sffg science fiction fantasy general

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Anon07/30/26, 16:03No.25433998

Pagans, #1 - James Alistair Henry (2025) Pagans is an alternate present crime novel set in 2023 England. The greatest difference is that Christianity never mattered. This has both huge differences on the world and also not nearly as much as may be expected. There isn't any difference in technology and less than may be expected in contemporary social values. The difference is in the distribution of power. Overall it'd call it an inversion of the current world order. The Pan-African Unified States are the world's superpower, followed by the Mughal Empire and The Caliphate of Southern Europe. Britain is divided into three tribes: the Celts of the West who are mostly illiterate, the Saxons of the East who are a mix of modern and traditional ways, and the Norse in the North who are doing better and walled themselves off. Henry, the author, provides a bibliography of the nonfiction and fiction that he read for inspiration.That's all background though as the focus is entirely on the murder of a Celtic diplomat shortly before the next attempt at unifying the three regions so that Britain may find its place in the developed world. Aedith, a Saxon police captain teams up with Drustan, a Celtic detective inspector. Together they do a standard sort of investigation. It's not good or bad, it's just the typical sort to be expected.This book was carried by its setting. If not for that there wouldn't be anything notable about it. It is extremely evident that this was written to be a television series, the author is primarily a screenwriter so that's to be expected. Although there's a good bit of cultural difference explored, I can't help but feel like that it would be far better expressed visually and through actors. This would be the sort of television series where the writer's shortcomings are compensated for by visual spectacle and commanding presence of the actors.I had thought the alternative history setting would be enough for me to overlook the flaws it may have, but I was wrong. Despite its historical divergences I felt this book was an example of "the more things change, the more they stay the same". While this does ground it in familiarity and probably allows for better reception among a general audience, especially for a tv series, it left me wanting for something more distinct.There wasn't anything about this that was of particular concern, but the accumulation of small concerns really added up to where they became a major concern. If these concerns, which mostly the writing and other textual considerations, are below your threshold of concern I believe this book would work much better for you. Especially so if the setting really works for you.The next book of this trilogy comes out in August. I'm tending towards not reading it. I think I'll just wait and see if Apple, who has the tv option, ever adapts it. I feel that it'd be much better than this.Rating: 2.5/5

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Anon07/30/26, 16:41No.25434061

I just finished reading the Hyperion books. So many people only read the first 2 books, but the 3rd and 4th adds so much to the story. I'm very happy with my decision to read all 4, and the ending made it all worth it.

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Anon07/30/26, 17:39No.25434159

>read Algis Budrys' review of Dune >"kids, remember that The Odyssey is much shorter than this shit" Brutal.

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Anon07/30/26, 17:48No.25434181

I read books.

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Anon07/30/26, 19:07No.25434334

https://strawpoll.com/XOgOVq3Dan3

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Anon07/30/26, 19:23No.25434368

Worth a read as an adult?

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Anon07/30/26, 19:56No.25434427

Why do people never seem to grasp the idea that the MORE you shill something that the LESS likely I am to be willing to engage with it at all? It's just like those dumb reels on social media where some dumb Muslim in a pile of rubble says "GO AHEAD, GO ON AND SKIP ME!!!" like, okay dipshit, I will LMAO.I'm never going to read Prince of Sloppies or Reddit Rising specifically BECAUSE of (You) and your day-to-day obsessive faggotry lmao.

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Anon07/30/26, 20:01No.25434437

Why do they both have three arms?

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Anon07/30/26, 20:07No.25434457

>25434453 D'awww... lil' yaughty really thought this post was a true "gotcha"

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Anon07/30/26, 21:26No.25434646

>Everything is a penis thing if you look close enough. Imagine actually, sincerely unironically thinking every little aspect of existence is about sex.GO OUTSIDE.

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Anon07/30/26, 21:28No.25434650

>A Voyage to Arcturus in the OP Exceeding basedness

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Anon07/30/26, 21:31No.25434662

currently reading chapterhouse dune and there's so much pointless filler. god emperor's ramblings were at least funny to read.

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Anon07/30/26, 23:41No.25434878

Gonna start copycat pagespamming my next read! (He is my beige-paged idol) Any recs? Looking for something fairly obscure (because I've read a decent amount already), dense, and standalone. Preferably scifi, but I'm not entirely opposed to fantasy!

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Anon07/31/26, 00:19No.25434928

wtf is going on here

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Anon07/31/26, 02:18No.25435109

The Little Tin God of Characterization article by Isaac Asimov thoughts?https://archive.org/details/Asimovs_v09n05_1985-05/page/25/mode/1up

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Anon07/31/26, 04:07No.25435248

I'm new to fantasy in general, I only read Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire. Are the books in this list any good for a beginner? What else should I add? >inb4 Moorcock and Mieville I don't trust those writers that hate Tolkien, sorry.

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Anon07/31/26, 10:48No.25435581

"ROGGA"

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Anon07/31/26, 11:09No.25435597

good?

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Anon07/31/26, 13:03No.25435708

Thoughts on Larry Cprreia and his comments on how George RR Martin not finishing Asoiaf resulted in publishers dropping or not wanting unfinished/long epic fantasy series.

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Anon07/31/26, 13:24No.25435731

No amazon prime sticker in sight. $170 total, $12 each. Some damage, but in pretty good shape over all.

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Anon07/31/26, 14:18No.25435796

We need more trans representation in fantasy books! I'm tired of all those heteronormative romances.

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Anon07/31/26, 14:31No.25435808

Anyone having issues with reading DUNE? I loved the first half the book, The Intrigue, the world building, it was so enticing, but after the betrayal the plot just kind of meanders around and starts getting real weird (WE ARE HARKANONS just kind of came out to nowhere lol)

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Anon07/31/26, 14:57No.25435861

Berserk is better than whatever shit book you people read.

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Anon07/31/26, 16:21No.25435987

>tfw light resistance

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Anon07/31/26, 16:31No.25436010

>berzerkfags have infiltrated /sffg/ Right when I thought this board couldn't get any shittier.

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Anon07/31/26, 16:52No.25436060

Gene Wolfe is trash

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Anon07/31/26, 17:19No.25436124

>first book is ok >the rest is absolute kino

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Anon07/31/26, 20:55No.25436513

aw naw https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/queen-tells-booksellers-i-hate-sci-fi/ar-AA27Usfc

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Anon07/31/26, 21:48No.25436560

Too much purple prose, not enough plot for my tastes, 5/10. It ain't better than Tolkien

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Anon07/31/26, 23:41No.25436744

House of Chains is really fun

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Anon08/01/26, 01:27No.25436946

Thinking of reading Nine Princes of Amber. Partly because each book is seemingly short as fuck, and also because the premise genuinely just sounds amazing. I don't usually read books that old but I might have to. Maybe It could be my "short stories" in between breaks of big series

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Anon08/01/26, 02:24No.25437086

I hear this is a rather good read. Has anyone in /sffg/ picked through it yet?

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Anon08/01/26, 05:21No.25437355

Does anyone else not give a single shit about Roman inspired worlds? The Roman texture makes everything feel more pretentious, while adding nothing of value.

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Anon08/01/26, 05:43No.25437375

I think I've only finished one novel, I've tried reading a few others, where the main character is trans, a transman in this case, but I may be forgetting some. I didn't really care for it, since it was written in second person. I've read some short fiction that I liked though.

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Anon08/01/26, 06:21No.25437421

Is this slop anons? There's like 30+ of those "Gor" novels. Imma be honest it really seems like a cheap Conan the Barbarian ripoff for sexist BDSM gooners. But that doesn't necessarily make it bad.

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Anon08/01/26, 06:24No.25437425

>listen to audiobook version of Shambleau >expect some generic space adventure from the 30s >turns out to accidentally have a monstergirl hentai plot dude rescues a hot space catgirl who turns out to be a eldritch tentacle monster that gives it's victims mind shattering mega soul orgasms while it psionically feeds. The story tries to treat this as horror, instead I am laughing with a boner the whole time. Ends with dude's friend trying to make him promise to kill it with fire if he encounters such a monster again, dude is like "I can try but I make no promises". Still great writing and good story overall. I recommend it.

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Anon08/01/26, 11:35No.25437674

>FANAC hasn't updated since July the 11th It's dead, isn't it?

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Anon08/01/26, 12:46No.25437710

Is it just me, or is anyone else getting dogshit recommendations from good reads? It appears to be broken, because they're basing most of these recommendations on 3 books I've read. Like 80% of these recommendations are all based on 3 books I've read. And the remaining 20% is based on only a few other books. It's not using my whole shelf. And the frustrating part is, one of the main books it's using is a romantasy. It's like the 1 romantasy book I've ever read, and it's tarnishing half of my recommendations.

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Anon08/01/26, 13:18No.25437742

It's rather shit imo

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Anon08/01/26, 14:41No.25437875

Is the Three-Body Problem actually good?

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Anon08/01/26, 15:03No.25437932

so did we find a good trans fantasy or sci-fi yet?

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