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For Slasher - I'm currently reading Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series of books, and if you like a bit of crazy sci-fi then they're rather interesting.
I've got a few more of these to go, then I'm on to the Malus Darkblade series and I've been given a depressing book book about Nazis to read, then I'll need some new stock...
Anyone recommend a good book?
George RR Martin's Song of Ice & Fire series
Not reading anything at the moment... which is odd for me.
Last decent book I read was The Historian. I recommend that if you fancy a change on the Dracula format. Personally I rate it beneath the original Dracula book, which is far darker and scarier, but it does have some hair raising moments, and it kept me reading until the end.
Other books I love are:
The Wasp Factory
Consider Phlebas
The first half of the Horus Heresy series
The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time
Anything Pratchett, preferably with Death in it
Space Marine (Ian Watson) - and probably Inquisitor series too.
I cba to think of any others right now...
-Anything by china mieville, great steampunk dystopia, start with perdido street station.
-A day in the life of ivan denisovich by alexandr solzenhitsyn. not fantasy, but is such an amazing book I think it should be required in schools. It is absolutely amazing.
-Retribution Falls but chriss wooding, if you like a bit of airship action this is for you.
-tad williams memory sorrow and thorn series, very good fantasy
I tried a Tad Williams book (can't remember which) but I just couldn't get into it. My brother likes his stuff and so does my gf's ma (who reads shit loads). Maybe I'll give him another try, but that steampunk sounds interesting!
My pratchett preference is the guards series staring the 6 foot dwarf Carrot, I just love it when he makes dwarfs cry telling them about their dear old mums back home in their mines while they are being bad boys! and beats up trolls!
I know its sad but I like Pratchett in Audio Book as Nigel Planer really is a great reader/actor!
For horror you cant beat James Herbert, forget King (bloody yank), Herbert's style has improved tenfold over the years, his early books like Rats are a quality swarm book back when they where all the rage but his latest stuff is really dark and up to date Others is really dark and disturbing and later this year he is due to release Ash witch I look forward to.
For Sci FiI Love the Dune series of books and recommend the prequels if you enjoyed the film starting I think with House Harkonen (or was it Atredies
)
Or in fantasy look for The Pendragon series, Brilliant King arthur stuff!
Then their is the classic stuff if you have never read War of the Worlds you are not a true reader, and there is his other works to, too many to list I have read like 10 HG Wells books, Arthur C Clark is a Living legend the 2001 series is way better in writing (and longer) and the Rama series is fun too
For vampires I prefer the Interview with a vampire stuff, Lestat is the coolest bloodsucker ever! don't let the sucky films fool you. read The Vampire Lestat and it puts the film in a new light!
I could go on all night about books but if you want to lend some I have tons!! (not HGWells BTW I got a rare set that I paid over £100 for I dont lend those out
) Oh and my.....
Agree totally on those listed already, especially
Alastair Reynolds
George RR Martin
Frank Herbert
Terry Pratchett
Iain M Banks
Marcus has a list with many I havent read and will have to pick up
And I would also suggest Asimov as some of his stuff is very good
and Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series
Oh and Trouble for Trumpets by Peter Dallas-Smith
The problem with asking like-minded people for good books is that I've read loads of the things listed here. Although there are many interesting choices I've never heard of that I will be sure to look up, so thanks for your advice!
I've never read any Steam Punk - my only experience of that is in dodgy manga - so I'll defnitely give China Mieville a go.
I felt the Historian was quite a slow novel, until I realised I'd almost finished it a couple of days later. I didn't know a lot about Vlad the Impaler and this element of the vampire myth until prior to reading this.
The Dune series is one of my favourites, but I struggled with the prequels his son wrote. I stopped reading House Harkonnen a few years back when I picked up something new, and haven't felt the inclination to go back to it. Maybe I should persevere...
Herbert > King. I've only read a couple of King's earlier books and found them quite dull. I have read everything of Herbert!
M Banks for the win - I read The Player of Games first, and I still think it is one of the best stories I have read.
Although I do like Peter Hamilton's stuff - I read The Temperal Void a couple of months ago, and can't wait for the release of the final one.
Early Clive Barker (Weaveworld, The Great & Secret Show, Imajica etc.) still rank highly with me. I made my girlfriend read Weaveworld when we were travelling, and was extremely pleased that she loved it. I then tried her on Imajica, but a 900 pages of book put her off (but I'll get there in the end...)
To Edsmasha - many thanks for the offer of a loan, but I have a dislike of borrowing books. It pains me if I remember reading a good book, then realise it isn't on my shelf to read again. Libraries suck because you have to give them back!
Right then - I'm off to Amazon! Cheers folks!
+1 to everything above.
In particular - as I've said before to anyone who'll stand around and listen, Perdido Street Station (China Mieville) is an utterly epic book and literally a must-read for anyone interested in fantasy and/or sci-fi.
I'm also a huge fan of Richard Morgan, particularly the Takeshi Kovacz series.
Joe Abercrombie is good for some very dark, blood guts and sex fantasy.
I'm a bit surprised nobody has suggested William Gibson. Maybe it's a given that we've all read Neuromancer etc, but they are still classic sci fi fiction. I reread them recently and they haven't dated as much as you might expect. I was always a huge fan of the mirrorshades cyberpunk genre through my teens though, so that helps.
Walter John Williams might be worth a try if you like large-scale space opera. (Which I'm guessing any who's read the Revelation Space books does
). Check out the Praxis trilogy. Lots of fun with super-high tech space battles but with some actual basis in real-world physics. ie all the ships spend months under high-G acceleration to get anywhere rather than going to warp speed and disappearing off across the galaxy.
Having said that Iain M Banks is just brilliant, because he ignores the basis for the tech and just tells a good story.
(17-06-2010 11:12 AM)Edge Wrote: [ -> ]To Edsmasha - many thanks for the offer of a loan, but I have a dislike of borrowing books. It pains me if I remember reading a good book, then realise it isn't on my shelf to read again. Libraries suck because you have to give them back!
Yea that's my problem too, only thing I have learnt is moving house sucks! I had 3 large packing boxes we could barely shift!
I also like having them cos I can say "hey "insert title" is great, hear you go have a read!" and when my kids are older I can brainwash them into sci-fi!
How about Ursula K LeGuin, I used to love the Earthsea series tho haven't read them in ages. Apart from that I can only think of classics of the genre probably all listed above or you've read it already. I find absurd joy in reading political, or marketing books as well, anything from The Times or Guardian columnists, Naomi Klein being one of my favourites.
There's also an old book that my father gave me when I was about 10, I don't know the author but the title is Famous Political Assassinations. He wanted me to find joy in history... He certainly succeeded.
For more steampunk then try out Stephen Hunt (very interesting, though not particually challenging) and Adrian Tchkovsky (very simply series, but very entertaining, and a good story).
George Mann's first two books are Victorian Steampunk mystery/crime novels and are pretty good, like a steampunk Sherlock Holmes.
Also, if you can get a copy of it, Jules Verne - Around the World in 80 Days is very good. It is not too long, but I took great pleasure in reading it. It is amazing to see how far he could see ahead considering it was written about 100 years ago.
@Nick - China Mieville is an amazing author, I wish he had some contempories as good as him since I cant find enough good stuff like this to read. Have you read The City and The City? It is a bit different, but very good, and really makes you think about the world around you. I can't wait to pick up Kraken in paperback.
Good that Diabolist mentioned Richard Morgan and William Gibson.
I recently discovered Richard Morgan and absolutely loved the first Takeshi Kovacz book. Just got the second for my birthday.
Gibson's Neuromancer is probably my favourite book of all time.
I also second the George RR Martin Song of Ice and Fire recommendations. Fantastic brutal epic. Looking forward to the upcoming TV series of that. Fingers crossed they get it right.
Right now I'm trying out some JG Ballard which is interesting, then I'm quite excited about Path of the Warrior - the first of the new Eldar trilogy. I hope it turns out to be a good fluff novel for this iconic 40k race. I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the Black Library genre fiction - particularly the Horus Heresy series. Also the audiobooks have turned out to be excellent. I loved Graham McNeill's Lightning Tower, coupled on one CD with the Dark King, by Dan Abnett.
Read through all the suggestions, some good stuff in there.
For truly great and epic fantasy check Steven Erikson - the most totally realised worlds and realistic characters you'll find in fantasy.
Also see R Scott Bakker - philosophy and fantasy, also very good.
I cannot believe I forgot this, but Gene Wolf's Book of the New Sun series is mind blowing. I read it when I was a bit younger, so it was a little too deep for me, but it is so amazing. The language is a real pleasure to read. It feels like you go on a month long acid trip, but a complete revelation and mind opener.
On a completely different note, Memoirs of a Geisha was a good read. I haven't seen the film version, but I've heard it does no favours to the book itself (often the way!).
(17-06-2010 08:29 PM)TheOneYouKnow Wrote: [ -> ]On a completely different note, Memoirs of a Geisha was a good read. I haven't seen the film version, but I've heard it does no favours to the book itself (often the way!).
My wife, who doesn't read much, loved this book. She said it was amazing. I havent read it (our copy is in Italian), but the movie was beautiful
Well maybe I should check out the film! I tried learning Italian, but I think I'll stick to English as I got preoccupied with other things lol. I tend to be more of a book person than a film person... I like shit films lol (horrors and sci-fi of course!)
(17-06-2010 08:29 PM)TheOneYouKnow Wrote: [ -> ]On a completely different note, Memoirs of a Geisha was a good read.
Haven't read it. What with lacking the requisite cervix and all.
My 13 year old daughter did. She said it was, and I quote, 'OK'.
Not a glowing endorsement perhaps, but she's 13 so it's pretty much how she describes everything except Daniel Craig. ('Yeah, he's y'know, nice, I guess' *blush*, apparently.)
Oh, and I forgot a couple earlier. Stephen Baxter is prolific and has some great books, though annoyingly his series books peter out after a bit.
Also worth a look is Charles Stross. Smart, philosophical and bleakly funny; I've only read his first book, Singularity Sky, but will be picking up more.
You don't have to be a woman to get some culture in ya!
I always give a book the first two chapters before I make my mind up if I will read it or not. I can't read something I'm not getting into, too short an attention span.
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