!vote Robin Hobb - Both the Apprentice series, and the Mad Ship series. Very class stuff. !add Katherine Kerr - Deverry Series. Friggin fantastic, definitely my favorite fantasy series.
fjafjan on
Yepp, THE Fjafjan (who's THE fjafjan?)
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
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BobCescaIs a girlBirmingham, UKRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
I'll also !vote Dan Simmons - Ilium/Olypmos .
Being a classics-geek, it's really fun to see what SF does with it, and this is one of the best i've seen.
!add Alan Campbell - Deepgate Codex trilogy - Dark Fantasy
Description:
The series is named after it's main setting, the city of Deepgate, and city suspended by chains over an enormous and infinitely deep pit where the god Ulcis fell three thousand years ago after being cast out of heaven by his mother, the goddess Ayen, who wanted to close the gates of heaven to mortals. The Church of Ulcis dominates Deepgate, defending the city with the help of the descendants of battle archons who were caste out with Ulcis from the savages in the surrounding wasteland who still worship Ayen, and sending the dead down the pit to Ulcis so that he can build his army to eventually retake heaven.
Plot
Scar Night is set in the city of Deepgate, a city of pilgrims and priests to Ulcis, God of Chains and Hoarder of Souls. This first book of a trilogy follows the early adolescence of a young angel, Dill, as he tries to discover his destiny. The last of a three thousand year old line of battle archons, he struggles to adapt to a world that seemingly has no need for his kind anymore. With the help of several unlikely allies, however, he begins to explore his potential to find out what he's really capable of.
Title
The title refers to the one night in the month when the moon is dark. When the Darkmoon has risen, the people of Deepgate stay inside, behind bolted doors and closed shutters. For three thousand years, every Scar Night an angel/demon named Carnival has killed one of the city's inhabitants, drinking their blood and life energy to sustain herself for another month. After each kill she cuts herself, inflicting serious injury. Both she and her victims therefore are scarred on this night, hence the title.
This is a trilogy fantasy series consisting so far of Scar Night, Iron Angel, and a prequel novella Lye Street. The final book, God of Clocks, is due to be released in April. Campbell has stated on his blog that he is sticking to his guns and this will indeed be the final book of the intended trilogy, and has said that he's already mulling over his next book, or two or three, which he hasn't decided if they will be set in the same world, although he has stated that if they are they will follow a separate story and different characters.
Also, !add Neil Gaiman - Stardust - Fantasy/Fairy-Tale !vote Terry Pratchett - Discworld series !vote J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings !vote Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5
Since they've been mentioned (or not) but don't seem to be on the list yet, I'll officially add them: !add Isaac Asimov - Foundation Series - Sci-Fi !add Frank Herbert - Dune Series (not including the crap written after his death) - Sci-Fi !add Stephen R. Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - Epic Fantasy
!vote George RR Martin - aSoIaF series !vote Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files 1-10 !vote J. R. R. Tolkien - Lords of the Rings !vote Neil Gaiman - American Gods !vote Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere !vote Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett - Good Omens !vote Terry Pratchett - Discword series
I'll !vote for George R.R. Martin and Tolkien, even though that is becoming quite extraneous at this point.
I'm also scratching my head wondering why I can't find Dune mentioned, given that it is one of the most important science fiction/fantasy novels written in the last fifty years. I don't even love it that much, but it needs to be...
!voted. Frank Herbert. Dune.
One of the most well-known science fiction novels of the 20th century, Dune is the story of a rich but barren desert planet and the boy who would inherit its much-disputed, spice-driven wealth. If you consider yourself a science fiction fan, this book should be considered "required reading".
EDIT: Just noticed that Dalboz has it mentioned just above me. Good on him. I'll change that to a vote instead.
And if I may, Ender's Game needs more votes too, because it is likewise important, however you may feel about it personally.
In that spirit, I will also:
!vote Isaac Asimov !vote Robert Heinlein !vote Larry Niven - Ringworld
I'll leave it at that so as not to text-wall this any further, but suffice it to say we still need more seminal works listed.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
!add - Hope Mirrles - Lud-in-the-Mist - Fairy-tale
Very difficult to describe adequately. Basically Dorimare is a country with extremely stolid, unimaginative people (think the Shire) who find themselves being swamped with fairy fruit. Our hero is the mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist who winds up having to deal with this problem. Gets at a lot of the creepy underside of the fairy tradition in Britain, especially the connection between fairy and ghost stories.
!add - Michael Swanwick - Jack Faust - speculative fiction
I don't think it's his best book, but it's easier and more approachable than some of his others. In (I think) the fifteenth century Johannes Faust is a natural philosopher endlessly frustrated by the ignorance of his day. He makes a pact with an alien entity he names Mephistopheles, and begins the process of reshaping the world through accelerated science. The book is a tragedy in the traditional Greek sense, but I found it a lot more compelling than I usually do books of that type. Also, Mephistopheles is by far the most convincingly evil demon I've ever encountered in fantasy. People who liked Quicksilver will probably enjoy the scientific history as well.
!add - Susanna Clark - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell - historical fantasy
You will either love or hate this book, and if you don't actively hate it by the end of the first chapter, odds are you'll come to love it. The eponymous characters are two magicians living in an England where magic has disappeared and magicians generally do nothing but philosophy. The book is written in a Jane Austen style but gradually moves into far darker themes than anything Austen would explore. The antagonist is a fairy who is as powerful, capricious, immoral, and insane as British folklore would suggest. The book is slow to build and stuffed with footnotes, but the plot is as satisfyingly epic as anyone could ask and I liked the dry humor and the transition from drawing-room stuffiness to crucifixions and madness.
!add - Glen Cook - Garrett, P.I. series - urban fantasy
Like the Dresden Files but so much better. Garrett is a P.I. in the city of TunFaire, a dystopian fantasy world ruled by various kinds of ruthless magicians and sorcerers. Features by far the most awesome race to be conceived in fantasy (the Loghyr). Although they sound inescapably cheesy, the books are in fact surprisingly well-written, at times emotionally profound (at least for books of this genre). Some of the later books are pretty disappointing, but the early ones are are a lot of fun. I like Sweet Silver Blues, Old Tin Sorrows, and Red Iron Nights the best. Overall: easy enough to be fun, not so trashy that you can't respect yourself in the morning.
!add - James Morrow - The Philosopher's Apprentice - Near-future SF
A renowned and ridiculously wealthy biologist hires a failed philosopher to teach her daughter ethics. The plot spans a couple of decades and features a ridiculous amount of craziness, from anti-abortionist groups creating zombie fetuses to the hijacking of the Titanic Redux. For a bonus, will offer a decent Cliff Notes of the evolution of ethical philosophy in the West.
!vote - Robin Hobb !vote - LOTR !vote - CS Lewis (but not so much on Narnia, unless you are in fact a child, in which case they are awesome) !vote - Phillip Pullman !vote - Good Omens !vote - Neverwhere !vote - ASoIaF !vote - Discworld
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Grudgeblessed is the mind too small for doubtRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
!vote - Frank Herbert - Dune series (up until and including God Emperor of Dune, after that, nah)
Anyway, these books are pretty good, and one of the best attempts at dealing with the challenges of interaction between humans and other species that I have read. Basically, a human colony ship gets lost and they are forced to settle on an inhabited planet they find. However, they end up botching their attempts at diplomacy with the natives and end up in a war that they lose rather baddly. 300 years later, the main character Bren Cameron is the paidhi, the official interpretor/diplomat between the humans (who live on an island) and the atevi.
HamHamJ on
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
!vote - George R.R. Martin - asoiaf (whole series) because its awesome beyond description. !vote - Frank Herbert - Dune. The first novel in the series is fantastic but the rest of the series is abit of a let down imo.
!voteThe Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny !vote Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card !voteA Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin !voteThe Coldfire Trilogy by C. S. Friedman !voteThe Kushiel Series by Jacqueline Carey !voteThe Tiger and Del Books by Jennifer Roberson !voteThe Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron !voteThe Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan !voteThe Saga of Recluse by L. E. Modesitt Jr
There's a blurring of lines between a lot of genres.
Anyway, for a recommendation which would fall in Sword and Sorcery by the above qualifications, I'm going to dig into an older one, which I got into purely by chance thanks to SFBC: The Swords series. I'm going to try to not get into too much detail, because the discovery is half the fun of this series. Covers spoiled for size.
The above is actually 11 books in 4 novels (the first three are all bound trilogies, the last one is two) - each story is independent of one another plot-wise, for the most part, but references the same characters and take place in chronological order. It's highly recommended you stick with the order - I actually read the first trilogy last, and lost a lot of detail/info from reading through my first time. Also, as a note, there's an anthology titled "An Armory of Swords" which has a bunch of short stories set in the world by other authors, but I can't seem to find a good image of it. Guess it's a tad more rare.
At any rate, without getting into too much detail, it takes place in a world where the Greek Gods are alive and interfering in the world, but it's not Greek mythology. They are obsessed with their 'Great Game,' seeking ascendancy over one another, normally using humans as pawns, with some few humans actually participating themselves. As part of this Game, Vulcan forges twelve Swords, each with unique powers, to be spread amongst the Gods for their usage and amusement. However, they were made so powerful that, for the first time, there was something which could kill a God. Something happened (this is actually the first short story in the anthology, and the one by Saberhagen himself, so I won't get into detail) and the Swords were spread throughout the world, with humans getting their hands on them. Chaos ensues.
Something to keep in mind is that the Swords series was actually a sequel series to Saberhagen's Empire of the East trilogy, for which he also wrote a fourth book, Ardneh's Sword, in 2006, shortly before his death.
Something to keep in mind is that the Swords series was actually a sequel series to Saberhagen's Empire of the East trilogy, for which he also wrote a fourth book, Ardneh's Sword, in 2006, shortly before his death.
Seriously?
Huh. I had no idea.
Edit: You know, glancing at the description/review for the third book in the above trilogy, I actually think I preferred reading the Swords books first, since the whole (actual spoiler I avoided mentioning in my earlier description)
this is Earth in the future where everything was made via advanced technology and all demons were nukes/etc
thing was very....understated yet hinted at until the very, very end where it was spelled out. I think that knowing that the first time through, the series would have lost something.
Is it standalone set in the same worth or is there continuation?
Well, Empire of the East was written first. Since so many people don't seem to know of it's existence, you can obviously read the Swords series without needing to have read the Empire trilogy, but it does provide the backstory to the world and what's really been going on the background to get things to point where the Swords series takes place.
Is it standalone set in the same worth or is there continuation?
Well, Empire of the East was written first. Since so many people don't seem to know of it's existence, you can obviously read the Swords series without needing to have read the Empire trilogy, but it does provide the backstory to the world and what's really been going on the background to get things to point where the Swords series takes place.
I suppose that Wood was a character in EotE, then?
!add Perdido Street Station by China Mieville - Fantasy (strange fantasy is often the listed genre)
!add The Scar by China Mieville - Fantasy
Mieville is one of the best fantasy writers currently. His worlds are very strange, very rich with character and... somehow believable despite the giant hyperdimensional spider obsessed with scissors, the cactus people, the possible sword (that will hit everywhere it possibly could hit), the remade, etc. etc.
Hes my recommendation to anyone currently reading fantasy or science fiction.
Lots of good stuff on here and stuff that I haven't seen yet that I will through a vote up for.
!Vote Blindsight by Peter Watts
This book was this creepy. His ideas on what could be out there is both facisnating and frightening. I found it one of the best reads I have had in a long long time. A good reading for anyone looking for an interesting view of life in the universe.
!Vote The Foundation Series by Issac Assimov
It needs more votes, probably one of my favorite series of all time.
!Vote Manifold:Space and Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter
These two books are a series and not a series. A facisnating look at the two opposing views of life in the universe, aka:Its full of life or we are truly unique. Neither book is uplifting and in fact very depressing since when you think deeply about both possibilities neither of them is very uplifting about our place in the universe.
!Vote Dreseden Files by Jim Butcher
These are like Stargate or Star Trek in a book. I can read them, enjoy them and when bored go back to my favorites and re-read them. Which is actually really strange for a book.
!Vote The Grand Tour series (espeicallay the moon and the asteriod wars though Mars is wonderful too) by Ben Bova
A great series that carries through mans slow colonization of the solar system. A facisnating look at human reactions from nano tech to entire generations being born off of Earth in colonies. I love the characters and highly recommend it.
!Vote Maxium Ride/The Flock Series by James Patterson
These books are cute, entertaining and just great fun. Normally I don't like his work but these books just have caught me and I love reading them for no other reason than the main character Max is just hard not to fall in love with. Great fun books about teenagers with wings.
Gonna make some recommendations, mostly of stuff I read and enjoyed when I was younger. Hope it holds up today.
!add Janny Wurts - The Cycle of Fire series !add Dave Duncan - A Man of His Word series, A Handful of Men series !add Stephen King - Dark Tower series !add Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - The Death Gate Cycle !add Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series !add Piers Anthony - Apprentice Adept series
!add Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind !add Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksenarrion
Yeah, that list definitely fails for not including a few extremely influential novels that definitely feel like they should be there over some of the more recent stuff
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
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Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
!add Perdido Street Station by China Mieville - Fantasy (strange fantasy is often the listed genre)
!add The Scar by China Mieville - Fantasy
Mieville is one of the best fantasy writers currently. His worlds are very strange, very rich with character and... somehow believable despite the giant hyperdimensional spider obsessed with scissors, the cactus people, the possible sword (that will hit everywhere it possibly could hit), the remade, etc. etc.
Hes my recommendation to anyone currently reading fantasy or science fiction.
Man, best part of Perdido Street Station? SPOILER WARNING
The Weaver decides it's done with scissors and starts collecting ears.
edit - What I've read from the sci-fi portion of the Guardian list
Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
Brian W Aldiss: Non-Stop (1958)
Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)
Greg Bear: Darwin's Radio (1999)
Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956)
Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)
Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars (1912)
Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)
Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Arthur C Clarke: Childhood's End (1953)
Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)
Umberto Eco: Foucault's Pendulum (1988)
Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)
Alan Garner: Red Shift (1973)
William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954) - Sci Fi?
Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)
M John Harrison: Light (2002)
Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
PD James: The Children of Men (1992)
Franz Kafka: The Trial (1925)
Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (1966)
Stephen King: The Shining (1977)
Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (1961)
Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)
Walter M Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)
Jeff Noon: Vurt (1993)
Flann O'Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)
Ben Okri: The Famished Road (1991)
Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club (1996) - Sci Fi?
JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)
Dan Simmons: Hyperion (1989) - Didn't care for it, apparently a love or hate book
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)
Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889)
Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)
HG Wells: The Time Machine (1895)
HG Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)
TH White: The Sword in the Stone (1938)
Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83) - Unlike most I didn't care for it but I was like 11.
John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids (1951)
I consider myself fairly well read in Sci Fi/Fantasy at the very least and I've ready less than half of the list
Posts
!add Katherine Kerr - Deverry Series. Friggin fantastic, definitely my favorite fantasy series.
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
Being a classics-geek, it's really fun to see what SF does with it, and this is one of the best i've seen.
Description:
From the Wikipedia entry for Scar Night:
Scar Night is set in the city of Deepgate, a city of pilgrims and priests to Ulcis, God of Chains and Hoarder of Souls. This first book of a trilogy follows the early adolescence of a young angel, Dill, as he tries to discover his destiny. The last of a three thousand year old line of battle archons, he struggles to adapt to a world that seemingly has no need for his kind anymore. With the help of several unlikely allies, however, he begins to explore his potential to find out what he's really capable of.
Title
The title refers to the one night in the month when the moon is dark. When the Darkmoon has risen, the people of Deepgate stay inside, behind bolted doors and closed shutters. For three thousand years, every Scar Night an angel/demon named Carnival has killed one of the city's inhabitants, drinking their blood and life energy to sustain herself for another month. After each kill she cuts herself, inflicting serious injury. Both she and her victims therefore are scarred on this night, hence the title.
This is a trilogy fantasy series consisting so far of Scar Night, Iron Angel, and a prequel novella Lye Street. The final book, God of Clocks, is due to be released in April. Campbell has stated on his blog that he is sticking to his guns and this will indeed be the final book of the intended trilogy, and has said that he's already mulling over his next book, or two or three, which he hasn't decided if they will be set in the same world, although he has stated that if they are they will follow a separate story and different characters.
Also,
!add Neil Gaiman - Stardust - Fantasy/Fairy-Tale
!vote Terry Pratchett - Discworld series
!vote J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
!vote Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5
Since they've been mentioned (or not) but don't seem to be on the list yet, I'll officially add them:
!add Isaac Asimov - Foundation Series - Sci-Fi
!add Frank Herbert - Dune Series (not including the crap written after his death) - Sci-Fi
!add Stephen R. Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - Epic Fantasy
!vote Gene Wolfe - The Wizard Knight
!add Jack Campbell - Lost Fleet Saga - Military Science Fiction
!add Jim Butcher - Codex Alera series - Fantasy
!vote George RR Martin - aSoIaF series
!vote Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files 1-10
!vote J. R. R. Tolkien - Lords of the Rings
!vote Neil Gaiman - American Gods
!vote Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
!vote Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett - Good Omens
!vote Terry Pratchett - Discword series
I'm also scratching my head wondering why I can't find Dune mentioned, given that it is one of the most important science fiction/fantasy novels written in the last fifty years. I don't even love it that much, but it needs to be...
!voted. Frank Herbert. Dune.
EDIT: Just noticed that Dalboz has it mentioned just above me. Good on him. I'll change that to a vote instead.
And if I may, Ender's Game needs more votes too, because it is likewise important, however you may feel about it personally.
In that spirit, I will also:
!vote Isaac Asimov
!vote Robert Heinlein
!vote Larry Niven - Ringworld
I'll leave it at that so as not to text-wall this any further, but suffice it to say we still need more seminal works listed.
Very difficult to describe adequately. Basically Dorimare is a country with extremely stolid, unimaginative people (think the Shire) who find themselves being swamped with fairy fruit. Our hero is the mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist who winds up having to deal with this problem. Gets at a lot of the creepy underside of the fairy tradition in Britain, especially the connection between fairy and ghost stories.
!add - Michael Swanwick - Jack Faust - speculative fiction
I don't think it's his best book, but it's easier and more approachable than some of his others. In (I think) the fifteenth century Johannes Faust is a natural philosopher endlessly frustrated by the ignorance of his day. He makes a pact with an alien entity he names Mephistopheles, and begins the process of reshaping the world through accelerated science. The book is a tragedy in the traditional Greek sense, but I found it a lot more compelling than I usually do books of that type. Also, Mephistopheles is by far the most convincingly evil demon I've ever encountered in fantasy. People who liked Quicksilver will probably enjoy the scientific history as well.
!add - Susanna Clark - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell - historical fantasy
You will either love or hate this book, and if you don't actively hate it by the end of the first chapter, odds are you'll come to love it. The eponymous characters are two magicians living in an England where magic has disappeared and magicians generally do nothing but philosophy. The book is written in a Jane Austen style but gradually moves into far darker themes than anything Austen would explore. The antagonist is a fairy who is as powerful, capricious, immoral, and insane as British folklore would suggest. The book is slow to build and stuffed with footnotes, but the plot is as satisfyingly epic as anyone could ask and I liked the dry humor and the transition from drawing-room stuffiness to crucifixions and madness.
!add - Glen Cook - Garrett, P.I. series - urban fantasy
Like the Dresden Files but so much better. Garrett is a P.I. in the city of TunFaire, a dystopian fantasy world ruled by various kinds of ruthless magicians and sorcerers. Features by far the most awesome race to be conceived in fantasy (the Loghyr). Although they sound inescapably cheesy, the books are in fact surprisingly well-written, at times emotionally profound (at least for books of this genre). Some of the later books are pretty disappointing, but the early ones are are a lot of fun. I like Sweet Silver Blues, Old Tin Sorrows, and Red Iron Nights the best. Overall: easy enough to be fun, not so trashy that you can't respect yourself in the morning.
!add - James Morrow - The Philosopher's Apprentice - Near-future SF
A renowned and ridiculously wealthy biologist hires a failed philosopher to teach her daughter ethics. The plot spans a couple of decades and features a ridiculous amount of craziness, from anti-abortionist groups creating zombie fetuses to the hijacking of the Titanic Redux. For a bonus, will offer a decent Cliff Notes of the evolution of ethical philosophy in the West.
!vote - Robin Hobb
!vote - LOTR
!vote - CS Lewis (but not so much on Narnia, unless you are in fact a child, in which case they are awesome)
!vote - Phillip Pullman
!vote - Good Omens
!vote - Neverwhere
!vote - ASoIaF
!vote - Discworld
Did I do that right?
Anyway, these books are pretty good, and one of the best attempts at dealing with the challenges of interaction between humans and other species that I have read. Basically, a human colony ship gets lost and they are forced to settle on an inhabited planet they find. However, they end up botching their attempts at diplomacy with the natives and end up in a war that they lose rather baddly. 300 years later, the main character Bren Cameron is the paidhi, the official interpretor/diplomat between the humans (who live on an island) and the atevi.
!vote - Frank Herbert - Dune. The first novel in the series is fantastic but the rest of the series is abit of a let down imo.
!vote Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
!voteA Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
!voteThe Coldfire Trilogy by C. S. Friedman
!voteThe Kushiel Series by Jacqueline Carey
!voteThe Tiger and Del Books by Jennifer Roberson
!voteThe Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron
!voteThe Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
!voteThe Saga of Recluse by L. E. Modesitt Jr
See how many books I've read so far in 2010
Something to keep in mind is that the Swords series was actually a sequel series to Saberhagen's Empire of the East trilogy, for which he also wrote a fourth book, Ardneh's Sword, in 2006, shortly before his death.
Seriously?
Huh. I had no idea.
Edit: You know, glancing at the description/review for the third book in the above trilogy, I actually think I preferred reading the Swords books first, since the whole (actual spoiler I avoided mentioning in my earlier description)
thing was very....understated yet hinted at until the very, very end where it was spelled out. I think that knowing that the first time through, the series would have lost something.
Well, Empire of the East was written first. Since so many people don't seem to know of it's existence, you can obviously read the Swords series without needing to have read the Empire trilogy, but it does provide the backstory to the world and what's really been going on the background to get things to point where the Swords series takes place.
I suppose that Wood was a character in EotE, then?
!add The Scar by China Mieville - Fantasy
Mieville is one of the best fantasy writers currently. His worlds are very strange, very rich with character and... somehow believable despite the giant hyperdimensional spider obsessed with scissors, the cactus people, the possible sword (that will hit everywhere it possibly could hit), the remade, etc. etc.
Hes my recommendation to anyone currently reading fantasy or science fiction.
!Vote Blindsight by Peter Watts
This book was this creepy. His ideas on what could be out there is both facisnating and frightening. I found it one of the best reads I have had in a long long time. A good reading for anyone looking for an interesting view of life in the universe.
!Vote The Foundation Series by Issac Assimov
It needs more votes, probably one of my favorite series of all time.
!Vote Manifold:Space and Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter
These two books are a series and not a series. A facisnating look at the two opposing views of life in the universe, aka:Its full of life or we are truly unique. Neither book is uplifting and in fact very depressing since when you think deeply about both possibilities neither of them is very uplifting about our place in the universe.
!Vote Dreseden Files by Jim Butcher
These are like Stargate or Star Trek in a book. I can read them, enjoy them and when bored go back to my favorites and re-read them. Which is actually really strange for a book.
!Vote The Grand Tour series (espeicallay the moon and the asteriod wars though Mars is wonderful too) by Ben Bova
A great series that carries through mans slow colonization of the solar system. A facisnating look at human reactions from nano tech to entire generations being born off of Earth in colonies. I love the characters and highly recommend it.
!Vote Maxium Ride/The Flock Series by James Patterson
These books are cute, entertaining and just great fun. Normally I don't like his work but these books just have caught me and I love reading them for no other reason than the main character Max is just hard not to fall in love with. Great fun books about teenagers with wings.
!add Janny Wurts - The Cycle of Fire series
!add Dave Duncan - A Man of His Word series, A Handful of Men series
!add Stephen King - Dark Tower series
!add Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - The Death Gate Cycle
!add Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series
!add Piers Anthony - Apprentice Adept series
!add Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind
!add Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksenarrion
Brian W Aldiss: Non-Stop (1958)
Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)
Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin (2000)
Paul Auster: In the Country of Last Things (1987)
Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory (1984)
Iain M Banks: Consider Phlebas (1987)
Clive Barker: Weaveworld (1987)
Nicola Barker: Darkmans (2007)
Stephen Baxter: The Time Ships (1995)
Greg Bear: Darwin's Radio (1999)
Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956)
Poppy Z Brite: Lost Souls (1992)
Algis Budrys: Rogue Moon (1960)
Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita (1966)
Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race (1871)
Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)
Anthony Burgess: The End of the World News (1982)
Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars (1912)
William Burroughs: Naked Lunch (1959)
Octavia Butler: Kindred (1979)
Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)
Italo Calvino: The Baron in the Trees (1957)
Ramsey Campbell: The Influence (1988)
Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus (1984)
Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)
Arthur C Clarke: Childhood's End (1953)
GK Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004)
Michael G Coney: Hello Summer, Goodbye (1975)
Douglas Coupland: Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)
Mark Danielewski: House of Leaves (2000)
Marie Darrieussecq: Pig Tales (1996)
Samuel R Delaney: The Einstein Intersection (1967)
Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)
Umberto Eco: Foucault's Pendulum (1988)
Michel Faber: Under the Skin (2000)
John Fowles: The Magus (1966)
Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)
Alan Garner: Red Shift (1973)
William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland (1915)
William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)
Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)
M John Harrison: Light (2002)
Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)
Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943)
Russell Hoban: Riddley Walker (1980)
James Hogg: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
Michel Houellebecq: Atomised (1998)
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled (1995)
Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (1898)
PD James: The Children of Men (1992)
Richard Jefferies: After London; Or, Wild England (1885)
Gwyneth Jones: Bold as Love (2001)
Franz Kafka: The Trial (1925)
Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (1966)
Stephen King: The Shining (1977)
Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise-longue (1953)
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Uncle Silas (1864)
Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (1961)
Doris Lessing: Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)
David Lindsay: A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)
Ken MacLeod: The Night Sessions (2008)
Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black (2005)
Michael Marshall Smith: Only Forward (1994)
Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)
Charles Maturin: Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)
Patrick McCabe: The Butcher Boy (1992)
Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)
Jed Mercurio: Ascent (2007)
China Miéville: The Scar (2002)
Andrew Miller: Ingenious Pain (1997)
Walter M Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas (2004)
Michael Moorcock: Mother London (1988)
William Morris: News From Nowhere (1890)
Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987)
Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995)
Vladimir Nabokov: Ada or Ardor (1969)
Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife (2003)
Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)
Jeff Noon: Vurt (1993)
Flann O'Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)
Ben Okri: The Famished Road (1991)
Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club (1996)
Thomas Love Peacock: Nightmare Abbey (1818)
Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan (1946)
John Cowper Powys: A Glastonbury Romance (1932)
Christopher Priest: The Prestige (1995)
François Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-34)
Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space (2000)
Kim Stanley Robinson: The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)
JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses (1988)
Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)
José Saramago: Blindness (1995)
Will Self: How the Dead Live (2000)
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)
Dan Simmons: Hyperion (1989)
Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker (1937)
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)
Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
Rupert Thomson: The Insult (1996)
Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889)
Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)
Robert Walser: Institute Benjamenta (1909)
Sylvia Townsend Warner: Lolly Willowes (1926)
Sarah Waters: Affinity (1999)
HG Wells: The Time Machine (1895)
HG Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)
TH White: The Sword in the Stone (1938)
Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83)
John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids (1951)
John Wyndham: The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)
Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1924)
For many of the authors, it seems like they picked one book for that author. Found some of the individual choices curious.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Surprised at the lack of Tolkien. Particularly because they mention him in the list's description.
Man, best part of Perdido Street Station? SPOILER WARNING
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_Die
!add Blade of Tyshalle by Matt Woodring Stover - Fantasy/Sci Fi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_of_Tyshalle
!add Caine Black Knife by Matt Woodring Stover - Fantasy/Sci Fi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caine_Black_Knife
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/10/14/tgbstover/
Approve each of those.
New fantasy trilogy:
!add Night Angel Trilogy
- The Way of Shadows
- Shadow’s Edge
- Beyond the Shadows
Released in Oct, Nov and Dec of 2008.edit - What I've read from the sci-fi portion of the Guardian list
Brian W Aldiss: Non-Stop (1958)
Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)
Greg Bear: Darwin's Radio (1999)
Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956)
Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)
Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars (1912)
Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)
Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Arthur C Clarke: Childhood's End (1953)
Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)
Umberto Eco: Foucault's Pendulum (1988)
Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)
Alan Garner: Red Shift (1973)
William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954) - Sci Fi?
Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)
M John Harrison: Light (2002)
Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
PD James: The Children of Men (1992)
Franz Kafka: The Trial (1925)
Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (1966)
Stephen King: The Shining (1977)
Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (1961)
Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)
Walter M Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)
Jeff Noon: Vurt (1993)
Flann O'Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)
Ben Okri: The Famished Road (1991)
Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club (1996) - Sci Fi?
JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)
Dan Simmons: Hyperion (1989) - Didn't care for it, apparently a love or hate book
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)
Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889)
Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)
HG Wells: The Time Machine (1895)
HG Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)
TH White: The Sword in the Stone (1938)
Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83) - Unlike most I didn't care for it but I was like 11.
John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids (1951)
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Lime'd so hard.
See how many books I've read so far in 2010
So !add The Road - Cormack McCarthy
!vote Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Just finished it this morning. I haven't laughed this much at a book in a long time. Excellent stuff.