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Approved Literature

2022-06-05T00:02:30Z

2001:8003:1C20:8C00:1988:DCAB:5C:EA8E: Undo revision 829020 by 83.10.83.73 (talk)

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This page lists the genre fiction which is popular on /tg/, along with a brief description and the notable areas of merit.

==== The Jane Austen principle ====

Jane Austen's work has been a staple of English Literature for two centuries. It's been adapted for stage, screen and television and beloved by millions. That said, while "Pride and Prejudice" might be a timeless romance that can move the heart, it is pretty far removed from the shared interest of the sort of people which might come here (at least until someone whips up a really good Dice and Graph version). This is not a knock against Jane, her work or you for liking it or some other removed work of literature, just a fact to keep in mind when adding things to this page.

'''TL;DR:''' Good material is not automatically relevant to 1d4chan.

==Fantasy==
*'''''Richard Adams - Watership Down''''': The epic story of a tiny band of desperate people's odyssey to flee a great calamity and find a new homeland. Along the way, they fight dangerous battles, encounter dangerously seductive dystopia after dystopia, and ultimately destroy a fascist dictator before founding a new nation. Also, [[Bunnies and Burrows|everyone's a rabbit]]. Badass storytelling, sweet worldbuilding, and an incredible level of quality for a children's book.
*'''''L. Frank Baum - The Wizard of Oz''''': Dorothy and her little dog too get [[isekai]]'ed, meet companions, defeat the witch. Baum (or rather, his publishers) milked this franchise to death releasing sequel after sequel, so stick only to the first book, unless you're going weird idea mining.
*'''''Jim Butcher - [[The Dresden Files RPG|The Dresden Files]]''''': Basically the [[World of Darkness]] with <s>all</s> most of the depression, brooding, doom and gloom replaced with badass, humour and a pinch of noir detective. Follow the young wizard/private investigator Harry Dresden through his misadventures in a supernatural world of Chicago, as he grows in power and fame, deals with ever increasing levels of supernatural horrors, get his life ruined to oblivion and beyond and yet manage to make it look cool rather then utterly depressing and sanity-check inducing by sheer will alone (OK, will ''and'' snarkiness).
*'''''Brandon Carbaugh - Deep Sounding''''': A two-part story written by a fa/tg/uy, dealing with themes of isolation in a Dwarven society. Consistently humorous and socially relevant.
*'''''Glen Cook - The Black Company''''': I can't remember the exact quote, but someone put it best when he said "it's a story about level 5-8 badasses trying to make it in a world dominated by epic level Wizards". Follow the mercenary entourage known as the Black Company as they sell their swords to the highest contractors, who usually end up being The Big Bad Evils. The first three books (now conveniently available as one book, "Chronicles of the Black Company") are good then things start to get weird.
*'''''Larry Correia - [[Monster Hunter International]]''''': In the modern world monsters of all kinds are out there. Stopping them from eating humanity are private groups of monster hunters who get paid very handsomely for removing the supernatural with superior firepower. As one would expect from an author with a background in running a gun store and competitive shooting, it's very [[/k/]]. A character's choice of firearm describes them as much as their clothes or hair and guns work as they're supposed to. The first book (which can be obtained as a free e-book) is enjoyable, but very rough, and the series improved dramatically each book. Features a writing style that improves dramatically when listened to as an audiobook.
**'''''Grimnoir Chronicles''''': A separate series by the same author. Set in an alternate 1930s where a small (but constantly increasing) percentage of humanity has been born with super powers since at least the 1830s. While there's X-men style discrimination, it's largely in the background. The series is actually about how Japan is trying to use its research of Power to take over the world. The super power system is unique in that there are only about 30 documented Power types, with many just being lesser versions of other powers, and outside of a core handful everything else is rare but the creative and powerful can stretch the rules. The world has also had cultural and technological shifts as a result of Power instead of keeping it the same aside from their existence.
*'''''Steven R. Donaldson - Thomas Covenant''''': The first two series are the ones /tg/ has read; there's a (much) more recent series that ostensibly wraps it all up, plus some outtakes (like "Gilden-Fire") that SRD refactored as shortstories. The titular character nuzzled the wrong armadillo apparently so is a leper. In the story he gets [[isekai]]'ed; driven with self-hatred and a refusal to compromise, he does [[rape|horrible things]] but anyway has to defeat the [[BBEG]] named, we shit you not, "Lord Foul". Massive influence on [[Monte Cook]]'s [[Arcana Unearthed]] oeuvre (particularly) so we gotta note it. The ''Ansible'' #46 article "Well-Tempered Plot Device" hilariously described these two series as "so flatulent you have to be careful not to squeeze it in a public place"; publisher Lester Del Rey is rumoured (''Ansible'' #50) to have disliked the series too, but (correctly) judged the (mid 1970s) moment as good to release some fantasy ''any'' fantasy. SRD wrote some other fantasy and SF; only fans of the Covenant books went on to buy those, but they number enough to maintain Donaldson's alimony payments. Characters get forcibly boned in those stories too.
*'''''Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen''''': An enormous read that stretches across over three million words and ten books, Erikson's worldbuilding rivals anybody else in the genre, with a large focus on the many different cultures, how they rose, and then how they fell. Can be overwhelming at times due to the sheer number of simultaneous plotlines and a large, perhaps even bloated, cast. Very much the definition of epic fantasy, the level of power at play swings fairly wildly depending on which set of characters is being focused on at the time, from assassins fighting upon rooftops, to flying castles being crashed into cities, and then back to the oft-humorous exploits of a group of mostly mundane soldiers that is reminiscent of Glen Cook's Black Company. In all, a story full of engaging personalities exploring a supremely fantastical world, with all the hallmarks of classic fantasy, elves, dragons, gods, and wizards, given a unique spin.
*'''''Raymond E. Feist - The Riftwar Cycle''''': A 30 book epic written over the course of three decades, The Riftwar Cycle starts off as the story of a boy learning how to be a wizard, only to save the world by the end of the debut novel, ''Magician''. After this the series evolves into an epic spanning multiple generations of characters (but roughly half focusses on the initial cast) fighting to protect their world from internal political strife and malevolent external forces. Grew to be a lot more cosmic in scale in the last eight or so books, and the ending was kind of a lacklustre business. The classical fantasy races are not the focus here: the [[dwarves]] and [[elves]] get along just fine, and while there's [[dragon]]s, serpent folk and [[dark elves]] (the latter of whom are Native American inspired), it's mostly about humans and their struggles. The series is divided into ten sagas, with the best one being the Empire trilogy which tells the tale of the chronologically six first book from the perspective of the antagonists in a beautiful tale of loyalty, honour, politics and love. Was also Neal Hallford's inspiration for ''Betrayal at Krondor'', a [[/v/|Dynamix / Sierra vidja]] that is held in high esteem in some circles. Not enough circles, apparently; since Hallford's remaster proposal didn't get funded.
*'''''Neil Gaiman - American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere, Sandman, etc.''''': He's a damn entertaining writer, known for his unique and well fleshed out ideas. There's something here for everyone, from the [[Noblebright]] Stardust to the [[Grimdark|fairly grim and pretty dark]] Sandman comics. American Gods, however, is the one he's best remembered by, which is a story about physical manifestations of IRL gods fighting a losing war against globalisation, mass media and technology. [[/d/|There's also a part where a man is swallowed whole by a woman's vagina.]]
*'''''Jane Gaskell - The Atlan Saga''''': A series of gloriously cheesy fantasy novels from the 60s that combine all the best elements of pulp with post-modernism. The misadventures of a heiress to Atlantis empire in the prehistoric world where various myths - and genre cliches - are all true. It's the last big thing in the genre that didn't try to copy-cat ''Lord of the Rings'', so worth reading for originality alone, along with being what shaped various cliches regarding Atlantis ever since.
*'''''William Goldman - [[The Princess Bride]]''''': The book the famous movie was based on. Has a couple of twists and details left out of the movie, usually for good reasons. Still worth reading, though.
*'''''Michael John Harrison - Viriconium''''': A truly peculiar set of novels and short stories dedicated to put traditional world building on its head, by never making sure if the stories are happening between the same characters, in the same place or same time. A very open-ended to interpretation "setting", which is also a great exercise to how tell a story without overburdening anyone with details and in the same time providing all the important elements to keep audience (readers or players) invested and interested.
*'''''Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy and The Liveship Traders''''': First is a story of a royal bastard's horrible upbringing as an assassin. Second is a story of magical sailing ships that talk, dragons, pirates, rape, 14 year old girl overcoming terrible misfortune. It has it all. (Please note the following two sets of books in the series are a little average compared to these two). The endings of the books in the second series are a little pat, but are still entertaining.
*'''''[[Robert E. Howard]] - [[Conan the Barbarian]]''''': Conan the Barbarian was born from this quill. A seminal pulp classic which could be considered the father of sword and sorcery.
*'''''Ursula K LeGuin - [[Earthsea Cycle]]+''''': Threads about /tg/-approved literature will consistently end up having a poster say something to the effect of "no Sea Jedi Wizard Chronicles WTF" about halfway down, immediately being followed by a chorus of agreement. Needless to say, this series is an excellent one, little-known but surprisingly influential. It's the series that established the concepts of the concept of nominal magic as understood in modern fantasy literature: names of power in the language of magic are spoken to exert power over the person, place, thing or idea that name refers to. Later, less-respectable novels such as those by Christopher Paolini would abuse this concept for fun and profit. Sadly, such novels seldom strive to equal the actual accomplishments of the Earthsea novels, such as the successful building and display of a rich, believable, and internally consistent setting without letting any of the world building bog down the narrative like in LotR.
*'''''Fritz Leiber - Swords and Deviltry, et al.''''': A runaway momma's boy and a failed magician's apprentice lose everything and become thieves in Lankhmar, centre of civilization and debauchery. They are Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser:, swordsmen supreme, insatiable adventurers, womanizers unequalled, and bros of the highest calibre. Together, they plunder the world of riches, bitches, and wine, while facing magic and horror of a decidedly cosmic sort.
*'''''[[C.S. Lewis]] - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe''''': Oxford don retells the Johannine Passion, but in Oz-expy Narnia. Our man is inferior (even) to Baum as a worldbuilder, but very good as characterbuilder - for the characters Edward, Lucy, and (later) Eustace anyway. Series goes on like ''Star Wars'' forward and backward in time; ends with [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]] except older sister Susan, whom [[catgirl|NekoJesus]] blows off. Neil Gaiman will whiteknight "Professor Hastings" in "The Problem of Susan".
*'''''Charles De Lint - Someplace to be Flying and Trader, Pretty much all of his books, you can't really miss''''': Most of the books seem to be set in Canada and revolve around Gypsy folklore and Native American spiritual stuff with urban settings. Don't get attached to characters.
*'''''[[George R. R. Martin]] - [[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''''': Some of the better character development in genre, with a bit of mystery, political chess and high death rate. Tends to drag at times, and since the release of the HBO series will be consistently overrated by those who've seen little else. Noted for Tolkien-envy.
*'''''[[Michael Moorcock]] - [[Elric]] series (and so many others)''''' An iconic author, albeit considering the number of books he has written, very hit and miss. [[Elric]] is his most popular character. Stick to the collected sets Stealer of Souls or Stormbringer as a starting point though. Remember that Elric is first an foremost an icon for heavy metal, so adjust your expectations accordingly.
*'''''Terry Pratchett - [[Discworld]] series''''': Starts from parodying Fantasy as a genre, soon turns to far beyond [[AWESOME]]. Rare combination of good humour and wise messages. Does get a little preachy towards the end, but hey, it's still a great read.
*'''''Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind''''': A mary sue bard goes on mary sue adventures (arguably an unreliable narrator) - world building may be weak but it's a fun read, so enough people on /tg/ have read it to count, even though nobody will praise it.
*'''''J.K. Rowling - [[Harry Potter]]''''': Love it or hate it (and there are things to [[RAGE|hate]], [[skub|especially where the author herself is concerned]]) this series is a big part of the collective fantasy consciousness, especially where normies are concerned. As such, if you want a tone that is easily familiar to those unfamiliar with fantasy in general, or children, this is not a bad place to start. At best, they're pretty readable books; at worst, they're thoroughly mediocre and derivative as all hell. At the very least, you'll look less of a [[neckbeard]] knowing what a Muggle is. '''MAIN BOOKS ONLY.'''
*'''''Andrzej Sapkowski - [[The Witcher]] (especially the short stories)''''': While the Witcher saga is just getting more bland and increasingly more generic with each following part, the two initial books collecting all the short stories (especially "Sword of Destiny") are the reason why everyone treated Witcher as unique and original. Tonnes of wacky ideas how to spin cliches and old tropes into something fresh. Reading the saga proper is not required and generally not advised, especially with wooden English translation.
** Alternatively, the later saga can be read for precisely what it is routinely bashed for. Starting from "Baptism of Fire", it turns into an unapologetic "you all met in the forest reserve and your party is tasked with retrieving a lost princess" campaign. If read with such mindset, it's pretty good after-campaign report, including random hijinks, new players joining half-way through and bunch of party in-jokes about the situation at hand.
*'''''[[J.R.R. Tolkien]] - [[The Hobbit]], [[The Lord of the Rings]], and anything else he wrote (eg; [[the Silmarillion]])''''': The great grand-daddy of modern fantasy. Not having even the slightest familiarity with his work is inexcusable in eyes of [[/tg/]].
*'''''Karl Edward Wagner - Kane series''''': Essentially a more grimdark version of Howard's style of sword and sorcery, [[Kane]] is more akin to a villain that Conan would fight than the "noble savage" barbarian archetype. Immortal and cursed with the inability to ever truly settle down, [[Kane]] is an expert fighter, leader of men and potent sorcerer. After thousands of years his only real goal is to stave off boredom, which he does by offering his services and considerable intellect to various rulers, although more often than not with an ulterior motive. In one story he sets out to revive a race of ancient cosmic horrors simply because they offered him a chance to explore the cosmos.
*'''''Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun''''': The setting is inspired by [[Jack Vance]]'s Dying Earth series (itself lifting from [[Clark Ashton Smith]]), so this could be either in SF or Fantasy. A torturer is exiled from his guild and old life after he helps kill the woman he loves to spare her from the agony of torture, now forced to journey through Urth; our Earth in the far, far, far future, in a time when our sun is beginning to die. These books do not make for easy reading, however. The author uses lots of very obscure words to create the worlds own unique lingo. Also, the main character is an unreliable narrator of the more extreme sort. The reader will be spending some time figuring out what are the truths and what are the lies.
*'''''Roger Zelazny - The Chronicles of Amber''''': A lesser known series (although it's in Appendix N too) written between 1970 and 1991 about a family of (essentially) demigods who inhabit the "true" reality of the city of Amber. Everything else is merely a shadow of Amber and its inhabitants. The princes and princesses can move freely between Amber and an infinite number shadow worlds but the constant plotting and backstabbing at home and the less-than-real nature of everything outside makes them callous and often amoral. The first book effortlessly turns from "hard boiled detective story" to "psychedelic road trip" to "drama about Greek gods" in style.

==Science Fiction==
*'''''Douglas Adams - The Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy''''': One of the funniest works of science fiction ever made, although you could count it as the first. The precursor to all comedy stories about everyday people having to deal with the absurdly massive and meaningless universe around them. Grab your towel, make a fresh cuppa, and make sure you've got enough tape to keep your sides from splitting too much.
*'''''Neal Asher - The Gridlinked Series''''': Some of the best, hardest sci-fi out there, this is one of those universes that has unique, creative technologies (rare nowadays)as well as 007...EEEN SPESSS
*'''''[[Isaac Asimov]] - Foundation Series''''': The seminal space opera modelled roughly on the decline of the Roman Empire. It follows the rise of a new civilization from this empire's dying body and then its corpse. The model of Empire-In-Decline SF.
*'''''Paolo Bacigalupi - Pump Six and Other Stories''''': Biopunk meet post-apo and hefty dose of shady business. Think [[Shadowrun]], minus the magic.
*'''''Iain M. Banks - [[The Culture]] Series''''': A series about a perfect, utopian spacefaring society and all its many problems. Some of the grandest-scale worldbuilding in science fiction, and full of clever ethical and political musing.
*'''''Stephen Baxter - The [[Xeelee Sequence]]''''': For those for whom Donaldson just isn't rapey enough, Baxter is here to scratch that itch. Backdrop is the cosmic war between the Xeelee and the dark-matter entities "Photino Birds". Starts with ''The Ring''. Baxter wrote a lot of other crap too, like Proxima and Stone Spring/Bronze Summer; likewise full of nasty. We'd rather not discuss this stuff either but Xeelee has its stans on /tg/: this entry is dedicated to you, as long as you read it outside a 500 yard radius from a school.
*'''''David Brin - The Postman''''': First novel to present post apocalypse not from the point of view of badass heroes or insane raiders, but random villagers and such. Great world building for a very small world. Has infamous film "adaptation", sharing only title.
*'''''Edgar Rice Burroughs - the Barsoom Series-aka Mars Chronicles and the Pellucidar Series''''': Iconic, manly, and fuckin' A! This guy also did Tarzan and a whole slew of other works that would go on to inspire other manly stories, chiefly Conan the Barbarian and most of the knockoffs thereof.
*'''''Glen Cook - The Dragon Never Sleeps''''': Basically an EVE Online novel written decades before EVE Online. Was supposed to be a trilogy but the publisher wouldn't okay sequels so it gets rushed at the end. Not as iconic as The Black Company, but this is in SPAAAAAAACCCCEEEE!!!!!!!
*'''''James S. A. Corey - The Expanse series''''' Bar the intentionally fantastical elements it provides <s>a fairly grounded</s> muh gritty realism version of near future space exploration. Some fantastic characters and stories, but as the main plot goes, slowly turns into a generic space opera-western mix. Got an unapproved TV show adaptation that ignores all the good stuff, while taking the worst aspects of the books and runs wild with them.
*'''''Arthur Conan Doyle - The Lost World''''': The ''other'' thing Doyle is know after Sherlock Holmes. An archetypical novel about bold scientists, ambitious hunter and intrepid reporter going into a distant plateau somewhere in the Amazons, where they have all sorts of misadventures involving species that should be extinct millions years ago - and most notably living dinosaurs. There is a good chance you "know" this book, along with all its plot bits, without ever actually reading it, that's how big and influential it is.
*'''''Harlan Ellison - I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream''''': The last five humans alive are being held deep in an underground complex, where they are perpetually tortured by AM, the sadistic AI that wiped out the rest of humanity, with no hope of escape. The most creepy thing in this book is that the author thought it was ''optimistic''. If he someday went to wrote something pessimistic, the universe would implode from the sheer grimdark overdose.
*'''''Philip Jose Farmer - The Riverworld Series''''': A group of dead people from many different time periods, including Richard Burton, Hermann Göring, Tullus of Rome and Mark Twain wake up on an alien planet and have to survive. Very fun read with interesting character interactions.
*'''''[[Robert Heinlein| Robert A. Heinlein]] - [[Starship Troopers]]''''': Where Space Marines and Tyranids came from. The novel carries a vastly different message and tone than the campy movie based on it. [[Roboute Guilliman]] keeps a copy in his duffel.
*'''''Frank Herbert - [[Dune]] & its earlier sequels''''': World-building, politics, super-humans - it's one helluva party. The spice must flow! <s>[[Navigator|Navigators]] are totally not stolen from Dune</s> {{BLAM}}.
*'''''Aldous Huxley - Brave New World''''': Take 1984, and do the total opposite the way people are controlled (rather than punishing bad behavior, it's rewarding good behavior) mixed with a Tau-esque genetically enforced caste system and conditioning to make people embrace their servitude.
*'''''Stanisław Lem - Tales Of Pirx the Pilot''''': Collection of short stories documenting gradual progress of humanity in space exploration and AI development. Nice deconstruction of all the shitty elements from space opera, ''before there even was space opera''.
*'''''Andri Magnason - LoveStar''''': Equal parts biting satire and bittersweet love story, set in a bizarre future (think equal part of Brave New World, corporate dystopia and high-concept sci-fi). It's the humour and creative application of own setting and its rules that makes it helpful for worldbuilding that amounts to anything more than just trivia.
*'''''Walter M. Miller, Jr. - A Canticle for Leibowitz''''' In the grim darkness of the far future there is only Catholicism. Think Fallout meets Catholic Church and you wouldn't be too far off.
*'''''Larry Niven - Ringworld''''': Many, many stories are set in this future setting. Features FtL travel, several alien races living and dead, and deep lore from the far past. There's a war with [[catgirl]]s called Kzinti, which events Niven has let other authors write. The Ringworld is a Dyson sphere on the cheap: instead of wrapping the entire sun, "only" the inhabitable orbital ring is built up, above the stellar rotational equator.
*'''''George Orwell - [[1984]], Animal Farm''''': WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH! FOUR LEGS GOOD! TWO LEGS <s>BAD</s> BETTER!
*'''''Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson - The Illuminatus! Trilogy''''': /x/ the book, and a cult classic in every sense of the word. Once you get used to the massively cheesy tone, what you'll find here is an intelligent and fun series of books that are both a parody and a send up to: 70s counterculture, Western esotericism, political and religious dogma, numerology, and conspiracy theories.
*'''''Robert Sheckley - short stories''''': once dubbed the clown prince of sci-fi, recommended by Douglas Adams.
*'''''John Steakley - Armor''''': Future soldiers in powered armour fighting against insectoid, always hungry aliens and suffering from mental trauma and PTSD... man, that does sound familiar.
*'''''Charles Stross - Missile Gap''''': While Stross is most famous for his Laundry Files (basically collection of [[Delta Green]] shorts, which are all worth reading too, and eventually even got their own TTRPG), Missile Gap is just mind-numbing novella about entire Earth being transported on an Alderson disk... or maybe a snapshot of Earth... or maybe ''both''. All right in the middle of the Cuban Crisis. Think "Primer" meet Tom Clancy techno-thriller.
*'''''H.G. Wells - The War of the Worlds and Time Machine''''': Absolute classics. Not knowing them is akin to being illiterate, while they can be used for all sorts of games.

==Horror==
*'''''John W. Campbell - Who Goes There?''''': Remember John Carpenter's The Thing? Well this is where it all started. Taking into account ''when'' the novella was written is the real game-changer.
*'''''Laurell K. Hamilton - Guilty Pleasures''''': Probably one of the most iconic and influential urban fantasy in existence, despite seemingly obvious setup for occult detective. While the rest of the Anita Blake series is unquestionably in shunned territory, this one is still a must-read. Also, mind the title.
**'''''Aneta Jadowska - Dora Wilk series''''': Essentially Anita Blake: Polish Edition. Unlike original, doesn't turn into BDSM harem porn, but instead gradually distances itself from romance and focuses on the world-building and occult. Also, it fully embraces being written to cover for bills. Decent fan translations exist.
*'''''[[H.P. Lovecraft]] - At the Mountains of Madness and anything else published after it''''': Lovecraft is to modern horror what Tolkien is to fantasy. While his early stories are mediocre, starting with At the Mountains of Madness, their quality rises sharply, explaining how this guy reached such memetic status.
*'''''Richard Matheson - I Am Legend''''': Single-handedly responsible for creation of post apocalypse genre and modern take on zombies and vampires. Also, depressive as fuck, so bring some tissues. No, really. None of the 3 film adaptations managed to match the quality of the novel.
*'''''Anne Rice - The Vampire Chronicles''''': Where [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] started. You are probably already familiar with this particular style of vampires even without knowing there were any books, that's how iconic the imaginary is. And for the sake of everyone's sanity, let's just pretend the Chronicles consists of only three books: ''Interview with the Vampire'', ''The Vampire Lestat'' and ''The Queen of the Damned''. You really don't want to read any further titles, trust us on that, especially since this is a self-contained trilogy.

==Alternate History==
*'''''SM Stirling - The Peshawar Lancers''''': In the 1878 a bunch of comets hit the Earth causing much havoc and forcing the British to Evacuate to warmer parts of the world. In 2025 the British Empire still reigns as the most powerful nation on earth run from Delhi, along with French Africa, the Japanese Empire and a rather nasty Russian Empire in a world powered by steam. If you want steampunk that's more than superficial, exotic and just all around well done this is where you go. Just be prepared for a lot of Indian terms.
*'''''Charles Stross - The Merchant Princes''''': A Boston tech reporter one day finds out that she can jump between alternate versions of Earth and that she's part of a large extended family with that talent based in a world at a renaissance level where semi-romanized viking knights control the eastern seaboard of North America and the Chinese have begun colonizing the west coast, and said family is deeply involved in the Drug Trade. That is just the start as events also include a steampunk America ruled by the English crown, homeland security and more. Good for lovers of crime and intrigue, blending both the medieval and the modern quite well.
*'''''Scott Westerfield - Leviathan series''''': In this absolutely batshit-insane reimagining of World War One, the world is divided into two competing schools of technological thought - the Clankers, who represent machines and mechanization; and the Darwinists, who believe in mutating nature to solve man's problems. Naturally, the Central Powers are the chief adherents of the Clanker philosophy and you can imagine the brutal warfare of the Western Front except with [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|German Steam Tanks]] versus genetically-enhanced [[Clan Moulder|British Abominations]]. [[Awesome|Yeah]]. Word of warning, the series is advertised as a YA novel series and does feature some questionably mundane character plotlines that do tend to spoil the setting a bit.

==Mystery==
*'''''Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep''''': The grandfather of noir, single-handedly responsible for establishing about half of all genre conventions and creating the image of what an investigator should be like. If you '''ever''' plan to run just about anything about cool detectives doing cool stuff, it's a must read.
**'''''The Lady in the Lake''''': Probably the most applicable of the books featuring Marlowe, trading the big city and its massive police department for rural nowhere and a much smaller scale investigation, but not stakes.
*'''''Agatha Christie - And Then There Were None''''': Ten random strangers trapped with a vengeful killer. Or so they think. Aged like milk, but is still one of the staples of the genre and a well-tested premise.
*'''''Harlan Coben - Tell No One''''': A grieving widower receives a message with a proof that his wife, murdered few years ago, is actually alive and well, and her kidnapping was just a set-up. Like all Coben books, it's a pyramid scheme of backroom deals, conflicting motivations and gaslighting the reader, but due to its plot structure, it's the closest to your near-occult investigation for a game campaign.
*'''''Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''''': A staple of detective fiction, often to the point of being considered the godfather of the genre. An incredibly useful point of reference for late 19th century social norms and attitudes, on top of being a great influence for mystery-focused campaigns. If you run Call of Cthulhu or any period-specific setting relevant to Victorian Britain, Doyle's tales are a must-read.
*'''''Henning Mankell - Wallander series''''': Swedish crime series, featuring a provincial police investigator Wallander dealing with local crimes in Ystad. It's a blend of your hard-boiled fiction, especially as far as Wallander himself goes, with a very routine, grounded police procedural. As such, it offers just the right level of applicability for modern investigation scenarios, without things getting convoluted, while keeping it modern. Aside the 11 books, both Swedish and British TV series adaptations are approved, too.

==Historical Fiction==
*'''''Robert Bolt - The Mission''''': A journey of a young boy into becoming a murder-hobo and then trying to repent his sins as a missionary, taking place in 1740s Paraguay. But more seriously, it's about the Jesuits and their mission in a patch of land contested between Spain and Portugal, with great, nuanced characters caught up in a conflict they can't even hope to win. Mostly famous for its movie adaptation with de Niro and Irons and cutting the entire backstory which made the book worth reading in the first place.
*'''''Tom Clancy - The Hunt for Red October''''': '''The''' quintessential techno-thriller, being one of the hallmarks of the entire genre and probably the most famous of all Clancy's book. Tightly written, with plausible story and great characters.
*'''''Bernard Cornwell - [[Sharpe]]''''': A series of books following Richard Sharp as he rises through the ranks of the British Army during the first few decades of the 1800s (the bulk of it set during the Napoleonic Wars). More commonly known by its great TV series, staring Sean Bean.
*'''''Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers''''': It's '''THE''' swashbuckling novel. You probably more or less know what is it about just from its sheer impact on culture and pop-culture. Duels, political intrigue, romancing and most importantly, friendship above everything. Has bunch of continuations, along with just as numerous adaptations.
*'''''Paul Féval - Le Bossu''''' [or ''The Hunchback'']: The '''other''' swashbuckler. Chevalier Henri Lagardère swears vengeance over the death of his friend, duke de Nevers, while escaping with Nevers' infant daughter Aurore, from the hands of assassins. Years later he returns, in disguise of a hunchbacked accountant, to wreck havoc and have his way with the villainous prince de Gonzague. In the background, France is trying to figure out itself after the death of Louis XIV and the resulting regency. Both film adaptations are approved genre classics.
*'''''C.S. Forester - Horatio Hornblower''''': A series of books following Horatio Hornblower as he rises through the ranks of the Royal Navy from the late 1700’s through the early 1800’s. Has a TV series adaptation free off YouTube if books aren’t your thing.
*'''''George MacDonald Fraser - [[Flashman]]''''': A 19th century, cowardly and womanizing British buffoon with a pedigree goes from one crazy adventure to another around the globe. Meanwhile the writer has fun with all the genre conventions and relentlessly mocking the Victorian literature. A little on the nose, but how else you turn stuff like Kipling into actual engaging adventuring?
*'''''Homer - The Iliad''''': One of the oldest pieces of historical fiction. Trojan prince steals a Greek king's wife and all of Greece comes for revenge. For a long time considered complete fiction, but excavations and analysis suggest at least at a concept level Homer's epic is based on real war, even if the details got obscured or lost over hundreds of years of oral tradition.
*'''''Allan Mallinson - Matthew Hervey series''''': If Captain Aubrey was the pinnacle of Napoleonic naval escapades then the career of Matthew Hervey is the pinnacle of life in the cavalry regiments of the time. A series of 14 splendid novels, the level of detail is tremendous, touching on many of the equestrian and veterinarian aspects of cavalry upkeep and warfare that is presented in a much more manly fashion than what passes for horse-care in those sappy teen's novels. Also helps that the author was a bona-fide military officer of the (Queen Mary's Own) Royal Hussars. If you've ever wondered how the fuck the armies of the 19th century could maintain so much cavalry and how those regiments lived, this is the series for you.
*'''''Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian''''': Set during the middle of the 19th century in the southern United States, it follows the exploits of "The Kid" who joins what is essentially a band of Murderhobos to terrorize the prairie and hunt Indians. It doesn't sound like anything special, until you count in the fact that the group is possibly led by the devil himself. And he leads the group on to ever greater acts of depravity that would make Khorne and Slaneesh uneasy.
*'''''Brian Moore - Black Robe''''': A French Jesuit on his perilous quest to reach a remote mission, helped by distrusting Algonquian guides and crossing with them the bleak, frozen hell that is pre-colonial Ontario. The novel combines two elements that make it worth reading: it is well-researched on all covered subjects, creating a very handy panorama of 17th century Canada, and, more importantly, it puts a nice spin on the generic "travel up-stream through all sort of dangers" plot to make it interesting. The film adaptation is also approved.
*'''''Patrick O'Brian - Aubrey–Maturin series''''': A series of 21 nautical historical novels, set during the Napoleonic Wars and centering on the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin. Almost autistically well-researched and amazingly addictive series which should be read by just about anyone even wishing to run a maritime-themed game. They are really addictive, so make sure you have enough time to spare before starting reading. The film adaptation is also approved.
*'''''Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front''''': The personal story of a German soldier named Paul Breuer, who details the exploits and sufferings of his regiment during the 1st World War on the Western front. If you are looking for an account of how truly and utterly apocalyptic WW1 was, look no further. The book details almost every part of a soldiers life, from chilling behind the front lines to storming an enemy trench and the author (who himself fought in the war) is at times damn straight and at other times damn poetic about it. Beautiful descriptions of nature and accounts of friends being ripped to shreds by grenades are often just a paragraph apart, so its quite the rollercoaster.
** Since it's a pretty short read, it leaves you with time to indulge in the follow-up, '''The Road Back''', which features the surviving soldiers from the same company (but not the same characters) from the previous book, trying to re-integrate into society and miserably failing.
*'''''Walter Scott - Ivanhoe''''': The grand-daddy of the entire genre. Adventures and misadventures of a chivalrous knight who does his very best to collect ransom needed for king Richard the Lion Heart, while fending off against those nefarious Normans and their machinations. Despite its age, still holding pretty well.
*'''''Neal Stephenson - The Baroque Cycle''''': Adventures of a really big cast of characters living amidst of the central events of the late 17th and early 18th centuries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central America. Extremely well-researched portray of the era, seamlessly blending history with fictional characters. And a real door-stopper.
*'''''Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island''''': If by any chance or twist of fate you still didn't read it, you damn should right now. Absolute classic and absolute gold mine for ideas, not even for pirate game, but just adventuring in general.
*'''''Mika Waltari - The Egyptian, The Etruscan''''': "The Egyptian" follows the life of a fictional Egyptian Sinuhe living in the New Kingdom period and witnessing the upheaval that monotheism and war with Hittites bring to the ordered Egypt. "The Etruscan" does the same for Turms, an amnesiac hero set in the time of Greco-Persian Wars and the beginnings of the Roman Republic. Waltari was recognised and lauded by the historians at the time for spending autistic-levels of time researching the cultures he was writing about - but don't expect too much of it still hold value, century of additional research later.
*'''''Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go''''': The story of a brash young [[munchkin|power gamer]] challenging a grizzled old [[neckbeard]] to a championship [[Go]] match. Chronicles the national-scale edition war that was 1930s Japan through the medium of gaming obsessed hyper-autists.

==Weird Stuff==
*'''''David Brin - Uplift Hexology''''': A sort of really lazily worldbuilt sci-fi setting, based around the idea that a trillions-years-old galactic civilization is perpetuated by the "uplifting" of near-sentient animals and tool-using species. Every species has its specific attitude and special trait, like most bad sci-fi, except for humans and their uplifted dolphins and chimpanzees. But it does have some interesting ideas about evolution and how that could lead to truly strange forms of life and ways of thinking, if you can suffer through all the ecofanaticism.
*'''''The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island''''': Created as a tie-in to the 2005 remake of King Kong by Peter Jackson, this book is a glorified encyclopedia that explores the geography, flora and fauna of Skull Island as depicted in the film, vastly expanding upon the pulp fantasy-influenced artificial environment designed for the film. This book is a ''goldmine'' for worldbuilding and creature design if you want to do a [[Sword & Sorcery]] or fantasy [[Stone Age]] setting, or just include a "Lost World of [[dinosaur]]s" type area in your own setting, with an incredible variety of fleshed out beasts ranging from small, inoffensive coastal grazers to apex predators. The only drawback is that it's out of print and extremely hard to find in physical copy at a non-exorbitant price.
*'''''Dante Alleghiri - The Divine Comedy''''': In this section because due to genre-spinning hybrid that it is. It is also a very trippy experience. The Divine Comedy is best known for its first part, the Inferno, which pretty much codified culture and pop-culture take on Hell. Beyond that, its also a good look at Renaissance, with both its politics and fascination in antiquity. The second and third parts are much more esoteric and increasingly focused specifically on Christian theology, but worth looking into for Dante's literary skills.

==Mythology==
*'''''Beowulf''''': ''Not'' the English national epic, as Tollers noted; it belongs to the Geats, a now-dead tribe of para-Swedes. Beowulf rips Grendel's arm off, then goes down [[What|to kill his mum]]. Beowulf is killed, himself, by a dragon. Somehow got translated into Old Anglo-Saxon, sprinkled with an ultrathin veneer of Christianity, and copied; long enough for the English to find it again.
*'''''The Epic of Gilgamesh''''': The original Conan, gettin' bitches and slayin' witches since 1800BC, baby. The story of Gilgamesh (no shit; might have been Bilgamesh originally), a demi-god <strike>Babylonian</strike> Sumerian (big difference) king who the gods continually try to beat down and/or kill because he's [[Awesome|just that fucking awesome.]] [[That guy|He's also a HUUUUUUGE dick.]] Eventually meets his best bro for life Enkidu and they go on fuckin' sick adventures. Unfortunately some parts of the story are lost.
*'''''Kullervo''''': Some Finnish nationalist figured, how come ''we'' don'ts gots a mythology. So he made one - the Kalevala - but with even MORE grimdark and [[incest Smith|incest]]. JRR Tolkien edited a rendition of the Kullervo subset and, further, both he and Moorcock independently(?) took inspiration for their own antiheroes with magic souldraining swords, Turin and Elric respectively.
*'''''Mahābhārata''''': A Hindu epic story about family struggle for the rightful rule, performing your religious duty and also... pfft! Just kidding: it's wall to wall tits, ultra-violence and bullshit superpowers. But also family struggle, romances, political intrigues and handy panorama of nascent Hindu religion. Also - magnificent mustaches, the manlier you are, the bigger the stach. It's '''THE''' ultimate Bronze Age epic, long enough to take an entire bookshelf by itself. As such, you should be looking for an abridged version around 600-800 pages, rather than the whole thing.
*'''''Der Nibelunge liet (The Lay of the Nibelungs)''''': A ring is found at the Rhine; a dragon (Fafnir, for Wagner) finds it; dragon gets BTFOed by one Siegfried who is then corrupted himself. Written around AD 1200 by a High German, that is high up in Bavaria; with many parallels to similar stories in the ''Edda'' far north. Deemed too pagan for the Renaissance-era Germans, lost in the ensuing religious wars; rediscovered 1755 and became the national epic... for better or worse. Wagner's [[/pol/]]-approved take (Fafnir is a greedy dwarf, becomes that dragon) pulls more from the Norse. That's the one wherein wabbits are killed.
*'''''The Odyssey''''': Sequel to Homer's Iliad, possibly by a fan adopting that name. Odysseus, hero of the Trojan War with many cameos in the Iliad, has to go home to his wife - but he's in no hurry. Runs through many adventures before finally getting there; his wife somehow had stayed more loyal than ''he'' had. Many C.S. Lewis and then D&D monsters got aired here first. [Also] in Iliad / Odyssey fanfic may be included the Cypria and the Aeneid; Argonautica, concerning Jason's earlier voyage to the Black Sea, further had much influence from this book.
*'''''[[The Poetic Edda]]''''': A historical source, the Poetic Edda provides most of the basis for what we know about Norse myth and belief today. The mere fact that it's [[Viking]] myth poetry written in [[Awesome|Old Norse]] should entice most fa/tg/uys, but for those somehow unmoved still, it's basically THE sourcebook for the [[Lord of the Rings]] and all else [[Tolkien]]. If you want to know where Gandalf (who is basically Odin), [[Dwarves]] (and their names), [[Elves]], the phrase "[[Middle Earth]]" and that obsession he has for massive trees came from, then look no further. Also, pick up a copy of the Prose Edda while your reading this one, seeing as you're on a roll. Features a now-confirmed-to-AD-1022 visit to Newfoundland ("Markland"), whence the Norse bugged out in a generation because who the fuck wants to spend more time in Noof than one has to.

==History==
*'''''Julius Caesar - Commentaries on the Gallic War''''': If you study Latin, this is the first full text you'll be assigned to translate (same goes for Xenophon if you're learning Greek). Caesar wrote this autobiography of his campaign in Gaul to bolster his support among the only so-so literate plebs, and as a result it avoids using big, confusing words. On the flip-side, this makes it dreadfully dry and boring at times. Still, if you want to have ''the'' Roman experience, it's mandatory read.
*'''''Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - The Ingenious Nobleman Mister Quixote of La Mancha''''': The misadventures of an old man driven to madness by reading chivalry novels, being the first major parody of the classic interpretation of that setting. Mixing comedy and a ton of political commentary for its time, it's one of the most important novels of all time, and the elements and tropes it brought to popular culture are referenced and satirized to this day.
*'''''Marcus Tullius Cicero - De Re Publica''''': A political dialogue, explaining all the virtues of Roman Republic. Survived only partially and in short-hands, but still makes a compelling read about "ideal" (and most definitely not idealised into absurdity) state of Roman politics and political machine, along with all the machinations gradually leading to [[Star_Wars|the Republic turning into the Empire]]. An obligatory read for all Romanboos.
*'''''Herodotus - Histories''''': As a historical account, it's almost completely useless and predominately fictional, being single-handedly responsible for bunch of deeply ingrained popular misconceptions about ancient Persia, Egypt, Sparta and Scythia. What it really is is the ancient world's equivalent of a gossip column, thus collecting all the most interesting, crazy and outlandish stories Herodotus heard or copied from others. As such, it's a perfect base for equally outlandish world-building and campaigns, mixing reality with fantasy.
*'''''Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli - The Prince''''': [[This guy]] seems to be very underrated in popular culture, and its name is often used as a pejorative term, sometimes as twisted or evil. But this guy only wrote some sort of historical summary of how previous governments around the world have risen to power, how they handled it, and how they lost it all. It's just a guide of how you should rule your kingdom. You totally won't find [[Skub]] here. There is a later version of the book with additional commentary by '''Napoléon Bonaparte''', which is naturally the preferred version. A major influence on Camarilla of [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] (note the name of their leaders).
*'''''Jan Chryzostom Pasek - Diaries''''' (Also known in English as '''The Writings of Jan Chryzostom Pasek, a Squire of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania'''): Diaries (duh) of a 17th century nobleman, who, due to spending his life fighting in countless wars and even more quarrels with his neighbuors, traveled half the Europe and always had something to say about the things and people he saw. If you are yearning for your pike-and-shot, but also need some cavalryman crazy panache, look no further. Due to its writing style, it reads almost like an adventure novel and, as improbable as it seems at times, actually happened for real.
*'''''Antonio Pigafetta - Journal of Magellan's Voyage''''': A historical account of the first circumnavigation of the globe. Aside obvious historical value, it's worth to note Pigafetta wasn't an explorer himself or a member of the crew - he was a tourist, joining the expedition for the thrill of adventure and described everything from such perspective. Provides a lot of nautical and ethnographical observations, creating a panorama for Age of Discovery.
*'''''Marco Polo - The Million''''': The seminal travelogue of an Italian explorer as he travelled the breadth of Middle East and Asia all the way to China and back again during the height of the Middle Ages. While there is some question as to the accuracy of the work, scholars today agree that generally speaking the accounts are as accurate as can be expected for the time period.
*'''''Sunzi - The Art of War''''': The Codex Astartes of ancient China dating back to the Spring and Autumn period. Essentially a "How to Wage Wars for Dummies" guidebook and trivial from modern perspective - which doesn't stop people from gushing how brilliant it is and making it one of the most mis-quoted books in human literature<ref>To be fair to Sunny Boy, (1) he was writing in a period when virtually no such books existed, and (2) most of his advice is still sound.</ref>. Most editions contain more commentaries than there is actual Sun Tzu writing in them.
*'''''Publius Cornelius Tacitus - The Annals''''': A Roman historical account of the time from Augustus' death in 14 AD. to the reign of Emperor Nero. Although fragmented as hell (as the overwhelming majority of ancient literature is), it is one of the most important sources on how the Roman Empire survived and gained permanency after its charismatic founder Octavian-Augustus died. It is generally regarded as being one of the finest works of Roman history that has survived, as well as containing one of the only extra-biblical accounts of Jesus, alongside the writings of Flavius Josephus. Tacitus is especially appreciated for his penetrating insights into power politics, so think of him as a proto-Machiavelli in far more readable prose.
*'''''Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War''''': Happens right before The Anabasis, covering roughly two decades of warfare between Athens and Sparta, in varying degrees of detail depending on the sources Thucydides had access to at the time (he was exiled from Athens and switched sides mid-war). Trails off at the end, presumably he died writing it. Basically the oldest human text in existence that is regarded as a historical account to be taken at face value, and it inspired many other leaders such as Xenophon and later Julius Caesar to write accounts of their own deeds.
*'''''Xenophon - The Anabasis''''': Another historical account, this time of the journey of 10,000 Greek mercenaries (hence the other title - ''The March of the Ten Thousand'') who end up stranded in the middle of Persian Empire after their employer, Cyrus the Younger, got killed in the battle. Problem is, Cyrus was trying to overthrown his brother, king Artaxerxes II, using said Greeks. So now they are in the middle of hostile territory, with no means to resupply, no support and constantly endangered by Persian military and tributary locals. Due to Xenophon's writing style, the book is highly entertaining and action-packed, while also providing countless descriptions of both Greek and Persian customs. And if you wonder why the plot sounds familiar - you probably saw "The Warriors".

==Shunned/Hated==
*'''Terry <del>Good</del>Badkind - The Sword of Truth''': An infamous series full of Terry's [[magical realm]] BDSM, utterly gratuitous rape and torture (Terry's cheap/lazy method of making his main characters look better by comparison), and "heroes" we're supposed to arbitrarily like no matter ''what'' horrible things they do. Badkind himself having nothing but contempt for the entire fantasy genre while bragging about how he is a "serious" novelist and packing the later books with his stupid Ayn Ranting (even when it ''contradicted previous fucking events'') did him no favours.
*'''Stephanie Meyer - [[Twilight]]:''' ...Have you ''been'' on the internet? The series that single-handedly killed an [[Vampire: The Masquerade| entire style of modern fantasy vampire]] for an entire generation of fantasy fans who ''aren't'' sexually-frustrated housewives and/or hormone-addled teenage girls. Though it's a bit old hat to bring up the series with any seriousness, doing so will irritate the scars of bitter neckbeards.
*'''John Norman - [[Gor (John Norman)]]''': A cheap knockoff of Barsoom and Conan made notable (as the series goes on) for having a lot of half baked philosophizing, skeevy BSDM stuff and [[/d/|a ton of fucked up ideas about gender, slavery and sex]]. In brief a bunch of bug aliens make a zoo full of humans to live "as nature intended" as misogynistic slaving barbarians and make sure of it [[wat|by incinerating anyone who attempts to develop technology or societies they don't approve of with laser beams. Which they sometimes do to whole cities just for the lulz]]. Also for spawning one of the ''original'' obnoxious apologist Internet subcultures, the Goreans. Spread to Second Life, so go there if you want to burn your brain.
*'''Christopher Paolini - [[Eragon|The Inheritance Series]]:''' A Mary Sue main character and a derivative plot. It was written when Paolini was a teenager and it shows. Every single book could stand to lose at ''least'' a third of its wordcount and there are lot of times when the plot grinds to a halt for entire chapters just for the characters to think and ramble about the most inane of topics. Less offensive than other stuff on this list since it lacks traits such as bootlick fans and an asshole author. The author also put a decent amount of effort into his worldbuilding which is more than can be said for Badkind and Smeyer. If you must, start in book two and read his cousin's story, he is a farm boy who was getting his dick wet while struggling with a hostile father-in-law, until the civil war reached his hometown and his betrothed is whisked away by humanoid bug-birds, he then murders 200 people with a hammer and deals with PTSD.

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Image:Approved Children's Literature.png|Kid-tested, fa/tg/uy-approved.
</gallery>

=Other Recommendations=
*[http://desuarchive.org/tg/thread/27995546/ Fatguys briefly exit their basement comfort zone to recommend /tg/ romance novels.]
*[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/109337._tg_approved_reading_list /tg/'s approved reading list on Goodreads]

[[Category:Approved Media]]
[[Category:Literature]]

Female Space Marines

2022-06-04T16:55:03Z

2001:8003:1C20:8C00:1988:DCAB:5C:EA8E:

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{{topquote|The Adeptus Astartes can only contain males. No girls allowed. They are yucky.|[[If The Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device|The Emperor of Mankind]]}}
{{topquote|Has Slaanesh inflamed your senses?|Flavius Alkenex of the Phoenix Conclave to Fabius Bile, discussing Fabius's implantation of geneseed into females.}}

[[Image:beakiegal.jpg|thumb|right|Guaranteed to garner at least 100 replies. Also not enough pauldron.]]

There is no tactic more effective for [[RAGE|enraging]] a diehard [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] fanboy than discussing/drawing their [[Rule 63]] companion, '''Female Space Marines'''. Not to be confused with [[Sisters of Battle]], the canonical equivalent to Space Marines and also armed with bolters and chainswords with the stats of shitty guardsmen (but still entirely equal to space marines, [[Games Workshop|we]] promise), but ''Space Marine'' Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes, you know, the hypermuscular ones with [[pauldrons]]. According to [[Games Workshop]] [[canon]], the procedures that are used to create a Space Marine only work properly on male subjects (inferred to be because the Emperor is male), rendering female Marines impossible, and it has been tried in canon. (The most common result is a servant of [[Slaanesh]] [[chaos spawn|that cannot be named.]]).

Sometimes it is pointed out that back in the [[Rogue Trader]] days, Games Workshop did briefly produce two power-armoured female models, but they were changed to "Female Adventurers in Power Armour" and were never meant to represent female Marines. And they sold so poorly the line was axed anyway. Moreover, White Dwarf ''did'' in fact publish a Rogue Trader scenario back in the day featuring real, honest-to-[[Matt Ward|Ward]] female Imperial Space Marines, albeit with the caveat that such chapters were exceedingly rare. In addition, some will point out that both the [[Emperor]] and [[Magnus the Red|at least]] [[Alpharius|one Primarch]] can change appearance at will. Considering this is from Games Workshop, who [[Squats|routinely violates their own canon in subsequent editions]], fanbase be damned, take this as you will.

It's worth noting, though, that Games Workshop hasn't deterred /tg/ (or indeed, the [[Black Library]] writers) from coming up with ways to potentially allow for them, even with Space Marines being exclusively male being one of the rare things they've kept consistent. This is because we're talking about a tabletop game set in a universe where [[Orks|green mushroom men accidentally will things into existence]] and [[Daemon|manifestations of extreme emotions sometimes murderfuck you from the inside out]] because some idiot forgot to fix the Gellar field or a Custodian missed a couple psykers for the Emperor's daily meal. And as was brought up in [[Daemonette|previous]] [[Monstergirls|articles]], little gets between a man and [[PROMOTIONS|his fapbait]], much less the rather "spirited" lorefagging this inspires in detractors.

The most serious anyone avoiding rage should get with this is that given the physical differences between men and women, there could be female Space Marines and we wouldn't even know it. Because after all was done to make them viable for implantation they either wouldn't be male anymore or the only thing indicating their original sex would be what's between their legs but otherwise indistinguishable from a man. So arguing about female Space Marines is ultimately pointless. Wait...maybe ''this'' is why Astartes have "repressed" sexuality. It's not really repressed, they're just traumatized from seeing a Battle-"Brother" naked!



=The Canon Part=
While for a time GW's official stance was that it was impossible to create Female Space Marines, leading to spammed complaints about gender equality and claims that male-only Space Marines are sexist on their forums. Therefore, a minor concession was made. According to new [[fluff]] the Emperor of Mankind ''did'' see fit to attempt the creation of female Space Marines, whether in the spirit of equality, for the sake of a larger recruiting pool, or [[/d/|because he had an incest fetish to indulge.]] Emphasis on ''tried''; since he had based his Sons off of himself, and then Space Marines off of the resulting genes, it was impossible to twist that base around to reliably make a female Space Marine. The Emperor tried again and again, but could not find a way to reliably create a Female Space Marine in a reasonable time frame and soon found that if Male Space Marines were one in a million, then Female Space Marines were one in a trillion. There were many semi-successful female Space Marines that showed promise, but nearly all of them died shortly after implantation due to organ rejection and various hormonal imbalances causing their biology to shit itself. Quickly realizing that this shit was a waste of time and resources better spent conquering the galaxy, he decreed that Space Marines would be male-only, '''NO GIRLS ALLOWED.'''

TL;DR GW got tired of angry letters, so they said that Female Space Marines were possible but stupidly impractical (even by 40k standards), so that's why there aren't any Female Space Marines so stop the angry letters ''please''.

This all could have been avoided if [[SJW|some of the complainants]] had simply asked for (and GW gave) more focus on the [[Sisters of Battle|''real'', pre-existing Female Space Marines]] complete with a unique, empowering flavor all their own - not to mention [[Imperial Guard|other]] [[Sisters of Silence|the other]] [[Eldar|non-sexualized]] [[Tau|women]] available in the setting. [[Fail|Naturally, this seemingly obvious solution was lost on all parties involved]].

On the Black Library front, it was mentioned in one of the [[Horus Heresy]] books that [[Malcador the Sigillite]] had suggested making one or two of the Primarchs female, half-jokingly saying that it might help to defuse competition between them (a laughable proposition). The Emperor was not amused by this at all and insisted that it simply couldn't be done, thinking Malcador was joking about the idea entirely. And really, who wants to try to argue with him about it? He may have had time later to uplift all of humanity, but he is busy with that little "ten thousand years on life support while fighting various eldritch horrors" business.

==[[Sindri|SSSSSIIIIIINNNNNNDDDDRRRRRRIIIII!!]]==

And now a bit unexpected salvation - there are indeed (99.46% possible) Female Space Marines!... in The [[Eye Of Terror]]. Well, they're possible out of it too - see, due to the nature of [[Chaos]], mutations are often a fact of life. Some desired, some not. What if one hulked out, burning, warped Chaos Space Marine [[Moot|secretly wishes he was the cute little girl who got flowers? Who smiled with joy? Who was so sweet?]]

This was ''confirmed'' in one of the earlier Chapter Approved articles - one that re-introduced mounted Daemonettes - in which a Governor-Militant fighting a Slaanesh warband mused that there were (apparently female) creatures that [[Heresy|were once Space Marines, but no longer]]. Considering Chaos can cause [[Chaos Spawn|that which must never be named]], is anyone surprised by this?

Furthermore, in the [[Fabius Bile]] series, there was a female Chaos Champion who'd been mutated up to Space-Marine equivalent levels, and was a subcommander in an Emperor's Children war band.

==[[Honsou]], You Sick Fuck==

We know that you among the fans, despite all our attempts to dissuade you, want cute FEMALE SPHESS MAHREENS! And there is good news - technically, there ARE Female Space Marines IN OFFICIAL LORE. The catch? Yes there is a catch. And this one is the worst.

Your new waifu is a bloated, twisted, undying, insane, mutated pregnant mother-slave only alive because she's in the Eye of Terror.

You see, [[Honsou]] of the [[Iron Warriors]], in an effort to squeeze new MAHREENS into the ranks without having to pay that other sick fuck [[Fabius Bile]] for clones and because he was too lazy to do it the normal way, created a system of hideousness and sadness that pushes [[grimdark]] to a whole new level. He invented the [[Daemonculaba]], a system whereby a woman is chained and fed stuff which will morph her and her womb into something that was never meant to be. A boy is then (yes, a child), jammed, shoved or cut INTO the vagina and stays there for a while. When his time is ready, he, now XBAWKS HUEG and STRONG, will have to [[rip and tear|rip, tear]], or otherwise push his way out of his adoptive mother's womb/vagina. When he emerges, he will either be a skinless mutant abomination, or will emerge as a fully functional (albeit skinless) Chaos Space Marine in a fraction of the time, with all his growth stages and bionics and gene-seed already taken care of. How? [[Meme|It's fucking science]].

This goes back to our Female Space Marine - you see, while she was being morphed and changed, [[Dark Mechanicus]] Biologis hereteks worked on her body, implanting gene-seed and making her physically a Female Space Marine, even if the form is rather off. Thus, her womb can turn children as well into Space Marines by having her womb 'grow' the required organs and stages directly into their bodies in a fraction of the time - days and weeks instead of years. Thankfully for the entire universe, this horror was [[Uriel Ventris|destroyed]] before Honsou realized he could stick girls in there as well, and get double the recruits, and stumble upon the secret to true Female Space Marines.

==A Slightly More Reasonable Answer==

The problem really is one of terminology. Women can wear power armour, certainly; the Sororitas practically make it formal wear. Women can, through steroids, incessant bodybuilding, a high protein diet, psychological and emotional conditioning if not already manly enough in the brain, and a little genetic modding to bring it all together (mostly to change how their bodies react to testosterone and to accept and produce laaaarge amounts of it), be as buff and rocking as a Space Marine though obviously without whatever biomancy Warp bullshit makes Marines so much stronger than their bodies should be physically capable of (and to reach this level, the woman would ''maybe'' still have female genitalia but otherwise be physiologically indistinguishable from a very manly man). Pointlessly expensive and inefficient compared to grabbing a guy and shoving a growth hormone in him. Although, this does bring up the possibility that there already ''are'' "female" Space Marines but they just...[[Grimdark|aren't female anymore]]. We'd never even know. But what really makes a Space Marine a Space Marine is all of the [[Geneseed|extra genetically-engineered organs and DNA and whatnot]] cloned from the Primarchs and implanted in the right way, which is impossible for women for reasons the Emperor himself ran afoul of. The closest thing to an exception in the fluff is any experiment involving Fabius Bile. It should be noted that the said woman is effectively lobotomized (and even there, the potential Chaos Space Marine candidate must be male since even that sick thing requires gene-seed to 'work'). And even if he did make you a Female Space Marine for reals, she still wouldn't be a "proper" Space Marine, just a weird, mutilated, Chaos-infused entity that approximates a Space Marine but [[Ultramarines|can never truly be one.]]

On the note of the Fabulous one, the crazy old fuck basically cloned himself but then decided to make the clone female and have a [[Warhammer High|'daughter']] just for the [[lulz]]. And the best/worst part is, he still made a better job out of parenthood than Big E. Bile's also experimented on damn-near everything (including the entire civilian populations of several planets) at some point or another for his attempts to duplicate the methods for creating new Space Marines, so there's ample evidence to suggest that [[/d/|he's tried it at least once]], ''going as far as saying Big E. was an idiot for making gene-seed only compatible with men and thus cutting off half the potential supply of warriors''. Fucking [[Slaanesh]]. In his own recent novels, his retinue has included a champion who is effectively, but not technically, a female Space Marine; when she claimed some Emperor's Children power armor on the battlefield, it bonded to her like Chaos Armour from Fantasy does, and she's tougher in a fight than most true Space Marines.

Another possible reason is that all of the Primarchs are men, with male genes, thus meaning that, [[Samus|unless there's secretly a girl Primarch out there somewhere,]] female Space Marines cannot be made in the traditional sense. Space Marine blood alone can eat through many durable materials due to the mess of chemicals in them. Any attempt to breed Space Marines the traditional way would be almost guaranteed to fail in a tragic fashion.

Of note is the fact that despite the names and histories of the two missing Primarchs being utterly obliterated from Imperial records, they are still unambiguously referred to as sons of the Emperor.

==Dark Imperium and FemMarines==
[[Image:YouHaven'tMadeFemaleSpaceMarinesHaveYou.jpg|thumb|right|The Emperor's reaction to [[Primaris Marines]]]]
In the Master of Mankind and Dark Imperium novels, it's revealed that the [[Emperor]] never cared for the Space Marines [[Adeptus Custodes|as much as his more favored sons]], and saw them as little more than tools to secure his [[Imperium of Man|empire]]. [[Ultramar|He never intended for them to rule over it]], as it was planned to be an empire [[High Lords of Terra|ruled by humans for humans]]. Given this revelation, it's possible that the Emperor ''could've'' made Female Space Marines, but chose not to because he wanted a reliable way to keep their population in check (that he could've just made them infertile apparently never occured to him). Keep in mind that [[Belisarius Cawl|very few people outside of the Emperor himself]] were actually involved in the [[Primarch]] Project, so he was adamant that FemMarines were impossible, and no one actually tried to prove him wrong - they mostly just took him at his word (because calling him out seems like a much less preferable alternative). It is also simply far quicker and more efficient to implant recruits. Plus the changes needed to create a female Space Marine, given the large physical abilities differences between men and women, would be extreme, with an immense fatality rate, and expensive. You could make ten male and female Space Marines or thirty male Space Marines in half the time. The right choice is obvious. Besides, after the changes to put the women on par with the men Marines, the only real difference left would be genetalia, so the extra expense and risk would be pointless in the end. Sure, the fem Marines would only need to outclass the enemies of the Crusade, so full body alteration wouldn’t be necessary. But, the male Marines frequently suffered heavy, sometimes dramatic casualties. Less durable, less strong female Marines added would mostly increase the body count. Not to mention the incredible risk of enemies getting DNA of both Marine types and making their own in their labs. Besides, Emps had Chaos to consider. Even if you don't buy into all the [[-4 Str]] [[bullshit]], the impracticality of the numbers is still worth noting.

Although Space Marines have their sex drive curbed or removed, we know that [[Space Wolves]] can still sleep around (especially true for [[Lukas the Trickster]]), to say nothing of the [[Emperor's Children]], who are explicitly described going on a [[RAPE|rape rampage]] during the [[Siege of Terra]], which likely means that the reproductive suppression isn't 100% effective or irreversible, though the latter example does carry a load of salt big enough to fill a Blackstone Fortress in that they worship Slaanesh. It should also be considered that although Space Marines have a reduced or eliminated sex drive, it's never been suggested that they're sterile, meaning that [[Fall of the Eldar|accidents could still happen]]. Space Marine sex drive also seems to be born more out of culture than anything actually biological, most marines consider themselves too busy to get sexually or romantically attached to other people and are "married to the job". However the Space Wolves, having a rowdy and raunchy chapter culture where picking up chicks is a sign of manly strength and a source of tales to laugh about at the mess hall don't see any problem with their brothers spending their free time having "fun" with the local women. However since the mass of a Space Marine would crush a normal human woman to death, said woman would be the one doing all the work. So not much different from having sex with an IRL alcoholic really.

Given all this, it's possible that the Emperor didn't want to take any chances and potentially have his living weapons start reproducing and becoming self-sufficient, replacing the humans they were designed to protect. Keeping Space Marines mono-gendered and reliant on [[geneseed]] would ensure that he maintained tight control over his tools and how many there were at any given time. Of course, this is all speculation, so take it with a grain of salt. Keep in mind, Implants are not heritable, this is basic biology. Unless the Astartes-to-be DNA is altered, which once again would mean Female Astartes should be possible. Even then the theoretical baby Astartes wouldn't get the implanted organs, meaning probable miscarriage. Instead they would have to be genetically altered clones. These attempts have almost always created questionable results.

Also the statement that the Emperor blatantly favors the Custodes over the Space Marines? 100% true. Space Marines during the time of the Great Crusade were mostly just genetically engineered frontline soldiers with cybernetics, Power Armor and really big guns. Instead of being a mix of Tier 1 Special Operators and Dark Age Knight Orders like they are during M41 and M42. Some were even used as right out cannon fodder, more so if they were traitors during the Heresy. (e.g. Stor-Bezashk White Scars were those who were found to be on the side of the traitors and, for the lesser offenders who weren't executed after [[Jaghatai Khan]] revealed what Horus actually was doing, were reassigned to take most deadliest missions as punishment in the Sagyar Mazan, while getting all the shit jobs were one of the reasons the [[Iron Warriors]] sided with [[Horus]].) The Emperor also had no problems purging two whole Legions of them for reasons that we'll never know about, though it was bad enough that even Horus didn't break his silence on it till he died. So he wouldn't care about massacring Space Marines wholesale if they were made up of gender equal units.

A mass Legion purge is something he never considered doing to the Adeptus Custodes, as they have no flaws that allows to be corrupted by Chaos or Xeno influence. And if it were possible, they'd be too dead to talk about. Nor would he send them to some forsaken planet to be slaughtered like he would with Space Marines. Of course, female Custodes are also a whole different can of worms in of itself and turns the discussion into [[skub]], despite Games Workshop themselves considering this as being potentially canon.

==On The To-Do List?==
There is a paragraph in "Ashes of Prospero" were Arjac Rockfist identifies him self as a "Son as Russ", and a woman with a spear asks "Only sons?" Arjac thinks on it, and realizes that the spirit of Fenris, and of the Space Wolves, is in all the people of Fenris, men, women and children. Then he considers that Guilliman had made an even more deadly and powerful version of a Space Marine, so it was possible. At the end he pointedly does not reject the possibility of women space marines, ending with a "Perhaps."

Whether or not this is a case of fandom baiting/lorefag trolling, lampshade hanging, or just leaving space for '[[Your Dudes]]' is debatable; the fact that this happened among the [[Viking]]-themed Space Wolves is interesting, given the Valkyrie and Shield Maiden connotations that go along with that theme. Additionally, the Wolves took a beating from the Thousand Sons, so increasing the recruiting pool would be a boon to the beleaguered Wolves. If female marines were going to be suddenly created, it happening to the Space Wolves would not be thematically out of the question the way it would be for other more 'ascetic' Space Marine chapters. This being said, Fenrisian Shield Maidens were mentioned as having fought in Wrath of Magnus, so it's also possible that the Space Wolves will stop being a Marines-exclusive force and start incorporating the native warriors of Fenris, though that would be a blatant case of legion building that would draw the attention of the already inclined to look disagreeable on them Inquisition in a way the more Inquisition friendly Ultramarine do not with the Ultramar Auxilla.

Of course, if GW were to give Space Wolves female Primaris first or just their own auxiliary troops that other Astartes factions don't have fluff equivalents for. It would end up making them even more [[Mary Sue]] than they already are. As the Wolves are considered by their detractors to be bigger Sues than the [[Ultramarine]]s and [[Grey Knights]]. If they are a vocal minority now, such an action would turn more than half of the fandom against the poodles.

=What Would A Female Space Marine Look Like If They Could Exist?=
[[File:Silver Skull.jpg|right|thumb|Tina likes long walks on the beach and slaying the Emperor's foes.]]
Obviously, in the land of Rule 63 they are amazingly hot [[Rape|(and would totally do]] [[Mary Sue| you)]], but in dark and gritty fluff-land where they would be optimised for combat rather than jacking off, they would probably have very few notable female features left following surgery and genetic fuckery. Marines are made from pre-adolescent kids who still have very little in terms of sexual dimorphism, and the process of transforming includes total rewriting of the hormonal system (which is responsible for developing secondary sexual characteristics).

Humans in 40k rarely resemble humans today. A hypothetical femarine wouldn't have narrow shoulders, wide hips, (big) breasts, delicate face structures (though the blood angels often manage it), feminine voices or even traditional feminine character traits like higher capacity for empathy and increased aversion against danger as those two psychological traits are pretty easily conditioned in or out of people if you can control their social contacts. And unless you're one of the nice chapters like the Salamanders, Lamenters, or Celestial Lions; empathy is almost certainly going to be trained out of most recruits to make them better able to deal with the kind of guilt that killing other people inflicts on humans. If you don't think that's a big concern, note that this is the kind of guilt that notably caused [[Avitus]] to fall to [[heresy]] when the truth about his chapter master invalidated all of his excuses; all pretense of his chapter being "in the right" fell away and he found himself unable to live with his actions. An entire Chapter of Marines in service to the inquisition who purged civilians who knew too much was also driven insane by the guilt because they simply cared too much for other people. Too much humanity can and will drive space marines to madness over the course of their duties.

In essence, a neophyte does not mature into man or woman - it matures into a '''marine'''. A female Space Marine would only differ from male Space Marine by having (possibly) different genitalia, so no "Samus is a girl" moments would occur, given that they would never have a traditional female puberty. Either way, Female Space Marines are not going to be conventionally attractive (more than male marines, anyways). Being recreated exclusively for war tends to do that. They would be bigger than an ordinary human, of course, but they would still be proportioned like a normal human. Or like some bikini model if the Emperor decided he wanted to make hot White Scar bikers or something.

It is worth noting that official art from GW shows that unarmoured space marines look pretty normal if tall and swole discounting all the plug holes in them; like Captain America if he were a head or two taller rather than blob like roid freaks. Which does make sense, as the hulking bodybuilder physique is actually not very good in a fight compared to the more lithe MMA fighter build or the kind of fat looking powerlifter bod and in the military, endurance and leg power matters far more than how big your gains are. It's also worth noting that the sons of Sanguinius in particular are generally handsome in an androgynous, angelic way and that most of the primarchs aren't half bad looking. The Alpha Legion and the Fallen are also able to pass off as normal if tall and buff humans without their power armour. Also worth noting is that many, many marines are somehow able to have long, flowing hair or beards (or both) and still fit helmets onto their heads without issue with what can only be explained by space marine helmets doubling as pocket dimensions.

As Space Marines are surgically altered with organic implants and not traditionally genetically modified, progenoid glands would still play a vital role in gene-seed replication, and any child a female Space marine would have would at most just be guaranteed to be at least somewhat compatible with the chapter's gene seed. All the extra organs that go into a Space Marine are lab-grown things stuck into them that they're genetically compatible with, no more inherently part of the body than a prosthetic arm, and it's very unlikely that they would develop on their own in a Space Marine's child. Furhtermore, given they don't go through normal woman puberty, it's likely female space marines would be infertile, as they would not have ovulations and the Emperor would probably like to suppress periods and hormonal mood swings that come with them. Either way they wouldn't have have a sex drive, unless coming from Space Wolf gene-seed or corrupted by Slaanesh, as in most marines sex drive is replaced with lust for combat (as in it literally stimulates the same brain centers).

And, assuming that Sister Generica can be considered attractive in any form, she's also wearing a ton or two of ceramite power armor, so you wouldn't tell until she speaks or removes her helmet (Though depending on who you ask, that would make her MORE attractive.) And even if she does, you'd have to be a very lucky man to catch her eye during her limited free time, and she'd need to be from a chapter where fraternizing with normal humans is acceptable.

Finally, we get to the subject of the boob plate, which is a skub landmine all it's own and God Emperor help you if you step on it. Opponents will insist it's a terrible idea, partly from physics and partly from logistics. In truth the physics problems are vastly overblown, because anything strong enough to punch through a Sororitas chest plate can punch through an Astartes chest plate too. Either way, if female space marine have no boobs, she obviously needs no boob plate. At least no more than Sanguinary Guard needs their muscle cuirases with ceramite nipples.

=RAGE=

RAGE is generated by this tactic in two distinct ways; either the neckbeards assume that the creator of the work in question is unaware of the Space Marine fluff, and rage about their ignorance; failing that, it becomes clear that they are well aware of the fluff regarding these matters and willingly chose to disregard it, sending the poor neckbeards into fits of spastic rage that anyone would dare deliberately defile the sacrosanct canon of Games Workshop's masterpiece.

[[Troll|Still, the aforementioned creator will just ignore him.]]

Alternatively, call your all-female IG army converted to be [[Imperial Navy]] armswomen "custom female space marines" for a joke the guys at the game store will find funny once and infuriating forever after.

=What If I Still Unironically Want This?=

Then it's time to apply some of '[[your dudes]]'. GeeDubs has been downplaying this more and more in the marketing, especially going into 8th edition, but they still secretly love it and never want us to stop applying our stories and color schemes to their precious and expensive models. Besides, with such a thoroughly batshit crazy setting, there's no reason you can't make your toy soldiers girls.

As mentioned before, you could always invoke the two lost Space Marine primarchs and say their geneseed works in females. Maybe a successor chapter somewhere down the line got a mutation and now they need to recruit young girls instead of young boys.

Of course, the "easiest" way that will generate the fewest complaints is just saying that this is possible in your chapter. Either the geneseed your chapter uses is mutated to allow a higher success rate with females, the females are [[Luther|surgically]] [[Kor Phaeron|altered]] to be basically just Space Marines, or that [[Belisarius Cawl|Daddy Cawl]] conveniently forgot to tell Guilliman that the Primarines can take girls too. Or, assuming you don't play in a brick and mortar Games Workshop store, you could try and convince your fellow neckbeards to accept it as a sort of "local canon," the same way you'd all start writing each others homebrew Chapters and Craftworlds into each other's lore. Above all, just remember to try and take it easy.

=Writefaggery=

===A New Arrival===

* From the livelog of Inquisitor Perstringos, archive #32AA9-99
* Redacted copy dispatched to Magos Tzeel'Etil of Mars under code of practice 73-Greyfax-Cawl

The lifespan of an Inquisitorial liaison to the Angry Marines is a famously short one.

Take offence to their unorthodox methods, and you're likely to get your head exploded like an overripe melon. Partake too enthusiastically in their furious idiom and you're likely to get your head exploded like an overripe melon. Stand too near one when they're feeling a little more umbrage than usual and you're likely to... and so on.

I have lasted in the role for nearly seven Angermar months and so consider myself quite the survivor. Alas, my run of good luck may soon be at an end. The Angry Marines are not generally characterised by a cheerful acceptance of change...

especially changes imposed from without...

very particularly especially changes to their unit composition mandated by none other than the Ultramarines, whose very Codex Astartes (oh Guilliman Restored, forgive me!) I have been impelled to use as an item of intimate personal hygiene in the Angry Marines' commode.

And yet today the first company of Primaris Marrnes will be arriving on McRage to join their new battle brothers. The "Guillimarines", as I've heard them called around the barracks here from the day I arrived. The Ultra-Ultrasmurfs. The Fuck-knuckles. The Bitch-clone-fucking-sellout Poser Marines.

Such a momentous occasion will naturally require an Inquisitorial observer on site.

I am going to fucking die.

Which is why I am taking care to record this surreptitious livelog, tapped by my tongue against my molar-transcriptor as I take my place in the Rite of Welcome. My life is nothing, praise the Emperor. Direct observational feedback on the reception of our Imperium's newest super-Astartes into the Chapter deemed least likely to accept them will be invaluable to several parties.

They are docking now with our Battle Barge, the FUCKYOUNAMEITYOURSELF. Their vessel, officially the Undaunted but renamed in our local records "THE OFFICIOUS CUNT-BASKET", is busy initiating standard pre-docking handshake protocol, but I expect that...

yep, there it is. The Angry Marines have taken the simple expedient of ramming the FUCKYOU directly into the Undaunted's docking bay. It was a fair hit. Air is already cycling across both ships with only superficial loss to the void, it won't take long to clear the wreckage, and so the joining Rite is soon to begin.

A mere ten paces in front of me, well within explode-my-head-with-a-backslap range, stands Chapter Master Temperus Maximum himself. An AdMech representative, Magos Errant Gjarran 3FF stands some ways to my left. I am sure I sense fear in the writhing of its mechadendrites.

Two long lines of Angry Marines, each four long files of seven hundred ranks, stretch out behind us in a widening wedge, as though to flaunt the Codex Astartes prohibition on companies larger than a thousand. Aside from their numbers and their angry yellow banners, the most striking sight to one accustomed to other Astartes chapters is the conspicuous lack of bolt pistols in favour of a second chainsword or the heaviest of heavy weapons.

I also note that customary Space Marine practice is to greet newcomers with weapons RAISED, not brandished threateningly -- and thus also pointed directly at my back.

On either side of these lines there mills a mob of chapter serfs, aspirants, servitors and ordinary ship's crew. Banners burn with the emblematic angry face and raised yellow middle finger.

I now hear the stomp of boots but haven't caught sight of the 100 who will be the first in history to join the Angry Marines from outside their chapter. Having already written off my own life, I find myself idly wondering if anyone has warned them of what they will encounter. We went through sixteen liaisons in as many weeks before we started to get the hang of their red lines. How many of these "Primadonna Marines" will survive the year?

Ah, there they are. They march in a column five across, twenty files deep. I see the first file now...

I had heard that these new marines were taller but the effect is staggering. Every Space Marine inspires terrified awe with their size, their power, and above all their devotion to the Emperor. These new Primaris radiate the same majesty... perhaps it is as they humbly claim, that they are no better than their other battle brothers, but they are certainly... newer.

As my eyes take in the holy might of the Emperor's newest instruments, my trained Inquisitor's eye perceives what at first was a vague impression. The specifications of these marines' armor, while taller and sleeker than earlier models, are in fact even sleeker than the schematics of the Mark X Tacticus Armour I have memorised as a matter of course.

How strange. Thinner in the waist. Wider at the hips. Bulkier at the chest... at the bust!

Subtle as the difference is, certainly not detracting from their power and terror, their armour is unquestionably FEMALE.

How?

Before anyone speaks the center Primaris of their first file--surely their Lieutenant--is removing his helmet... HER helmet. By the Emperor! As strong and intimidating and, well, grizzled a face as any Space Marine's, and yet entirely feminine. Long luxurious red hair is cascading down her shoulders... by the Emperor, to live to see these days!

No word yet from the Angry Marines. I fear the worst. I'm enabling my audio pickup; it may well outlive me.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: WELL FUCK ME IT'S THE MUTE MARINES! HELLO THE FUCK TO YOU TOO, ASSHOLE!

[Assault Sergeant Dickface, interrupting]: OH NO NO FUCKING NO. NUH-UH. FUCK OFF. CHADMARINES ARE BAD ENOUGH BUT A STACY? GIRLYMAN AIN'T GONNA SHOEHORN SOME BOLTER BITCHES INTO OUR YEEEAAAARGH!!!

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: WHOOPS DID I JUST "SHOEHORN" MY FOOT UP YOUR ASS? YOU CAN EAT YOUR OWN SHIT OFF MY BOOT LATER, SERGEANT. DO I LOOK TO LIKE I'M ARMED WITH SOME PUSSIFIED BOLTER?

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: WELL FUCKING ARSECHUNKS IF THIS ISN'T A CUNTY TURN OF EVENTS. I'VE SAID FOR MONTHS YOU NU-SMURFS HAVE NO BALLS AND WHADDYA KNOW.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YEAH YOU CAN KISS MY TURGID OVARIES LATER FUCKLICK. LIEUTENANT PEDICABA REPORTING! BY THE EMPEROR'S SWEATY ASSCRACK WE HAVE ARRIVED THROUGH THE WARP INTACT, ONLY ONE LITTLE FUCKSLEAZE DAEMON INCURSION NEEDED ITS SHIT PUSHED IN. ONE HUNDRED NEW ANGRY MARINES ARE YOURS TO COMMAND, MY LORD CHAPTER MASTER!

(Oh Emperor protect us, they're all removing their helmets. Blonde hair, black hair, more redheads... if it weren't for their size you'd know they weren't Sisters of Battle by their color. And their language!)

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: HEY COGBITCH, YOU SURE THOSE FAGNUTS FROM MARS SENT THE RIGHT DELiVERY?

[Magos Gjarran]: All is in order, lord Chapter Master. These are indeed the Primaris Marines assigned by my masters to your most holy Chapter, uncorrupted by the Warp and in perfect genetic order. The Machine God smiles upon your union.

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: AND YOUR ARCH-ANUS FAGMASTERS DIDN'T SEE FIT TO MENTION THEY COME WITH A CUNT APIECE?

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YOU WANT "A PIECE" OF CUNT JUST FUCK YOUR OWN WHORE MOUTH, MY LORD.

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium, interrupting]: No!! Stop!! Please!! I can't bear it!

(Has this serf lost his mind! What is he doing?)

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: My lords, this cannot be! Kill me if you will, but we cannot have fucking WOMEN ruining EVERYTHING! It's all a trick by... by SLAANESH JUSTICE WARRIORS to force the evil of HEResy upon us. A trick! The holy gene-seed can't work on females! Blah!

(The Primaris nearest the serf has just spat on him. Looks like she got him right in the crotch.)

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: You stupid bitch! I'll fucking end you! I'll take a flamer to all the vapid whores in the Progenium! I'll...

[a distinct sizzling noise is audible]

[Interceptor Miserabila]: GUESS MY BETCHER'S GLAND WORKS AFTER ALL, HUH ASS-BADGER?

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: My DICK! Oh FUCK, OH EMPEROR! MY BALLS! MY BALLS ARE MELTING AWAY! AHHH!

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: "BETCHER" WEREN'T USING THOSE ANYWAY, PANSY-ASS QUEEFSNIFF.

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: [voice dissolves into screams and groans]

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: HEH HEH, YOU'RE ALL RIGHT. MAYBE YOU REDRAGE WHORES WON'T EMBARRASS THE REAL SOLDIERS TOO MUCH AFTER ALL. TELL YOU WHAT, LET'S WIPE OUT THE ASSCHEESE HERETICS PLANETSIDE AND I'LL LET YOU FIX ME A SANDWICH.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: SAY THAT TO MY HAIRY PUSS, MY LORD CHAPTER MASTER PISS-BREATH. NOW ARE YOU GONNA FIND US SOME HERESY TO MURDER OR ARE YOU GOING TO STAND THERE ALL DAY LIKE YOU'RE SCARED OF A LADY?

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: WE MAKE PLANETFALL IN TWENTY MINUTES. WELCOME TO THE ANGRY MARINES... BATTLE BROTHER.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YEAH, SLURP SHIT SISTER.

Audio pick-up disabled. I think that was the ceremony. The Angry Marines, Primaris and all, are exchanging soldierly embraces and head-butts and marching back to the barge, chanting as one, "ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME! ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME!"

I'm racing down the corridor with Magos Giarran as fast as my legs will take me. You just know they're going to perform an "expedited undocking" with fucking frag grenades. Again. Planetfall in seventeen minutes. If I'm somehow not rendered into inquisitor-flavoured jello... well, I'm already praising the Emperor's unlimited munificence that I'm alive at all.

Word must get back to Mars. If the Primera mix so well even with the Angry Marines, they'll be a valuable reinforcement to all our companies. In our darkest hour, the Imperium's new hopes redouble.

+++
Thought for the Day: The Emperor has fury enough for us all.
+++

=See Also=

*[[Golden Aquilas]]: /tg/ [[homebrew]] chapter, designed to cause as much [[Rage|RAEG]] and accusations of [[derp]] as possible.
*[[Space Marines]]: Rule 63 equivalent of female Space- wait...
*[[Sisters of Battle]]: The warrior nuns of the Imperium that wear power armor, often fight with bolters and chainswords, and are in a sense the "real female space marines" of Warhammer 40,000.
*[[Stormcast Eternals]], GW's [[Warhammer Fantasy|Fantasy]] <s>Ground</s>Space Marines in [[Age of Sigmar]], which can be any species and gender thanks to their magical origins. At least one Stormcast group was announced to be comprised of men and women and SURPRISE WARHAMMER SHADESPIRE WAS ANNOUNCED AND FEATURES A FEMALE STORMCAST MINIATURE. And the Sacrosanct Chamber added a bunch more.
*[[Samus]]: How about a female Primar-{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|REVEALING IMPERIAL SECRETS IS HERESY!}}
*[[A Song of Ice and Fire|Brienne of Tarth]]: The quintessential female space marine; through the obsession with duty and honour to the bulky, muscly form and skill at arms.
*[[Daughters of Terra]] A not-quite Space Marines Female Space Marines chapter.
* ''[[Out of the Dark]]'': The DaoT supersoldiers come in both male and female variants. Sadly, The Emperor didn't have the full database when reinventing them as the Astartes, so he only succeeded with the males.

=Gallery=
<center><gallery>
Image:Sisters of anger2.png|A girl can get angry too.
Image:1227373581722.gif|Lol. Why u mad tho?
Image:Nidsrape.jpg|Good to know the Smurfs get fucked by Tyranids no matter who their genestock accepts.
File:Love is a Battlefield by blazbaros.png|An almost perfect example of a female space marine, complete with the typical bulky space marine form.
Image:spessbitch.jpg|Not in fact [[Horo]].
File:Female_warhammer_40k_imperium_model_--_100D0212.jpg|She'd be even scarier if she took off that mask.
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_model_--_Female_Warrior_Gabs.jpg|Old Imperial Adventurer from [[Rogue Trader|Ye Olden Days]].
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_model_--_Female_Warrior_Jayne.jpg|Your eyes should start bleeding right about now.
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_--_Ingunna_Daughter_of_Russ_by_Greymark.jpg|BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
File:1k heresy.jpg|<s>Not</s> [[Just as planned]]. Now you know why Tzeentch doesn't invite Slaanesh to his birthday parties anymore.
File:Firstkeeper.jpg
File:Primarchs as teen girls.png| The Emperor made the Primarchs to be the greatest human warriors of all time, but [[Warhammer_High|even they were not immune]] to [[Rule 63]].
File:Femprah_by_Mr-Culexus.jpg|She was not amused by this development.
File:Saber ultra marine.jpg|Don't piss off Mama Smurf. [[FATAL|Your ass will not survive]].
File:Chaos saber.jpg|Still less of a failure than the real Abaddon.
File:Belldandy_blood_raveness_for_propertyoflamb_by_elvishprincess25-d9z451u.jpg|Belldandy of the Blood Ravens... Bloody Bell?
File:Propoflambcomm_urd_space_wolf_by_elvishprincess25-db1s3ab.jpg|Urd of the Space Wolves.
File:Skuld_amg_as_wh_iron_hand_by_elvishprincess25-daeba5v.jpg|Skuld of the Iron Hands.
File:The Little Sisters of Purification 1.png| Canon or not, the ideas's been around for a while.
File:The Little Sisters of Purification 2.png| Featuring Jokaero. Yes, there is a scenario.
File:Adepta Mechania Warpsmith (Pre Heresy) 01.png|Because metal tentacle rape That's Why.
File:Ariel Ventris 01.png
</gallery></center>

[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:RAGE]]

Approved Literature

2022-06-04T16:53:43Z

2001:8003:1C20:8C00:1988:DCAB:5C:EA8E: Undo revision 828981 by 83.10.83.73 (talk)

{{editwar}}

This page lists the genre fiction which is popular on /tg/, along with a brief description and the notable area's of merit.

==== The Jane Austen principle ====

Jane Austen's work has been a staple of English Literature for two centuries. It's been adapted for stage, screen and television and beloved by millions. That said, while "Pride and Prejudice" might be a timeless romance that can move the heart, it is pretty far removed from the shared interest of the sort of people which might come here (at least until someone whips up a really good Dice and Graph version). This is not a knock against Jane, her work or you for liking it or some other removed work of literature, just a fact to keep in mind when adding things to this page.

'''TL;DR:''' Good material is not automatically relevant to 1d4chan.

==Fantasy==
*'''''Richard Adams - Watership Down''''': The epic story of a tiny band of desperate people's odyssey to flee a great calamity and find a new homeland. Along the way, they fight dangerous battles, encounter dangerously seductive dystopia after dystopia, and ultimately destroy a fascist dictator before founding a new nation. Also, [[Bunnies and Burrows|everyone's a rabbit]]. Badass storytelling, sweet worldbuilding, and an incredible level of quality for a children's book.
*'''''L. Frank Baum - The Wizard of Oz''''': Dorothy and her little dog too get [[isekai]]'ed, meet companions, defeat the witch. Baum (or rather, his publishers) milked this franchise to death releasing sequel after sequel, so stick only to the first book, unless you're going weird idea mining.
*'''''Jim Butcher - [[The Dresden Files RPG|The Dresden Files]]''''': Basically the [[World of Darkness]] with <s>all</s> most of the depression, brooding, doom and gloom replaced with badass, humour and a pinch of noir detective. Follow the young wizard/private investigator Harry Dresden through his misadventures in a supernatural world of Chicago, as he grows in power and fame, deals with ever increasing levels of supernatural horrors, get his life ruined to oblivion and beyond and yet manage to make it look cool rather then utterly depressing and sanity-check inducing by sheer will alone (OK, will ''and'' snarkiness).
*'''''Brandon Carbaugh - Deep Sounding''''': A two-part story written by a fa/tg/uy, dealing with themes of isolation in a Dwarven society. Consistently humorous and socially relevant.
*'''''Glen Cook - The Black Company''''': I can't remember the exact quote, but someone put it best when he said "it's a story about level 5-8 badasses trying to make it in a world dominated by epic level Wizards". Follow the mercenary entourage known as the Black Company as they sell their swords to the highest contractors, who usually end up being The Big Bad Evils. The first three books (now conveniently available as one book, "Chronicles of the Black Company") are good then things start to get weird.
*'''''Larry Correia - [[Monster Hunter International]]''''': In the modern world monsters of all kinds are out there. Stopping them from eating humanity are private groups of monster hunters who get paid very handsomely for removing the supernatural with superior firepower. As one would expect from an author with a background in running a gun store and competitive shooting, it's very [[/k/]]. A character's choice of firearm describes them as much as their clothes or hair and guns work as they're supposed to. The first book (which can be obtained as a free e-book) is enjoyable, but very rough, and the series improved dramatically each book. Features a writing style that improves dramatically when listened to as an audiobook.
**'''''Grimnoir Chronicles''''': A separate series by the same author. Set in an alternate 1930s where a small (but constantly increasing) percentage of humanity has been born with super powers since at least the 1830s. While there's X-men style discrimination, it's largely in the background. The series is actually about how Japan is trying to use its research of Power to take over the world. The super power system is unique in that there are only about 30 documented Power types, with many just being lesser versions of other powers, and outside of a core handful everything else is rare but the creative and powerful can stretch the rules. The world has also had cultural and technological shifts as a result of Power instead of keeping it the same aside from their existence.
*'''''Steven R. Donaldson - Thomas Covenant''''': The first two series are the ones /tg/ has read; there's a (much) more recent series that ostensibly wraps it all up, plus some outtakes (like "Gilden-Fire") that SRD refactored as shortstories. The titular character nuzzled the wrong armadillo apparently so is a leper. In the story he gets [[isekai]]'ed; driven with self-hatred and a refusal to compromise, he does [[rape|horrible things]] but anyway has to defeat the [[BBEG]] named, we shit you not, "Lord Foul". Massive influence on [[Monte Cook]]'s [[Arcana Unearthed]] oeuvre (particularly) so we gotta note it. The ''Ansible'' #46 article "Well-Tempered Plot Device" hilariously described these two series as "so flatulent you have to be careful not to squeeze it in a public place"; publisher Lester Del Rey is rumoured (''Ansible'' #50) to have disliked the series too, but (correctly) judged the (mid 1970s) moment as good to release some fantasy ''any'' fantasy. SRD wrote some other fantasy and SF; only fans of the Covenant books went on to buy those, but they number enough to maintain Donaldson's alimony payments. Characters get forcibly boned in those stories too.
*'''''Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen''''': An enormous read that stretches across over three million words and ten books, Erikson's worldbuilding rivals anybody else in the genre, with a large focus on the many different cultures, how they rose, and then how they fell. Can be overwhelming at times due to the sheer number of simultaneous plotlines and a large, perhaps even bloated, cast. Very much the definition of epic fantasy, the level of power at play swings fairly wildly depending on which set of characters is being focused on at the time, from assassins fighting upon rooftops, to flying castles being crashed into cities, and then back to the oft-humorous exploits of a group of mostly mundane soldiers that is reminiscent of Glen Cook's Black Company. In all, a story full of engaging personalities exploring a supremely fantastical world, with all the hallmarks of classic fantasy, elves, dragons, gods, and wizards, given a unique spin.
*'''''Raymond E. Feist - The Riftwar Cycle''''': A 30 book epic written over the course of three decades, The Riftwar Cycle starts off as the story of a boy learning how to be a wizard, only to save the world by the end of the debut novel, ''Magician''. After this the series evolves into an epic spanning multiple generations of characters (but roughly half focusses on the initial cast) fighting to protect their world from internal political strife and malevolent external forces. Grew to be a lot more cosmic in scale in the last eight or so books, and the ending was kind of a lacklustre business. The classical fantasy races are not the focus here: the [[dwarves]] and [[elves]] get along just fine, and while there's [[dragon]]s, serpent folk and [[dark elves]] (the latter of whom are Native American inspired), it's mostly about humans and their struggles. The series is divided into ten sagas, with the best one being the Empire trilogy which tells the tale of the chronologically six first book from the perspective of the antagonists in a beautiful tale of loyalty, honour, politics and love. Was also Neal Hallford's inspiration for ''Betrayal at Krondor'', a [[/v/|Dynamix / Sierra vidja]] that is held in high esteem in some circles. Not enough circles, apparently; since Hallford's remaster proposal didn't get funded.
*'''''Neil Gaiman - American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere, Sandman, etc.''''': He's a damn entertaining writer, known for his unique and well fleshed out ideas. There's something here for everyone, from the [[Noblebright]] Stardust to the [[Grimdark|fairly grim and pretty dark]] Sandman comics. American Gods, however, is the one he's best remembered by, which is a story about physical manifestations of IRL gods fighting a losing war against globalisation, mass media and technology. [[/d/|There's also a part where a man is swallowed whole by a woman's vagina.]]
*'''''Jane Gaskell - The Atlan Saga''''': A series of gloriously cheesy fantasy novels from the 60s that combine all the best elements of pulp with post-modernism. The misadventures of a heiress to Atlantis empire in the prehistoric world where various myths - and genre cliches - are all true. It's the last big thing in the genre that didn't try to copy-cat ''Lord of the Rings'', so worth reading for originality alone, along with being what shaped various cliches regarding Atlantis ever since.
*'''''William Goldman - [[The Princess Bride]]''''': The book the famous movie was based on. Has a couple of twists and details left out of the movie, usually for good reasons. Still worth reading, though.
*'''''Michael John Harrison - Viriconium''''': A truly peculiar set of novels and short stories dedicated to put traditional world building on its head, by never making sure if the stories are happening between the same characters, in the same place or same time. A very open-ended to interpretation "setting", which is also a great exercise to how tell a story without overburdening anyone with details and in the same time providing all the important elements to keep audience (readers or players) invested and interested.
*'''''Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy and The Liveship Traders''''': First is a story of a royal bastard's horrible upbringing as an assassin. Second is a story of magical sailing ships that talk, dragons, pirates, rape, 14 year old girl overcoming terrible misfortune. It has it all. (Please note the following two sets of books in the series are a little average compared to these two). The endings of the books in the second series are a little pat, but are still entertaining.
*'''''[[Robert E. Howard]] - [[Conan the Barbarian]]''''': Conan the Barbarian was born from this quill. A seminal pulp classic which could be considered the father of sword and sorcery.
*'''''Ursula K LeGuin - [[Earthsea Cycle]]+''''': Threads about /tg/-approved literature will consistently end up having a poster say something to the effect of "no Sea Jedi Wizard Chronicles WTF" about halfway down, immediately being followed by a chorus of agreement. Needless to say, this series is an excellent one, little-known but surprisingly influential. It's the series that established the concepts of the concept of nominal magic as understood in modern fantasy literature: names of power in the language of magic are spoken to exert power over the person, place, thing or idea that name refers to. Later, less-respectable novels such as those by Christopher Paolini would abuse this concept for fun and profit. Sadly, such novels seldom strive to equal the actual accomplishments of the Earthsea novels, such as the successful building and display of a rich, believable, and internally consistent setting without letting any of the world building bog down the narrative like in LotR.
*'''''Fritz Leiber - Swords and Deviltry, et al.''''': A runaway momma's boy and a failed magician's apprentice lose everything and become thieves in Lankhmar, centre of civilization and debauchery. They are Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser:, swordsmen supreme, insatiable adventurers, womanizers unequalled, and bros of the highest calibre. Together, they plunder the world of riches, bitches, and wine, while facing magic and horror of a decidedly cosmic sort.
*'''''[[C.S. Lewis]] - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe''''': Oxford don retells the Johannine Passion, but in Oz-expy Narnia. Our man is inferior (even) to Baum as a worldbuilder, but very good as characterbuilder - for the characters Edward, Lucy, and (later) Eustace anyway. Series goes on like ''Star Wars'' forward and backward in time; ends with [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]] except older sister Susan, whom [[catgirl|NekoJesus]] blows off. Neil Gaiman will whiteknight "Professor Hastings" in "The Problem of Susan".
*'''''Charles De Lint - Someplace to be Flying and Trader, Pretty much all of his books, you can't really miss''''': Most of the books seem to be set in Canada and revolve around Gypsy folklore and Native American spiritual stuff with urban settings. Don't get attached to characters.
*'''''[[George R. R. Martin]] - [[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''''': Some of the better character development in genre, with a bit of mystery, political chess and high death rate. Tends to drag at times, and since the release of the HBO series will be consistently overrated by those who've seen little else. Noted for Tolkien-envy.
*'''''[[Michael Moorcock]] - [[Elric]] series (and so many others)''''' An iconic author, albeit considering the number of books he has written, very hit and miss. [[Elric]] is his most popular character. Stick to the collected sets Stealer of Souls or Stormbringer as a starting point though. Remember that Elric is first an foremost an icon for heavy metal, so adjust your expectations accordingly.
*'''''Terry Pratchett - [[Discworld]] series''''': Starts from parodying Fantasy as a genre, soon turns to far beyond [[AWESOME]]. Rare combination of good humour and wise messages. Does get a little preachy towards the end, but hey, it's still a great read.
*'''''Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind''''': A mary sue bard goes on mary sue adventures (arguably an unreliable narrator) - world building may be weak but it's a fun read, so enough people on /tg/ have read it to count, even though nobody will praise it.
*'''''J.K. Rowling - [[Harry Potter]]''''': Love it or hate it (and there are things to [[RAGE|hate]], [[skub|especially where the author herself is concerned]]) this series is a big part of the collective fantasy consciousness, especially where normies are concerned. As such, if you want a tone that is easily familiar to those unfamiliar with fantasy in general, or children, this is not a bad place to start. At best, they're pretty readable books; at worst, they're thoroughly mediocre and derivative as all hell. At the very least, you'll look less of a [[neckbeard]] knowing what a Muggle is. '''MAIN BOOKS ONLY.'''
*'''''Andrzej Sapkowski - [[The Witcher]] (especially the short stories)''''': While the Witcher saga is just getting more bland and increasingly more generic with each following part, the two initial books collecting all the short stories (especially "Sword of Destiny") are the reason why everyone treated Witcher as unique and original. Tonnes of wacky ideas how to spin cliches and old tropes into something fresh. Reading the saga proper is not required and generally not advised, especially with wooden English translation.
** Alternatively, the later saga can be read for precisely what it is routinely bashed for. Starting from "Baptism of Fire", it turns into an unapologetic "you all met in the forest reserve and your party is tasked with retrieving a lost princess" campaign. If read with such mindset, it's pretty good after-campaign report, including random hijinks, new players joining half-way through and bunch of party in-jokes about the situation at hand.
*'''''[[J.R.R. Tolkien]] - [[The Hobbit]], [[The Lord of the Rings]], and anything else he wrote (eg; [[the Silmarillion]])''''': The great grand-daddy of modern fantasy. Not having even the slightest familiarity with his work is inexcusable in eyes of [[/tg/]].
*'''''Karl Edward Wagner - Kane series''''': Essentially a more grimdark version of Howard's style of sword and sorcery, [[Kane]] is more akin to a villain that Conan would fight than the "noble savage" barbarian archetype. Immortal and cursed with the inability to ever truly settle down, [[Kane]] is an expert fighter, leader of men and potent sorcerer. After thousands of years his only real goal is to stave off boredom, which he does by offering his services and considerable intellect to various rulers, although more often than not with an ulterior motive. In one story he sets out to revive a race of ancient cosmic horrors simply because they offered him a chance to explore the cosmos.
*'''''Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun''''': The setting is inspired by [[Jack Vance]]'s Dying Earth series (itself lifting from [[Clark Ashton Smith]]), so this could be either in SF or Fantasy. A torturer is exiled from his guild and old life after he helps kill the woman he loves to spare her from the agony of torture, now forced to journey through Urth; our Earth in the far, far, far future, in a time when our sun is beginning to die. These books do not make for easy reading, however. The author uses lots of very obscure words to create the worlds own unique lingo. Also, the main character is an unreliable narrator of the more extreme sort. The reader will be spending some time figuring out what are the truths and what are the lies.
*'''''Roger Zelazny - The Chronicles of Amber''''': A lesser known series (although it's in Appendix N too) written between 1970 and 1991 about a family of (essentially) demigods who inhabit the "true" reality of the city of Amber. Everything else is merely a shadow of Amber and its inhabitants. The princes and princesses can move freely between Amber and an infinite number shadow worlds but the constant plotting and backstabbing at home and the less-than-real nature of everything outside makes them callous and often amoral. The first book effortlessly turns from "hard boiled detective story" to "psychedelic road trip" to "drama about Greek gods" in style.

==Science Fiction==
*'''''Douglas Adams - The Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy''''': One of the funniest works of science fiction ever made, although you could count it as the first. The precursor to all comedy stories about everyday people having to deal with the absurdly massive and meaningless universe around them. Grab your towel, make a fresh cuppa, and make sure you've got enough tape to keep your sides from splitting too much.
*'''''Neal Asher - The Gridlinked Series''''': Some of the best, hardest sci-fi out there, this is one of those universes that has unique, creative technologies (rare nowadays)as well as 007...EEEN SPESSS
*'''''[[Isaac Asimov]] - Foundation Series''''': The seminal space opera modelled roughly on the decline of the Roman Empire. It follows the rise of a new civilization from this empire's dying body and then its corpse. The model of Empire-In-Decline SF.
*'''''Paolo Bacigalupi - Pump Six and Other Stories''''': Biopunk meet post-apo and hefty dose of shady business. Think [[Shadowrun]], minus the magic.
*'''''Iain M. Banks - [[The Culture]] Series''''': A series about a perfect, utopian spacefaring society and all its many problems. Some of the grandest-scale worldbuilding in science fiction, and full of clever ethical and political musing.
*'''''Stephen Baxter - The [[Xeelee Sequence]]''''': For those for whom Donaldson just isn't rapey enough, Baxter is here to scratch that itch. Backdrop is the cosmic war between the Xeelee and the dark-matter entities "Photino Birds". Starts with ''The Ring''. Baxter wrote a lot of other crap too, like Proxima and Stone Spring/Bronze Summer; likewise full of nasty. We'd rather not discuss this stuff either but Xeelee has its stans on /tg/: this entry is dedicated to you, as long as you read it outside a 500 yard radius from a school.
*'''''David Brin - The Postman''''': First novel to present post apocalypse not from the point of view of badass heroes or insane raiders, but random villagers and such. Great world building for a very small world. Has infamous film "adaptation", sharing only title.
*'''''Edgar Rice Burroughs - the Barsoom Series-aka Mars Chronicles and the Pellucidar Series''''': Iconic, manly, and fuckin' A! This guy also did Tarzan and a whole slew of other works that would go on to inspire other manly stories, chiefly Conan the Barbarian and most of the knockoffs thereof.
*'''''Glen Cook - The Dragon Never Sleeps''''': Basically an EVE Online novel written decades before EVE Online. Was supposed to be a trilogy but the publisher wouldn't okay sequels so it gets rushed at the end. Not as iconic as The Black Company, but this is in SPAAAAAAACCCCEEEE!!!!!!!
*'''''James S. A. Corey - The Expanse series''''' Bar the intentionally fantastical elements it provides <s>a fairly grounded</s> muh gritty realism version of near future space exploration. Some fantastic characters and stories, but as the main plot goes, slowly turns into a generic space opera-western mix. Got an unapproved TV show adaptation that ignores all the good stuff, while taking the worst aspects of the books and runs wild with them.
*'''''Arthur Conan Doyle - The Lost World''''': The ''other'' thing Doyle is know after Sherlock Holmes. An archetypical novel about bold scientists, ambitious hunter and intrepid reporter going into a distant plateau somewhere in the Amazons, where they have all sorts of misadventures involving species that should be extinct millions years ago - and most notably living dinosaurs. There is a good chance you "know" this book, along with all its plot bits, without ever actually reading it, that's how big and influential it is.
*'''''Harlan Ellison - I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream''''': The last five humans alive are being held deep in an underground complex, where they are perpetually tortured by AM, the sadistic AI that wiped out the rest of humanity, with no hope of escape. The most creepy thing in this book is that the author thought it was ''optimistic''. If he someday went to wrote something pessimistic, the universe would implode from the sheer grimdark overdose.
*'''''Philip Jose Farmer - The Riverworld Series''''': A group of dead people from many different time periods, including Richard Burton, Hermann Göring, Tullus of Rome and Mark Twain wake up on an alien planet and have to survive. Very fun read with interesting character interactions.
*'''''[[Robert Heinlein| Robert A. Heinlein]] - [[Starship Troopers]]''''': Where Space Marines and Tyranids came from. The novel carries a vastly different message and tone than the campy movie based on it. [[Roboute Guilliman]] keeps a copy in his duffel.
*'''''Frank Herbert - [[Dune]] & its earlier sequels''''': World-building, politics, super-humans - it's one helluva party. The spice must flow! <s>[[Navigator|Navigators]] are totally not stolen from Dune</s> {{BLAM}}.
*'''''Aldous Huxley - Brave New World''''': Take 1984, and do the total opposite the way people are controlled (rather than punishing bad behavior, it's rewarding good behavior) mixed with a Tau-esque genetically enforced caste system and conditioning to make people embrace their servitude.
*'''''Stanisław Lem - Tales Of Pirx the Pilot''''': Collection of short stories documenting gradual progress of humanity in space exploration and AI development. Nice deconstruction of all the shitty elements from space opera, ''before there even was space opera''.
*'''''Andri Magnason - LoveStar''''': Equal parts biting satire and bittersweet love story, set in a bizarre future (think equal part of Brave New World, corporate dystopia and high-concept sci-fi). It's the humour and creative application of own setting and its rules that makes it helpful for worldbuilding that amounts to anything more than just trivia.
*'''''Walter M. Miller, Jr. - A Canticle for Leibowitz''''' In the grim darkness of the far future there is only Catholicism. Think Fallout meets Catholic Church and you wouldn't be too far off.
*'''''Larry Niven - Ringworld''''': Many, many stories are set in this future setting. Features FtL travel, several alien races living and dead, and deep lore from the far past. There's a war with [[catgirl]]s called Kzinti, which events Niven has let other authors write. The Ringworld is a Dyson sphere on the cheap: instead of wrapping the entire sun, "only" the inhabitable orbital ring is built up, above the stellar rotational equator.
*'''''George Orwell - [[1984]], Animal Farm''''': WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH! FOUR LEGS GOOD! TWO LEGS <s>BAD</s> BETTER!
*'''''Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson - The Illuminatus! Trilogy''''': /x/ the book, and a cult classic in every sense of the word. Once you get used to the massively cheesy tone, what you'll find here is an intelligent and fun series of books that are both a parody and a send up to: 70s counterculture, Western esotericism, political and religious dogma, numerology, and conspiracy theories.
*'''''Robert Sheckley - short stories''''': once dubbed the clown prince of sci-fi, recommended by Douglas Adams.
*'''''John Steakley - Armor''''': Future soldiers in powered armour fighting against insectoid, always hungry aliens and suffering from mental trauma and PTSD... man, that does sound familiar.
*'''''Charles Stross - Missile Gap''''': While Stross is most famous for his Laundry Files (basically collection of [[Delta Green]] shorts, which are all worth reading too, and eventually even got their own TTRPG), Missile Gap is just mind-numbing novella about entire Earth being transported on an Alderson disk... or maybe a snapshot of Earth... or maybe ''both''. All right in the middle of the Cuban Crisis. Think "Primer" meet Tom Clancy techno-thriller.
*'''''H.G. Wells - The War of the Worlds and Time Machine''''': Absolute classics. Not knowing them is akin to being illiterate, while they can be used for all sorts of games.

==Horror==
*'''''John W. Campbell - Who Goes There?''''': Remember John Carpenter's The Thing? Well this is where it all started. Taking into account ''when'' the novella was written is the real game-changer.
*'''''Laurell K. Hamilton - Guilty Pleasures''''': Probably one of the most iconic and influential urban fantasy in existence, despite seemingly obvious setup for occult detective. While the rest of the Anita Blake series is unquestionably in shunned territory, this one is still a must-read. Also, mind the title.
**'''''Aneta Jadowska - Dora Wilk series''''': Essentially Anita Blake: Polish Edition. Unlike original, doesn't turn into BDSM harem porn, but instead gradually distances itself from romance and focuses on the world-building and occult. Also, it fully embraces being written to cover for bills. Decent fan translations exist.
*'''''[[H.P. Lovecraft]] - At the Mountains of Madness and anything else published after it''''': Lovecraft is to modern horror what Tolkien is to fantasy. While his early stories are mediocre, starting with At the Mountains of Madness, their quality rises sharply, explaining how this guy reached such memetic status.
*'''''Richard Matheson - I Am Legend''''': Single-handedly responsible for creation of post apocalypse genre and modern take on zombies and vampires. Also, depressive as fuck, so bring some tissues. No, really. None of the 3 film adaptations managed to match the quality of the novel.
*'''''Anne Rice - The Vampire Chronicles''''': Where [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] started. You are probably already familiar with this particular style of vampires even without knowing there were any books, that's how iconic the imaginary is. And for the sake of everyone's sanity, let's just pretend the Chronicles consists of only three books: ''Interview with the Vampire'', ''The Vampire Lestat'' and ''The Queen of the Damned''. You really don't want to read any further titles, trust us on that, especially since this is a self-contained trilogy.

==Alternate History==
*'''''SM Stirling - The Peshawar Lancers''''': In the 1878 a bunch of comets hit the Earth causing much havoc and forcing the British to Evacuate to warmer parts of the world. In 2025 the British Empire still reigns as the most powerful nation on earth run from Delhi, along with French Africa, the Japanese Empire and a rather nasty Russian Empire in a world powered by steam. If you want steampunk that's more than superficial, exotic and just all around well done this is where you go. Just be prepared for a lot of Indian terms.
*'''''Charles Stross - The Merchant Princes''''': A Boston tech reporter one day finds out that she can jump between alternate versions of Earth and that she's part of a large extended family with that talent based in a world at a renaissance level where semi-romanized viking knights control the eastern seaboard of North America and the Chinese have begun colonizing the west coast, and said family is deeply involved in the Drug Trade. That is just the start as events also include a steampunk America ruled by the English crown, homeland security and more. Good for lovers of crime and intrigue, blending both the medieval and the modern quite well.
*'''''Scott Westerfield - Leviathan series''''': In this absolutely batshit-insane reimagining of World War One, the world is divided into two competing schools of technological thought - the Clankers, who represent machines and mechanization; and the Darwinists, who believe in mutating nature to solve man's problems. Naturally, the Central Powers are the chief adherents of the Clanker philosophy and you can imagine the brutal warfare of the Western Front except with [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|German Steam Tanks]] versus genetically-enhanced [[Clan Moulder|British Abominations]]. [[Awesome|Yeah]]. Word of warning, the series is advertised as a YA novel series and does feature some questionably mundane character plotlines that do tend to spoil the setting a bit.

==Mystery==
*'''''Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep''''': The grandfather of noir, single-handedly responsible for establishing about half of all genre conventions and creating the image of what an investigator should be like. If you '''ever''' plan to run just about anything about cool detectives doing cool stuff, it's a must read.
**'''''The Lady in the Lake''''': Probably the most applicable of the books featuring Marlowe, trading the big city and its massive police department for rural nowhere and a much smaller scale investigation, but not stakes.
*'''''Agatha Christie - And Then There Were None''''': Ten random strangers trapped with a vengeful killer. Or so they think. Aged like milk, but is still one of the staples of the genre and a well-tested premise.
*'''''Harlan Coben - Tell No One''''': A grieving widower receives a message with a proof that his wife, murdered few years ago, is actually alive and well, and her kidnapping was just a set-up. Like all Coben books, it's a pyramid scheme of backroom deals, conflicting motivations and gaslighting the reader, but due to its plot structure, it's the closest to your near-occult investigation for a game campaign.
*'''''Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''''': A staple of detective fiction, often to the point of being considered the godfather of the genre. An incredibly useful point of reference for late 19th century social norms and attitudes, on top of being a great influence for mystery-focused campaigns. If you run Call of Cthulhu or any period-specific setting relevant to Victorian Britain, Doyle's tales are a must-read.
*'''''Henning Mankell - Wallander series''''': Swedish crime series, featuring a provincial police investigator Wallander dealing with local crimes in Ystad. It's a blend of your hard-boiled fiction, especially as far as Wallander himself goes, with a very routine, grounded police procedural. As such, it offers just the right level of applicability for modern investigation scenarios, without things getting convoluted, while keeping it modern. Aside the 11 books, both Swedish and British TV series adaptations are approved, too.

==Historical Fiction==
*'''''Robert Bolt - The Mission''''': A journey of a young boy into becoming a murder-hobo and then trying to repent his sins as a missionary, taking place in 1740s Paraguay. But more seriously, it's about the Jesuits and their mission in a patch of land contested between Spain and Portugal, with great, nuanced characters caught up in a conflict they can't even hope to win. Mostly famous for its movie adaptation with de Niro and Irons and cutting the entire backstory which made the book worth reading in the first place.
*'''''Tom Clancy - The Hunt for Red October''''': '''The''' quintessential techno-thriller, being one of the hallmarks of the entire genre and probably the most famous of all Clancy's book. Tightly written, with plausible story and great characters.
*'''''Bernard Cornwell - [[Sharpe]]''''': A series of books following Richard Sharp as he rises through the ranks of the British Army during the first few decades of the 1800s (the bulk of it set during the Napoleonic Wars). More commonly known by its great TV series, staring Sean Bean.
*'''''Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers''''': It's '''THE''' swashbuckling novel. You probably more or less know what is it about just from its sheer impact on culture and pop-culture. Duels, political intrigue, romancing and most importantly, friendship above everything. Has bunch of continuations, along with just as numerous adaptations.
*'''''Paul Féval - Le Bossu''''' [or ''The Hunchback'']: The '''other''' swashbuckler. Chevalier Henri Lagardère swears vengeance over the death of his friend, duke de Nevers, while escaping with Nevers' infant daughter Aurore, from the hands of assassins. Years later he returns, in disguise of a hunchbacked accountant, to wreck havoc and have his way with the villainous prince de Gonzague. In the background, France is trying to figure out itself after the death of Louis XIV and the resulting regency. Both film adaptations are approved genre classics.
*'''''C.S. Forester - Horatio Hornblower''''': A series of books following Horatio Hornblower as he rises through the ranks of the Royal Navy from the late 1700’s through the early 1800’s. Has a TV series adaptation free off YouTube if books aren’t your thing.
*'''''George MacDonald Fraser - [[Flashman]]''''': A 19th century, cowardly and womanizing British buffoon with a pedigree goes from one crazy adventure to another around the globe. Meanwhile the writer has fun with all the genre conventions and relentlessly mocking the Victorian literature. A little on the nose, but how else you turn stuff like Kipling into actual engaging adventuring?
*'''''Homer - The Iliad''''': One of the oldest pieces of historical fiction. Trojan prince steals a Greek king's wife and all of Greece comes for revenge. For a long time considered complete fiction, but excavations and analysis suggest at least at a concept level Homer's epic is based on real war, even if the details got obscured or lost over hundreds of years of oral tradition.
*'''''Allan Mallinson - Matthew Hervey series''''': If Captain Aubrey was the pinnacle of Napoleonic naval escapades then the career of Matthew Hervey is the pinnacle of life in the cavalry regiments of the time. A series of 14 splendid novels, the level of detail is tremendous, touching on many of the equestrian and veterinarian aspects of cavalry upkeep and warfare that is presented in a much more manly fashion than what passes for horse-care in those sappy teen's novels. Also helps that the author was a bona-fide military officer of the (Queen Mary's Own) Royal Hussars. If you've ever wondered how the fuck the armies of the 19th century could maintain so much cavalry and how those regiments lived, this is the series for you.
*'''''Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian''''': Set during the middle of the 19th century in the southern United States, it follows the exploits of "The Kid" who joins what is essentially a band of Murderhobos to terrorize the prairie and hunt Indians. It doesn't sound like anything special, until you count in the fact that the group is possibly led by the devil himself. And he leads the group on to ever greater acts of depravity that would make Khorne and Slaneesh uneasy.
*'''''Brian Moore - Black Robe''''': A French Jesuit on his perilous quest to reach a remote mission, helped by distrusting Algonquian guides and crossing with them the bleak, frozen hell that is pre-colonial Ontario. The novel combines two elements that make it worth reading: it is well-researched on all covered subjects, creating a very handy panorama of 17th century Canada, and, more importantly, it puts a nice spin on the generic "travel up-stream through all sort of dangers" plot to make it interesting. The film adaptation is also approved.
*'''''Patrick O'Brian - Aubrey–Maturin series''''': A series of 21 nautical historical novels, set during the Napoleonic Wars and centering on the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin. Almost autistically well-researched and amazingly addictive series which should be read by just about anyone even wishing to run a maritime-themed game. They are really addictive, so make sure you have enough time to spare before starting reading. The film adaptation is also approved.
*'''''Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front''''': The personal story of a German soldier named Paul Breuer, who details the exploits and sufferings of his regiment during the 1st World War on the Western front. If you are looking for an account of how truly and utterly apocalyptic WW1 was, look no further. The book details almost every part of a soldiers life, from chilling behind the front lines to storming an enemy trench and the author (who himself fought in the war) is at times damn straight and at other times damn poetic about it. Beautiful descriptions of nature and accounts of friends being ripped to shreds by grenades are often just a paragraph apart, so its quite the rollercoaster.
** Since it's a pretty short read, it leaves you with time to indulge in the follow-up, '''The Road Back''', which features the surviving soldiers from the same company (but not the same characters) from the previous book, trying to re-integrate into society and miserably failing.
*'''''Walter Scott - Ivanhoe''''': The grand-daddy of the entire genre. Adventures and misadventures of a chivalrous knight who does his very best to collect ransom needed for king Richard the Lion Heart, while fending off against those nefarious Normans and their machinations. Despite its age, still holding pretty well.
*'''''Neal Stephenson - The Baroque Cycle''''': Adventures of a really big cast of characters living amidst of the central events of the late 17th and early 18th centuries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central America. Extremely well-researched portray of the era, seamlessly blending history with fictional characters. And a real door-stopper.
*'''''Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island''''': If by any chance or twist of fate you still didn't read it, you damn should right now. Absolute classic and absolute gold mine for ideas, not even for pirate game, but just adventuring in general.
*'''''Mika Waltari - The Egyptian, The Etruscan''''': "The Egyptian" follows the life of a fictional Egyptian Sinuhe living in the New Kingdom period and witnessing the upheaval that monotheism and war with Hittites bring to the ordered Egypt. "The Etruscan" does the same for Turms, an amnesiac hero set in the time of Greco-Persian Wars and the beginnings of the Roman Republic. Waltari was recognised and lauded by the historians at the time for spending autistic-levels of time researching the cultures he was writing about - but don't expect too much of it still hold value, century of additional research later.
*'''''Kawabata Yasunari - The Master of Go''''': The story of a brash young [[munchkin|power gamer]] challenging a grizzled old [[neckbeard]] to a championship [[Go]] match. Chronicles the national-scale edition war that was 1930s Japan through the medium of gaming obsessed hyper-autists.

==Weird Stuff==
*'''''David Brin - Uplift Hexology''''': A sort of really lazily worldbuilt sci-fi setting, based around the idea that a trillions-years-old galactic civilization is perpetuated by the "uplifting" of near-sentient animals and tool-using species. Every species has its specific attitude and special trait, like most bad sci-fi, except for humans and their uplifted dolphins and chimpanzees. But it does have some interesting ideas about evolution and how that could lead to truly strange forms of life and ways of thinking, if you can suffer through all the ecofanaticism.
*'''''The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island''''': Created as a tie-in to the 2005 remake of King Kong by Peter Jackson, this book is a glorified encyclopedia that explores the geography, flora and fauna of Skull Island as depicted in the film, vastly expanding upon the pulp fantasy-influenced artificial environment designed for the film. This book is a ''goldmine'' for worldbuilding and creature design if you want to do a [[Sword & Sorcery]] or fantasy [[Stone Age]] setting, or just include a "Lost World of [[dinosaur]]s" type area in your own setting, with an incredible variety of fleshed out beasts ranging from small, inoffensive coastal grazers to apex predators. The only drawback is that it's out of print and extremely hard to find in physical copy at a non-exorbitant price.
*'''''Dante Alleghiri - The Divine Comedy''''': In this section because due to genre-spinning hybrid that it is. It is also a very trippy experience. The Divine Comedy is best known for its first part, the Inferno, which pretty much codified culture and pop-culture take on Hell. Beyond that, its also a good look at Renaissance, with both its politics and fascination in antiquity. The second and third parts are much more esoteric and increasingly focused specifically on Christian theology, but worth looking into for Dante's literary skills.

==Mythology==
*'''''Beowulf''''': ''Not'' the English national epic, as Tollers noted; it belongs to the Geats, a now-dead tribe of para-Swedes. Beowulf rips Grendel's arm off, then goes down [[What|to kill his mum]]. Beowulf is killed, himself, by a dragon. Somehow got translated into Old Anglo-Saxon, sprinkled with an ultrathin veneer of Christianity, and copied; long enough for the English to find it again.
*'''''The Epic of Gilgamesh''''': The original Conan, gettin' bitches and slayin' witches since 1800BC, baby. The story of Gilgamesh (no shit; might have been Bilgamesh originally), a demi-god <strike>Babylonian</strike> Sumerian (big difference) king who the gods continually try to beat down and/or kill because he's [[Awesome|just that fucking awesome.]] [[That guy|He's also a HUUUUUUGE dick.]] Eventually meets his best bro for life Enkidu and they go on fuckin' sick adventures. Unfortunately some parts of the story are lost.
*'''''Kullervo''''': Some Finnish nationalist figured, how come ''we'' don'ts gots a mythology. So he made one - the Kalevala - but with even MORE grimdark and [[incest Smith|incest]]. JRR Tolkien edited a rendition of the Kullervo subset and, further, both he and Moorcock independently(?) took inspiration for their own antiheroes with magic souldraining swords, Turin and Elric respectively.
*'''''Mahābhārata''''': A Hindu epic story about family struggle for the rightful rule, performing your religious duty and also... pfft! Just kidding: it's wall to wall tits, ultra-violence and bullshit superpowers. But also family struggle, romances, political intrigues and handy panorama of nascent Hindu religion. Also - magnificent mustaches, the manlier you are, the bigger the stach. It's '''THE''' ultimate Bronze Age epic, long enough to take an entire bookshelf by itself. As such, you should be looking for an abridged version around 600-800 pages, rather than the whole thing.
*'''''Der Nibelunge liet (The Lay of the Nibelungs)''''': A ring is found at the Rhine; a dragon (Fafnir, for Wagner) finds it; dragon gets BTFOed by one Siegfried who is then corrupted himself. Written around AD 1200 by a High German, that is high up in Bavaria; with many parallels to similar stories in the ''Edda'' far north. Deemed too pagan for the Renaissance-era Germans, lost in the ensuing religious wars; rediscovered 1755 and became the national epic... for better or worse. Wagner's [[/pol/]]-approved take (Fafnir is a greedy dwarf, becomes that dragon) pulls more from the Norse. That's the one wherein wabbits are killed.
*'''''The Odyssey''''': Sequel to Homer's Iliad, possibly by a fan adopting that name. Odysseus, hero of the Trojan War with many cameos in the Iliad, has to go home to his wife - but he's in no hurry. Runs through many adventures before finally getting there; his wife somehow had stayed more loyal than ''he'' had. Many C.S. Lewis and then D&D monsters got aired here first. [Also] in Iliad / Odyssey fanfic may be included the Cypria and the Aeneid; Argonautica, concerning Jason's earlier voyage to the Black Sea, further had much influence from this book.
*'''''[[The Poetic Edda]]''''': A historical source, the Poetic Edda provides most of the basis for what we know about Norse myth and belief today. The mere fact that it's [[Viking]] myth poetry written in [[Awesome|Old Norse]] should entice most fa/tg/uys, but for those somehow unmoved still, it's basically THE sourcebook for the [[Lord of the Rings]] and all else [[Tolkien]]. If you want to know where Gandalf (who is basically Odin), [[Dwarves]] (and their names), [[Elves]], the phrase "[[Middle Earth]]" and that obsession he has for massive trees came from, then look no further. Also, pick up a copy of the Prose Edda while your reading this one, seeing as you're on a roll. Features a now-confirmed-to-AD-1022 visit to Newfoundland ("Markland"), whence the Norse bugged out in a generation because who the fuck wants to spend more time in Noof than one has to.

==History==
*'''''Julius Caesar - Commentaries on the Gallic War''''': If you study Latin, this is the first full text you'll be assigned to translate (same goes for Xenophon if you're learning Greek). Caesar wrote this autobiography of his campaign in Gaul to bolster his support among the only so-so literate plebs, and as a result it avoids using big, confusing words. On the flip-side, this makes it dreadfully dry and boring at times. Still, if you want to have ''the'' Roman experience, it's mandatory read.
*'''''Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - The Ingenious Nobleman Mister Quixote of La Mancha''''': The misadventures of an old man driven to madness by reading chivalry novels, being the first major parody of the classic interpretation of that setting. Mixing comedy and a ton of political commentary for its time, it's one of the most important novels of all time, and the elements and tropes it brought to popular culture are referenced and satirized to this day.
*'''''Marcus Tullius Cicero - De Re Publica''''': A political dialogue, explaining all the virtues of Roman Republic. Survived only partially and in short-hands, but still makes a compelling read about "ideal" (and most definitely not idealised into absurdity) state of Roman politics and political machine, along with all the machinations gradually leading to [[Star_Wars|the Republic turning into the Empire]]. An obligatory read for all Romanboos.
*'''''Herodotus - Histories''''': As a historical account, it's almost completely useless and predominately fictional, being single-handedly responsible for bunch of deeply ingrained popular misconceptions about ancient Persia, Egypt, Sparta and Scythia. What it really is is the ancient world's equivalent of a gossip column, thus collecting all the most interesting, crazy and outlandish stories Herodotus heard or copied from others. As such, it's a perfect base for equally outlandish world-building and campaigns, mixing reality with fantasy.
*'''''Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli - The Prince''''': [[This guy]] seems to be very underrated in popular culture, and its name is often used as a pejorative term, sometimes as twisted or evil. But this guy only wrote some sort of historical summary of how previous governments around the world have risen to power, how they handled it, and how they lost it all. It's just a guide of how you should rule your kingdom. You totally won't find [[Skub]] here. There is a later version of the book with additional commentary by '''Napoléon Bonaparte''', which is naturally the preferred version. A major influence on Camarilla of [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] (note the name of their leaders).
*'''''Jan Chryzostom Pasek - Diaries''''' (Also known in English as '''The Writings of Jan Chryzostom Pasek, a Squire of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania'''): Diaries (duh) of a 17th century nobleman, who, due to spending his life fighting in countless wars and even more quarrels with his neighbuors, traveled half the Europe and always had something to say about the things and people he saw. If you are yearning for your pike-and-shot, but also need some cavalryman crazy panache, look no further. Due to its writing style, it reads almost like an adventure novel and, as improbable as it seems at times, actually happened for real.
*'''''Antonio Pigafetta - Journal of Magellan's Voyage''''': A historical account of the first circumnavigation of the globe. Aside obvious historical value, it's worth to note Pigafetta wasn't an explorer himself or a member of the crew - he was a tourist, joining the expedition for the thrill of adventure and described everything from such perspective. Provides a lot of nautical and ethnographical observations, creating a panorama for Age of Discovery.
*'''''Marco Polo - The Million''''': The seminal travelogue of an Italian explorer as he travelled the breadth of Middle East and Asia all the way to China and back again during the height of the Middle Ages. While there is some question as to the accuracy of the work, scholars today agree that generally speaking the accounts are as accurate as can be expected for the time period.
*'''''Sunzi - The Art of War''''': The Codex Astartes of ancient China dating back to the Spring and Autumn period. Essentially a "How to Wage Wars for Dummies" guidebook and trivial from modern perspective - which doesn't stop people from gushing how brilliant it is and making it one of the most mis-quoted books in human literature<ref>To be fair to Sunny Boy, (1) he was writing in a period when virtually no such books existed, and (2) most of his advice is still sound.</ref>. Most editions contain more commentaries than there is actual Sun Tzu writing in them.
*'''''Publius Cornelius Tacitus - The Annals''''': A Roman historical account of the time from Augustus' death in 14 AD. to the reign of Emperor Nero. Although fragmented as hell (as the overwhelming majority of ancient literature is), it is one of the most important sources on how the Roman Empire survived and gained permanency after its charismatic founder Octavian-Augustus died. It is generally regarded as being one of the finest works of Roman history that has survived, as well as containing one of the only extra-biblical accounts of Jesus, alongside the writings of Flavius Josephus. Tacitus is especially appreciated for his penetrating insights into power politics, so think of him as a proto-Machiavelli in far more readable prose.
*'''''Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War''''': Happens right before The Anabasis, covering roughly two decades of warfare between Athens and Sparta, in varying degrees of detail depending on the sources Thucydides had access to at the time (he was exiled from Athens and switched sides mid-war). Trails off at the end, presumably he died writing it. Basically the oldest human text in existence that is regarded as a historical account to be taken at face value, and it inspired many other leaders such as Xenophon and later Julius Caesar to write accounts of their own deeds.
*'''''Xenophon - The Anabasis''''': Another historical account, this time of the journey of 10,000 Greek mercenaries (hence the other title - ''The March of the Ten Thousand'') who end up stranded in the middle of Persian Empire after their employer, Cyrus the Younger, got killed in the battle. Problem is, Cyrus was trying to overthrown his brother, king Artaxerxes II, using said Greeks. So now they are in the middle of hostile territory, with no means to resupply, no support and constantly endangered by Persian military and tributary locals. Due to Xenophon's writing style, the book is highly entertaining and action-packed, while also providing countless descriptions of both Greek and Persian customs. And if you wonder why the plot sounds familiar - you probably saw "The Warriors".

==Shunned/Hated==
*'''Terry <del>Good</del>Badkind - The Sword of Truth''': An infamous series full of Terry's [[magical realm]] BDSM, utterly gratuitous rape and torture (Terry's cheap/lazy method of making his main characters look better by comparison), and "heroes" we're supposed to arbitrarily like no matter ''what'' horrible things they do. Badkind himself having nothing but contempt for the entire fantasy genre while bragging about how he is a "serious" novelist and packing the later books with his stupid Ayn Ranting (even when it ''contradicted previous fucking events'') did him no favours.
*'''Stephanie Meyer - [[Twilight]]:''' ...Have you ''been'' on the internet? The series that single-handedly killed an [[Vampire: The Masquerade| entire style of modern fantasy vampire]] for an entire generation of fantasy fans who ''aren't'' sexually-frustrated housewives and/or hormone-addled teenage girls. Though it's a bit old hat to bring up the series with any seriousness, doing so will irritate the scars of bitter neckbeards.
*'''John Norman - [[Gor (John Norman)]]''': A cheap knockoff of Barsoom and Conan made notable (as the series goes on) for having a lot of half baked philosophizing, skeevy BSDM stuff and [[/d/|a ton of fucked up ideas about gender, slavery and sex]]. In brief a bunch of bug aliens make a zoo full of humans to live "as nature intended" as misogynistic slaving barbarians and make sure of it [[wat|by incinerating anyone who attempts to develop technology or societies they don't approve of with laser beams. Which they sometimes do to whole cities just for the lulz]]. Also for spawning one of the ''original'' obnoxious apologist Internet subcultures, the Goreans. Spread to Second Life, so go there if you want to burn your brain.
*'''Christopher Paolini - [[Eragon|The Inheritance Series]]:''' A Mary Sue main character and a derivative plot. It was written when Paolini was a teenager and it shows. Every single book could stand to lose at ''least'' a third of its wordcount and there are lot of times when the plot grinds to a halt for entire chapters just for the characters to think and ramble about the most inane of topics. Less offensive than other stuff on this list since it lacks traits such as bootlick fans and an asshole author. The author also put a decent amount of effort into his worldbuilding which is more than can be said for Badkind and Smeyer. If you must, start in book two and read his cousin's story, he is a farm boy who was getting his dick wet while struggling with a hostile father-in-law, until the civil war reached his hometown and his betrothed is whisked away by humanoid bug-birds, he then murders 200 people with a hammer and deals with PTSD.

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Image:Approved Children's Literature.png|Kid-tested, fa/tg/uy-approved.
</gallery>

=Other Recommendations=
*[http://desuarchive.org/tg/thread/27995546/ Fatguys briefly exit their basement comfort zone to recommend /tg/ romance novels.]
*[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/109337._tg_approved_reading_list /tg/'s approved reading list on Goodreads]

[[Category:Approved Media]]
[[Category:Literature]]