/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

There was no tax in Gondor itself. Each of his liegemen ran their lands as they saw fit with their own tax policies, and paid tribute to Aragorn either in material goods or actual money. How much was offered as tribute was in many ways left to the discretion of the individual lords, with the knowledge that the position of King that Aragorn occupied was actually more like a President in an idealized America. Aragorn was a mediator between independent lords and would be called on to settle disputes, but his only actual power was over the running of Gondor city and a small amount of surrounding territory. Point being, not offering tribute could bite you in the ass.

Because despite GRRM's brainlet takes, Tolkien did in fact elaborate on Aragorn's tax policy.

I'm surprised you got through the meme book
Even more, you got through children lmao

Thanks user, I think I'll try the next one then

What do you think led to the general maligning and looking down upon of speculative fiction (particularly science fiction and fantasy)? It probably has something to do with the currents of academic inquiry and even of the literary movements of the modern period, but we even had a moment in the 60s to 80s where sci fi and fantasy were upheld as more radical forms of expression and speculation, even by more literary types, but this enthusiasm died out again... It's a bit strange. I heard from a professor who did pop culture and film criticism that "it takes a longer time for new things to be accepted." That sounds kind of true but it doesn't explain why sci fi and fantasy were popular for a bit even in France but then were maligned again as "low culture" not able to meet the demands of an intelligent reader, nor the social and political dimensions of broader society and its social questions.

Neat. Which appendix was this in?

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You're massively over-complicating it. The answer is simple.
People who make out like reading things is a big deal are pseuds, and pseuds will denigrate things if they think it makes them look smart.

It was in his letters, someone wrote him and asked general questions about how Gondor ran and Tolkien replied. Another thing of note is that Aragorn was the last heir to Elvendom through his marriage, so he was absolutely LOADED, to the point that taking tribute was basically just a formality. Frodo's shirt of mithril being worth more than the entire shire? Aragorn had the entire front gate of Gondor remade entirely of Mithril.

Then why did SFF have an uptick in acceptance during the 60s, 70s, and 80s? Even Vonnegut and Dick became household names (especially in France for Dick). And people thought they were serious writers rather than just "guys who write for teenagers in penny dreadful/pulp magazines."

i just read all of the stormlight archives and the shorts
then i read all of mistborn and the shorts

whats next
is elantris good?
i will probably read the cosmere anthology thing after that

the next book coming out is the next one of wax and wayne right?

Because futurism was fashionable in the 70's due to the growing influence of Hollywood, which was adapting many of these written works and being inspired by many more. Look at this from the perspective of someone looking for a way to be snobbish.
>Oh you saw the movie
>Well *I* read the book

I think your point is salient but it rustles my jimmies. Are people really that cynical and egotistical? Maybe I am very naive to how the world works.

Has anyone ever asked Bakker what his D&D campaign was like? The Achamaian chapters in TAE seem like they're happening in the setting of a West Marches campaign. Also I recently read one of the greatest old modules X1: The Isle of Dread and I think the Inchoroi are somewhat based on the guys the players encounter towards the end.

>Futurism was fashionable in the 70's
Nigga what?

Have you literally never been on social media?

>be at the latter half of APGTE vol5
>“Get up, Hasenbach,” I said. “You and I are going for a walk.”
god i love the MC.

>Have you literally never been on social media?
I have but I don't really think critically about what's going on. I just thought people were posting books because they liked them, since that's what I do when I'm invigorated by a book. All those booktuber girls posting their 20+ book reading stacks they read in a month seems, in hindsight, about signalling some kind of intelligence and empathy superiority though.

Maybe they just read more because they have a motive, like they know they can talk about these books and how people want to hear their opinion, so they feel motivated to read 20+ books in a month.

Yeah that's a possibility I hadn't considered. I just want to read for myself though. I get that talking about books is important but I'd rather do it anonymously or with those I love and trust...

jolenta booba bouncing while sev sexing her

Alright, I'm giving up on The Wandering Inn for now. Halfway through vol 3 with no end in sight. I'll pick it back up when I'm out of other stuff to read maybe. On to Mother of Learning now.

Just caught up on this series after doing an insane amount of speedreading. Was basically Dune + Kingkiller Chronicles with a Human Empire vs Dark Eldar. What the other anons in the last thread said was correct, it felt pretty generic and had an insane amount of filler. I must have skipped over 1,500 pages and never really got lost.

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Is it comfy, a webnovel about an Inn sounds comfy and it reminds me of this

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Any indie authors in this thread? Do you make a living? Is it at least a side hustle? I'm not one, at least not yet.

Why did they brown Donut on the cover? Wasn't she white in book 1?

For SFF, of course. Forgot to mention.

No, she was always brown. Even on the cover of book 1. It just looks like she's white because of the background lighting,

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I'm only on book 3 so far but I am really liking the slow-but-steady build up of sheer fury in Carl that he's just basically keeping to himself and the Cookbook. Every time somebody talks about the Crawl like it's not real or whatever, you just get a moment of him internally wanting to strangle them. He knows Earth was a tiny number of people universally speaking, but he doesn't give a fuck, they were his people, it was his world, etc. A great moment was when he realised Brandon had died and he just goes catatonic for a moment. It's great how you have the protagonist being simultaneously a man on a vengeance crusade for his lost home, and at the same time he's thrown into absurdist scenarios over and over again that he gets through mostly through judicious application of explosives.

Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds?

It has comfy moments here and there. It's kind of half slice of life and half epic fantasy, at least the parts I've read so far. It's an isekai though so fair warning.

Lesbians?

Obviously.

Can't seem to find a Urban Fantasy rec chart in the OP. Is there one or maybe a goodread list?

I'm a pleb but I like stuff like American Gods, The Sorcerer's House, Anansi Boy's, Chase the morning...
It's just comfy and makes me escape my wageslave reality.

Any fantasy books set in Not-South East Asia, or just has south east asian basis? For now there's only Long Price Quartet. I looked around and it's all fag or tranny shit. I got these on my backlog:
>Kings of Paradise
>The Wolf of Oren-Yaro
>Steel Crow Saga
>The Drowning City
>The Weavers of Saramyr

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I might give it a chance, maybe I will read one volume or part and not the whole thing.
The book is mostly about a warrior orc that retires to open an inn in a city, but yeah they are lesbians but unfourtently there is no deep relationship romance in the book, I went he made it into a webnovel and just kept writing about them.

>went
*wish

>I must have skipped over 1,500 pages and never really got lost.
Fantasy has the same disease 7th gen videogames did where people just inherently assume length=quality and you get endless amounts of 6-7/10 mush instead of what could be a brief 8 or 9/10 story if you weren't afraid to trim the fat.

i checked the mega already but it didnt remind me

there was a series someone recommended me a few weeks back, similar to malazan in that it followed an army or squad in a world that was full of serious magic and such

can anyone remember what its called? i was planning to try it and totally forgot

library at mount char

Thoughts on the trilogy ??
4th book will come out in the next 2 years

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If you're okay with cultivation there's Cradle, otherwise the only thing I can think of is The Dandelion Dynasty which I haven't read but have been meaning to get around to.

Already read it. Good rec though I liked it.

Is Cradle really based on SEA?

only the first is worth reading

Does the orc have a huge fucking cock with a pair of low slung leathery balls?
Very important question.

Black Company?

There is no sex in the book only one kiss in the last page

neato

Eh, more EA than SEA. The worldbuilding definitely isn't a focus of the stroy but what is there is good. The Ashwind continent the majority of the story takes place on is just fantasy China. A giant empire composed of squabbling factions across a land of plains, mountains, jungles, badlands, there's a rival kingdom where people have Japanese names. If you're specifically looking for a fantastical jungle Asia I don't know if I'd recommend it though.

Cradle is a mishmash, and intentionally so. You have the home valley of the protagonist which is very much stereotypical medieval China, but the broader continent is more Mongolia meets Japan meets Korea. Then there's the Rosegold continent (which most of the cast never actually visit) which is basically Greco-roman, then there's a third continent which is only really mentioned in passing which is Jungle-Steampunk-Africa.
Cradle takes inspiration from a lot of South East Asian stuff, but it's not really a series that's concerned with trying to present itself as authentic to a culture, the author took fun ideas from all over the place and just decided to mix them up and see where it went.

I was gonna say, I didn't really get anything more than China from most of Cradle's world. There's not-Europe with Eithan's home continent, and maybe some Africa with those people from the west or whatever, but not a whole lot of non-China Asian influence.

I suppose I didn't really think about too much of the influences, it sort of just became a fantasy blender sometimes (the Akura home, for example, doesn't really feel Asian at all), and yeah, beyond Sacred Valley, nothing felt too overtly Chinese in sort of layout, though a lot of the mythology and whatnot always felt pretty Chinese.

There's a bit more in there than just China. For example the Wastelands are pretty clearly Mongolia, broad plains, run mostly by nomadic Heralds and their personal warbands. Then you've got Yerin and wherever she comes from. Yerin is a Korean name, and she and the Sword Sage use Katanas which weren't particularly common in China (and I don't think any other characters actually use Katanas for that matter), also Yerin had never heard of the Blackflame Empire or Akura before the start of the series, which combined with later spoilers heavily hint that she's from the Rosegold continent originally.
Then there's the Ninecloud Court who are.. Jurchens I guess? Weird Rainbow Jurchens.

The Fishers sect are the jungle asians kek

It's easy to kind of get lost in what they're all like considering everybody seems to be broadly the same phenotype with the exception of Eithan and I think the Ninecloud Court, so you don't really think of them as being different sorts of Asian.

>she and the Sword Sage use Katanas which weren't particularly common in China
Really? I'd always imagined they were jian. Are they described as being curved? My reading comprehension might be getting worse these days.

I'm fairly sure they're described mostly as just swords, no notable curves. Wight's fairly lax on some descriptions of things so a lot of it is broadly outlined but left to the reader to fill in the blanks on. Most official illustrations seem to depict them as straight swords.

Forgot to add pic-related. Some fan art has it curved, but that's just fan art I guess.

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i believe that was it, thanks