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So I've breezed through all of Robert Graves and Mary Renault and Gore Vidal...any other names you guys would recommend for top tier historical fiction (preferably classical/ancient setting or at least pre-Renaissance)?
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Jul 30, 2014 05:00
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Just figured I'd ask about James Ellroy. I've been deep in the L.A. Quartet for a while, find some of it mediocre, find some of it great, I am enjoying some of the great moments with Ellroy's staccato poetic style. I'm on Perfidia now, the first novel in his planned second L.A. Quartet series (all prequels I think). I was just curious for anyone familiar with his writing...does he have anything else particularly good worth reading or is the L.A. Quartet stuff pretty much the cream of the crop when he's concerned?
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Oct 13, 2014 04:39
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savinhill posted:I like his Underworld USA Trilogy even more than the LA Quartet. It starts out with American Tabloid, which definitely ranks up there as one of his best single books. I just finished Perfidia earlier this week and goddamn that poo poo was so good. It has Dudley Smith as a POV character and his chapters are just insanely dope. Quite liked The Black Dahlia, nice simpler intro novel, took a while to warm up to The Big Nowhere but I really liked it ultimately. L.A. Confidential I felt was okay, I think admittedly I'm a bit tainted by loving the film and I was surprised by the differences (not that I necessarily disliked them). I think White Jazz might actually be my favorite of his thus far, maybe The Big Nowhere. I've really gotten attached and immersed in Ellroy's style and slang much like I get when I read Irvine Welsh, though he does have a few habits that annoy me like the whole "There's Always the Sissyboy Smartguy Cop and he's Never As Cool as the Rugged Badcop Who Constantly Emasculates Him and Makes Him Pee His Smartboy Pants" and "All Gay Cops are suuuuuper hosed UP". The former really really hit a peak of bugging me with L.A. Confidential (at least with The Black Dahlia, Bucky holds his own enough to buck being that character most of the time), it gets to the point of ridiculousness where it feels like Bud White is an author insert coolguy character or something. Exley really can't do anything right because if he does something cool Bud would do I guess it's not cool because he did it out of some calculating political motive and not sudden emotional impulse. Meanwhile all the female characters around Exley basically seem to exist for the purpose to nag him about HOW SUPER COOL BUD WHITE IS. Inez or w/e particularly got on my nerves, just her whole character, I didn't "buy" her. I guess they toned that down in the movie in a way one could argue made the characters more simplistic but it gets super grating in the novel. Novel Bud White just pissed me off, he has way less justifiable greivances against Exley compared to the movie considering some of the poo poo he pulls. And I guess the latter you could attribute to the societal pressures weighing on closeted gay characters at the time, I mean, Junior and (particularly) Upshaw are pretty sympathetic characters ultimately. Punkin Spunkin fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Oct 13, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2014 05:41
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I second the Mary Renault recommendations and actually urge you to go even farther into her books if you find yourself enjoying The Last of the Wine. Because the Alexander the Great trilogy she wrote and a lot of her other standalone novels in addition to Last of the Wine like The Mask of Apollo and The Praise Singer also sort of apply and are well worth reading.
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Oct 15, 2014 08:14
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Franchescanado posted:I've started watching Bored to Death on HBO GO and love it. I was wondering if anyone knew any good stoner/druggy detective fiction?
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Oct 21, 2014 05:20
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My YA stage was very very very brief (for some reason the transition period of my reading levels was super short, I kind of got "past" YA early in elementary school, so I missed out on a lot of YA as a snobby brat youngster), but I remember really adoring John Bellairs. Not sure if he's in the right age group, I don't know what age range his fiction is supposed to be for but I remember really loving it when I was a lil fella. All that Johnny Dixon stuff was my jam. Punkin Spunkin fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 08:05
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So having read and enjoyed (despite some faults) both DisneyWar and The Men Who Would Be King, are there any other books anyone can recommend along those lines? Keep in mind I didn't read either because of a preexisting interest or knowledge of Disney or Dreamworks, almost the reverse actually. I'm not sure if it's "corporate history" (but that's just often the section full of self-aggrandizing) or "entertainment history" (but that sounds inconsequential, I don't want E! poo poo or biographies of Tom Cruise).
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Jul 6, 2015 18:04
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Quandary posted:I've just left all of my college friends and am relatively lonely and its a bit rough. What's a good book that would resonate with that?
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Jul 6, 2015 20:41
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As someone who only just read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I'm kind of in love with the idea of reading more ancient Chinese fiction but I'm not sure what to go for next or if there's very much of it (I'm aware of Journey to the West). Any recommendations? Is there much more literature in that sort of writing style (is ancient Japanese literature similar?), because I really enjoyed it. You know, however you'd describe that really unique concise style interspersed with poetry. I'm thinking of trying Dream of the Red Chamber/The Story of Stone and Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh. Punkin Spunkin fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jul 29, 2015 |
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Jul 29, 2015 17:35
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Oliver Reed posted:I'm looking for novels that deal with poor, uneducated or otherwise 'underclass' people--stuff about those stuck at the lowest rung of the social ladder. I find I read a lot of books with highly educated/wealthy/etc. protagonists and I want something different; something about people who don't have much power or money or knowledge at all.
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Aug 2, 2015 23:51
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Time Cowboy posted:The great thing about Gaiman is, once you've read one of his novels, you've read them all! Any top tier historical fiction name recs that I might be missing out on? Finished up and adored all the Robert Graves (Count Belisarius is really overlooked and pretty awesome) and Mary Renault. Colleen McCullough and Robert Harris didn't really click, seemed a tier below. I'm not talking like Shaara stuff. Or Pressfield.
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Aug 6, 2015 03:53
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Are there any other books along the lines of the entertaining DisneyWar and The Men Who Would Be King? Sorry if that's vague, I'm not sure if I'm asking for like, corporate drama or books about the entertainment industry or both or none of the above, I just really enjoyed those two. Kind of like "if I liked x, then..."
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Apr 17, 2016 09:17
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Jia posted:Let's say that I really, really like Murakami but I've devoured all his stuff. What similar thing should I read next? And no fair now my rec request will never get answered cuz it got buried under pages of so cool ironi posting since this got moved out the book barn 
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Apr 25, 2016 07:00
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:Looking for a great European history book, focusing on a very niche area in great detail. I'm particularly interested in relatively unkown aspects of political or cultural history. Example titles might be (and I'm completely making poo poo up here): http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3458502 So yeah if you crosspost this post over there I'm 99% sure they'll give you some quality picks that satisfies this specific itch
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Apr 25, 2016 07:11
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Any recommendations on good historical fiction, preferably pre-renaissance...like, classical antiquity to early middle ages maybe...I'd love anything involving the ancient world particularly but I'm willing to settle for whatever period. In terms of the sorta stuff I'm looking for...I adored all I read of Mary Renault and Robert Graves, and also recently got into some Alfred Duggan who is quite good as well. Also enjoyed all of Gore Vidal's books in this area (Creation, Julian). Also been trying to get a copy of Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar. Looking for some quality novelists, not like, Michael/Jeff Shaara or Steven Pressfield level dad-book stuff (as much as I liked them as a kid). Might give Adrian Goldsworthy's novels a try I guess. I've seen Masters of Rome tossed around a lot but it didn't really intrigue me, nor do ancient rome murder mystery series or whatever. Punkin Spunkin fucked around with this message at 02:32 on May 14, 2021 |
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May 14, 2021 02:25
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Lockback posted:A little later timer period, but have you read Eco yet? Baudolino might be a good pick if you want a really easy story to read but still written really really well. 3D Megadoodoo posted:The Etruscan
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May 14, 2021 06:50
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Tulip posted:The two books off the top of my head for stealing inspiration from are Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and Fine Structure by qntm. Haven't finished Fine Structure but it gets pretty wild, Invisible Cities is absolutely off the rails for RPG inspiration and probably has shown up in the "other media" section in a few rulebooks you've read already (I think it was the main one for LANCER?). also for absolutely off the wall sci-fi silly climate change poo poo, I love JG Ballard's The Drowned World. Written in 1962. quote:The novel depicts a post-apocalyptic future in which global warming caused by heightened solar radiation has rendered much of the Earth's surface uninhabitable. The story follows a team of scientists researching environmental developments in a flooded, abandoned London. Punkin Spunkin fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Jul 30, 2022 |
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Jul 30, 2022 03:28
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neurotech posted:I'm looking for a good fantasy book that is about thieves. Does anyone have any recommendations?
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Aug 2, 2022 18:26
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Definitely seconding The Tombs of Atuan
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Aug 4, 2022 21:02
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Just a warning though, I'm not sure anything Welsh has written past like 2005 was worthwhile in any way. I guess Skagboys was okay (who needed a Trainspotting prequel though), but the rest of it was a bit of a mess, didn't get as far as A Decent Ride or The Blade Artist but they (not to mention Dead Men's Trousers) look kinda...shite. The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs and Crime were pretty crap, couldn't even get through The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins. He really lost his mojo. Welsh has some good entertaining books but it's been pretty messy since like, the mid Bush era.
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Aug 28, 2022 06:35
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Are there any pretty good to okay later Welsh books you'd recommend to me? Like I said I fell off around Siamese Twins, but I loved his work up until a certain point. The places he's taken Begbie seem rather odd n silly
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Aug 28, 2022 18:36
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Tulip posted:It's technically a book but Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is basically just like dozens of stories about cities, each between a paragraph and like...maybe 3 pages. There's technically a narrative to it in between those stories but its just kind of a silly framing device and itself is only like 10 pages long.
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Oct 23, 2022 10:20
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imo the best ancient Greek historical fiction comes from Mary Renault (the GOAT of historical fiction in general in my eyes, kudos to Hieronymous for getting me into her work, tho man its sad when you finally run out) and Alfred Duggan (wrote a solid novel about Demetrius the Besieger among others). Think Thomas C Holt has some good ones too, though the latter two deal more in Rome typically. Robert Graves is fantastic though most of his stuff deals with Rome. I did recently read his novel Homer's Daughter tho and that is set in ancient ancient near mythical Greece, also deals with a lot of mythology of course. Def recommend.
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Dec 5, 2022 01:46
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fez_machine posted:Check out:
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Apr 4, 2023 20:34
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anilEhilated posted:e: Ooh, Baudolino might be a great pick for this, being about medieval mystification from medieval point of view.
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May 7, 2023 00:07
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tuyop posted:It’s Kim Stanley Robinson but The Years of Rice and Salt is one of his best works, imo. Caveat that it’s a white American writing an alternate history mostly taking place in SE Asia and North Africa. Any top tier (no mids) historical fiction for someone who loves (and has read basically all of) Mary Renault (my absolute fave), Alfred Duggan, Gore Vidal, Robert Graves...so all dead people  Pressfields and Shaaras need not apply. I loved them as a teen but I'm trying to find some poo poo whose prose shines rather than just like "hey not bad!". Maybe I've already gotten to those people. I've already got Colleen McCullough/John Williams/Mika Waltari/Kristin Lavransdatter on the general to-do list, just haven't tried any of their stuff yet. lmk if you think any of them kinda fit that level and i'll just start on one of theirs. Maybe it's time to finally read A God Strolling in the Cool of the Evening or Sudden Death. I've already read Manda Scott's Boudica series btw (not that I'd say it necessarily really fits the sort of quality of writing I'm looking for). Fun and epic even though it loses steam. Read The Moor's Account (pretty good). Also pretty sure I've read every Calvino and Eco that applies. Already familiar with Patrick O'Brian. Maybe there ain't nothing left.
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Oct 18, 2023 09:08
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should've mentioned I'd read Baudolino and The Long Ships, both faves of mine (love the poet-warriors of the latter, very Romance of the Three Kingdoms) some really great recommendations here though yall, I appreciate it. Gonna push Wolf Hall and Augustus to the front too (both of which I had on my Kindle but I just wasn't super sure whether they were worth starting). I love James Ellroy yeah, read all his L.A. fiction, just never started up his Underworld USA series, guess I really should.
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Oct 26, 2023 01:17
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I kinda hate Simon Schama but he does write in great detail.
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Oct 26, 2023 01:49
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:Popular Hits of the Showa Era
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Oct 27, 2023 18:29
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Gripweed posted:Is there a good single volume history of Israel, or failing that just the founding/early years of Israel? Preferably one that acknowledges the humanity of Palestinians, no Exodus-style blowjobs
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Oct 28, 2023 01:59
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