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Sci-Fi/Fantasy book suggestions
mosssnack
Yeah right, man, Bishop should go!Good idea!Registered User regular
Yeah right, man, Bishop should go!Good idea!Registered User regular
Hey everyone. Gonna be deploying for six months under the water pretty soon, and I'm gonna need some shit to do with all of the down time I'm gonna have. My wife was awesome enough to surprise me with a Kindle the other day and I couldn't be more excited now that I have unlimited space for books. I swear to god that thing was made for submariners.
Anyway, I'm mostly a fiction guy, especially scifi/fantasy type stuff. However, I'm open to any suggestions you all may have. Here's a few things I have enjoyed lately:
-Erikson's Malazan series (Absolutely in love with this series since Memories of Ice. Just finished Reaper's Gale, will probably have next two done soonish)
-Song of Ice and Fire (Haven't looked into Martin's other work, worth a read?)
-Most of Heinlein's stuff
-Robin Hobb's first three trilogies (Thought these were okay)
Also, I'm a little curious about King's Dark Tower series. Heard a few things, but not a lot. Worth reading all the way through?
Anyway, I'm mostly a fiction guy, especially scifi/fantasy type stuff. However, I'm open to any suggestions you all may have. Here's a few things I have enjoyed lately:
-Erikson's Malazan series (Absolutely in love with this series since Memories of Ice. Just finished Reaper's Gale, will probably have next two done soonish)
-Song of Ice and Fire (Haven't looked into Martin's other work, worth a read?)
-Most of Heinlein's stuff
-Robin Hobb's first three trilogies (Thought these were okay)
Also, I'm a little curious about King's Dark Tower series. Heard a few things, but not a lot. Worth reading all the way through?
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bnet: moss*1454
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Joe Abercrombie - First Law Trilogy. Also his new one Best Served Cold, is quite good.
Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind
Now, I loved the Dark Tower series, but its' pretty polarizing. Are you a King fan?
Also the Black Company books, good call, Esh.
Black company looks interesting. Though, the wiki link has two new books that are TBA with the last book being released in 2000. Am I going to be hopelessly waiting for the next books?
bnet: moss*1454
Back Company is what largely inspired the Malazan series. At least the marine parts.
Roger Zelazny's Amber chronicles (the first five books, anyway), and Lord of Light, are among my favorites. Iain Banks' Culture novels are really good too. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books are good page-turners. Hmm, what else... John Dies At The End is the best book I've read in a while, that might be worth a look if you're into (dark) comedy.
Rothuss is likely to be the best fantasy suggested in this thread.
Some other suggestions, heavy on the sci-fi because I haven't read much fantasy other than the Malazan books, the LotR books, and Rothfuss:
Iain M. Banks' Culture series.
Everything William Gibson has ever written.
Snow Crash, Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.
Most of what Philip K. Dick wrote. People like different things but I'd recommend Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? or Ubik.
Everything Jorge Luis Borges has ever written.
Much of Robert Heinlein, like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land.
Everything Douglas Adams ever wrote.
Gun, With Occasional Music and Girl in Landscape by Johnathan Lethem.
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis is a comic book (graphic novel if you prefer) but it's some of the best sci-fi there is.
Haha, skimming through the Black Company wiki and seeing the names of the soldiers definitely reminded me of the Malazan marines. That's pretty damn cool.
So many good suggestions. This is gonna be easier than I thought
bnet: moss*1454
The Black Company books can all be read very self contained. He's been writing them since the early 80s. What's out there is more than enough to keep you occupied for awhile. They've been conveniently compiled into omnibuses of three books apiece recently. They were a HUGE influence on Erikson for the Malazan books.
Also, the First Law books that someone already suggested are great.
Awesome info, thanks. I think I'm sold on the Black Company books.
bnet: moss*1454
bnet: moss*1454
I didn't like the Amber books that much. I can't stand all-powerful protagonists.
I own pretty much everything Martin has published (bar a couple of out of print wild card books), so I'll add a hearty yes to this suggestion. There's not really a lot of work though, and his other work is very different to song and ice and fire, mainly focusing on a much smaller number of characters rather than the sweeping political interactions of westeros.
Tuf Voyaging is awesome, one of my favourite characters ever. I also really like Fevre Dream.
Play with me on Steam
It isn't for everyone. My Cousin the lawyer couldn't finish the first one.
On Baslisk station is available for free from the Baen library in electronic format.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Don't know if all their books are available on Kindle, but they're good reads and some of my favorite authors.
I dislike those books because the hero is such a mary sue. I recommend Bujold's Vorkosigan books instead for space opera.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons is a fine book, but you will want the sequel Fall of Hyperion.
Ringworld by Larry Niven is fantastic. it's sequels less so.
The Mote in Gods Eye by Larry Niven is fantastic and has some interesting military dilemmas.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is truly one of the finest sci fi books around. It's sequel Speaker of the Dead is nearly as good.
Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra by C.S. Lewis are great sci fi books. I would pass on That Hideous Strength though.
Street Fighter 4 (pc): sdurien
Steam: Jon http://steamcommunity.com//profiles/76561197970923897/home
My favorite scifi right now.
I've also enjoyed Christopher Moore's vampire books, "Bloodsucking Fiends", "Bite Me" and "You Suck". They're an interesting american twist on classic british humor/scifi. Even if they tend to be romcoms.
Its a neat fantasy and its dark, and really really graphic. I read one of these awhile back and recently found the series and read them. Its worth giving it a shot.
George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire is awesome too.
If you are in the mood for a really good deep fantasy novel, and don't mind the effort of some archaic verbiage, The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison, it is old but you can trace almost every fantasy novel for the last 75 years back to this book, and some of the earlier books by Lord Dunsany.
Also Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. The series is called The Hyperion Cantos and is just... breathtaking.
The Windup Girl
Anathem
and pretty much anything by Larry Niven
bnet: moss*1454
I hope you're not only doing Kindle, because honestly, The Black Company books are exactly what you're looking for.
Start with this one.
"With the Black Company series Glen Cook single-handedly changed the face of fantasy—something a lot of people didn’t notice and maybe still don’t. He brought the story down to a human level, dispensing with the cliché archetypes of princes, kings, and evil sorcerers. Reading his stuff was like reading Vietnam War fiction on peyote.” —Steven Erikson, author of Gardens of the Moon
The First Law Trilogy - Abercrombie. Best Served Cold as well. As suggested, these rule.
If you're into established series work I suggest the Warhammer 40K stuff written in the past few years. In particular grab the first three books in the Horus Heresy and see how you like them. The best book in the series is Legion, but that's like book 8.
I definitely have those books on my radar. However, personal space on a submarine is more than limited. I just don't have the room for them. I need to be able to fit two weeks of clothes, uniforms, toiletries, and other crap that I have to have in a ridiculously small space. They're just gonna have to wait until after deployment.
bnet: moss*1454
Also, since Dan Simmons got mentioned, I will plug his other work Ilium and Olympos.
The two "Dreamsongs" books will give you a pretty good sampling of his work.
I also recommend "Hunter's Run," which is a collaboration but not any less awesome for that.
Also, not GRRM, but Discworld.
As are The Golden Globe and Steel Beach.
Charles Stross - Singularity Sky, The Atrosity Archives (and the related books), and Saturn's Children are fun reads.
Iain M. Banks - Use of Weapons is a MUST. Consider Phlebas, Player of Games are some of the best.
Have you read Niven before?
Yes!
Hopeless Gamer
Most fantasy lovers enjoy this series, and there's a TON of them to go through.