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Recommend me some reading! + Bonus question
silence1186
Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered User regular
Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered User regular
So I'll be going on a trip to some places that are reasonably far away and require a good amount of materials to read, as I will have loads and loads of travel/downtime. So I was hoping, if I listed some of the things I've read and have liked, some folks with similar interests might have some ideas for things I should pick up. Without further ado, some examples of things I have read:
Most things by David Eddings
Most things by Terry Brooks
The Lord of the Rings + Hobbit
Harry Potter series
World War Z
Ender's Game (Just the first one)
A Wizard of Earthsea (see above)
Earth Abides
Hopefully that's enough? There's a general sci-fi/fantasy theme going on. I tend to avoid things with downer endings, but it's not a hard and fast rule. I just don't like to depress myself on purpose.
BONUS QUESTION: This hardly seemed like it deserved its own thread, so its riding in this thread.
What do I need to be able to charge my Nintendo DS in Europe (I am from the States).
Much obliged in advance.
Most things by David Eddings
Most things by Terry Brooks
The Lord of the Rings + Hobbit
Harry Potter series
World War Z
Ender's Game (Just the first one)
A Wizard of Earthsea (see above)
Earth Abides
Hopefully that's enough? There's a general sci-fi/fantasy theme going on. I tend to avoid things with downer endings, but it's not a hard and fast rule. I just don't like to depress myself on purpose.
BONUS QUESTION: This hardly seemed like it deserved its own thread, so its riding in this thread.
What do I need to be able to charge my Nintendo DS in Europe (I am from the States).
Much obliged in advance.
silence1186 on
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I am reasonably amazed you recommended The Mote in God's Eye. I bought that book for a class I took in high school, but the teacher had to cut it because it was so long and he wanted to read a few more books. I'm glad I kept it all these years.
Got it on my nook a couple days ago and I can't put it down.
It was so good, I just picked it up second hand on a whim,that and Speaker for the Dead were pleasant surprises.
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
Imagine Harry Potter, only grown up, a private detective, less whiny, and he fights vampires and evil faeries and necromancers, and gets punched a lot.
Pretty light reading, almost a dozen books available.
Note that book 2 is widely considered to be the worst book in the series, but is still readable.
Things become much more badass from 3 onward.
So you skipped over the list of things he liked in the OP, eh?
I'll second Dresden Files and The Name of the Wind. Also for fantasy I'll kick in a vote for the Malazan series by Steven Erikson.
I've been meaning to start that series too. Is there a reason you didn't suggest Color of Magic? Like, should I not read that one first?
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
A power supply converter. They generally sell them in the airport.
Just fucking do it.
It will not be a mistake.
Small Gods is a favorite of many people and is stand alone.
Basically you have books that are based on several different "casts" as the main character/s.
The City Watch. (Start with Guards Guards)
Death
The Witches
Rincewind and Wizards
Of the groups, the City Watch stuff tends to be the most highly regarded. I imagine there's a wiki somewhere that breaks down all the novels by these lines.
Pratchett has, overall, gotten progressively better with his books. And while Color of Magic is the start, it's far from the quality one should expect and doesn't give the best introduction ever to the universe, since, well, he was still figuring most of it out. By the time Small Gods was written he had a pretty good grasp on his style. I personally don't think Guards! Guards! is as good, but it's the start of one of the series set in the universe and leads to much better books.
Though starting with The Color of Magic isn't necessarily a bad choice. I went by publishing date after I first read Small Gods by chance and found the early works enjoyable enough, just not near as good.
I convinced my boyfriend (a non reader at the time, had never read a book for pleasure prior to this) to read one of his books, and he took of from there, and has read at least 15 of the novels in Feist's universe. Start with Magician: Apprentice
I hear the His Dark Materials series is good harry-potter-demographic-ish fare.
Neil Gaiman.
Douglas Adams.
The sequel (to A Mote in God's Eye), The Gripping Hand, is also fantastic. (hell, the sequel to Legacy is also great, Beowulf's Children) If you like that Id highly reccommend his solo stuff (as mote and gripping are both co-authored with Jerry Pournelle). Niven has his own universe set up with his own races and everything. Ringworld is pretty great and one of the first ones from his stuff that I read, didnt scare me away, heh. Its about one of the races recruiting a couple humans to go scout out this strange space station.
If you try that and dont care for it, perhaps go for another Niven-Pournelle like Lucifer's Hammer, "The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival--a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known...."
Now, I do tend more towards Hard Sci-Fi, science fiction thats heavily based in science so there is some technical stuff in those, but not a ton or anything. They just explain some stuff.
Anyway, this is a long enough post, those are my suggestions, good reading!
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
Anything Terry Pratchett, but particularly the Guards books.
I recommend this again and again and again. Even if you don't read the latest series, the first four book series is my favorite book series of all time.
This. A thousand times this. Same goes for the rest of Stephen King's library, much of which is tied into the Dark Tower series.
You'll need a transformer.
Not these one.
but these one
As for reading... you should enjoy the scenery and the culture of the lands instead of sticking your nose in the book. It seems your taste are pretty close to mine; we both like fantasy & light sci-fi. I wouldn't recommend terry brooks because he's a J R R Tolkien wannabe. Someone recommended Terry Pratchett already (excellent job Forkes). I'll recommend the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and also recommend The Saga of Recluse . ASOIAF is actually about England's hundred year war, and TSoR is actually about European vs Britain history.
I'll also recommend dune.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/13/
American God - Neil Gaiman
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman.
Stranger in A strange land (uncut version) - Robert A. Heinlein
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
What you should really bring is tourist books about europe, and also a translator.
He writes hard (fact-based) Science Fiction with a dark bent.
Holy crap that's useful. Thanks!
PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
Note there have been two books released since that was made. Making Money directly follows Going Postal and Unseen Academicals relates to almost every book that takes place in Ankh-Morpork.
Ender in Exile
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender's Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Good stuff, all of them. I've read the series many, many times.
Dune, Frank Herbert.
I cannot recommend these 2 enough. Seriously. A Song of Ice and Fire is even being made into an HBO series.