The Vor saga by Lois Bujold.

Well built universe with some interesting political situations.

Plus a awesome main character.

World War Z.

Damn near everything by the OP author.

Also, the Drizzt books when I'm looking for some SERIOUSLY light reading.

Anything by Mr Pratchett.

ASoIaF, GRR Martin writes a very good and gritty mideval fantasy world

If you have not read OPs book I implore you to do so.
I'd also like to ask anon how this book is in comparison.

>>3636144

First book is good, then the series gets progressively worse, wheel of time style.

>>3636118
Fuck yes you are the best series ever.

>>3636149
More light hearted. Personally, out of the novels of his I've read (all but The Graveyard Book), that one's my favorite. But that might have something to do with me having a pretty good handle on Gullah, and reading all of the Anasi tales in it.

Also, by 'Favorite' I'm saying I give it a full 10 instead of a 9.9, basically.

>>3636125
I read hardly anything but this these days.

Um... everything?

Fiction I'd recommend Zelazny (not just the Amber series) and, I dunno, Pratchett before most anything else. Also have most of de Lint and Christopher Moore's stuff.

Most recently I've been reading Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, next on the list is Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatas. Cthulhu vs Beat poets - FUCK YEAR!!!

I finally picked up The Illuminatus! Trilogy the other day.

Jack McDevitt's stuff-space age archaeology and Omega clouds of death.

On my to read list lies Dies the Fire, as it fits into the whole post-apoc thing I have going. World War Z, all the books in the post-apoc thread right now pretty much.

Also, reread The Stars My Destination, another fa/tg/uy was talking about it recently. I forgot how fucking awesome that book was.

>besides the Warhammer stuff
Ugh. Shitty tie-in novels.

The Postman

Just replace "damnsurvivalists" with "damnadventurers" and run a game of peasants uniting against them.

>>3636158
Someone else who reads them!

I can't wait for the new book either, we get more Roic(with fingers crossed that he doesn't end up dead like that Merc did.

God damn Roic's such a badass.

SIR MOTHERFUCKING TERRY PRACHETT

Alan Foster's "The Damned" Trilogy is a "HUMANS ARE BADASS" fiction universe.

Go download it somewhere.

>>3636198

>"HUMANS ARE BADASS" fiction universe

and as such can be safely avoided

>>3636117
Guy Gavriel Kay is my favorite author. He writes beautiful, bittersweet things. THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY is his high fantasy trilogy; TIGANA and THE LIONS OF AL-RASSAN are two of his best.

I've recently been venturing more into regular fiction and have discovered Michael Chabon.

>>3636196
!LORD VETINRI WILL FUCK YOUR SHIT UP¡

The Patternist and Xenogenesis series from Octavia Butler are pretty good reads. Patternist deals with the rise of a psychic sub-species of humanity that eventually takes over the planet. Xenogenesis deals with tri-gendered biotech aliens who are naturally adept at gene manipulation coming and rescuing the remnants of humanity from the nuke-scarred remains of planet Earth and eventually integrating most of the surivors into their own species with cross-breeding.

Almost anything by Cormac McCarthy. Obvious starting books: No Country for Old Men and The Road.

I've found that I enjoy Robert Buettner's Orphan series. The first book is pretty much an homage to Starship Troopers, and the rest of the series continues to deal with Jason Wander's growing responsibilities from grunt to ranking general to official general, fighting off hive-minded space slugs (from outer space). If you like the first book you'll probably like the others.

Mario Acevedo writes the Felix Gomez series of novels about a vampire private detective who was a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was turned by an Iraqi vampire who took advantage of his guilt after accidentally killing an entire family that he mistook for the insurgents his unit was hunting. After he becomes a vampire he starts running into all the other weird shit that's out there, which is basically all the paranormal stuff that crazies talk about: aliens and chakras and nymphomaniacs, oh my. They're incredibly cheesy but strangely compelling and highly entertaining all at
once. Worth the time it takes to read them, at least.

Orson Scott Card's older stuff is all pretty good without being too full of Mormonological propaganda. Search for his stuff in used book stores or library book cellar sales to get the older editions (which he hasn't re-edited to be more "family friendly" yet, basically). Ender's Game is a must-read, most of his short stories are great (Maps in a Mirror is a good collection).

>>3636196
Hell God-damn yes.

Neil Gaiman is awesome as well, and I do like the Wheel of Time series.
Also, I enjoy R.A. Salvatore's work. I don't look for much in it, but it's still good for a couple days of leisure.

As for sci-fi, I recently read Robert Charles Wilson' SPIN on a friend's recommendation.

Shit is very, very cash. Revelation after revelation, and a more satisfying ending that most sci-fi of that sort gets.

Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook is probably the best fantasy series I've ever read. It's a weird category: military fantasy. All the official chronicles of the Black Company, the last Free Company of Khatovar (they don't even remember what that means, initially; that's how long they've been around), a merc company famous for being the baddest bunch of motherfuckers around. What's great about it is how it humanizes pretty much everyone and makes you at least understand why people do the things they do (at least as far as Croaker [or other narrators] can explain it). I promise you that you will like it.

>>3636228
>Wheel of Time
God, shit sucks.

Lots of old pulp, especially anything that was printed in Weird Tales. Glen Cook's Black Company stuff is pretty good. BOLO's also rather popular on here.

Eragon and Harry Potter.

>>3636117
Everything and anything else but Twilight and FagHammer.

>>3636246
First few books are good.

Mostly scifi, and even then mostly short stories. My favorite series of novels would have to be the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons, with Ilium and Olympos by the same author coming in a close second. Asimov's work holds a special place in my heart and I'm not entirely sure why.

I like what I've read of Gaiman's, but I don't think I've read enough of his stuff to call myself a "Gaiman fan".

>>3636249
>>3636245
Oh yeah, skip Silver Spike. It's a whole novel of WTF?

>>3636245
It's pretty good. For some similar themes done, I think, even better, and some hardcore ass-kicking, try HEROES DIE by Matt Stover.

>>3636258
Not counting his short stories (Dear god, there are so many, so very many) he hasn't written all of that much. If you've read two of his novels, you've read half of his adult novels.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, particularly the Martian ones.

Isaac Asimov, particularly the Earth-based ones.

>>3636257
Meh. First few books are mediocre and derivative as hell.

How has the Malazan Book of the Fallen not been mentioned yet?

>>3636280
First book sucks so many people don't get into it.

Ovid's Metamorphosis.

>>3636296
I'm saving this to post in /d/ next time there's a spider girl thread.

Which is probably right now, come to think of it.

Twilight (haha jk bro)
Iain M Banks' Culture novels
Pratchett
Snow Crash
Cryptonomicon
Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Random formulaic space stuff by Weber (I really liked In Fury Born despite the marysue main character)
Wild Cards
Asimov
Hyperion and related books
asoiaf
Good Omens
The Dresden Files. It's fluff but I have a lot of fun with it.

>>3636125
FUCK YOU ALZHEIMER'S.

As I keep telling everyone: H. BEAM PIPER. One of the most criminally underrated sci-fi authors in history.

oh and Ciaphas Cain

>>3636303

SAEG 4 SHITTY WESTERN ART

>>3636305
>The Lies of Locke Lamora
Good to see this one's taking off.

What should I read directly after
>>3636117
?

>>3636117

Anything by Terry Pratchett as >>3636125 says.

I'd also suggest stardust the graphic novel if you haven't read it. I think it fits the story a bit more than just the pure novel version actually. The art style is done in an older method and it looks great with the perfectly retold story (no changes made to what happens or how it's conveyed).

I happen to read R.A. salvatore but I look at salvatorre's writing now like I used to look at goosebumps when I moved onto reading stephen king's better books.

Other than that... I'd say try reading neal stephenson's snow crash and diamond age. Great books for cyberpunk.

Gibson's "neuromancer" is badass.

>>3636117
I just got done this. Reading Neuromancer now, gonna hit up Princess Bride and a few others after that.

>>3636319
Yeah, Lynch has pretty much gone MIA though, so I don't have much hope of seeing the third book anytime soon.

>>3636328
He has?
Well, fuck. I was looking forward to that. Especially since he's been setting Sabetha up for TWO FREAKING BOOKS now.

>>3636303
Oh, there's always one going.

Favorite authors: Asimov and Clarke as a child, Lovecraft and Poe in highschool, now switched to Howard and his Conan series. Various other fiction and scifi authors interspersed but a majority of reading is done online now.
I enjoy Gaiman's graphic novels but his words-only novel style is, well, too British for me.

Herodotus' Histories.

No, seriously, I keep telling people what that book was like and nobody believes me.

Not being pretentious here.

There's pretty much not a single page that goes by without Herodotus going off on some tangent about sex or genitals or fucking or bestiality or fetishes or dangly bits or any combination of the above.

>>3636319
Incidentally, I picked it up in a book store after I saw it and recognized the name because of your forgery mini-guide thread.

:3

>>3636268
The only thing of his I've actually read is Neverwhere. Fucking loved it, but thus far my only other experience with his work is Mirrormask, not counting his work on Princess Mononoke.

>>3636359
Wait, he was involved in Monoke? Neverwhere's a good one, but I'm a bit of a fanboy, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

>>3636345
Dude was wacky but awesome.

>>3636349
Awesome.

>>3636343
Shit, we actually have to bother MENTIONING Lovecraft and Poe? I thought those were more or less assumed of a given fa/tg/uy.

>>3636345

Also the cannibalism and murders and assassinations and douchebag origin stories and pedophilia and GAR.

He's got some odd fascination with things like Egyptian religious beliefs and pottery and all kinds of boring shit, but think of that as the "YOU HAVE STRUCK MICROCLINE" in between Zim Githrucka being struck by a fey mood and Dwarf cancels fish: interrupted by skeletal carp.

hay guys wat do u thnik of umberto eco

Tim Motherfucking Powers

The Anubis Gates

FUCK YEAR

>>3636390
Umberto Eco is a pretty cool guy, eh writes good novels and doesn't afraid of anything.

NAME OF THE ROSE was awesome if a little slow. I keep meaning to read BAUDOLINO.

Gaiman sucks.

>>3636383
Well... yeah. It's not a given but there's definitely a tendency for us to be 'ahead of the curve' in literature.
Fuck, I was reading that Lovecraft and Derleth shit before it was cool.
And it never was cool.
And it's still not; people just like CthulhuTech, Nyarlathotep jokes, HASTUR hurrhurr, and drawing Cthulhu.

Howard is so much better, I can't believe I bought all those Lovecraft anthologies..

I like the Left Behind books because they're so true

>>3636398

>>3636395

I loved Name of the Rose but it did read like a treatise on medieval philosophy in parts. Baudelino is much more of a novel, with Eco's trademark historical versimilitude. Its prolly one of my favorite books ever.

>>3636398

>>3636411
So noted. I'll see if I can grab it from the library once I'm done with Generic Fantasy II: Generic Harder and Michael Chabon's WONDER BOYS. I think I have a Gene Wolfe novel lying around somewhere, too...

>>3636399

What did you expect? Lovecraft was a heroin fiend who actually said, while being serious, that he received the stories he wrote from a humanoid figure in a black hooded cloak who he never actually saw the face of.

>>3636398

>>3636149
I found it to be sorely lacking; as though its more light hearted feel was at times a plus, it also led to descriptions of the main character that were almost painful to read because of his crippling social phobia, the descriptions were very well written, but they took away from my enjoyment of what was otherwise a rather excellent story. To the extent that it almost disappointed me as a sequel.

Still a worthwhile read; especially considering the fact that my opinion is by no means conclusive here.

if u liek sci-fi action shit u could read "hammer's slammers" which is about space mercenaries with space tanks etc.

>>3636398

>>3636423
Oh, Howard, that card.

>>3636412
>>3636426
>>3636407
Gonna have to go with Sal on this one, Gaiman was never good.

>>3636440
One of these:

>>3636448
You shut your whore mouth.

>>3636423
Please stop pulling lies out of your ass.

And so another decent thread descend into reaction images.

reactionimage.jpg?

>>3636447
Conan. Who could hate him?
WHO?

Drunkard, head splitter, doesn't afraid of anything (but sorcerers)

>>3636474

Rightly so, magic fucking sucks to deal with when you're a magic-less barbarian.

>>3636474
Bah, too slow.
>>3636249 anything that was printed in Weird Tales

OPs bool was amazing, my current fave is Songmaster by Orson Scott Card. been wanting to loosely base a campaign on it for a while, (less sci-fi, more awesome character interaction.) if you havent read it yet, BUY IT AND READ IT. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

>>3636518
The only thing OSC did that's worth a damn is Ender's Game, and he's working pretty damn hard at cocking that up too.

>>3636518
I really like Orson Scott Card's writing, but I find his politics horrifying. It's weird.

>>3636481
While I can't claim that magic in Hyborea was more like 4e, unless Khemsa was fucking EPIC or something, it didn't seem to have as much of a dramatic impact as one might assume.
Granted, cruel necromancers could steal souls from afar, but that was more like sympathetic voodoo than outright "Steal your soul instantly from miles away on failed Fortitude save lol" 3e D&D.

Likewise, Conan did know some magic, it just more utility than typical battle buff or blasting one might find in other genres.

I think he hated sorcerers due to the abuse and corruption that being a wizard tended to bring.
Given how RPGs and fantasy genre goes, he may have just been ahead of the times.

/agree with the bit about the politics, but i have read songmaster and its WAY better than enders game.

I really didn't like American Gods at all. It seemed to fucking generic for me. Interchangeable male lead, (aka anyone who read this book became him) pointless sex, most sex leg wife ever. It was alright in certain parts where Gaiman actually cared about what he was writing about, like when they call the meeting of the Gods, or when the ritual to bring back Odin is being preformed; but for every good part there is at least two parts that honestly mimic Twilight in writing quality.

>>3636555
0/10

twilight came well after american gods, though. if anything, twilight is pulling material/ambiance from gaiman

Garth Nix's Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen are great books.

Basically magic when not using the ordered system it's bound into is really a bad idea. There's only one liscensed necromancer... Don't fuck with them.

nobodies mentioned game of thrones yet so i thought id give it some ups. george r r martin if youre interested. great character development.

>>3636562

3/10 you'll probably get him to rage back at you

>>3636562

They really are trying too hard now aren't they?

>>3636571
The only Nix books I really enjoyed. Mostly because the last two of the trilogy came after he finally figured out how to actually end a fucking book.

>>3636555
Nothing wrong with sex.
I hope it's decent sex.

I had read something back as a kid about some alien planet colonized by humans, all the alien animals were peaceful and had hermaphroditic organs.
They negotiated and sacrificed rather than fought.. which involved weird interspecies sex rites between sapient and simple aliens, then humans learned how to do it...
It was a weird novel for a 10 year old. I don't think I was scarred, but it did leave me confused.
Anyone know the name?

>>3636571
FUCK YES

YOU ARE THE MOST AWESOME SETTING EVER

WW1 DMZ SEPARATING THE REAL WORLD AND THE MAGICAL WORLD? SUMMONING THE DEAD USING ASSORTED FLAVORS OF BELLS? FUCK YEAR!

great thread goin here, give me MOAR

>>3636597
It was an awesome setting.

The ink magic or whatever it was was awesome as well.

The inventor main character was annoying as shit though, let me tell you.

>>3636423

1/10, someone might buy it.

>>3636568
Man, if it were it would be several orders of magnitude better.

(Not that it is difficult to be several orders of magnitude better than Twilight.)

>>3636588

It actually vaguely sounds like a poorly remembered version of larry niven's ringworld.

Which I also just remembered and advocate as a good read.

Sure, it starts off kind of stupid, but it actually gets neat. Not to mention he actually took suggestions/emails from his cult following and made the books gradually more intelligent, while keeping them easily approachable to common nerds/geeks.

Pic related, it's the ring world.

enders game wasnt the only good orson scott card. try reading a planet called treason or the one with SOMEC..dont remember the name, but the somec world was really well developed, and its effect on a fantasy setting would be interesting. anon! deliver me the name of this book as im too self absorbed to google

Conan, Cthulhu, Berserk.

>>3636269
Dat's da sound of da classix, nigguh.
Leibowitz in da hooooose!

>>3636610

Yeah... I didn't like that whiny cunt either. Though I admit I sympathized with him. Just raged over the fact he didn't just stand up and say "Fuck no, not doing this" Sooner.

>>3636614
0 to the 68th power is still 0. 1 to the 5000th power is still one.

I don't think making Twilight orders of magnitude better is going to do much of anything.

>>3636620
I know it's not Ringworld for sure.

>>3636571
>>3636597
You have me intrigued now

Lovecraft is awesome, derleth sucks shit for ripping his ideas off and trying to put a system to THE UNNAMEABLE

>>3636620
>larry niven's ringworld.
Let's hear it for genetic luckiness.

>>3636631

Really? Oh well, at least it got me to bring up ringworld.

Anyway... The abhorsen series is a good read, and it only gets mildly annoying in a few parts (see the comment about said whiny cunt). Other than that it's a very interesting way of dealing with magic and setting up the weird mixture between the magic soaked northlands and the magic unbelieving southland people.

All separated by this big and warded berlin wall.

>>3636640

I'm more a supporter of sex as a casually opener/ender of negotiations. Fuck yeah rishashthra!

Especially with coy women of odd species who don't mind trying out new things!

George R R Martin!
hell ive stolen the name and character concept of littlefinger for several of my games. the game of thrones series is what fantasy is supposed to be, not mucked around with by faggy magic, and not a mindless barbarian rushing into the fray and not some self righteous drow whos unsurpassed at anything, ever.

>>3636661
>magic? fantasy isn't supposed to have that shit!
lol. retard.

in anons defense, removing magic from a fantasy setting makes the game have a much more serious tone. (if thats what youre looking for)

>>3636661

God I'm tired of Drizzt coming out physically unscathed in all of his fucking conflicts. I just finished reading "The pirate king" TODAY and I can't help but note that he once again won a fight... and Dur hur hur, his opponent was a challenge, but drizzt doesn't even get a fucking scar.

Salvatorre writes fights with drizzt where even a glancing blow means insta death. Not just from magic and item abilities and what not. But the fact that in other fights where wulfgar, bruenor, regis, and the others can function with a wound. Drizzt when he's in a badass sounding duel with some guy can't get anything more than a mild scrape or he's 'doomed'.

God dammit I'll be satisfied if he gets into another mean fight and loses an ear tip, gains a wicked scar, or I don't know... Stops being the eye of the storm when it comes to battle wounds.

>>3636674
His HP buffer soaks the damage. You don't get scars until you run out of HP (at which point you're unconscious).

god what i would give to be the name of the guy that curb stomps drizzt

>>3636673

You'd be surprised. A lack of supernatural elements or abilities does not guarantee that your players will take it more seriously.

It depends on how you portray the game. It may be that dm's who ran low magic or no magic games put it in a much more serious tone/setting themselves.

I've had very serious/survival horror like games at times and we were supernatural monstrosities.

Where in a d20 modern game we're all normal as can be, and we dealt out 10 million dollars in various forms of damage to the city before being "relocated" to the nevada desert by our handlers.

Alan Dean Foster.
Arthur C. Clarke.
Ray Bradbury.
Roger Zelazney.
H. P. Lovecraft & Friends.
E.A. Poe.
And anything fantasy, horror, and science fiction. The authors above were the ones I've read 90% or more of their works.

>>3636683
>>3636674
More like wore down his PLOT ARMOR

The call must go out, a sound picture of dereck from american history X curbstomping drizzt. go forth anon, and shop.

>>3636117
I finished the book and while it was phenomenal, I don't think I ever got over the main characters name, "shadow".

Am I alone?

>>3636683

Yeah, that excuse doesn't work when every other fucking character in the story gets wounded and keeps fighting, but drizzt doesn't. I don't even want him to die. Just want him maimed some how.

Oh and I raged pretty hard at the reaction to long saddle myself. I'm finding myself increasingly frustrated with Salvatorre's romantic notions, and when he introduces more realistic moral elements into his stories the character flip out like the world got tipped upside down when a man who kills a family by burning their house down is polymorphed into a rabbit. Not killed, polymorphed into a bunny...

>>3636674
Well what do you want from him? He's just a fucking elf.

Kneel, gay man!

>>3636705

Yes, that's his name for the book. The whole point was that "Shadow" is a mythological figure himself. I've already said too much about the plot. Just think about what you know of the story and go from there.

>>3636674
he keeps on rolling 4+

>>3636720

The joke would work if he actually got knocked down for once.

>>3636717
Yeah I know who he is :3

>>3636674
He has a 1 for Con. He's the dumbest min-maxer ever.

bump for this picture. i need this, i NEED it

Enough of me derailing this thread into a Salvatorre and Drizzt hate-fest. More good books!

I actually liked the "The Damned Trilogy" by Foster.

I thought it was pretty good if not devoid of a lot of substance. The book is blatantly a set up for the rest of the series with not much solid story of it's own to go on. Still an amusing/good read.

The basic plot is that humans are badass because we not only can fight and kill other sapient lifeforms... We ENJOY it.

Don't waste your time reading ANY licensed tie-in shit. Read the good stuff they are ripping off.

Pratchett, Banks, Howard, Lovecraft, a shout-out for Horatio Hornblower by C. S. Forester, E. E. Smith, Niven, everything non-fiction. History is awesome because it doesn't have to make sense, it actually happened.

Expand your mind, don't huff the recycled tropes of genre fiction.

>>3636735

Nah. I just think it took the "House of glass" flaw. One hit and the whole thing shatters.

>>3636651
I would love for a book to be written from the perspective of a rookie soldier manning the Wall.

"Today was my first fight with a wild magic creature, or whatever the hell the thing's called. The fog made it impossible to see, but we heard it moving up and down the line, the pipes going silent. Older soldiers said 'Boy, get your guns,' but there was no point, only thing happening was the pipes being silenced, right? Then I see ol' Hendricks stumble in the line from the direction of the Wall. Remember Hendricks? He was the chap in my squad I wrote about last letter. Who lost the map to the minefield and blew himself up. Well, here he is stumbling to and fro with half his body dangling every which way, and I bring my rifle up to bear. Only I see more of Hendricks' comrades in death all coming from the same direction. That's when Dayle on the machine gun opens fire before being silenced by some whirlwind of dust and energy. . ."

One of the Warhammer Fantasy books I liked was the Blackhearts Omnibus.

3636760

derp derp all i saw was "non" warhammer...wait..

Jack motherfucking Vance, bitches.

The Dying Earth stories are the best fantasy literature ever written.

>>3636755

Oh man, that would be awesome. I'd love to hear more about what happens to a certain previously possessed person. But there's only that short story about him.

Anyway. That... and potentially another story of people trying to live north of the wall. Start a small town, etc.

Thieves' World. Great reading if you ever want to run a one city campaign. Strange mix of ultra gritty low fantasy, and completely nuts over the top high fantasy.

What about Harry Turtledove? I've always liked his work, and in a pinch, they would make great starting points for your RPGs.

>>3636771

I'm a fan of iron kingdoms if you want a low magic setting. Or at least one that tears your nuts off if you ever even think that healing can take care of everything.

"A disease... Ooh... this is not going to be fun..." God forbid you want to resurrect someone from the dead.

"Well gary... You didn't need that arm anyway."

BOLO's

MK XX Bolo (Tremendous):

"Allright, Unit DNE of the line. Why did you do it? This is your Commander, Unit DNE. Report! Why did you do it? Now, you knew your position was hopeless, didn`t you? That you`d be destroyed if you held your ground, to say nothing of advancing. Surely you were able to compute that. You were lucky to have the chance to prove yourself."
For a minute I thought old Denny was too far gone to answer. There was just a kind of groan come out of the amplifier. Then it firmed up. General Bates had his cupped behind his ear, but Denny spoke right up.
"Yes, sir."
"You knew what was at stake here. It was the ultimate test of your ability to perform correctly under stress, of your suitability as a weapon of war. You knew that. You knew that General Margrave and old Priss Grace and the press boys all had their eyes on every move you made. So instead of using common sense, you waded into that inferno in defiance of all logic-and destroyed yourself. Right?"
"That is correct, sir."
"Then why? In the name of sanity, tell me WHY! Why, instead of backing out and saving yourself, did you charge? .....Wait a minute, Unit DNE. It just dawned on me. I`ve been underestimating you. You KNEW didn`t you? Your knowledge of human psychology told you they`d break and run, didn`t it?"
"No, sir. On the contrary, I was quite certain that they were as aware as I that they held every advantage."
"Then that leaves me back where I started. Why? What made you risk everything on a hopeless attack? Why did you do it?"
"For the honor of the regiment."

Year 2796, Deng Conflict. Field Test.

Now you cant tell me that isent pure win in multi-thousand ton nuke powered autonomous tank form.

its strange, but Im currently planning on running a game (loosely) based on this book. its really a quite entertaining read, and i wanted to try an organized crime low magic fantasy setting for it.

>>3636770
I just found a copy of Across the World in a used bookstore and picked it up two weeks ago. The book store in question was awesome, with everything from the Nathan Brazil series to books being published under the name "Kilgore Trout" in the scifi section. I had been going there for about two years now to get my fix of awesome used books.

I went there last week, and it was out of business. Bad end.

>>3636776
I like Turtledove, but some of his plot devices are a little silly. If I wanted to read about how to have sex with cloaca, I would be watching Animal Planet, not reading alternate history with a scifi twist. Though I do like his whole "Guns of the South" line, in which the Civil War is won by Lee because he's being helped by time traveling ex-Apartheid south Africans bearing AK-47s. I still need to pick up "In at the Death."

Ironically, I think the stuff he writes for younger readers, (Crosstime?) would make the best setting for an rpg.

>>3636781

I'm not familiar with Iron Kingdoms, but when I read The Riddle of Steel rules a couple months ago and they just screamed TW to me. Nasty combat that encourages backstabbing and running away when outnumbered, and mages that are ungodly powerful.

I set a game in the world from "Book of Lost Swords" by Fred Saberhagen. It went pretty good. The idea of a few uber powerful items that change hands often is a lot of fun if done right. I did it about half right. =P

>>3636788
BOLOs prior to the Mk XXV were incapable of emotional or intuitive reasoning.

>>3636781
I played a Nyss slowly being eaten inside out from Everblight. In the end, there was no cure, no heroic sacrifice, but an insane and corrupted elf that needed to be put down by his own party. Shit was rather cash and fun to play. Keep in mind, this was before Hordes was out and a bunch of fluff and mechanical stuff for the whole Everblight process was released in that magazine they have.

>>3636845

In iron kingdoms when a cleric wants to do anything besides basic healing it requires a ritual that could potential hurt or even kill them and the subject being healed.

If they resurrect someone? They WILL lose a limb, an arm, a leg, a hand, a finger, an eye. Some part of their body will wither and fall off as a price beyond the ridiculous component costs.

Oh and humans really are the dominant species, there are other races, but they're very much so the minority. Humans also apparently get regional bonuses to stats, skills, and favor certain classes depending on where they're from. Though I could be confusing elements of dragonmech in... I know the healing thing is definitely iron kingdoms.

>>3636849
Thats actually sounds really awesome. ima use that, except maybe make them trackable by a clever person, (a sword that can cut through nearly anything, but it begins pouring rain when unsheathed, etc etc.)

>>3636859
You're right about the human stats according to region being Iron Kingdoms.

>>3636788
Damn ubertank.

>>3636640
And the universe fears at the thought of a LUCKY HUMAN Protector.

I mean One Human Protector designed and built something as mad as the Fingle Bullet and another probably is running ARM during the Kzin Wars.

Now add Luck and you got a SuperGenius ultrastrong Creature that is dedicated to protecting its family (Pray it had not descendants and decided humanity as a whole is family)

>>3636863
on that note, read the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy 5 book trilogy. (the rain thing reminded me.)

>>3636881
Poor Bastard... gets paid NOT to go on vacations...

>>3636868

I think the single greatest move was when they made that one a protector. It ensured that the ringworld as a whole would be safe.

>>3636891
Just hope he doesn't get TOO angry... Protectors (both Pak and Human) Tend not to be merciful

grimdark fluff...
lots of it

Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality stories. Excellent post-human / far future stuff. Highest recommendation.

Iain M. Banks: Culture books, excellent post-scarcity SF, chock full of kitchen sink WTF? goodness

MAR Barker's Tekumel novels. Like Tolkein in depth, but based on Meso-American, Middle Eastern and Hindi influences + ER Burroughs, Buck Rogers, Vance and Clark Ashton Smith. So sorta like the Anti-Tolkein. Also wrote various Tekumel rpgs, starting with the D&D variant Empire of the Petal Throne. www.tekumel.com books from Zotpub and/or Amazon.com.

Glenn Cook: Black Company (fantasy mercs), his fantasy noir stuff

C.L. Moore: Jirel of Joiry

Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan books (aka the Gormenghast trilogy), great non-Tolkein fantasy set around the heir to a sprawling castle, like if Dickens had written post-Gothic fantasy

Jack Vance: Dying Earth (sorcerers in the far future when the Sun is dying, source for D&D's magic but much much better), Demon Princes (very Traveller-esque), Lyonnesse, Planet of Adventure series

Karl Edward Wagner for Kane, who is like an unkillable Conan who knows eldritch stuffs on 11. Great for reading after Conan and Elric. Kane will manipulate and ruin whole kingdoms just to get a tome or jewel or girl. Has good use of science-fantasy too.

William Hope Hodgson - The Night Land (great end of the world stuff), Carnacki the Ghost Finder, House on the Borderlands (very gripping survival horror)

Ursula K. Le Guin - Earthsea books for a good non-Tolkein magic, Left Hand of Darkness & related SF books

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books for entertaining social commentary fantasy

Robert Asprin's MYTH books or L. Sprague de Camp's Compleat Enchanter for similar

>>3636304
The Magician books are a good example of why I don't think the Tekumel setting is all that hard to get into if you are willing to only use the bits you find fun and don't try to shove the whole damn setting down players' throats.

Feist arguably has a Tekumel-inspired culture in the books and they sold very well back in the day. So just because fantasy isn't from your standard European myth and fables doesn't mean it's automatically unplayable or unreadable.

John Dies at the End was better when it was free, but it still deserves a mention.

>>3637034
Aw, shit, it's not anymore? I walk away for... okay, it was six months, but still. Damn.

>>3637034
I actually find it much more readable in book form. (Which is why e-readers will never, ever catch on).

Also, if people are that fucking desperate (since it won't be back in stores until fall):

>>>/rs/john+dies+at+the+end

>>3637034
ALSO: It's a fucking fantastic book. It's very rare to find a book that blends humor and horror so effectively.

Gene Wolfe's one of the 10 best living writers in English irrespective of genre. His novels are amazingly complex creations, full of enigmas and puzzles and surprises. This rather unfortunately means that you have to read one of his novels two or three times to grasp it all. (Or more. The Book Of The New Sun has a lot of WTF? moments that rely on you having remembered pretty much everything you've ever been told.)

The Fifth Head of Cerberus is incredible, and relatively accessible (like, it's under 250 pages, though the middle third is difficult sledding). The Book Of The New Sun is an astonishing work; I still think "Loyal To The Group Of Seventeen's Story" is one of the funniest and weirdest things I've ever read. The Book of the Long Sun is the closest SF has come to Tolstoy, and the most elaborate world-building in Wolfe's works to boot.

I liked Peace and Free Live Free a lot. I've also read The Knight and The Wizard, which I feel is some bizarre commentary on Norse mythology that I'm too ignorant to interpret.

But really, read The Book of the New Sun. It's one of the most original works of fiction I've ever read in any genre.

>>3636117

drizzt from rasalvatore

>>3636304
This. The original Riftwar series was pretty awesome, and Serpent War was good as well.

How has Dune not been mentioned yet? A book as influential as it was upon science fiction and one with such interesting and well written plot? Mother fuckers!

>>3636149
I was dissapointed with anansi boys,
It was still gaimen, and was there for better than a lot of other books you could be reading.

It had a lot of potential and some parts were pretty cool, but it lost steam 2-3 times in the book and just dragged on, and I was personally very dissapointed with the ending. I expect a bit more from neil.

Also, just the other day I got the Absolute Sandman Vol1 and sat down and read damn near the whole thing just now, this thing is fucking beautiful, its all blown up and way better quality than the original book collection

>>3636576
This man is dead correct. I started it yesterday and I'm already impressed. Not only is it well written, but it's intriguing aswell(I would say interesting, but the way he set's things up just to tear them down is amazing!) Also it's undoubtly going to be the next hit like LOTR, so if you thought LOTR was okay, you will freaking love the series of "A Song of Ice and Fire".

If you're into something a little more real, and fucked up, like really fucked up. Try "Little Crooked Vein" by Warren Ellis. I've learned things about fetishes and personality's of people 4chan hasn't even shown me.

Terry Pratchett is great but you can't just read it alone, you need some serious stuff to inspire and motivate aswell.

Doesn't matter what you read, as long as it isn't fiction you won't waste your time.

>>3638744
...It seems a little on you would say that on /tg/

>>3638808
Game rulebooks aren't fiction.

>>3637067

Is part two out there anywhere?

>>3638725
It's not going to be a hit like LotR. LotR was how the world discovered real literature that shares a setting with fairy tales.

No fantasy work is ever going to get out of Tolkien's shadow, just like nothing in English literature is ever going to beat Shakespeare. There's no substitute for being the First Really Good Thing.

"Interface" and "Cobweb" by Stephen Bury (pseudonym under which Neal Stephenson and his uncle have collaborated) - satirical contemporary thrillers.

"The Big U" is Neal Stephenson's first novel, with some /tg/esque content (LARPing in the tunnels beneath a cyclopean megauniversity).

Larry Niven and Steven Barnes' Dreampark books would seem to be apposite as well; roleplaying in vast holographically enhanced arenas for fun and profit.

Another Tim Powers recommendation would be "On Stranger Tides" - Voodoo in the Golden Age of Piracy, an influence on the first two Secret of Monkey Island games.

"White Light" by Rudy Rucker explores hallucinatory realms of the transfinite, "The Hacker and the Ants" is more mundane but great fun.

"A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller Jr. - a classic, postapocalyptic monks recover artefacts of the past.

Anyone read Joe Abercrombie's stuff? The First Law Trilogy?

Needs moar lovecraft.

so...have all of it!

http://rapidshare.com/files/35742011/hplovecraft.rar

(note: RS is having an issue right now it seems, save the link and grab your bliss later)

>>3638575
Because Dune was butchered with the sequels and prequels.

I'm looking at you Anderson

last book: the prince
currently reading: xenophon's anabasis

The expedition of the ten thousand would make an awesome campaign.

>>3636395
Oh man, Baudolino is fucking awesome. It's incredibly arcane historical fiction that had me in stitches for a large part of it.

Baudolino himself is fucking awesome. He's like some sort of satyr-fucking medieval Baron Munchausen.

Fucking Everything by Chuck Palahniuk

Pic is the last book I read voluntarily before classes started. Now I'm mainly reading short stories (Murakami and Leni Zumas) in between my assigned books.

>>3636395
Baudolino sucked.

Read Foucalt's Pendulum instead.

>>3639064
OVERRATED LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER

I tried reading American Gods and it just didn't grab me.
Although I flipped through and stumbled on the part where the demigod-prostitute sucks a dude up her vagina
It was weird but kind of arousing too, which was weird
I guess that's what Scientology gets guys like Gaiman into writing about

>>3636403

War with the newts by Karel Čapek

-most awesome apocalyptic (not postapocalyptic, this time apocalyptic) setting ever! 100 times more grimdark than WH40K and Warhammer fantasy combined.

Required reading for anyone wanting to make a halfway decent bard.

>>3636149
Even better.

"Soon I will Be Invincible"

Written from the perspective of a supervillian. Read it, its great.

Anything by Harry Turtledove.

>>3639475

>bard

I think you misspelled that. The word you were looking for was "faggot".

>>3636117
Fuck yes you are the best book ever

>>3640440

Agreed.The Timeline 191 series of books was great.
He needs to do a follow-up with it now that the Confederacy is no more.

>>3640008

You mean great up until the ending which was totally lame.

Anything Pratchett. Even his weaker stuff I love.

>>3640457

Yeah, that would be cool. Also, I wouldn't mind a book set maybe a hundred years after Homeward Bound that detailed the Race and Humanity's interaction as we expanded into space.

Currently reading "Man in the Dark" by Paul Auster.

>>3640473
The fuck?

>>3640487

That's a rather non-canon political map of the Earth after it was invade by the Race during WWII.

>>3640487

If that bothers you, don't look at the map detailing Timeline 191.That one's more fucked up.

>>3640495

>>3640506
So Germany finally made it to Ireland?

>>3640529
Britain,Czarist Russia and France were allied to the Confederacy in this timeline.

The U.S. was allied with Imperial Germany and Austro-Hungary.

After the Brits lost WW1 part of the armistace was freedom for Ireland which then allied with the U.S. against Britain.

Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.

It's the best modern fantasy ever written.