Favorite books

[gengi]

Oh and Another

Previous Poster reminded me of Job : A comedy of Justice. Very good book by Heinlein

Later
Gengee

 

[old.legaoniel]

book

LOTR is fine when you're 15 - buf after that - bleh!

Any Stephen Donaldson is fine, Tad Williams Otherworld books are good - his fantasy stuff sucks, and any book based on a franchise (D&D, forgotten realms, etc. etc. etc.) is quite simply total crap for simple minded fools who should have stuck to Noddy and Peter and Mary books they presumably struggled with at school.

Guy Gavriel Kay books are fine, Stephen Lawhead Arthur books (NOT Avalon!!).

 

[old.LandShark]

Disappointed no-one's mentioned Ian M. Banks yet, so there you go, done it. His crime/thriller offerings are good if nothing fantastic, though "The Wasp Factory" and "Complicity" are above the rest. The Sci-fi stuff is truly, truly brilliant though. My all-time favourite book would be "Use of Weapons" by him.
Have to admit I love David Eddings, a lot of the time while I read the Belgariad/Mallorean & Ellenium/Tamuli, i think "tsk... this really isn't all that well-written or interesting" and yet something keeps making me re-read em.
I learned to read (that is, beyond Mr.Men books) on Anne McCaffrey's Pern/Crystal Singer books, later also read Powers that Be series and Freedom's Landing+sequels, very nice reads all of em. Think i actually cried when my copy of Dragondrums finally got too battered to be repaired

A few recommended reads for anyone who likes having their brain stimulated...
"Richter 10" (Arthur C. Clarke + Mike McQuay, SUPERB book)

Any book by Ian M. Banks with a coloured cover (his crime ones have black n white covers), especially "Look to Windward".

The Entire Dune Series, Frank Herbert. If the film put you off, give the books a chance at least. They are excellent. Less so the Prelude trilogy written by his son, they're entertaining but far from original.

"At Winter's End" by R. Silverberg (sequel is less interesting and less 'plausible' also)

"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlein

The list goes on and on really, but this post is already too long i suspect

 

[Tenko]

Originally posted by old.LandShark
Disappointed no-one's mentioned Ian M. Banks yet, so there you go, done it.

Actually I mentioned him bottom of page 2 but he's so good he deserves 2 and now 3 mentions!!

Those drones are actually running the whole shebang you know?


Thing is Sci-fi is a whole different ball game. Where as there are maybe a few score fantasy books I'll call good I lose track of the SF that is truly brilliant.

 

[gengi]

Excession

Almost made a spammer 1 line post there.

Excession, Use of Weapons, Whit (no M ) Feersum Enjun. One of the best Sci-Fi writers around. All of his books are good some brilliant. Some Sci-Fi managed to creep into the thread, Heinlein has made a couple of appearances, Asimov and Arthur C Clark aswell, The Foundation series, even the new ones by David Brin, excellent author, Gregory Benford, not read much , and Greg Bear he is pretty good too. David Niven, Jerry Pornelle, Robert Silverberg, I need to be at home looking at the shelves

Later
Gengee

 

[old.LandShark]

Yeah, Greg Bear has some good work too, forgot him... "Eon" in particular I liked some of the ideas, not really particularly wonderful style of writing though...
Bit...dense...

 

[Flimgoblin]

"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlein

another pretty weird one... but good.

Philip K Dick is good too
His short stories are superb:
'Do androids dream of electric sheep?'
and 'We can remember it for you wholesale.' are superb
(with major differences to the films they spawned first film was good... second a bit cheesy )

I assume someone's already mentioned Neal Stephenson:
Cryptonomicron
The Diamond Age

 

[oldgrim]

Dune
<Frank Herbert>
Excellent, first long series i ever read

Magician
<Ramond E Feist>
not the best english but cracking stories, great characters

LOTR
<JRRT>
Opened my eyes - one of my all time faves

Wheel of Time (series)
<Robert Jordan>
love these, could not put them down, literally. and will kill for the next.

Sword of Truth (series)
<Terry Goodkind>
kracking read - another one i couldnt put down. the 6th in the series is an absoloute wig rocker, blew my mind. you could read this by itself and i highly recommend you do.

Recluse (series)
L E Modesitt
Not seen anyone else here mention these books! where have you all been Epic fantasy, excellent language, animated characters..... love it.

 

[old.LandShark]

Originally posted by Fingoniel


another pretty weird one... but good.

Philip K Dick is good too
His short stories are superb:
'Do androids dream of electric sheep?'
and 'We can remember it for you wholesale.'

Bladerunner (non-director's cut) isn't actually that great, the ending really fucks it up as a film. Director's Cut is fantastic, however.
Total Recall...uhhhhhh..... bit of a no-brainer film that.
Another good Philip K. Dick story (NOT made into a film) was Ubik.
Brian Aldiss' "Helliconia" series (society on a planet orbiting a double-binary star system, with plausibly accurate ecology) was also an excellent read, though the individual books don't stand all that well on their own.


edit: numerous grammatical errors. My brain tends to skip prepositions D:

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Ow boy, oh boy, oh boy!! How could I forget!?

My most, most favorite series ever! *bangs head on desk*

Bernard Cornwell -" Sharpe" series (loved the TV mini series, too - Harper anyone?)

Also "Harelquin" same author - I don't like the ending, tho... too abrupt... and only one book so far. I need series once I come to like a character.

 

[old.Noita]

My favourite fantasy author has to be Mary Gentle... when I first read Rats and Gargoyles I was so shocked at how real a writer could make a world of fantasy. I recently read her "Ash: A secret History" and its so beautifully well written its almost painful. Here is real warfare with real consequences set against the (rewritten) history of the 15c Burgundian wars. Wonderful.

Pratchetts "Witches" series..."Witches Abroad" still has me crying with laughter when I read it, somewhat embarrassing on a train in the morning but hey! I have an Aunt just like Nanny Ogg!!

Other authors I love are : Michael Moorcock, esp Count Brass and Dancers at the End of Time.

Tolkien, Stephen King, Raymond Feist, David Eddings, Robert Jordan, Steven R Green and so on.... but......... a big big UP to J.V. Jones.....what a writer!!

Noita Helsdottir
Spiritmaster of 46 Winters
Eye of Odin
Flammen Vakten

 

[old.cyberlettuce]

ok.... shogun by james clavell is a fantastic book as you might expect set in medievil japan.

also try the riftwar trilogy by raymond.e.feist which consists of magician, silverthorn and a darkness at sethanon. connected to these three in the way of plot crossovers are a superb trilogy by janny wurts and raymond.e.feist these consist of daughter of the empire,mistress of the empire and servant of the empire.....
stormwarden by janny wurts is also great....

if you want strict english texts try any of h.p.lovecrafts works, some are a bit hard going but some are great. try dagon, haunter of the dark, red hook horror, case of charles dxtor ward. you can get them in omnibus editions, probably the best way as they are all short stories....

happy reading...

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Feist sucks
He plays with Stephen King in the repetitive league of PEN.

 

[SilverHood]

The original Riftwar/ serpent war by Fiest were good
Robort Jordans Wheel of Time is still one of my fave's

what else?
Spencerville and Plum Island by Nelson Demille
Shibumi, by Trevian (spg?)
Anything by Harry Turteldove (Darkness series, Guns of the south)
Jaems Clavell (shogun, King Rang, among others) are also very good reads

Judging form the books in my bed room (im 17 btw), there's a lot of them I haven't mentioned

Currently reading the Recluse series by L.E. Modesitt Jr
Still looking for Janny Wurtz sequel to Curse of the Mistwraith... prince in exile it's called I think... can't find it in local book shops

 

[Nala Lionne]

Michael Marshall Smith .... Only Forward.

A fantastic book, very original, witty and a bit different. Love it.

His other books are awesome too, but they dont measure up.