|
A little late, but re: magic changing society / why doesn't everyone learn it: We *have* magic that works, it's science, and it's hell trying to get people to listen hard enough for long enough to actually learn to do anything useful. I can offer you spells to hurl fire and lightning, to slay your enemies, to render a field or beast barren or fruitful, and yet people mostly just don't care, because they have other stuff going on in their lives. I can only assume that fantasy worlds are the same.
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2020 07:06
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 20:26 |
|
|
ClamdestineBoyster posted:Not very many “intelligent” people actually produce any new information, it’s actually like there is a block that keeps them from doing that, when it’s an easy thing for people with lower iqs to do (although the new ideas they produce are touted as worthless without credentials). Like when magic and fantasy didn’t have an instruction set, all the brainiacs were the fearful and nervous ones while everyone else moved poo poo forward with real practical science. Useful poo poo that doesn’t gently caress poo poo up p much. Interestingly, I have been directly cautioned against giving too much actually practically useful instruction. I can see why that might be (explosions), but it does lead to the sad result of a separation of learned knowledge from real-life situations / applications. And yes, those who are best at absorbing that knowledge often have the strongest such separation.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2020 09:36
|
|
|
Flared Basic Bitch posted:As a bonus it’s also got some super explicit gay sex scenes that I’m still not sure are enlightened or just included to freak out nerds. Or both. My personal theory is that the author wanted to write a series so excellent that freaked-out nerds would feel compelled to read it despite this. It really is very very good.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 17, 2020 03:31
|
|
|
Most things by Zelazny are cool. Products of their time, but excellent for that time.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 18, 2020 14:52
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:julian may, the many coloured land et al. Just completely berzerk sci fantasy with space elf pliocene rape camps and glowing colour coded psychics zapping each other and lesbian hockey players blasting open the mediterranean while hanging from a hot air balloon, and and and Those semi-shared-continuity Julian May series are interesting. As outlined above, by rights they should be utterly ridiculously awful, but somehow it all comes together into something genuinely good. As in, "can reread today and be only moderately embarrassed at the bad parts, and still entertained by the rest." I don't know why. It's got most of the stuff being mocked in this thread, but... ??? At least in my opinion, anyway. Obviously subjective.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2020 13:41
|
|
|
juggalo baby coffin posted:has anyone read the redwall books as an adult? i loved them as a kid but i have no idea what kind of crazy themes and such i just missed because i was too young. Well you see, certain races, uh, woodland species are always evil, no matter what you do. So it's better to just kill them all and get it over with rather than try to negotiate with them or change them. Kill kill kill them all we must secure a future for mouse children.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 5, 2020 03:29
|
|
|
Even as a child I noticed the crippling weakness of the combination "relies on others to save him from his body's frailty" and "is a complete rear end in a top hat to others". Never a tempting character.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 5, 2020 06:26
|
|
|
Assuming that their source material was real-world race science literature from Victorian times.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 9, 2022 00:34
|
|
|
Nigmaetcetera posted:What are some hosed up fantasy* novels? I want to read some hosed up fantasy* novels. The Year Of Our War by Steph Swainson is pretty hosed up without being particularly offensive. Doesn't really belong in this thread because it's... average to slightly above, or at least memorable, while definitely being different to a lot of fantasy.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 9, 2022 09:22
|
|
|
Empty Sandwich posted:I just started reading the Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser books, but I don't think they belong in this thread They are simultaneously awesome and awful. You'll pause for a moment with "wtf am I reading", but then you'll continue.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2022 04:15
|
|
|
Hellequin posted:All the eternal champion incarnations are pretty dope, I think Jerry Cornelius will always be my favourite. The Hawkmoon/Runestaff series is fun too because you can totally tell the whole thing was written in one 48 hour amphetamine binge. If it's weird fantasy amphetamine binges that you're after, just play Morrowind and read all the background lore books.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2022 10:50
|
|
|
Another "weird but not bad" is Mary Gentle's "Rats and Gargoyles". Got its rough edges but some interesting stuff. Unfortunately, people can't hear "Mary Gentle" without immediately jumping to some of her most questionable work.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2022 04:52
|
|
|
Mad Hamish posted:What is her more questionable work? I am a huge fan ever since I read Golden Witchbreed and have most of what she's written and while some of it's not great it's all still enjoyable. The usual problem is "Grunts". Which is a pity, because her "Ash: A Secret History" is one of the best fantasy books I've ever read, without qualifiers.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2022 05:27
|
|
|
Some evil cannot be destroyed by death.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2022 15:27
|
|
|
While it has been done well very occasionally, fantasy literature as a whole would be better if no-one put sex scenes in their books beyond a fade to black. Even when it doesn't hit any particular landmines, it seldom adds much.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2022 10:15
|
|
|
No Pants posted:smut is good actually No argument, but it's better put in dedicated smut vehicles rather than generic fantasy. That way you can get your smut on without being disappointed, or read fantasy without being surprised by a description of exactly how the protagonist's vagina feels with a root vegetable in it. Quasi-related, pro-click if anyone hasn't already: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/if-women-wrote-men-the-way-men-write-women
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2022 03:00
|
|
|
thoughts and prayers posted:Zelazny was so great Very true
|
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2022 03:01
|
|
|
Re: Tolkein influence, one of the best descriptors I ever read of China Mieville's books (they are mostly good go read them) is: "Standard fantasy from an alternate world where Peake's Gormenghast defined the genre rather than Tolkein. They really do escape the influence for the most part.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2022 05:00
|
|
|
Dude had some rough edges of his time, but for his time he was impressively not hosed up. And his prose is utter delight, at times poetry. Edit: referring to Zelazny, didn't see the intervening posts.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2022 13:20
|
|
|
Nigmaetcetera posted:I started reading Imajica. I’m two chapters in and there’s a shitload of footnotes that are utterly loving bizarre, so I have a feeling it’s going to go loving nuts asap. Imajica is... quite a thing. I read it, was entertained, but plenty of wtf and questionable content. Still, if you want something different, there it is.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2022 07:17
|
|
|
Runcible Cat posted:ngl would buy the poo poo out of POUNDED BY THE PIGEON EMPEROR if I saw it on a shelf. Came here to post this.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2022 05:16
|
|
|
The Moon Monster posted:I don't remember the actual frequency, but the books are definitely proponents of wife spanking a la old timey western movies. There was also a bunch of frat-boy hazing style stuff involved in the ceremonies and punishments of the worlds various magical societies. I mean to be fair, lots of real-world mystery cults had frat-boy style hazing. The rest... yeah.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2022 01:07
|
|
|
When Robert Jordan was still writing we were in danger of reaching Peak Spanking, when the number of pages spent dealing with the character consequences of spankings became greater than the number of pages between incidents of spanking.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2022 11:46
|
|
|
Trimson Grondag 3 posted:Oh I'm so glad someone else has read this. Its such an oddity, sort of early take on urban fantasy plus combined with some weird sex stuff (I know they go hand in hand now but this seems like an early example?). Then portals into a non traditional fantasy world. Heavy on the FEMALE SPIRIT VS MALE SPIRIT stuff but with what is sort of a intersex character to mediate it. Reading about the author can be more entertaining than some books.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2022 09:46
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 20:26 |
|
|
Read Zelazny for the prose (and the everything, tbh). Read China Mieville for the ideas and world. Read Mary Gentle for... well, for a couple of her books, because when she's good she's very good. Ash, for example.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2022 05:00
|
|