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It has been a while since I've read them but doesn't the last Merlin book kind of leave things unresolved?
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Sep 18, 2020 14:03
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Dying Earth Nine Princes in Amber Wizard of Earthsea Dying Earth especially is great Cugel is just such a dick.
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Sep 18, 2020 14:04
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Most things by Zelazny are cool. Products of their time, but excellent for that time.
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Sep 18, 2020 14:52
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Atopian posted:Most things by Zelazny are cool. I read Lord of Light recently and I loved it, I thought it was completely awesome, but it trends more towards sci fi than fantasy so i'm not sure if I'm being relevant. What else of his is good?
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Sep 18, 2020 15:35
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If you want an actually good fantasy series, you should buy and read the Traitor Baru series by SA goon General Battuta.
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Sep 18, 2020 16:11
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Empty Sandwich posted:I was just going to ask about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Gygax said that those stories were the primary inspiration for D&D, but I could never get my hands on them when I was a kid. I've always heard they're good I read a bunch as a kid and enjoyed them, then I reread them recently (much, much later), and they’re god drat amazing. Start with any collection that includes the story Stardock imho.
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Sep 18, 2020 17:06
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Horizon Burning posted:If you want an actually good fantasy series, you should buy and read the Traitor Baru series by SA goon General Battuta. I’ll enthusiastically second this, but be aware that it’s not a traditional fantasy story by a long shot.
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Sep 18, 2020 17:08
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I know this is Bad Fantasy thread but hear me out on this one: Ironically, one of the best fantasy books I have read had...no magic in it but also had shitloads of magic. The Warlord Chronicles from the Bernard "I base my entire career on British history" Cornwell is probably the most wonderful depiction of King Arthur re-telling "is it actual magic or simply superstitious pagans/early Christians think it's magic?". It is probably the most magical series ever to not include a single actual spell (or does it?). Highly recommended.
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Sep 18, 2020 18:16
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If you're fine with comics, Delicious in Dungeon is great. The premise is basically that in a fantasy setting where increasingly complex dungeons are a natural phenomenon, a party of explorers fucks up when hitting the middle levels of the dungeon they're exploring and one of the party members is swallowed by a red dragon while she teleports the rest up to the entrance. Now they need to try to get down there within a month to cut her body out and revive her before it's completely digested, but all their supplies were left behind, leading to necessary unusual culinary use of various dungeon flora and fauna. Along the way the weirdness of naturally occurring dungeons stocked with demonic monsters is explored, as well as exploring the backstory of the mad mage in charge of this specific dungeon... unfortunately the party leader is a sweet, strong, well-meaning complete idiot. It's 1 part cooking manga, 1 part tongue-in-cheek dungeon crawl, and 1 part actually really interesting worldbuilding and plot.
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Sep 18, 2020 18:16
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:Anyway, yes, I'll take a large fries. Thanks for the detailed response. I've been writing for years, but I've only now felt comfortable having developed a catalogue of ideas and a style I want to try to turn into a great number of short stories, serials, and written novels. My primary genres I like to play with are horror, modern day weird/fantastical/sci-fish, various kinds of fantasy (mostly petty takedowns of the genre), and stuff that explores a variety of current social issues as well as themes of spirituality/divinity. I guess for credentials I'm barely comfortable sharing, I was the one who shat out the Backrooms idea, and I uh... did some popular stuff for Homestuck. I'll skip Patreon then. My goals are to make all my ideas hit paper as stories or something else, challenge my writing and my discipline further, and last of all, to make some side-scratch off of it. I don't want to do it as a primary living unless I really take off, because I don't want my #1 hobby to be my job. I don't care how my work gets seen, but I want it to be seen, and think I should try to work with the web as a medium as much as seek physical books on shelves. I don't care how long I have to write to get attention, I've already written plenty and am patient, and already KNOW I can get eyes when I put in the effort. Now, I can easily write garbage as a side thing to keep the hands sharp and to make scratch from the discard ideas. You're saying the idea is to use Amazon for the legit writing, Kindle Unlimited for slush trash fantasy stuff that's popular right now (and smut), and probably a website for general writing scraps to help cultivate interest and presence? And Patreon is more a down-road thing that comes when you're actually a big enough name that you decide to go "Ok here's bonus/upcoming/other stuff locked behind a Patreon if you like my stuff and want to help out"
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Sep 18, 2020 18:34
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Seconding Delicious In Dungeon. I have a personal dislike of the style for a lot Japan's fantasy content, but DID captures what's actually FUN about the whole roleplaying genre in a real charming way. I hope it gets finished soon and then animated.
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Sep 18, 2020 18:35
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PetraCore posted:If you're fine with comics, Delicious in Dungeon is great. The premise is basically that in a fantasy setting where increasingly complex dungeons are a natural phenomenon, a party of explorers fucks up when hitting the middle levels of the dungeon they're exploring and one of the party members is swallowed by a red dragon while she teleports the rest up to the entrance. Now they need to try to get down there within a month to cut her body out and revive her before it's completely digested, but all their supplies were left behind, leading to necessary unusual culinary use of various dungeon flora and fauna. Along the way the weirdness of naturally occurring dungeons stocked with demonic monsters is explored, as well as exploring the backstory of the mad mage in charge of this specific dungeon... unfortunately the party leader is a sweet, strong, well-meaning complete idiot. this sounds amazing
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Sep 18, 2020 18:37
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It has very likeable characters, solid art, fun writing and situations, good balance of stakes and humor, incredible amounts of food porn, and an interesting take on your stock-fantasy setting.
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Sep 18, 2020 18:41
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Yeah, I need to catch up. It does seem to be heading up towards a wrap-up, which is good because I hate stuff that meanders forever past the planned plot. My favorite character is probably Marcille, the neurotic elf who is only on this mission because the missing adventurer is her best friend. All the characters are really solid, though.
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Sep 18, 2020 19:05
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It's a personal writing neurosis of mine, but I can't stand series that just keep going on forever and never allow themselves to wrap up. I hate the culture of leave-for-sequel stylings on so much stuff. A habit of brevity and knowing when to let something END is important to me.
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Sep 18, 2020 19:09
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If you’re writing a series of 600-page doorstops, you’d better be Marcel Proust. One of the biggest problems I have with filler media is the amount of my time they want to waste. No fantasy novel should ever be longer than 200 pages. My list of good ones are all short and cut all the fat. And the bad ones are either endless series or thousands of pages
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Sep 18, 2020 19:14
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Speakin' of that You know what I hate in retrospect? Yeah, you know what I'm gonna say To Fuckin' Green Angel Tower
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Sep 18, 2020 19:20
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General Writing Advice, Since We're Talking about That Read. Read everything. Good stuff, bad stuff, whatever. Cereal boxes. Chick tracts. Read. Write as much as you can. The people I know who take this seriously get up at 5 to write for a while. I'm sure some people do this at the other end of the day, but most of them like to write fresh, while the rest of us are dreaming about being naked during a calculus exam. Write for a specific audience. That'll help you focus on details that matter. It's maybe especially key in weird genre stuff. Your Aunt Gladys does not know what an orc is. Your cousin who now goes by Glaive-Guisarme wants to marry an orc. Figure out which audience you're aiming for. Don't get seduced by the idea of writing. Some people just think it's a romantic notion or a way monetize alcoholism. I've heard completely unsolicited fantasy pitches from various people over the years, which is sort of a different version of That Guy at the game store. They all get super mad if you encourage them to keep writing about that idea (not in a condescending way, even). They all basically want you to say "Oh poo poo! That's badass!" Every fantasy novel sounds badass as an elevator pitch. Dragonlance sounds badass if it's two minutes long. Remember that you will not make money. Please don't be discouraged by this. I know a bunch of writers. (More than enough. Too many.) Four of those writers (three novelists and a writer of mostly nonfiction) are reasonably well known, with multiple novels published by the big publishing houses. I think every one of them had a bidding war for the paperback rights to one book or another. The mostly-nonfiction writer is legit famous, as writers go. None of these people earns most of their income from writing... three are professors and one owns a bookstore and is also a professor. If you do end up making money, all the better.
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Sep 18, 2020 19:32
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PetraCore posted:If you're fine with comics, Delicious in Dungeon is great. The premise is basically that in a fantasy setting where increasingly complex dungeons are a natural phenomenon, a party of explorers fucks up when hitting the middle levels of the dungeon they're exploring and one of the party members is swallowed by a red dragon while she teleports the rest up to the entrance. Now they need to try to get down there within a month to cut her body out and revive her before it's completely digested, but all their supplies were left behind, leading to necessary unusual culinary use of various dungeon flora and fauna. Along the way the weirdness of naturally occurring dungeons stocked with demonic monsters is explored, as well as exploring the backstory of the mad mage in charge of this specific dungeon... unfortunately the party leader is a sweet, strong, well-meaning complete idiot. it's anime, so it's 100% poo poo and also not a book, so take it elsewhere
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Sep 18, 2020 19:36
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ChubbyChecker posted:it's anime, so it's 100% poo poo
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Sep 18, 2020 19:38
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yeah I have no illusions of making writing money unless it's writing the slush trash and smut for a little extra spending. reading more is what I'm trying to work on now, last thing I got through was the excellent Southern Reach trilogy, and that's RIGHT up the alley of stuff I've always enjoyed writing myself. that, and the Three Body Problem books.
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Sep 18, 2020 19:38
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ChubbyChecker posted:it's anime, so it's 100% poo poo why are you being a cocklunch
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Sep 18, 2020 19:41
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The best fantasy books currently on the market are the Farseer books by 'Robin Hobb' (aka Meagan Lindholm).
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Sep 18, 2020 19:44
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PetraCore posted:It is a comic book. gently caress off. lmao did you try to write book reports about your animes in school?
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Sep 18, 2020 19:45
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ChubbyChecker posted:it's anime, so it's 100% poo poo Uncomfortable truths coming to light here.
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Sep 18, 2020 20:03
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Inverted Icon posted:The best fantasy books currently on the market are the Farseer books by 'Robin Hobb' (aka Meagan Lindholm). I only ever read that boat series by Robin Hobb, and gently caress her. Never again.
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Sep 18, 2020 20:07
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Flared Basic Bitch posted:I only ever read that boat series by Robin Hobb, and gently caress her. Never again. deets?
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Sep 18, 2020 20:09
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Delicious in Dungeon owns yeah. Going back to books, I don't think Discworld came up? Cause Discworld's certainly a thing. I also remember liking The True Game/Mavyn Manyshaped? But it's been a long rear end time since I read that. Going back to questionable fantasy, anyone else ever read the Katherine Kerr stuff? It's been ages and I remember liking parts of it but thinking it got real bad as it went on and even early on was real weird about some heavy poo poo that I'm not sure it handled very well. And that was with like twelve year old me's reading comprehension. A Sometimes Food fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Sep 18, 2020 |
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Sep 18, 2020 20:09
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ChubbyChecker posted:it's anime, so it's 100% poo poo It's one of the few good anime.
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Sep 18, 2020 20:13
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Something I really hate about modern fantasy/sci-fi is how nothing is a stand alone any more. Everything is writing for trilogy.
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Sep 18, 2020 20:13
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muscles like this! posted:Something I really hate about modern fantasy/sci-fi is how nothing is a stand alone any more. Everything is writing for trilogy. I'm trying to think of how many big fantasy books were ever stand alone. Even way back it seems like they deliberately cut them up to make three or five books. Scifi had a lot more one offs but fantasy seems to have had this curse from Lord of the Rings on.
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Sep 18, 2020 20:15
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muscles like this! posted:Something I really hate about modern fantasy/sci-fi is how nothing is a stand alone any more. Everything is writing for trilogy. blame tolkien
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Sep 18, 2020 20:15
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muscles like this! posted:Something I really hate about modern fantasy/sci-fi is how nothing is a stand alone any more. Everything is writing for trilogy. Same. I'd rather write a dozen stand-alones within the same setting, giving more shape to the world and detailing out background elements across them all, than just poo poo out cliffhanger after cliffhanger.
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Sep 18, 2020 20:19
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muscles like this! posted:Something I really hate about modern fantasy/sci-fi is how nothing is a stand alone any more. Everything is writing for trilogy. Book 7 of the Illuminating stones of the suns trilogy.
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Sep 18, 2020 20:19
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Flared Basic Bitch posted:I only ever read that boat series by Robin Hobb, and gently caress her. Never again. Bingtown can be a slog (Ship of X , Dragon X). Stay in the Six Duchies (Assassins X , Fools X, maybe X Fate)
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Sep 18, 2020 20:22
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Black August posted:Speakin' of that I’m pretty sure I’d never literally screamed at a book until I started yelling “He didn’t actually kill the dragon you fucks!” at this series.
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Sep 18, 2020 21:05
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Horizon Burning posted:If you want an actually good fantasy series, you should buy and read the Traitor Baru series by SA goon General Battuta. The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach is also goon-written and excellent.
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Sep 18, 2020 21:10
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A Sometimes Food posted:Delicious in Dungeon owns yeah. yessss hypercatholics and i suspect a lot of gay coding, I used to love these.
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Sep 18, 2020 21:11
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Black August posted:Speakin' of that I read that entire trilogy in my early 20's going through a period of unemployment and had time to kill and it was still too much of a slog to be worth it. Edit: I think the most frustrating of 'Enormous slog' books for me was Neal Stephensons Baroque Cycle series. Which were almost comically overstuffed with pages. But every 100-150 pages or so there was a scene, or a plot twist, or some really good action which just kept me death marching through the rest of the book. Actually now I think about it, you could probably say the same for the Mazalan books too. Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Sep 18, 2020 |
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Sep 18, 2020 21:21
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super sweet best pal posted:Terry Goodkind is dead but the damage he's done is irreversible. Terry Goodkind's entire legacy is already so completely overshadowed by Robert Jordan and GRRM that it's only matter of time until his books are only remembered for the amount of shelf space they take up in a used bookstore. We're a little past it, but I liked Kingkiller Chronicles, and when people talk about what a perfect Mary Sue Kvothe is it always sounds like when people say Nabakov is total pedo for what Humbert Humbert is thinking. (a little loaded, but it's the most popular example of an unreliable narrator.) The setup is the story of a legendary figure, being collected by someone inherent skeptical of everything attributed to the hero and I think book one does a good job of balancing that, but then two kind of falls apart. Like the story about being a shy virgin until he gets picked up by a sex fairy that he then has to trick is classic tall-tale garbage, but then it gets tied to a real need to acquire something from the fairy realm so you can't just dismiss the entire event as horseshit.
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Sep 18, 2020 21:39
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