/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

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What are you guys currently or planning on reading?

Due to yet again unforeseen circumstances, I could only read two chapters, Catelyn’s fifth chapter and and Ned’s ninth chapter. Nonetheless, those chapters were superb for what they were and got me excited for more. Lysa pretty much acted how any other person would act in her situation, which was quite nice change of pace. I thought for a moment that she would side with Catelyn. Don’t know what she expected from Lysa. Ned’s chapter is more reminiscent of a mystery novel, if not for the fact the everyone bit Ned seems to have already figured it out already. His fight with Jaime was great, shame it was cut short.

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Oathbringer, The Stormlight Archive #3 - Brandon Sanderson (2017)

And so the narrative cracks have become ever more evident. I enjoyed the first half significantly more than the latter half. Exploring a base, how people live there, and the ways to improve it has been something I've liked in games for a very long time, but not as the primary focus. The latter half though? Not so much, which was a problem considering how many pages that was. This was when I really began to feel, which I hadn't so much in the previous two, that it was taking far too long to get anything done. Of course, I only felt that way because I wasn't as engaged in what I was reading as much as I had been.

I think Sanderson's two favorite elements to include in his works are reification/anthropomorphism and atonement/redemption. For the former, many of the characters are "what if this mental disorder was a person", and "what if certain behaviors were entities external to us". For the latter, it's a lot of the characters in general, probably too many.

As for others who felt this was worse than the previous books, it may be because of how the political and religious themes became more explicit. For politics there are discussion about slavery, indigenous people, oppression, class solidarity, privilege, realpolitik, homosexuality, women in combat roles in the military, drug use, and various other contemporary issues. They're often presented as "here's the issue and what you should think about it" though. That's not how I like anything to be presented and I don't think most are reading this series for such commentary.

The religious themes, which are often a smattering of various world religions and moral philosophies, make this increasingly a struggle of Good vs Evil without much in-between. That isn't to say that individuals aren't able to switch. The Evil can become Good if they're Born Again and repent, which is a great example of forgiveness, although at times I feel that it's too convenient. I wouldn't describe The Stormlight Archive as a religious fiction series. As for the philosophies, they're far too externally-oriented for my preferences and exemplify how the characters have relatively little agency. I don't think that's what most are reading for either.

What it does seems that people are reading for is that the "Sanderlanche" the cathartic outbursts of an ending. Unfortunately, for this one I felt that it overemphasized its attempt at shock and awe to where it was relatively nonsensical. Comparisons to Marvel movies aren't misplaced, but I don't think that's a bad thing. They're extremely commercially successful. I watch them and enjoy them for what they are, but that places a hard cap on the upper limit of my enjoyment. I wonder how I'll feel after I read the fourth book next month. After that it's years of waiting between each book. The Cosmere is a very long and interesting experiment to me, but not one of the utmost interest.

Rating: 3.5/5

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Blood of The fold. I'm about 100 pages in. It's alright so far but I'm having trouble remembering a lot of the characters that Goodkind introduced in Stone of Tear. He added a bunch of characters that are only in the story for a short amount of time and somehow I'm supposed to remember them 1500 pages later.

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Assassin's Apprentice is not a good book.

why am i being bombarded with a million names right in the beginning? it's confusing

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Wolfe is not for everyone. He demands you to pay close attention to every paragraph, and if you merely skim over his scenes you're going to miss how it's all connected.

Perhaps describing this book as a "detective fantasy," is not too far off with how surface reading won't yield you the fertile fields underneath. Then again, I didn't really enjoy Wolfe's writing style at all, or his characters, only his storyworld.

Some authors like to drop you in up to your neck right off the hop. Just keep going and don't worry about memorizing everything as soon as you see it.

The guy on the right is drawing a sword longer than his arm from a sheath strapped to his back.

Just finished Citadel of the Autarch. Gonna. Catch up on some non-sff stuff before I start Urth of the New Sun next month.
Gene Wolfe is a genius on the same level as Tolkien
Fuck you if you disagree

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There's no ASOIAF character that comes even close to complexity of Cnaiur urs Chadotha

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wut

there's less than 20 characters through the first 2 books or so. wtf

some serious midwittery at play here

The main character and his three friends?

it's possible.
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he looks very jolly

Weaveworld is pretty good.

/sffg/, which sounds like the more enjoyable character

>twitchy, manic simp of a conspiracy theorist
>happy-go-lucky idiot out of touch with reality

The one that goes to its proper general.

Is there any kino urban fantasy? Seems like a lot of people have a low opinion of it.

Pic related because Jesus Christ is our eternally present Lord and Savior. Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

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I can already tell you're not going to write anything original.
Hey I have an idea. What if that twitchy, manic simp of a conspiracy theorist lived next door to an alien disguised as a human!

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he sure seems to be

I will never forgive him for Pirate Freedom.

lol you deleted your comment just so you could post this image? And the comment on it isn't even funny. Anyways Clive Barker has some pretty good urban fantasy novels. He's pretty bad at writing characters and probably hates jesus too.

depends on how well they're written.

Name one (1) original story

>He's pretty bad at writing characters
how dare you

The illiad

Weaveworld and Midian basically have the same characters but with different names. There's a cop who hates nigs, there's a priest that's in the closet, a girl who has sex all the time, a guy who is uninteresting, a tolken black guy, and probably others but I can't remember. What saves these books is that the world building is good and the setting is actually interesting.

What did he do? Someone mentioned it has a good plot.

I wasn't making a joke man I was 100% serious lol. Just spreading some good cheer to the thread.

The plot is fantastic- almost tailored personally to me, honestly. Unfortunately, Wolfe ignored everything that makes that kind of plot good, and turned it into an embarrassing self-insert gary-stu wank fantasy.
He skips over the world-building and adaption phase of a fish out of water story, skips right to the ship, makes the MC the captain within the first few chapters, and then gives him two super hot women that want to bone him real bad. Then at the end he meets he younger self who gets with one chick while he gets the other, which is a "eat your cake and have it too" which doesn't even make sense, unless of course, the MC is a self-insert gary-stu.

Damn so this is the power of Gene Wolfe.. We got too cocky Cradlebros

well, wax and wayne 4 is due this november, then there's 3 cosmere books in 2023, followed by sa 5 in mid to late 2024.
After that books would be spaced out though, before mistborn era 3, we might get nightblood, with elantris 2 after mistborn era 3.

Based schizo poster

I can't spoilers, might read it

>remember books I used to read when I was younger
>want to buy them now in proper non-worn out editions and in their original language
>all the new editions have different covers which are just fucking disgusting
I hate when this shit happens.

The art of making decent covers for books is long-lost. Maybe if a protagonist strolled along we could rediscover it but until then it'll be basic-ass symbollogy and plain colours and whatnot.

*sip* Yeah... they don't make them like they used to

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Well, this was a major drop in quality from the first book. I'm disappointed.

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Was thinking more of this kind of change.

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>endorsement on the front from Christopher Paolini
haha...

I'm on book 4 of Wheel of Time. My thoughts so far:
>Mat is best boy
>ALL women except Min are terrible
>the Forsaken are clowns and present zero threat

Sounds like the pirate chose freedom rather than being bound by your fancy rules. Based and Jolly Roger-pilled.

Nynaeve gets much more bearable as soon as she gets the dick she desperately needs.
>the Forsaken are clowns and present zero threat
For the most part yes, though Semirhage and Moridin prove to be much more competent than the rest.

I also must've missed the part where Lan fell in love with her. She's been tugging her braid and mooning over him since the beginning but I have no idea what Lan sees in her.

What am I in for /sffg/?

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monke

Finished Rythm of War. as always Stormlight stories are good but I'm getting very tired of Kaladin. I am curious though, to see what he does with the task Dalinar gave him. Maybe it will take his mind off his own faults for a change. Also I wasn't expecting the thing with Taravangian and Odium, that was pretty crazy.

I took up the powder mage saga again, and began with some short stories that take place in the years before Promise of Blood. They proved useful to paint a more accurate picture of how Tamas became the man he is at the time Promise of Blood begins, and also of Ado society

>>Mat is best boy
Yup. Sanderson fucks up writing him really badly though.
>>ALL women except Min are terrible
Eh, a few of them have their moments. Nynaeve makes more sense once you realize she's deliberately working herself up to get past her block and to project authority to cover up her insecurity.
>>the Forsaken are clowns and present zero threat
It does make sense, IMO, even if it's not that narratively satisfying. These dudes come from a time more advanced and peaceful than ours, where evil was barely a whisper and where war was nothing but a distant memory. Now they're in medieval times where wars occur every decade and most have to struggle for survival. That said, I do think Moridin and Semirhage have a real sense of threat.

Nearly done with rereading Wheel of Time. On A Memory of Light and wishfully thinking about if Jordan had completed the books instead.

>Sanderson fucks up
Oh who would've fucking guessed

And now that I read through the first two books, I'm reminded why I don't like these kinds of books Antagonists who happen to be women always seem to be spared of any violence that is due to them. It's fine if a boy burned some old sorcerer to his death, but can't have any actual violence on a leader of a slaving, drug-peddling and raping nation, nope.

Yeah it was pretty crazy how such a silly cosmere-changing event occurred and how seriously the reader is supposed to accept something so fucking unbelievable

I haven't read these books, give my a quick summary of what he did

Just imagine an elderly feeble man, with all the physical prowess of an elderly feeble man, yanking a battle-hardened warrior's (sentient) sword out of its scabbard and stabbing a distracted god-entity, killing it and becoming the new god-entity.

>everyone here hates Sanderson
>Some people hate Wolfe or Tolkien though, so I decide to give him a shot
>100 pages into Mistborn, and I feel like I'm reading a low quality anime

Does his writing ever get better? Is this how he produces so much content?

>Does his writing ever get better?
No, he just becomes more refined in his style.
>Is this how he produces so much content?
Yes.

>Does his writing ever get better?
No, if anything he actually gets worse. Mistborn isn't great but at least you can feel that he's TRYING. This isn't true for what comes after.

Foxy grandpa strikes again

Not really. His writing level is at a permanent YA level.