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PaperclipPerfector  15d ago (text post)   2892 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 14, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Fiction Recommendation Request! And then a related question.

As I recall internet serials and similar megafiction were pretty popular around here, and I'm looking for new recommendations.

To help triangulate: Not a fan of Worm, Twig had really interesting worldbuilding but stumbled hard towards the end for me with the increasingly unreliable narrator arc. I've enjoyed The Wandering Inn, really like the fantasy elements and the interweaving of various mythologies, but probably won't keep going with it once the current arc finally wraps up. Mother of Learning was enjoyable but not truly catching in the same way. Millennial Mage is pleasantly 'cozy' but not the best prose. Just started This Used To Be About Dungeons.

For more traditional or classic fiction, I will always love the works of Ray Bradbury, John Bellairs, and Diane Duane. If there's anybody new with a voice like Bradbury's, let me know!

Now, the question- in TWI, Practical Guide to Evil, and Millennial Mage, gnomes come up. Not really as characters except in limited circumstances, but they're described as outrageously powerful and skilled as technologists. I don't recall that being any past myth regarding gnomes, so is that a D&D thing or derived from elsewhere?

There is no Anti-Memetics Division is a completed sci-fi/horror series written by some former mottizens inspired by the idea of a "sense making crisis", and "memetic warfare".

It's a reasonably quick read and probably one of the more well-written and well-known series on the SCP Wiki offering some interesting alternative takes on a bunch of core sci-fi and psychological horror tropes. If you like Philip K Dick and Ray Bradbury in his darker moods i recommend checking it out.

Yep, definitely a good one! Enjoyable take. Worked better than his Ra, imo, which had a few stumbles (or maybe references that went over my head).

I just finished reading it a couple of days ago. It was pretty good. Plenty of cool ideas, reasonably well written, but I also thought it was a bit rough around the edges and could have used a bit more structure. Apparently, the author recently signed publishing deals with a couple of mainstream publishers, and he has been working on an updated version of the book that should be available in the near future.

Huh, this is pretty good, and I had previously all but written off SCP as it got flooded by posers who can't write and people rehashing the same tired clichés /r/nosleep style.

Obvious similar recommendation which doesn't seem to have come up in this thread yet is Cordyceps: Too Clever for their Own Good.

What's your opinion on the original slutty doorknob?

The best story I have ever read is Mushoku Tensei. The original webnovel, although I believe the light novel is just a more edited and refined version of it (and the anime is also fantastic although it skips a lot of the deeper worldbuilding and isn't finished yet).

A lot of people bounce off of it, because first of all it's very japanese weeb anime harem. And the main character starts off as a creepy pervert scumbag with some very uncomfortable behaviors that turn a lot of people off. And the story does not smite him down with the force of a thousand suns. It gives him time. It lets him grow and change and learn and slowly become a better person. Slowly, there isn't ever a moment where the story tells him "no, you were bad and now you have to do a 180 and become the opposite and shun everything you once were." It's about redemption through slow and gradual growth and understanding. And also building a harem of cute anime waifus, there is still that, so it's not actually a story for everyone. But it basically mastered the isekai genre before it was even a proper genre, and every generic isekai slop to come out has been cargo culting features from Mushoku Tensei without understanding why they were there in the first place.

I highly recommend it. It's super long, it has a single broad overarching plot that was planned for from the very beginning rather than the author flailing around inventing new plot threads every arc, and it masterfully sets up characters and plot elements in early chapters that show up again way later in interesting ways. And it subverts a lot of tropes too and does stuff with the main character and villain and side characters that I haven't seen in other stories. It's not for everyone, but people who do like it it really really really like it. It's my favorite story ever, so I recommend it.

LOL gotta say not something I expected, but that makes it more fun! I've been enjoying some isekai anime so it would be a good change of pace to read some instead.

It's called the "grandfather of isekai" for a reason. Not that it was the first ever isekai, but that it was fairly early, and so fantastic that everyone wanted to copy it, and also made a bunch of people want to make isekai and read isekai. The only reason I got into the genre was because Mushoku Tensei was the best story I've ever read and I wanted to find more stuff like it, although everything since hasn't quite lived up to it (some of the better ones come close).

So, what about that shrine with the girls underwear in his basement?

To be clear, he never fundamentally changes who he is as a person. He starts as a creepy pervert who steals panties, molests sleeping girls, and tries to groom his childhood friend, and progresses into a mostly harmless pervert who respects boundaries, asks for consent, has multiple wives but doesn't cheat on them, doesn't steal additional panties anymore even when offered on a silver platter by his minions, and keeps his panty shrine in the basement where others don't have to see it (also, it's less creepy after they're married, though only slightly).

He's still the same person, he still has the same desires, but he learns how to channel them into unharmful ways. I suppose you could say the lesson this teaches is "You're not automatically a bad person if you're a pervert, you just have to curtail the parts that actually harm the people around you. You can enjoy yourself AND be a good person if you do it correctly." Which, while highly controversial, seems like an excellent lesson to teach people, especially people with similar proclivities.

I'm once again recommending Walter Blaire, a very unknown, self-published writer who is, nevertheless, fairly skilled. It's ostensibly military SF, and there's fair amount of action and some SF but is really more about societies, organisational and individual psychology in the context of a somewhat believable and internally consistent setting of eternal war. Unlike in 40k, in this case the 'eternal war' is strictly local and something that needs be preserved at all costs. The saving grace is that the ..people who fight it are enjoying it greatly, having the time of their rather short lives and really don't mind dying, having been engineered and then evolved to fight. The people directing it and keeping it going, not so much, but their suffering is usually related to bureaucratic snafus, old age, observing their country going to the shitter, summary executions for incompetence or deaths in duels.

Here's my review of 'the Eternal Front'

And here I'm going to offer a short review of 'What the Thunder Said', a shorter book he published after 'The Eternal Front'. It's a short SF novel, with military themes and sort of coming of age/romance framing, I guess. Unlike the Front, which has .. at least four viewpoint characters and several story strands, this one is centered on a single person, and is a sort of a coming-of-age. No worries- it's not smut - it never gets further than violations of prescribed distance and some unresolved interspecies* sexual tension. I say 'interspecies' because technically and practically, while the Tachba military servitors Haphans are stuck with look human, albeit extremely chad-ly[1], they're psychologically quite different and definitely not interfertile. And, like the Adeptus Astartes whom they somewhat resemble, very much not horny either. I said 'slightly resemble' but if you go by it line by line, it does seem they're supposed to be a realistic take on supersoldiers. Not some archetypal, mythical badasses but what would be practical, possible and physiologically feasible. It's not long for a novel and very readable.

Anyway I'm shilling it because as I was reading through the slush pile of Kindle store, I was struck by the writing quality and feel the author deserves more exposure.

[1]: honestly I feel like asking the writer if he had Gigachad in mind while writing it. quoting:

In all, he was unkempt, patchy, and dirty—though not outright filthy. It was more of an “end of a hard day in the field” level of dirtiness. Still, she felt a touch of disappointment, almost concern, that the empire was being represented like this to the enemy. When she couldn’t put it off any longer, she raised her eyes to his face. Jephia had tried to explain it to her once. The presence they could have. It couldn’t be adequately conveyed in second- and third-hand accounts. To truly separate the historical and clinical facts from the people themselves, Jephia told her, one had to personally meet the Polluted. The man’s eyes were slate gray, crinkled at the edges, and they returned her gaze unflinchingly. His eyes bored into hers. Somehow, Caulie didn’t find it rude—he was simply intensely interested, as if he’d never seen another human and never would again. She had the impression that he looked at everything this way—and that, despite their rocky first exchange, he was intelligent or at least perceptive. Little would escape those eyes. As for the rest of him . . . well. It was unfair. She was finally across from someone who was categorically her social inferior. The very fabric of civilization and empire gave her every advantage over him, and he still made her nervous and shy. Although Caulie was tall for a Haphan woman, he towered over her. At least six-foot-five, and that was while slouching. His general wear and wrinkles put him in his thirties, but these Tachba aged differently and he could have been younger. Really, thirty would be an anomaly, and not just because of the Tachba’s shorter lifespans—active soldiers of any race rarely reached that age on the eternal front. Old or not, his hair was an unkempt, glossy black where it escaped his forager cap, and he had several days of scruffy growth on his cheeks. In addition to the slab-like Tachba jaw, he had the broad forehead of an easterner from the Ed-homse mountains. The books described it as “frontal cranial bossing,” and it did look like some of the skulls in her lab, but there was nothing bulging about it in real life. His features were regular and attractive. Caulie never thought of her samples in terms of attraction, yet the word floated into her thoughts. It was the combination of his size, his lean body, and the angular features of his face. And those eyes. That was it. He didn’t look Polluted. He wasn’t moon-faced, soft-faced, or soft anything. He wasn’t blank, and nothing about his demeanor seemed to be waiting for her to ascribe features and traits to him. He wasn’t anything like the template she’d expected, and nothing like the blundering, wayward misfits from popular entertainment. She hadn’t even known she’d had any expectations until they weren’t met. Maybe that was why his simple, direct gaze was so disorienting.

Any love for fanfic? In increasing order of wordcount:

  • Time Braid: "Sakura thought she was a capable kunoichi until she died in the Chuunin Exam. Now she's stuck in a loop, dying again and again while she struggles to understand her strange predicament. How hard can it be to pass one stupid test?" [204k words, complete]
  • Luna is a Harsh Mistress: "When Celestia banished Nightmare Moon, she didn't go alone, but with her loyal army. Now they're trapped in an alien environment, with tensions high and the air running out. If they don't work together, their princess will soon be alone after all." [230k words, complete]
  • Emperor of Zero: "When a former French Emperor is summoned by a pink-haired girl, the history of Helgekinia is forever changed." [275k words, dead]
  • Myou've Gotta be Kidding Me: "An aspiring rationalist gets punted into Equestria - and instead of being turned into a cool griffon, or powerful dragon, or even a standard pony... discovers he is now a milk-cow, part of the herd." [283k words, dead]
  • The Moon's Apprentice: "Twilight Sparkle failed her entrance exams for Celestia's school. Worse, she is a danger to both herself and others, resulting in her magic being suppressed. Dreams crushed and now one of the weakest unicorns, a nightmare comes to her." [412k words, complete]
  • Message in a Bottle: "Humanity's space exploration ultimately took the form of billions of identical probes, capable of building anything (including astronauts themselves) upon arrival at their destinations. One lands in Equestria. Things go downhill from there." [514k words, complete]
  • Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: "Petunia married a biochemist, and Harry grew up reading science and science fiction. Then came the Hogwarts letter, and a world of intriguing new possibilities to exploit. And new friends, like Hermione Granger, and Professor McGonagall, and Professor Quirrell." [662k words, complete]
  • Changeling Space Program & The Maretian: "The space race is on, and Chrysalis is determined to win it. With an earth pony test pilot and a hive full of brave-but-dim changelings, can she be the first pony on the moon? / Mark Watney is stranded- the only human on Mars. But he's not alone- five astronauts from a magical kingdom are shipwrecked with him." [797k words, complete]
  • Purple Days: "From one day to the other, Joffrey Baratheon wakes up a changed man. Far from the spoiled boy-child known to the court of King's Landing, the Joffrey that comes out of his room three days after the death of John Arryn walks with the stride of a veteran commander and leader of men. A scholar, a sea-captain, a general, a lover. This is the story of how he became that man, and how he came to know his purpose through a cycle of endless death and rebirth that saw him explore both his self and the known world from Braavos to Sothoryios and from Old Town to Yi-Ti... and beyond." [810k words, complete]
  • To the Stars: "Kyubey promised that humanity would reach the stars one day. The Incubator tactfully refrained from saying too much about what they would find there." [937k words, ongoing]

Sorry for double posting, my brain is broken today - after writing my 'fiction recommendation' for the week I began scouring the thread for the poster asking for web serial recommendations and eventually gave up in confusion. I just now realised they're the same post.

Anyway I've recommended it on the motte before, but just in case - There is No Antimemetics Division by qntm sprang from the SCP project, but it's actually great, especially if you like cosmic horror. As I just learned, it is now being published 'properly' and I think it's worth a purchase, but if the scp website drives you mad hit me up and I'll send you an epub version.

Edit: Oh shit, on top of my brain being broken I've also been infected by an antimeme and nobody can see this post

The only one I've read that you haven't listed is Unsong. But I'm trying to stay away from internet serials for the time being, because they can suck enormous amounts of time.

The ending made me roll my eyes so hard I was tempted to regret reading it, but the worldbuilding was too fun for that.

It has to have at least one flaw. There is a crack in everything.

On recommendation of @Lizzardspawn I started reading (listening to) the Repairman Jack series, although due to my idiotic Audible set up (American account in Australia) I had to start with Legacies. If you want a pulp book for the commute it's a great pick. Jack is a bit like Bob Odenkirk's character in Nobody - an average unassuming looking guy who would absolutely stomp you in any conflict because he prepared for it two days before you even met him.

Wait, you've read all these serials but not anything else by Alexander Wales?

This used to be about dungeons is really good and you should finish it, but It's an experimental work. He usually puts his protagonists through the wringer and his other stories are much more intense, interpersonally and world building wise. The intent was to do something very different(His idea of cozy fantasy) and commit to that.

A lot of his serials aren't (easily) available online anymore as hes recently published them, but their available on kindle.

He is the goat (of web serials). Im pretty well read in fantasy and hes truly on another level when it comes to originality and thoughtfulness, minor arcs execute and explore entire story premises better than most books.

I would definitely start with Worth the Candle.

Right! I'll give Worth the Candle a shot next.

He is the goat (of web serials).

I wouldn't say this, he's very rationalist fiction with struggles with relatable character writing (Thresholder is the worst for this) and noodly writing about powers. This causes normies to bounce off a lot but obviously anyone here is likely to like him.

Goat status is probably going to go to something like Mother of Learning, Worm, or The Wandering Inn.

Worth the Candle is incredible; best novel I've read in years. Unfortunately, Alexander Wales removed it as part of his Amazon publishing deal. Fortunately, it's still on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

If you liked Twig's worldbuilding you might want to check out Seek by the same author, since it's the next work that is set in an original setting (as far as "unspecified future post-FTL megastructurepunk Earth" is an original setting). Warning: ongoing and started only recently.

Will do!

I would recommend the Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman.

Thank you!

I’m pretty sure it’s a D&D thing from when artificers were cool. I don’t know when that could have possibly been, but TvTropes says Dragonlance, so…mid-late 80s?

I will happily give fiction recs once I have more time.

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