plot from BNHA. Just copy Shounen Jump and turn all the mentor figures into women to become a NYT best selling fantasy author.
>>22074788>and turn all the mentor figures into womenThis doesn't apply to Cradle.
>BHA invented "MC doesn't start with powers everyone else has"go back to your containment general
>>22074712he hasn't put out a new book in years, but is slacking off hard
>>22073875not the guy you're replying to.But i am on ch275 of this.. Kinda forgot about it till I saw your post, I liked the beginning more than where im currently at in the novel. But it has probably been a few months since I was reading last, actually stopped midway through that chapter.Also read much of reverend insanity(ch742), but likewise feel it has become somewhat less interesting to me.
>>22074788ignorant weeb
>>22074804It is by far the most popular example in recent times, and the author already copied one author from the same medium. Furthermore, he didn't just take MC being powerless, he also took MC's powerlessness being freakishly rare and a source of social ostracism, which is much less common.
>>22074831Butthurt redditor.
>>22074832Saga Frontier 2
>>22074837explain why i'd butthurt that you're clueless and wrong about this? i just took the time to spit on you via post. go about your business little boy
>>22074839>less popular>less recent>not part of the medium the author has already copied
>>22074842You're making garbage posts that contain no argument, clearly indicating butthurt.
>>22074857ah, well. i don't need an argument. but if you want to argue that MHA invented the trope then have at it
>>22073362FUCK he is good.
>>22074871Trying to speak while in contradiction having no intention to discuss is hysteria, AKA butthurt.
>>22074802Cradle copied Jump too?
>>22074742This. After RI, free and uncensored western authors don't feel so free anymore.
Book of dust vol 3 when
anyone else skip these gay interludes between parts in stormlight archiveI dont want to read about some literally who side-side-side-side character's unrelated misfortunes in the middle of things getting interesting in the main story
>>22075017No. If I'm going to read something I read it all.
>>22074897you still crying? you were wrong, it happens. you don't have to stay ignorant either. don't worry about it
>>22074880Insufferable commie.
blood and bone by ian c. esslemontvivid jungle setting. so good
>>22074933would you recommend this chinese?? webnovel, then? what's it about?
>>22075056>still salty an hour laterlol
>>22075075Guy tries to beat old age an a mythological setting with zero regard for morals whatsoever.
>>22074788>Protag is said to be weak and starts from a low pointThat's practically fucking ubiquitous in a lot of shonen, which Cradle is clearly aping.
>>22074672>Thing emulating shonen manga/anime is like shonen manga/anime
>>22074782I mean this with every fibre in my being.Kill. Yourself. Now.
>>22075103>ignorant weebthe words that scarred him
>>22074880I hate smug faggot libtards so much
>>22075111sounds interesting. a lack of morals isn't exactly new theme though, in western lit or otherwise. i've read some insane shit.
>>22075065Esslemont worked as an archaeologist in Thailand jungles and Central American rainforests. He brought authentic knowledge to the creation of the setting in Blood and Bone, and with all of his novels. Esslemont's books are underrated, even by Malazan fans. The guy co-created the world and isn't merely the authors friend tagging along.
>>22075190Esslemont suffers from the fact that he isn't half as good of a writer as Erikson.
>>22075115Aptitude tests are ubiquitous, that specific type of aptitude test is not. Weak to strong is ubiquitous, that specific introduction into weak to strong is not. Damage control as much as you want, people will still make fun of it.The saddest thing is that even though he copied someone else's homework he still failed the assignment. Togashi's water divination is better, Deku finding out he had no powers was better. At worst it's plagiarism, at best it's retroactively obsolete.
>>22075197Well Erikson is one of the most talented literary level writers the genre has seen in half a century who is in a class of his own so it's hard to live up to him. Some Malazan fans expect Esslemont to be a living clone of Erikson. Esslemont has his strengths like horror elements, settings, and setpieces. I look at ICE as a quality modern fantasy author who refreshingly doesn't write slop.
What are some books like picrel? Preferably in first person.
I'm 63 chapters deep into The Name of the Wind and it feels like nothing of significance has happened since Kvothe joined the Arcanum. Pls tell me I'm close to the book getting interesting again bros
>>22075189Fang Yuan is entertaining but the main focus of the story is the world itself, with him mostly serving as a vehicle to experience it. The perspective also periodically shifts to add to this.
>>22075287>Well Erikson is one of the most talented literary level writers the genre has seen in half a century who is in a class of his own so it's hard to live up to himAHAHAHAHA>“Children are dying." Lull nodded. "That's a succinct summary of humankind, I'd say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words.”Malazanfags think this shit is deep and literary and profoundErikson is a hack
>>22074591>>22074628LEL, light novels are just weebslop.
>>22075341it doesn't and it never gets finisheddrop it
any favourite P. K. Dick stories? I really love "The Electric Ant"
>>22075341Its a slice of life story, whatd you expect
>>22074739>There's also something disconcertingly "feminine" about it that's very offputting.Her characters are very emotional and they cry a lot. Lackey's writing is very introspective so you always know how a character feels about every little thing that surrounds them.
>>22073737Then why did it take so long for Berserk to even get so much as a light novel?
>>22075398Idk I guess I just expected the Chandrian being a bigger part of the story but the dumbass is banned from the Archives still so he can't read about them/reader can't learn more. >>22075376I like his writing style so I wanna finish both novels but I'm just hoping it get a bit more compelling plotwise soon.
>>22074832>Furthermore, he didn't just take MC being powerless, he also took MC's powerlessness being freakishly rare and a source of social ostracism, which is much less common.Darksword (1987) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (The duo that wrote dragonlance)
>>22075419The two books are supposed to build up to the third one where everything big actually happens. But alas, it seems that book is still years, decades away, assuming it ever comes out
>>22075426>less popular>less recent>not the same medium the author already derived from
>>22075392If you noticed, no one in this thread reads anything besides post-2000 6+ books YA novels and web chink shit. Dark days for sffg
>>22074788Deku's hero notes are destroyed by his bully, and then Deku saves him from a villain.Unsouled MC's bully destroys (what he calls) his engraving practice, then MC saves him from a tree monster.
>>22075467>>less popularWeis and Hickman were the Sanderson of the 80s, their books where always Best sellers.Recency bias has done irreparable damage to the fantasy genre. Many such cases!
>>22075491Does he fucks the bully's mother like Deku does? This is important
>>22075497Considering Wight is plagiarizing Togashi over Sanderson, you're not making a very compelling argument.
>>22075488sad :(
>>22075488I'm pretty sure Chinese people aren't shilling ukraine considering they're in BRICS lmao
>>22075505You seem angry anon. I just wanted to point out that the trope has existed for a long time.
>arguing with BHAfags
>OH MY SEVEN QUIRKS
>>22074271Boobas are based. Female protagonists are not. Want me to explain it again slower?
>>22075369Just because idiots cherrypick stupid examples to show his writing doesn't change the fact that now that Gene Wolfe is dead Erikson mogs almost every living spec-fic author.
>>22075287If you don't want to read literary books thats fine, but Erikson being a good author to you doesn't make him good overall. It just means you have very low standards for what constitutes high quality writing.
>>22075369>THINK OF THE CHILDREEEEEEENThis is why I read manga.
What happened to John C. Wright? How do you go from writing some of the best space opera to writing christian fantasy garbage?
>>22075287>Well Erikson is one of the most talented literary level writers the genre has seen in half a centuryGot a good kek out of this
>>22075287>>>22075287>Bro please I swear. Read the 10000 gorillion pages of the series. I swear it pays off in book 23, bro please>I swear dude, that one character Turm appears in Toll the Hounds for one sentence and it's totally worth. Bro please
>>22075658
>>22075536Okay? It doesn't change the fact that Wight's "inspirations" are incredibly transparent.
>>22075369>Children are dyingsays the man who supports the yearly sacrifice of 30 million unborn children to Moloch
For the sake of future discussions about the influence of japanese manga on western literature, I've made an upgraded version.
>>22075633>boobs = good>females = badThis reminds me an awful lot of something...
>>22075694tranime has stolen 99.9% of all its narrative content from the West in the first place
I've read some 1500 pages of stormlight archive so far and maybe I'm retarded and somehow missed it but I don't think I've seen an explanation for why noble women have to hide one of their hands at all times
>>22075707Cope
>>22075711It's literally just "unexplained cultural thing". Non-Alethi people see it as weird too.
>>22075701I didn't say females are bad, just that they aren't based. Again, I'll explain slower if you want
She is complete.
>>22075189> i've read some insane shit.many western stories have insane shit in them but hardly ever it is done for actual reasons that actually matter, more often than not it is just some character who is mentally unstable, serial killer, killing because of various urges, in other words gore with little substance, quantity over quality, it's the opposite in RI. https://files.catbox.moe/kpxf0p.epub
>>22075638>Muh 100,000,000 year old superhuman wizard who acts like a moody teenager >Muh gruff US mari- I mean medieval soldier who waxes poetical about basic philosophy >Basic bitch prose, nothing outstandingErikson isn't anything special. At least the likes of Abercrombie have emotive character voices and a punchy writing style. Erikson just appeals to worldbuilding autists that think they're too cool for Sanderson.
>>22075711Just brandosando weirdness to make Alethi society different
>>22075717Fucking stupid is what it is just like the whole "men can't read or write" bullshit
>>22075694>weeaboo child learns that all writing for the last few thousands of years is 'iterative'>does some nooticing and rigorously attempts to apply itvery cute. try reading some books little nigga
>first Malazan book>introduces that a woman character is 'pillowy' in context of scrawny guy she's having sex with>kinda weird, whatever>subtly drops more and more explicit ways to say she's fat through the next hundred pages>look up author>pencil necked CanadianFucking dropped. What is it with fantasy authors and shoving their fetishes into their books? No one makes a character fat unless it's to show a character flaw (baron harkonnen, etc.) so that immediately caught my attention. And then the slight of hand, occasionally describing the character 'moving her bulk' and things like that. A normal author making a fat character would just tell us that when the character was introduced. It's like Erikson knows he's shoving his fetish in there, so he does it carefully because he thinks he'll get caught (The wicked flee when none pursueth).
>>22075761why is that stupid? lol.. like why should i even have to ask? don't be shy
>>22075771
>>22075765Why is Wight's (((iteration))) worse than the japanese one? Why are his (((iterations))) coming from the exact same place?
>>22075771>>22075785Is Erikson the guy who deflected by calling other fantasy authors pedophiles when asked if he has a fat fetish?
>>22075785I fucking knew it. Absolutely disgusting so glad I dropped this shit.>>22075790That wouldn't surprise me.
>>22075790Of course he wouldtypical feeder defense of "not obese=looks like a kid"
>>22075799>>22075798>>22075790>>22075785>>22075771There's nothing wrong with being a fat fetishist.There is everything wrong with being a Canadian.
>>22075799Better not leave him alone with a fat kid.
Where did we get this samefagging Erikson-hating faggot? Why does this thread always have one person minimum sperging the fuck out about something?
>>22075838Why would it be samefagging? Finding fat people and fat fetishists and canadians contemptible is extremely common.
>>22075838These last few days have seemed especially autistic
>>22075838>>22075844Samefag
>>22075838I have a feeling it's that same guy who tried forcing the /litrpg/ general. He is an angry autistic gatekeeper who gets set off easily. Erikson is good, that poster is a fag.
>>22075771>introduces that a woman character is 'pillowy' in context of scrawny guy she's having sex with>And then the slight of hand, occasionally describing the character 'moving her bulk' and things like thatHoly...based!
How do you reconcile litRPG's aim of emulating a game-like constant ability progression together with written works having a much longer duration than pretty much any RPG campaign?
>>22075856>a much longer duration than pretty much any RPG campaign>he hasn't played any campaigns spanning more than a yearlmao
>>22075856I don't care about magic system, the issue with litrpgs is that they are written like a game script from an actual fucking game
>>22075838>>22075850>there's ONE guy ATTACKING my favorite author who happens to be a scrawny FAT FETISHIST just like MEIs it really that hard to believe there might be a good number of people that find that kind of thing distasteful? I rarely come in these threads, I don't know about whatever argument you had with whatever autist. The whole 'fantasy author that shoves his fetish into his book' thing has been a meme since the 80s at least.
>>22075845Take your meds please.
>>22075860So a 52 hour campaign? Whoa.
>>22075870Was actually meant for >>22075850Sorry
>>22075856I don't understand what you're saying here. Games are usually longer than books, what do you mean by>written works having a much longer duration than pretty much any RPG campaign??
>>22075875You read TWI in 6 hours?
>>22075871no, I meant in-storyretard
>>22075882Then that's not what's being asked, retard.
>>22075844Between this guy and the Rothfuss fanboy who was posting for several threads, I wonder if someone shared us somewhere.>>22075850His English isn't as good as the current guy.>>22075868Erikson isn't my favorite author but you're as bad as the dude spamming THE Lopen's page of Sanderson's book as a "LOL this author sucks!" example which is true for Brandon for many reasons that could be discussed but shitposters don't discuss. Samefags and newfags have a tendency in talking in a group third person (lots of "we" usage instead of individual opinion).I don't think Erikson is perfect--I'm the guy who complained often about The Chained God and Tavore being a plot device but this is nonsense.
>>22075882Ihatelitrpgihatelitrgpsihatelitrpgs
>Someone complains about a book>Someone else points out that it's a recurring theme>Someone says they're dropping bookOH HEAVENS SOMEONE SAVE US FROM THIS AUTISM PUHLEAZE
>>22075864That happens because it's the only thing left making the story litRPG after the mechanics fall apart in the first few dozen chapters.
>litRPGsMore like midRPGs mirite
>>22075886>Samefags and newfags have a tendency in talking in a group third person (lots of "we" usage instead of individual opinion).You mean like this guy? >>22075838I fully support spergposting. Sperg out posts are the apex form of posting on /lit/, the best posts on this board are the ones you can imagine Klaus Kinski doing a deranged reading of.
>>22075929That guy has a meltdown about how /sffg/ is being invaded every time someone shits on one of his boomer recs.
>>22075920litrpgs are aimed at low iq zoomers like yourself
>>22075964Damn bro you came up with that one on your own?
>>22075920I don't think midwits are synonymous with pseudointellectuals, but I may be wrong
>>22075908it happens because the 'authors' literally imagine and describe a computer rpg game from one scene to another, the presence (or lack of it) of magic system, numbers etc are completely irrelevant. The so called litrpg authors often have not had read a single book in their lives (except compulsary secondrary school reading) and just write dumb game scripts
>>22076038>>22076038>it happens because the 'authors' literally imagine and describe a computer rpg game from one scene to anotherThat's impossible, it can't be called a game when they abandon the game mechanics.
erikson fanboys are going schizophrenic and trying to push 10 different posters as 1 guy because people are making fun of his fat fetish and the fact that he called other authors pedophiles for describing women not as tubs of lard but as "willowy"
>flip to /sffg/>another "everyone who disagrees with me is the same person" episodetired of reruns
>>22076063Next week is a Troi episode
Why do you guys spend so much time arguing here instead of reading good books?
>Gives Berserk: The Flame Dragon Knight 1 star out of 5Based Emily!
Any modern sci-fi with a voice like Ayn Rand?
>>22076076Okay prose, boring content.
>>22076076Wolfe is unmatched, towering, reigning supreme.
>>22076043what do you mean by game mechanics? a game might not have any scifi or fantasy mechanics (litrpg numbers) but the story telling and dialogues might still be written like a script for a game.
>>22076121In most games the core of the experience is the play, which depends on the mechanics, not the script. The exceptions are only really called games due to language dilution, and are frequently referred to as "movies", "visual novels", and "walking simulators".
>>22076093i'm sure there are. try something from neal stephenson
>>22073362anyone read John Gwynne? Don't usually read fantasy but giving The Shadow of the Gods a shot and it's enjoyable albeit with a simplistic prose.
>>22076114you say this ironically to ape the bakkerfag but it's actually true, he is literally operating on a level of CHIM we can only aspire to, there has never been an author with more depth to his work, certainly not in this genre
i'm literally the only person in the world who is waiting for the book of dust vol 3.
>>22076076 I've already read that book.
>>22076183>there has never been an author with more depth to his work, certainly not in this genreYes there isDunsany
>>22076180I read his first series (The Faithful and the Fallen) and it was extremely mediocre at best. maybe he got better
>>22076210the shadow of the Gods is book 1 of the bloodsworn trilogy, he's currently writing the third book. I will probably read the entire thing but there isn't anything special about the first book & I'm about 60% through
>>22076135yes, the core experience is gameplay and the script and dialog is secondary, that works in games, clearly the litrpg authors didn't get the memo, their writing still has not evolved past the game script and game tier dialogs.
Anyone got any recommendations for acid fuelled pseudointellectual fantasy for tool fans other than Elric?Also, how come noir and horror were so great in the 30s but sci-fi and fantasy were pretty shit then?
/sffg/'s thoughts on the Battletech novels?
>>22076214>isn't anything special about the first book & I'm about 60% throughyeah, nothing changed then holy kekyou just described Malice to a T, including the up-to-percent of the book where nothing fucking happens.maybe he improved in other areas, I see it's his 3rd series now
>>22076218In that case they can't be imagining a computer game as they're writing. At best they're imagining a plot for a computer game. If they imagined an actual game they'd have no choice but to confront the fact that the mechanics make no sense and there's no coherent gameplay formula.
Any good?
>>22076254yeah no fucking shit retarda vanishingly tiny minority of hyper-autists expect a litrpg's system to be an actual game system
>>22076251oh, never even thought about it. im curious as well.have been playing mw5 + mwo lately, too. even battletech (roguetech) not too long before that.
>>22076210I avoided this because the main guy who shilled it in these threads told me that like 80-90% of the series is the protagonists being hounded to the brink of destruction by an overwhelmingly superior bad guy force until the heroes finally get a win at the last second and the series ends and I fucking HATE that shitI hated it when Tad Williams did it in Osten Ard and I'll never read such a series ever again if I can at all avoid it
>>22076252in Shadow of the Gods he writes each chapter in a different perspective of each character. Chapter 1 being character A, chapter 2 Character B etc. It's decently interesting in that regard but the way the chapters end almost feel juvenile to me. It's certainly not bad or poorly written, but it's quite simple in prose & the plot is somewhat scattered so far since it's from multiple different perspectives of characters who are at different points in the story. I'd say it's probably worth checking out if you're interested, but I have not read anything else by him.
>>22076227>Also, how come noir and horror were so great in the 30s but sci-fi and fantasy were pretty shit then?What are you talking about?How are R E Howard and Clark ashton smith and Lovecraft shit?
>>22076258>female authorwhat do you think?
>>22076254but they are, the writing of most litrpgs reflects that. The opening scene, the next scene talks to npc, another scene protagonist goes to forest/dungeon etc to hunt some monsters (10 chapters for that), mc then goes back to town to sell loot, meets girl at the shop, teams, ups, expect literal computer game dialog here with premise that girl suddenly took a liking to mc, they go to dungeon again, hunt (another 10 chapters), another game tier dialog, repeat, there are obviously little to no plot twists. I have seen at least 3 or 4 such litprg novels with slight variations
>>22076285They're outliers. I don't think he's wrong. If you read random stories out of old pulps sff is the cringiest. It might be because it's easier to fail with this genre while with a detective story you just need to color inside the lines and you're doing okay.
Little Blue reigns supreme
>>22076183It started ironically, but it is also true.
>>22076099In the novels Wolfe was exploring a concept of grace that Kierkegaard worked on in his "knight of infinite faith" in "Fear and Trembling." He made it an adventure, coming of age, and advice to not only teens becoming men, but young men, cementing their responsibilities as men. A handbook on how to become wise, venerable, and respected. The prose is touching here, the character respects MC so much that failure and disappointment is in himself and that is because he failed what amounts to a god. I think you can read a bit into a few scenes and see that Wolfe was attempting to decompress lessons he learned in Korea. I fully believe the tunnel where Sir Able goes apeshit was a vague hint at what Wolfe witnessed, or possibly participated in there.
>>22076282>juvenile to me. It's certainly not bad or poorly writtena lot of the writing in his first series felt that way in general, not just the endings.juvenille or amateur, not sure which is more appropriate. maybe bothsame feeling I got from whatever author of The Expanse duo wrote the Holden chapters
>>22076328I wonder if that has to do with why Wolfe so often glosses over battle scenes with a lacuna and only talks about them after the fact
>>22076332I hate that space Jon Snow so much
>>22076318read cradle!
>>22076264God forbid the writing of litrpgs conform to the name of the genre.>>22076302>another scene protagonist goes to forest/dungeon etc to hunt some monsters (10 chapters for that)Bullshit, no author can write 10 straight chapters of gameplay style monster hunting without it degrading into some kind of scripted action-adventure sequence. You meant either a 2 chapter vaguely described hunting montage with status menus or the aforementioned action-adventure sequence, followed by 10 chapters of le hecking worldbuilding and/or encountering some kind of plot device.
>>22076341Wtf holden is a great MC
>>22073694Shallan is the worst character in a novel who's author is awful at writing characters.
>>22076361Some of them do.They're not the ones that got popular for a reason.
>>22076361>Bullshit, no author can write 10 straight chaptersprimal hunter comes to mind
>>22076305Anyone who hasn't read it before will probably like this story about the appeal of 30s detective pulpshttps://crimereads.com/the-philosopher-and-the-detectives-ludwig-wittgensteins-enduring-passion-for-hardboiled-fiction/
>>22076379>In 1948, [Wittgenstein] contrasts his favorite “mag” with the Oxford philosophical journal Mind: “Your mags are wonderful. How people can read Mind if they could read Street & Smith beats me. If philosophy has anything to do with wisdom there’s certainly not a grain of that in Mind, & quite often a grain in the detective stories.”
>>22076361>God forbid the writing of litrpgs conform to the name of the genre.litrpg should be more than a theme just like space opera or time travel or cyberpunk in sci fi, no more that, it should still be written with quality story telling, quality character, and world building in mind
>>22076388>litrpg should be more than a theme*should be NO more than a theme
>>22076408>>22076388litrpgs SHOULD NOT EXIST
Litrpg is just isekai for westfags, both are equally cancer.
>>22076414portal fantasy already exists as an established genre within western literature without being degenerated by litrpg faggotry
>>22076414litrpg and isekai are separate tagsand are often paired togetheryou are retarded
>>22076414both are fine, MC from modern world gets transported to some fantasy world is a good premise ruined by absolute trash authors who entire literary knowledge and experience is reading dialog lines in video games
so this is the litrpg general or what?
>>22076414Litrpg is much worse because, as you said, it's for westoids.
>>22076423A subgenre of SFF is being discussed in the SFF general.
>>22076423Contemporary SFF is litshit and pozzshit
>>22076426it belongs in>>>/qst/
>>22076388Okay, but as a theme it's still not being applied decently. Fantasy with menus an RPG does not make.
>>22076434I'd argue there's some standouts (Dungeon Crawler Carl, mainly), but fair enough. It's a fairly 'infant' subgenre in the wider world, however, so that means it's got room to evolve. Russian LitRPGs tend to be a bit higher quality because they've been doing this a while, for example.
>>22076371I'll check it out, MC better not be a cuck because I've been recommended 2 different novels where MC is a cuck by this general already.
>>22076414This is not correct. Litrpg serves the need for orderliness itself, not merely a revaluation that puts the mc on top.
>>22076444His backstory involved him walking in on his girlfriend cheating but in-story he's basically entirely on the "don't care about women" train after the first book.
>>22076446Why are authors like this?
just finished my 3rd re-read of ASOIAF. i'm fucking ready
>>22076452I was warned about something in Path of Ascension involving cheating but it's never come up at all. Maybe it was just removed for the published version, but the protag of that gets with a girl, they're reluctant to move their relationship to a physical level because they're basically thinking "that's a threshold of no return and that might screw things up as an adventuring pair" but then they just kinda just bone eventually and it's like "Well what were we worried about, this is nice". It's weird, the progression, sometimes.
>>22076452Because he needs to contrast the guy who wasn't succeeding in the world before with the guy who was in the world that came after. Why are you so sensitive about it?
>>22076452Cheap way to make MC pathetic and need to get stronger is my guess. Cuck MCs are extremely common in western progression fantasy.
>>22076461Pretty sure it's the guy who makes up his own definition of cuck and spams it constantly any time mom allows him on the computer.
>>22076461I don't think very many people think "weird sexual subplots" when using the term "RPG".
>>22076470Pretty sure you're off your meds again.
>>22076467And in this story in particular, he needs to start with a problematic relationship with the cat. We wouldn't get this if his loving, devoted gf had just died.
>>22076475To be fair there's a ton of weird sexual subplots in modern WRPGs.
>>22076475What an exercise in point-missing this comment is. It is not cuck fetishism or a sexual subplot. His gf cheated. It has nothing to do with rpgs.
>>22076480That sounds like DCC not Primal Hunter.
>>22076480That's DCC. Primal Hunter has basically no relationships with anybody because Jake seems to be actually autistic and doesn't know how to or care to talk to people. I dunno, I haven't caught up in a bit, maybe he's got people he talks to now besides that fucking bird.
>>22076490>It has nothing to do with rpgs.That's exactly why it doesn't have much of a place in a litRPG. Starting off with MC getting cheated on is less RPG and more "indie hipster steam refund bait".
>>22076492>>22076494Wow. I guess I can't keep my cuck MCs straight. Somewhere I lost the thread. But the treatment was even lighter in Primal Hunter. The other guy got the girl because mc was just a dork in the real world and didn't find himself until after.
>>22076434of course it's not, but it shouldn't be too hard, >>22076444it's terrible, his solo adventure and progression is fine but when he meets other people it changes into some sort Walking dead or Lost dynamic, with people in small group fighting for things like leadership etc, its laughable, mc has no motivation to do anything, he basically reacts 100% of the time
>>22076490While the cucking in DCC certainly wasn't at all fetishistic, the sheer amount of antagonism MC receives from the setting over it was really odd. It was not just some trivial background detail.
>>22076470Are we really going to do this again? Last time I accidentally ruined the rest of the thread and half of the next one by mentioning the wrong book at the wrong time.
>>22076511>mc has no motivation to do anything, he basically reacts 100% of the timeYou could not have chosen a better statement to kill my interest in the series. Protagonists with zero agency are the absolute worst. Sounds like the very typical case of the author running out of RPG progression ideas and spinning off into a different genre.
>>22076539Nothing you can do to prevent shitposters from shitposting.
>>22076452I don't imagine fantasy writers have very successful sex lives.
>>22076567Kristen Stewart cheated on Robert Pattinson
>>22076523Really? It doesn't feel like it comes up all that much. Donut brings it up specifically because she's a spiteful cat that doesn't know how to be honest with Carl. It's vaguely brought up by the news stuff and the corporation because they're specifically trying to find ways to get him to crack.
>>22076616He is right in a way - the system picks at it because it's designed to stir shit up and Donut picks at it for sort of the same reason. It's not just a background detail, it is a running gag. I never cringed about it though because it's played for comedy not morality. I don't deny this trope can be cringe like in that Rothfus quote.
>>22076616Carl wanting to keep Donut for himself and Donut thinking they'll reunite with girlfriend again deeper in the dungeon resembles a child's role in a messy divorce. The girlfriend not really caring about Donut is like a wife that doesn't really love the child but wants to keep it anyway out of spite. The harassment Carl gets from the aliens is the public humiliation of being cheated on. Carl puts up a tough front but the story is about the guy's emotional baggage about as much as it is about fighting monsters.
>>22076627Carl himself also just barely registers his ex-GF as a THING. He's too focused on other things, and to him, that relationship's utterly fucked anyway so why should he care about it any more?
>>22076633Sure, it's about Carl's emotional state, but... She doesn't really factor into it. He's upset about it, and he lets that out fairly well when he finally gets to meet her again, but she is just not in his mind most of the time.
>>22076641>>22076637It doesn't matter that he doesn't focus on it. The shared betrayal bonds him and the cat together, through a 70s sitcom gnosis. It's more integral than a throwaway.
>DCC 6 completed:O
>>22076656Yeah, fair, I get what you mean. It's integral, and it kicks off Carl's mindset, but it's clearly not more than basically an impetus for Carl and Donut's characterisations rather than as this overarching thing I've seen some people here say it is. She matters to the plot in the sense that she's Donut's 'shitty mom', but beyond that she's a non-entity.
>>22076251Pulpkino until Endgame by Loren L. Coleman which is also a great jumping off point. After that ymmv.
>>22076641He deals with being cucked pretty well all things considered, but it doesn't really change the fact that there's a long lasting underlying theme in the story of the guy dealing with being cucked. In fact the character interactions and the allusions in the dungeon's composition paint an interesting psychological portrait overall, but it's nonetheless far from being a pure dungeon crawler litRPG fantasy due to these elements. By the time classes and race changes are introduced the game mechanics seem to have fallen to the wayside for the usual loop of character interactions and action sequences.
>>22076685>Cuck cuck cuckYou keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means. A cuck is somebody who's being cheated on and continues to willfully stay with the person. Carl was unknowingly being cheated on, and the moment he found out he put her out of his life entirely as best he could.But, yeah, it's moreso using LitRPG elements solely to highlight the farce of the whole Crawl, and contrast that with the genuine, very real emotions of the Crawlers, particularly Carl.
>>22076688>A cuck is somebody who's being cheated on and continues to willfully stay with the person.No, it's just somebody who's being cheated on.
>>22076688Is this your first time interacting with that particular newfag? He will spam the entirety of the next thread about how Carl is a cuck because he said so.
>Dungeon Cuck Carl>Primal Cuckwhy LITRPG authors like to do this man? every mc is a cuck nowdays
>>22076688Why did you do it man.
>>22076688>>22076691>You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means. A cuck is somebody who's being cheated onWhy are you so interested in policing people's use of this particular, extremely common term?https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/cuckold>a man whose wife deceives him by having a sexual relationship with another manDeceives, not "is deceiving", or whatever other cope shit you're trying to push. Carl is a cuckold.
>>22076691meds please
>>22076706Stop pls, he will get some wasoru link from some thread 5 months ago and will start acting like is the same anon, then he will proceed to call everyone here schizofollow the rules, dont talk about Carl being a cuck or half this thread population will have severe meltie
>>22076712It's been relatively reasonable to this point.
>>22076715see >>22076691he will pull the trigger anytime now, beware of the dungeon cuck carl defender
>>22076712I don't mind leaving the topic at that in either case. The point is only that DCC is an okay fantasy series with psychological elements, but not a very good litRPG.
coworker lent me this bookThought it was a little slow, but after reading Neuromancer and Accelerando, this is a way better and comfy read. Also Friday is cute lol.
>>22076733Not him but I think the fantasy aspect could be great. I'm genuinely interested in seeing how the overall plot plays out, especially the clusterfuck that will be Floor 9 and Larracos; and the ultimate conclusion because we know it ain't running all 18 floors.
>>22076749I bought that book for the booba and remember nothing else about it, aside from a vague feeling of mediocrity.
>>22076749does she cuck anybody?
>>22076755in the setting there are polyamorous relationships, its depicted realistically because Friday gets kicked out of her house by one the spiteful women, basically showing that polyamory doesnt work
>>22076696come home western man
Dungeon Chad Carl?
>>22076706carl wasn't married
>>22076750This might be a matter of preference, but I don't like when fantasy mixes in earthly elements. I think of fantasy as a setting in which you're forced to adapt to an unusual set of circumstances, issues, and values, because an earthly perspective has little relevance. DCC reads more like a guy took a shitload of acid and hallucinated himself battling through a construct of all his life problems, its fantastical but very earthly. The monsters are based on demographics he doesn't like, the human enemies are victims or tools of a system he doesn't like, the whole alien hypercapitalist empire truman show aspect that he has no choice but to participate in clearly is some form of social commentary, his bad breakup followed him into the dungeon, and so forth.That aside, the sloppy implementation of the game mechanics is what I would call the main tangible fault in the story. It probably would have been better if he'd toned down or erased the game elements from the start since they weren't maintained that well in the long term.
>>22076180I gave up on shadow. Reading150 pages with nothing going on bored me. I also didn't understand any of the fantasy terms he introduced
I never read Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation.Am I missing out on much?
>>22076832Yes because it takes time away from watching g witch
>>22076706it wasn't a common term, at all. not until like 10 years ago when it was used exclusively to refer to the fetish. if you're going to get technical w/ ye olde english, the nigga still wasn't married. check and mate (you won't ever). new faggot (homosexual, not bundle of sticks)
>>22076838Ok boomer, but why are you talking about 10+ years old definitions not <5 year old definitions that anyone who doesn't live under a rock uses? Enjoy getting mad every time Carl's brought up on /sffg/ and then inevitably called a cuck for however many years it takes for the term to rotate out of casual usage. Lmao.
>>22076706I have a mild suspicion that website's definitions need to be taken with a grain of salt.
>>22076882I never imagined I'd see such a passive aggressive dictionary entry. Wild.
>>22076774>come home western man>posts chinkshit by chink author with chink aestheticsif you wanted proof that the CCP funds propaganda on 4chan, that's it
>>22076925>can't be CCP funded since it's banned by CCPReverend Insanity wins again.
>>22076856i guess i shouldn't argue with the expert
>>22076928>>can't be CCP funded since it's banned by CCPWhat they push in their own people and what they push on other nations is different.
>>22076882i thought that definition was "soi"?
>>22076933>>22076925 seems to think otherwise.
>>22076882is this real life? jesus
>>22076934Neither soi nor cuck have an inherent political connotation, though an argument for correlations can be made. Apparently the booty-blasted liberal arts major who edited that article's never heard the term "cuckservative".
>>22076456Me too bro, I finished a reread about a week ago. Been thinking about reading the Dunk and Egg novellas and Fire and Blood soon.
>>22076882Bleak.
>>22076837Speaking of which, a novel adaptation by Yuya Takayama is being serialized in Gundam Ace.Now that I think of it, how come the original 0079 trilogy of novels are still the only Gundam novels ever localized?
>>22076933It was banned and removed from English qidian site too
>>22076983>小説 機動戦士ガンダム 水星の魔女Just went and read the first two chapters. Looks like it's gonna be a pretty fun read. Thanks.
>>22074819You can try Zhu Xian as well if you like antiheroes but it's mostly about characters and plot.
>>22077041You're welcome, anon.
>>22075838His books suck ass
>>22077062why
>>22075392'I hope I shall arrive soon'
>>22077049ill check it out, at the very least it'll sit on my plan to read list. always open to more chinese xianxia/wuxia
>>22077147are you offended by 'shall'? please give me something less cryptic you useless FUCK. i challenge you. and i'm not asking for baby's first 'NOOTICING (therefore) book is bad'.
>>22077190Check this list, I'm highly recommend Everlasting Immortal Firmament.https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/49140/
>>22075805Would be a funny edit if his own face distorted as he stirs.
Backlogging the last 10 hours is cancerous. Nothing but shallow trolling about litrpgs or yet another cuck discourse. And to think people dare to complain about harem reviews.
>>22074032>>22073531I read this in George Takei's voice.>>22074140I don't hate women or women authors. But I won't be reading this, because the overview says it's alt history involving the bible. That's lame.
>>22077532>alt history involving the bibleI love women so much it's unreal but I also hate religion and the bible so much it's unreal.
>>22076690>>22076706Well since the thread is practically dead already, I'll throw my 2 cents in: Being a cuck, is being cheated on *publicly*. When everyone in your social circle knows your wife is unfaithful.If you're cheated on, and maybe 1 or 2 people find out, and you immediately put a stop to it, then you're not a cuck. Just a poor victim of cheating. But when you're cheated on for a prolonged period of time, and your friends, and work mates, and family all know what's happening, THEN you're a cuck. How you feel about it personally doesn't really matter. Maybe you like it, maybe you don't, maybe you're completely ignorant of it, maybe you have an inkling. None of that matters. The only thing that matters, is your very publicly being cheated on, and you haven't done anything about it.This often involves children. As when the children you're helping raise don't look like you, then people will know you were cucked. But children are not necessary to get cucked.
>>22077568literally wife going behind your back and cheating on you makes you cuck regardless if other people know about it or not
Are there any other progression systems on par with LOTM or RI?
Is Terry Dowling worth reading? Seems like a poor Vance imitation.
>>22077623Douluo Dalu?
>>22077677lol trash
>>22077678I have Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive for you.
>>22077623Tales of Herding Gods is fun
>>22077699for what reason would I read Sanderson? I have seen enough screencaps of his work, though technically he does not write litrpg or isekai but his characters talk and act like 21st century american lgbt teenagers transported into medieval world.
make thread
Sorry if this is a bit of a weird question, I'm just not sure what other place to ask this.I used to love the original Neverending Story movie as a kid. Even today it's still one of my favorite childhood movies, and I was wondering if the book from Michael Ende is worth checking out. I heard that the story gets a lot darker and actually carries on the events of the movie.
new thread... :(
>>22077943>>22077943>>22077943>>22077943
>>22076696>>22076452im glad im not the only one who's clearly noticing a pattern here. there a clear fixation on cuckoldry in recent progression fantasy for whatever reason .i can easily chalk it up to ' all western authors are cucks!!!' and enjoy the triggered retards but in all honesty .perhaps it has to do with how a culture interpret ' masculine failure' . in the east , ' masculine failure' is financial and social . >no high education>no job>no high paying jobwhile in the west , where the standards of masculinity are more female centered , it come down to a man's lack of attractiveness and sexual abilityor maybe these authors are just trying to 'take revenge' on females by showing that a man must overcome them before achieving his dreams .or maybe they are just perverts .