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Glad I found this thread. I'm looking for something new to get into as well. From the reading I've just done, it looks like my upcoming reading list is: Gaunt's Ghosts Vorkosigan Saga Mistborn Trilogy The Chronicles of the Black Company Dresden Files We'll see how this goes. What I'm looking for specifically is something that will reach out and grab hold of me without having to go through reading hundreds of pages of boredom. I'm in the military and have kids at home, so I don't have all the time in the world to be reading. When I was at my training command this past summer I read the first book of The Wheel of Time and enjoyed it immensly, but only because I was able to read for hours at a time with no interruptions. The same thing was with Dune, I read the first 2 books over the course of a few days. Also, The Lord of the Rings are some of my favorite stores. I guess I'm just saying that I'm not opposed entirely to long winded books, I just don't have time for that right now. I really like Robert E. Howard's Conan books, they are so quick and to the point, albeit very pulpy. I recently started on Rama Revealed but it's just not really grabbing me like I had hoped. the mini robots named Joan of Arc and Eleanor of Aquitaine kind of lost my attention from the start. I also picked up at random The Age of Zeus and The Age of Ra but I stopped halfway through the first after you find out the gods are really creations of the one guy's son... see? I can't even remember any names. I liked it when you thought they were really fighting gods.. Here's a good summary from amazon in case anybody's interested: quote:Science fiction or fantasy readers looking for a serious book should keep looking elsewhere: The Age of Zeus isn't a meticulous reinterpretation of age-old myths or some sort of stirring, philosophical treatise on modern society. Instead, this is a wild, action-packed adventure - essentially an excuse to blow up AD&D monsters with power armor. Yeah.
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| # ? Nov 24, 2010 22:15 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 01:09 |
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I'm not really good at reviewing books or anything but I just stumbled upon a series that I really think is worth mentioning. The books are dirt cheap e-published books, so I'm not sure if you can get anything other than an ebook format. They are on amazon, and I recently bought the first book in the series on a whim cause it was 99 cents. The series is the Doom Star series by Vaughn Heppner, and the individual books are Star Soldier, BIO-WEAPON, and Battle Pod. Now I know the titles are pretty bad and all, but the story is amazingly good. Granted I like the pulpier side of Sci-fi, but the reviews are largely positive on Amazon. The first book (Star Soldier) is 99 cents so you don't really have a lot to lose. The other two books are a whopping $2.99 each, so they are still really cheap. Each book is a full novel, 80K+ words, and the plot itself is pretty interesting. I'll do my best not to spoil anything, so excuse me if I'm vague on the details. Basically the solar system has been colonized, and man has split into two basic factions. The SU, which means Social Unity, is in charge of the inner planets. I think the inner planets stretch from Mars to Mercury. There are the outer planets as well, but so far (I'm about half way through the second book) they don't play a role in the story at all. The SU decided it needed a fighting force and gene-engineered super soldiers. They are called the Highborn. Of course, in the great tradition of all super soldiers, they decide that they don't really need to be ruled over by "premen" (the Highborn term for a normal human) and stage a rebellion. Highborn are 3 meters tall, smarter, faster, more aggressive, and just plain meaner than a human, so when they stage their rebellion they basically destroy everything. The catch is there are only about 2 million Highborn against tens of billions of regular humans. In the book you follow a few different characters that are conscripted into the Free Earth Corps, which is the Highborn's levy army of premen. Like I said I can't really do the books justice. Think of a dystopian future ala 1984 with a big helping of military scifi thrown in. So far it's mostly infantry fighting and dealing with the psychology of being what amounts to cannon fodder. I know it's not the best book out there, but it really is worth a read at the price. If anyone here has read/heard of the series then please jump in and try to make them sound more appealing. I just finished work, it's 11:20, and I'm a little bit buzzed from my post-work beer.
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| # ? Nov 25, 2010 14:22 |
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i know it's not a book from a series, but can anyone please recommend to me a book or series of books similar to "a canticle for leibowitz" by walter m. miller?
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| # ? Nov 26, 2010 00:17 |
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I read Tigana a year ago and I thought it was boring. Plus the incest part seemed forced, the book could've done without it. I'm looking for something like Vorkosigan saga and Elizabeth Moon's Serrano and Vatta series. Royalty in space?
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| # ? Nov 29, 2010 03:46 |
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anachrodragon posted:
I was looking in the thread just to make sure Kay was mentioned! Although I do think The Fionavar Tapestry warrants a read as almost all of his other books have some link to that world. (This is a trilogy.) As for Dianna Wynne Jones (I saw someone on page 1 mention her), The Merlin Conspiracy is fun. There is another book that goes with that, but the name is slipping my mind at the moment, but it was entertaining. Edited to add: The name is Deep Secret and I think it comes first in that series, although they both stand alone quite well. Incidentally, in looking her up for that title name, she has a book called Archer's Goon  Some of her work is suitable for adults, but she does have several that are more for older children or are categorized as young adult. If you have kids, though, and want to start them on something more diverse and entertaining than Harry Potter, introduce them to her books, especially The Castle series and the Chrestomanci series. I pre-read most books before giving them to my kids to read so I can help them pick appropriate reading levels and we can discuss them. or that's the excuse I'll go with  A friend of mine has written two science fiction books and I know at least one of them won some awards. His name is Russell Lutz. I have copies of both, but they are still in my TBR pile unfortunately. Just an endless pile I wonder if I'll ever complete. He has also written short stories that have been published and submitted some Star Trek scripts like 15 years ago, not sure what came of that though. He's quite "goonie" himself and I wouldn't be surprised if he's been to SA. His full-length books are: The Department of Off World Affairs and Iota Cycle—Winner, 2006 DIY Festival (Science Fiction); Honorable Mention, 2007 New York Book Festival mombot fucked around with this message at Nov 29, 2010 around 06:55 |
| # ? Nov 29, 2010 06:08 |
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Groke posted:Assuming it's Guy Gavriel Kay you're talking about, I'd second (third, whatever) the recommendation, and note that there are a couple of exceptions to that -- notably his debut work where he got the TRILOGY out of his system (the Fionavar Tapestry, which is kind of amazing for having ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING on the fantasy cliché setlist shoved into it without quite bursting at the seams, and without sucking). And also he's done a two-parter (the Sarantine Mosaic) later on. The rest of his stuff is more or less standalone, though. Although you can see that most of the books follow a timeline through a history of an alternate world if you read them in sequence. Also, you can delineate geographical similarities and movements similar to our own history. It's like great historical fantasy fiction. Edit: oops, I see hieronymous alloy mentioned the geography and similarities in historical patterns previously. I do stand by my recommendation to read Fionavar for context at least. I read these first and enjoyed them when I read them, which is why I picked up his other books. However, his later books outshine these first three dramatically. mombot fucked around with this message at Nov 29, 2010 around 06:21 |
| # ? Nov 29, 2010 06:16 |
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I wanted to recommend Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Firebrand" - a story of fantasy/historical fiction tale of Troy. "Web of Darkness" and "Web of Light" - I think you may find these two as one book now, entitled "Fall of Atlantis." These books segue into the Avalon series. The first in the series picks right up from there into "Ancestors of Avalon," which was actually written by Diana Paxson, who cowrote part of the series as Bradley's health deteriorated. My favorites from the series are "Ancestors of Avalon," "Mists of Avalon," and "The Forest House." although I have enjoyed all of them. It's fun to read them in order according to the timeline of the series, not according to when the books were published/written, as they skipped around some.
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| # ? Nov 29, 2010 06:36 |
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Barbe Rouge posted:I read Tigana a year ago and I thought it was boring. Plus the incest part seemed forced, the book could've done without it. Your mileage may vary, but I really enjoy David Drake's Lt. Leary series. It's more of an Aubrey-&-Maturin-remix than "royalty in space" but worth a shot. The first book is With the Lightnings which is available as an ebook free at Baen's Free Library. If you like it, there are quite a few more in the series, many of which are available free online legally.
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| # ? Nov 29, 2010 06:50 |
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I tried "With the lightnings" and couldn't get past the first fifty pages. I'll try Ian M Banks' "Culture" series and some stuff like that.
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| # ? Nov 30, 2010 13:59 |
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Started up Daniel Abraham, as someone already mentioned, and it's not fantastic or anything, but it'll do in a pinch. My only complaint (besides everyone loving posing all the time, I get it already) is that there is no description of what any group of people look like. There's mention of different lands and islands and cities, but gently caress if he bothers with any description of the people from them. I picture them all from as later Mongols.
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| # ? Dec 1, 2010 04:34 |
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I'm really just here to say "Glen Cook you son of a bitch you best have been lying about the third Instrumentalities book being the last." It's not the worst crushing case of blue balls he has released, but at least after Shadow Games I knew eventually there would be another book for sure.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2010 09:45 |
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:Dresden Files
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| # ? Dec 2, 2010 10:25 |
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Alaan posted:I'm really just here to say "Glen Cook you son of a bitch you best have been lying about the third Instrumentalities book being the last." It's not the worst crushing case of blue balls he has released, but at least after Shadow Games I knew eventually there would be another book for sure. He is lying. I just finished it as well, but wikipedia already has a sequel listed. It's pretty decent stuff, although I'm more into the Black Company/Garrett series; some of the characters (the perfect or whomever) are pretty boring. It's a neat premise, though. For those not familiar with it, the Instrumentalities of the Night series by Glen Cook is basically Dark Ages Europe, with all the wacky politics thereof, except there are also God-things manifest in the world. More details might well be spoilery.
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| # ? Dec 2, 2010 14:52 |
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Read some David Gemmell: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3369312 Dont let my walls of text scare you, these books are awesome enough to warrant them.
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| # ? Dec 3, 2010 05:18 |
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Velius posted:He is lying. I just finished it as well, but wikipedia already has a sequel listed. It's pretty decent stuff, although I'm more into the Black Company/Garrett series; some of the characters (the perfect or whomever) are pretty boring. It's a neat premise, though. For those not familiar with it, the Instrumentalities of the Night series by Glen Cook is basically Dark Ages Europe, with all the wacky politics thereof, except there are also God-things manifest in the world. More details might well be spoilery. It's actually set in that odd period between the Dark Ages and the Renaissance. What he's specifically focussing on is the great Schism or the Dual Papacy. The stretch had some of the wildest excesses of the Church, fantastically cruel and wicked plots, and an awful lot of intrigues and small wars. So as hard to follow as things in that series sometimes are take solace in the fact that it was worse in real life. I had heard there was going to be a fourth, Glen Cook is notorious for having final volumes expand into multiple books. the Starfishers "trilogy" was two loosely connected books, one of which was cut in half to make it up to books. The Darkwar trilogy is out in an omnibus edition. That's a proper trilogy with three books of about the same length. I recommend that one.
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| # ? Dec 3, 2010 05:39 |
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I am glad to hear that there will be more. I'm a sucker for anything that actually has, you know, evolving civilization. Even if he's blatantly ripping off history to make this, the world is changing. War is changing, science is occurring. Basically the core of the conflict is superstition vs. knowledge. Now to wait 3-4 years for the next one. And definitely intend to pick up Dark War. My secret shame is that at this point I only lack Starfishers 2/3, Swordbearer, latest Garret, and two basically impossible to find ones. Although A Matter of Time is being done by Nightshade books. Which I'm surprised by because I'm not sure how well a time traveling cold war spy/detective novel is going to do. If they also print Heirs of Babylon his entire backlog will be in print. Also if you ever stumble across interviews with Cook you should read them. It's pretty funny because he's brutally honest and really hates dumb questions. In other cases he's just like "Hell if I know the answer. I wrote this stuff like 10 years ago." quote:- Cover art has become a very hot topic of late. What are your thoughts pertaining to that facet of a novel, and what do you think of the covers that grace your books? http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/...-interview.html Alaan fucked around with this message at Dec 3, 2010 around 11:05 |
| # ? Dec 3, 2010 06:48 |
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Alaan posted:http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/...-interview.html quote:or maybe indulge one of my secret vices, like Power Rangers or InuYasha.
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| # ? Dec 3, 2010 22:17 |
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That was a great link, I read the whole thing. You're right, the guy's hilarious. quote:- Honestly, do you believe that the fantasy genre will ever come to be recognized as veritable literature?... I love it.
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| # ? Dec 4, 2010 04:41 |
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VideoTapir posted:If you're going to recommend WH40K to a non-WH40k-fan, and you recommend any author other than Dan Abnett, you're wrong. That's where everyone should start, and most people should finish. I got the Ultramarine Omnibus for dirt cheap a while back. It's one of the dumbest things I've ever read, but it was so ridiculous that I didn't care. It was all "He fired his bolt gun, his foes' heads evaporating from the impact. Turning, he slammed a gauntleted fist into the soldier's face, feeling the bones crunch" etc, and it was so much loving fun. Basically what's another 40k book like that? Plot is a bonus not a necessity
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| # ? Dec 4, 2010 05:20 |
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Dickeye posted:I got the Ultramarine Omnibus for dirt cheap a while back. It's one of the dumbest things I've ever read, but it was so ridiculous that I didn't care. It was all "He fired his bolt gun, his foes' heads evaporating from the impact. Turning, he slammed a gauntleted fist into the soldier's face, feeling the bones crunch" etc, and it was so much loving fun. Absolutely any book by the same guy, Graham McNeill. That's pretty much all he does. IMO, he writes Chaos, particularly Khorne-type Chaos better than anyone except Abnett, but holy poo poo does that man need a more aggressive editor.
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| # ? Dec 4, 2010 06:47 |
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Verloc posted:Wolfe's stuff is excellent, but it's definitely not for everybody. His books are like beef jerky, pretty dense, dry in places, and you really have to sit down and slowly chew on and digest them. When I get into a story I tend to blow through it as quickly as I can turn the pages. With Wolfe's unreliable narrators and subtle writing style, it was hard to read because I'd blow right past so many important plot points and then be confused when the chickens came home to roost. The upside to it is that you can run into Seems like exactly what the original post was looking for, seeing as he likes Dan Simmons, Stephenson Etc. I doubt any of them are a subtle as Wolfe thought. Whatever you think of his plot arcs (usually amazing) he is, in my experience, the most nuanced writer in his genre and one the few SF/fantasy writers I can go directly into after reading somebody like Umberto Ecco and not have it be obvious why they are SF/fantasy writers. Going to check out Guy Gavriel Kay, you guys convinced me.
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| # ? Dec 5, 2010 02:37 |
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moments even after re-reading the stories several times.
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VideoTapir posted:Absolutely any book by the same guy, Graham McNeill. Amazing. I love you. Ultramarine Omnibus was one of the "best" things I've ever read
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| # ? Dec 5, 2010 02:41 |
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I'd just like to add that writing chaos-styled gore is ALL Graham McNeill does well...everything else about what he writes is terrible.
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| # ? Dec 5, 2010 03:04 |
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I got some great suggestions from this thread, thanks! Has anyone else read The Seafort Saga series by David Feintuch? It's military sci-fi, essentially about a young midshipman on an intergalactic naval vessel who's forced to take command of his ship after a series of accidents, then fights aliens, saves planets, gets stranded in space, falls in love, loathes self. It's pulpy but enjoyably dramatic and I think the main character and the world Feintuch created are pretty compelling. Worth a try if you like that sort of thing, but I'm also curious to know what others think.
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| # ? Dec 5, 2010 07:55 |
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:That was a great link, I read the whole thing. You're right, the guy's hilarious. Not really a fan of his writing, but the only thing that would make him better right now is finishing an interview by whipping his dick out and beating Terry Goodkind in the face with it.
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| # ? Dec 5, 2010 23:43 |
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quote:- Cover art has become a very hot topic of late. What are your thoughts pertaining to that facet of a novel, and what do you think of the covers that grace your books? Exhibit A:  The main focus of the cover, the structure, is upside down. In the novel it's described as a cone stuck with its point in the ground.
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 02:40 |
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One of the perks of a Kindle is you don't have to read books with ridiculous covers on the bus.
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 02:52 |
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This is foreign, so maybe it doesn't count as much. But oh my god. 
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 06:18 |
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The US imprint of Charles Stross' Saturn's Children gets up there too. One of the amusing parts of reading authors' blogs or whatever is their reactions to the bad covers their publishers present them with. EDIT: I'd be surprised if there hasn't been a thread dedicated to bad SF/Fantasy book covers.
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 07:25 |
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Magnificent Quiver posted:Exhibit A: You need to read that book closer if you think that 
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 13:27 |
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Just want to post thanking people for recommending the Vorkosigan Saga; I don't know how I'd missed it for this long. About halfway through now, and it really is quality writing, at least by space-opera standards. So many of that kind of series turn into, well, Honor Harrington style brain poison.
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 13:38 |
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benjaminrhoades posted:Seems like exactly what the original post was looking for, seeing as he likes Dan Simmons, Stephenson Etc. I doubt any of them are a subtle as Wolfe thought. Whatever you think of his plot arcs (usually amazing) he is, in my experience, the most nuanced writer in his genre and one the few SF/fantasy writers I can go directly into after reading somebody like Umberto Ecco and not have it be obvious why they are SF/fantasy writers. Yeah I went from reading Litany of the Long Sun to the newest Wheel of Time book and holy poo poo did the change in writing quality bug me for the first 1/4 of the book. Gonna have to find more writers like him
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 13:53 |
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I mentioned this author in another thread, but I would like point out Peter Watts for some great sci-fi. I like to recommend him because he's often under the radar but really great. For you, WorldTravelerX, I would probably recommend my favourite of his books, Starfish. It's set in the near future and focuses on an underwater power station. The main character, Lenie Clark, is really interesting. And I've seen a lot of hate in this thread for "unrealistic" sci-fi, and Watts is a marine biologist... so it's pretty realistic. This is the first book in a trilogy - I thought the second was okay, and I've not yet read the third (though I intend to). He also wrote Blindsight which got a lot of great reviews. The sci-fi is a lot harder, I would say. Frequently compared (especially the ending) to 2001. I'd also like to second the recommendation for Richard Morgan. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed Altered Carbon, the first Takeshi Kovacs novel. It's sort of gritty noir sci-fi. I've enjoyed all the Kovacs books Morgan has put out so far (three I believe). I would also second the "skip Market Forces" mention. It was really... not good. The concept was just ridiculous. Also, Morgan wrote a fantasy novel called The Steel Remains that I personally thought was beyond terrible. However, I've known a few people who liked it. Just be prepared for totally gratuitous fight scenes and a lot of random sex. I guess you either love it or hate it. My opinion: too over-the-top to take seriously, not over-the-top enough to be a satire.
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 17:25 |
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Hedrigall posted:You need to read that book closer if you think that Yeah, whoops. I blame bad writing in the first chapter. I blame that.
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 17:55 |
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silly posted:One of the perks of a Kindle is you don't have to read books with ridiculous covers on the bus.
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| # ? Dec 6, 2010 19:18 |
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Can anyone recommend something that deals with planeswalkers, multiverses, etc.? I've never seen a Planescape book though I did read the novelization of the game which wasn't too bad, though by that time I had played through the game nearly 10 times so it felt pretty stale. I also just finished the MTG Planeswalker book "Agents of Artifice," which, after reading the first chapter of a couple other MTG books, I have to assume is the best Magic The Gathering novel ever written.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2010 01:36 |
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Yeah Funyuns posted:Can anyone recommend something that deals with planeswalkers, multiverses, etc.? I've never seen a Planescape book though I did read the novelization of the game which wasn't too bad, though by that time I had played through the game nearly 10 times so it felt pretty stale. I also just finished the MTG Planeswalker book "Agents of Artifice," which, after reading the first chapter of a couple other MTG books, I have to assume is the best Magic The Gathering novel ever written. I've only ever read the first 3 MtG books (coincidentally all 15+ years ago in my middle school days when I still played it), but from what I've seen, the very first one - 'Arena' - was actually pretty good.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2010 02:00 |
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Habibi posted:Or in other public places. It would have saved me a whole lot of questions when I was reading: If I had an ebook reader I'd have a decal of that on the back of it.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2010 02:20 |
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Armed Neutrality posted:I got some great suggestions from this thread, thanks! I thought it was utter poo poo, and I read the first four books just hoping it would get better. It didn't, and Nicholas Seafort never matures. He is insufferable, self-righteous little poo poo who throws temper tantrums or sulks when he doesn't get his way, and unfortunately things work out for him (and as an added bonus has some sort of horrible emotional issues stemming from a SUPER CHRISTIAN father that didn't really love him). The Super Space Christianity is also overbearing and gets real stale, real fast (unlike say, Dan Simmons' Pax in Endymion/Rise of Endymion, which is fascinating in the way it permeates just about every aspect of life), and having to slog through chapter upon chapter of new ebonics, not to mention through THE UNDERCITY OF NEW YORK instead of being in space shooting space-terrorists and space-goldfish almost made me stop reading. The best part of the series is the technobabble behind the stardrive. It's a fairly solid premise that's clearly explained as well as one could hope for, and it enhances the actual plot significantly in different ways. Unless you are actively looking for a series to annoy the poo poo out of you with space-proselytizing and space-  , don't bother with it.TL;DR: gently caress those books. I would rather read Jack Campbell describe the holoconference room for the billionth time or one of Peter F. Hamilton's incredibly awkward sex scenes. Tanith fucked around with this message at Dec 7, 2010 around 03:37 |
| # ? Dec 7, 2010 03:35 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 01:09 |
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Alaan posted:This is foreign, so maybe it doesn't count as much. But oh my god. There is nothing worse than the old Black Company covers. 
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| # ? Dec 7, 2010 04:56 |
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