Hello, r/Fantasy. Recently we and other subs have been experiencing a sharp rise in AI-generated content. While we’re aware that this technology is new and fun to play with, it can often produce low-quality content that borders on spam. The moderator team has recently had multiple run ins with users attempting to pass off AI-generated lists as their own substantive answers to discussion posts. In a particularly bad example, one user asked for recs for novels featuring a focus on “Aristocratic politics” and another user produced a garbage list of recommendations that included books like Ender’s Game, Atlas Shrugged, and The Wizard of Oz. As anyone familiar with these books can tell you, these are in no way close to what the original user was looking for.
We are aware that sometimes AI can be genuinely helpful and useful. Recently one user asked for help finding a book they’d read in the past that they couldn’t remember the title. Another user plugged their question into ChatGPT and got …
Goodbye, May your books always be read.
Recently, there has been some discussion on this platform about romance in the fantasy genre. I have noticed that some readers tend to have an aversion or even a phobia towards it.
I was sad to see that individuals who enjoy romance were being downvoted into oblivion in the comments section.
This seems to indicate a backlash against the inclusion of romantic relationships in fantasy literature, and I am struggling to understand the reason behind it.
Every reader dislikes and likes certain themes in literature but I’m seeing a bigger, more focused disdain for romance specifically.
Why? 🙁
UPDATE
Wow I didn’t expect this to blow up like this…
However, I am glad that together we’ve uncovered the truth.
There’s a sinister and active group of buzzkills from another dimension operating in the fantasy community.
They must be stopped at ALL COSTS!!!
Authors! You can help us by shoehorning awful, cheesy, cringe inducing romance that makes no sense into your fantasy epics!
The more out …
Yesterday, I had the chance to anonymously leave feedback on something that I have had MASSIVE issues with almost since its inception. I realized just how much I have kept my thoughts to myself and conversations with friends, due to the fact that said “something” has a massive fandom that tends to react poorly to criticism (this is true of parts of any fandom of course). I am deliberately not naming it, because I genuinely don’t want this thread to be about a specific author/series/book.
But it got me thinking how often I do this - keeping my real feelings to myself so I don’t get piled on online - and that got me curious as to how others navigate online discourse.
I love talking SFF with people here. I even love getting into arguments over SFF with people here. But I wish there weren’t subjects that would get me so much hate that I’d end up sulking all day if I posted about them :D
Where do you stand on this?
Fantasy has the ability to shirk your Tom, Dick, and Harry’s.
Who has the coolest name in fantasy?
And why is it Rodel Ituralde?
Edit: autocorrect into Mexican tomatoes
If I see one more chocolate, mocha, caramel in a character description I’m going to scream. Like at this point if you’re doing it it has to be on purpose. It annoys me because we’ll get character descriptions like:
“The detective was a portly fellow. His face was marked with pot marks that betrayed his age that his jet black toupee was trying to hide. He rubbed the stubble on his face as he looked over the cold case.”
“As I scanned the classroom I saw numerous kids at various levels of interest. Jen was one of the kids who was at level zero. Head down and covered by her brunette hair. Her skinny frame looked as if it was getting swallowed by the oversized desk. I went to wake her up.”
“Jackson was a man that took care of his body. He worked out twice a day. He had clear smooth skin that a blemish wouldn’t dare to sabotage. His only flaw was that he was balding. After growing out his beard he made the big decision to cut all of …
I’m finally reading Ted Chiang after years and even having spoken with him by chance at my work. He may be a new favorite of mine, I’m reading through the short story collection “Stories of Your Life and Others” and i’m so pleased. His writing style is smart and immersive but not too wordy. I only wish I had picked him up sooner!
Hi all, I’m a big fan of books which are part well-researched historical fiction and part SF. I know this seems like a pretty niche thing, but if I had a nickel for every one of these books I’ve read and enjoyed, I’d have four nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s kinda weird there’s so many. They are:
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Eifelheim (though the present day narrative wasn’t my favorite)
Galileo’s Dream
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Eversion also kind of scratched this itch, though it wasn’t strictly historical fiction. Still loved it though.
Help me find my fifth nickel!
EDIT: thank you all so much for the recommendations! this subreddit rules.
(I’m not sure if other languages than English are permitted here – the subreddit rules make no mention of language – but to be on the safe side, I’m writing this in English.)
I have always had the idea that there is a rich tradition of French science fiction, more or less separate from anglo-american sci-fi. However, whenever I try to search, I just find translations of English works. Surely the Francophone sff literary tradition is not confined to comics? (To be clear, comics are great, I just personally prefer prose.)
Anyway, I would be very grateful if anyone could recommend me science fiction books originally written in French. I prefer things published in the twenty-first century and I love space opera, but I’m open to other things as well!
(The few things I’ve read are some Verne, Romain Lucazeau’s Latium, Laurent Genefort’s Les Vaisseaux d’Omale, and Les Océans stellaires by Loïc Henry.)
I’m in the mood for what I think is just sci fi popcorn. Not stuff like the Culture series or even the expanse.
No hard science at all. Just laser guns and warp drives and what not.
Best example I can think of that I’ve read lately is the Mass Effect Andromeda novels. They’re pretty light and are just pure fun with cool characters and action.
I feel like the old sci fi novels like Princess of Mars sort of fit, but I was looking for stuff with more modern writing.
EDIT: Parable of the SOWER, my bad.
For some reason I delayed reading this book due to the religious aspects. If this is you, don’t! The book really deals with the breakdown in society, and the religious aspects of the book, while important to the main character, don’t really feel like an overwhelming part.
!I think my favorite aspect was the outside world getting worse and worse while the (almost) everyone plugged their ears and assumed it would all get better, and the rising tension and close calls in the walled neighborhood until it all fell apart. The rest of the book is still great, but I have always liked books and movies that deal with the slow breakdown of society, not some fast event. !<
!The journey north was still great, although by the end I felt like they book was adding way too many named characters.!<
Overall great read, and moving on the sequel.
I’m going through a real phase at the moment of really enjoying the technical side of space travel, engineering and the cross over. I loved The Martian, Project Hail Mary and am currently reading We Are Legion and planning on working through the Bobiverse series.
Are there any other books that anyone can recommend that will keep me going doing this route? Technically accurate detail is a must.
“Inside of youuuuu”
“I’m not crying…you should stop crying”
I mean this film is all time. Jason Segal, Mika Kunis, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Kristen bell, Russel Brand……
Insane cast before most of them were megastar actors with an actual good story. Beautiful scenery as it’s 90 percent in Hawaii. Of course Mila Kunis looks amazing. Easily the movie that made Jason Segal a bankable actor he crushed this role.
I mean the movie is about a dude going through a breakup and his ex happens to be on vacation right next to him while he’s trying to get his head right. Hilarious premise.
“And if I see Van Helsing I swear I will behead him HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
Just an all time classic film not sure why this sub needs 300 words or whatever for a post but that’s what I’m trying to do.
If you ever wanna see why Paul Rudd is a legend watch this film. Dude played a stoned surfer to an Oscar worthy performance
I mean I’d put this film as number one in terms of …