Recomended Reading Thread

Steven Erikson's theMalazan Book of the Fallenseries is my favorite of all time. Really intricate, great writing, and memorable characters. Also very war / military oriented which might be a turnoff for some. Another great read in a Sci-Fi / Fantasy vein isReady Player One, which is about a scavenger hunt through a virtual reality world / MMO scape that involves real life consequences for the protagonist. If you hate 80's references you might want to pass though. Finally, more in the realm of the bizarre isGeek Love, which centers around a family of circus freaks. Really fascinating read. Hope this helps!

dioblaire_sl said:

I did not see it on the page, so I figured I'd get the ball rolling on it.

Could really use some fantasy/sci-fi/historical fiction suggestions, have plenty of time to read while I am working lol.

Have read the WoT series, ASoIF, Ender's Shadow series, and a few others that I can't think of at this time. Thanks in advance.

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Have you tried making a Goodreads account? If you haven't heard of it you basically rate books that you've read, and it gives you suggestions of books to read. Here is their Listopiahttp://www.goodreads.com/list- not really sure if you have to make an account to see it though!

If you don't wanna take a look at that site though, the most recent historical fiction/scifi book that I've read is11/22/63(and guys would be interested in, unless you wanna read something like Outlander lols). Basically about this guy that goes back in time to try and prevent JFK from being assassinated, its by Stephen King.

Faiona_sl said:

Have you tried making a Goodreads account? If you haven't heard of it you basically rate books that you've read, and it gives you suggestions of books to read. Here is their Listopiahttp://www.goodreads.com/list- not really sure if you have to make an account to see it though!

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I use goodreads for 'to-get' list management, but their suggestions functionality is pretty terrible IMO, I've had much more success with Amazon recommendations. ( Part of the problem is that goodreads has a very extensive, but very shallow selection of reviews, so small numbers of people can drastically distort results ).

Back to the topic - a few books I've really liked over the last few years : Wool ( Hugh Howey ), Feed ( Mira Grant ), The Breach ( Patrick Lee ), Magic Bites ( Ilona Andrews ), Heroes Die ( Matthew Woodring Stover ), Alien Taste/Tinker ( Wen Spencer ), Hard Magic ( Larry Correia ), Furies of Calderon/Dresden Files ( Jim Butcher ), Cast in Shadow ( Michelle Sagara ) , Child of Fire ( Harry Connolly ), The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (NK Jemisin ).

Lots of others but those are a few that stick out in my memory.

The Black Company!

Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
Julian Comstock and/or Spin - Robert Charles Wilson.

All 4 of those books are phenomenal in my opinion. 3 SciFi and one fantasy/historical fiction. Truth be told I found out about most of them fromhttp://www.sfreviews.net
I've slowly been working through all of his 5 and 4.5 star reviewed books that I haven't read before and none of them have disappointed. Under Heaven especially was a great book I probably never would've come across otherwise.

dioblaire_sl said:

Lol, I just finished reading that the other day... Got it on Thurs or Friday, read it at work. I thought it was a pretty good read. Not exactly what I expected from a SK book, but I was far from disappointed.

Thanks for the suggestion, as well

Edit: I have been meaning to read Erickson, just keep forgetting about it >.>

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Do you like zombie books? I see Velk recommendedFeed, its a trilogy series called Newsflesh. They're really great series, basically about these reporters that are living after the whole zombie apocalypse is over and dealing with the aftermath. Goes into things like government conspiracies and stuff.

Could tryAbraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunteras well lol, its a bit silly but historical fiction + horror combined.

Have you read any of Nelson DeMillle's books? All are excellent reads.

Looking for a new fantasy book/series to read. I've read most of the books already listed in this forum: Abercrombie, Cook, Malazan, Sanderson, Weeks, Robin Hobb, Jordan, Rothfuss, Lynch, Martin, and Bakker.

Favorite books to get an idea of what I like: Lords of Light (Zelazny), Chronicles of Amber(Zelazny), Everything by Sanderson so far, Malazan(Prefer Ericson).

On the sci-fi front a good read is Heinlein'sThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. It's a good read about a revolt on a lunar colony in the future. Many of the themes and social commentary makes you think a bit.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein is also a must read.

Never really been big into sci-fi but have read almost everything by Heinlein and a good bit of Orson Scott Cards Ender and Shadow Sagas.

Some of my favourite sci-fi

Dan Worth - The Progenitor Trilogy
Peter Hamilton - The Evolutionary Void trilogy or the Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga 1)/Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga 2) pair are phenominal.
Julian May - The Saga of the Exiles and then all its follow ups

One of my favorite series

Stephen R. Donaldson- The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

Soljourn_sl said:

Looking for a new fantasy book/series to read. I've read most of the books already listed in this forum: Abercrombie, Cook, Malazan, Sanderson, Weeks, Robin Hobb, Jordan, Rothfuss, Lynch, Martin, and Bakker.

Favorite books to get an idea of what I like: Lords of Light (Zelazny), Chronicles of Amber(Zelazny), Everything by Sanderson so far, Malazan(Prefer Ericson).

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In a similar vein to those you have mentioned i'd recommend the following as good reads

Anthony Ryan - Blood Song (pick of the bunch, Its a debut novel but would easily fit into company with all those above)
Paul Hoffman - Left Hand of God
Douglas Hulick - Among Thieves
Prince of Thorns Mark Lawrence

Also
Brian Ruckley - Godless World (haven't read this only seen it recommended by those that like the same list as you do)

I'll add a couple to the list that haven't been mentioned, and as a bonus, these sets are all finished and not waiting around for a year between books to be written:

Fred Saberhagen - Book of Swords series.
I like it because the interplay between the characters and the swords is very well written. Basically, the gods made some very very powerful swords with unique properties, like super powers, and people everywhere are clamoring for them. The characters almost always want a particular sword, but end up with a different one.

Guy Gavriel Kay - I'd actually recommend "The Lions of Al-Rassan" and "Sailing to Sarantium" + "Lord of Emperors". based upon Moorish Spain and other mediterranean countries. StS and LoE center around a mosaicist (one who makes mosaics out of tiles) which sounds really lame and boring, but he gets caught up in some pretty interesting intrigue, it's a good read. Lions of Al-Rassan is also heavy on political intrigue and religious strife.

Any Conan book by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague De Camp, Leonard Carpenter, or Robert Jordan. 'nuff said.

Ben Bova - Orion. Takes place all throughout history at different points, up to one hero to save mankind, etc. Great read though. I'm about to start "Orion and King Arthur" will have to update when I'm done.

Piers Anthony - Incarnations of Immortality Series. 7 books as opposed to Xanth's 4095823094875290 books. Each book centers on a different aspect/god. very good series.

Greg Keyes - Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone - I enjoyed the series thoroughly. Not much else to say about it.

Matthew Stover - The series continues past Heroes Die, don't forget to check out the others!

Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere. More modern day fantasy than perhaps what you were after but is a really good read. So much imagination put into it that you will never look at a London underground map in the same way again (assuming that you have, at some point, seen a London underground map I guess). Still the only book I have ever read through then went back to the start and read again immediately. American Gods by the same author is also well worth a go.

Some lesser read and newer Fantasy/Sci-Fi stuff you should all take a look at, all with the Nebby Seal of Approval:

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadow of the Apt:Empire in Black and Gold(Steampunk/progressing technology epic fantasy)
Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha:God's War(New Weird/Urban Fantasy)
James SA Corey's The Expanse:Leviathan Wakes(Space Opera/Space Jockey)
Hannu Rajaniemi'sQuantum Thief(for when you want to stare at the page and go "dude's on serious acid")
Chris Wooding's Tales of the Kitty Jay:Retribution Falls(Steampunk Firefly with Demons, it's as awesome as it sounds)

Cheap Cigar_sl said:

Have you read any of Nelson DeMillle's books? All are excellent reads.

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Concur.

If you like harder sci-fi, look intoAlastair Reynolds. I really cannot think of a better contemporary sci-fi author.