Book recomendation?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Deadline

Deadline

Tank
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Messages
1,836
Reaction score
1
Hey, I know most of you hear have probably read a really good book at least once in your life, and the rest of you probably read good books regularly. I have a question though. Do you guys have any Science Fiction/Fantasy book recomendations? I know most of you probably like the same kinda books as I do, but I was just wondering what you guys read.

Cheers

:cheers:
 
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay is my fave fantasy book, closely followed by his Finova Tapestry trilogy :)

Anything by Terry Pratchett is worth a read too \o/

Not really into Sci Fi but, enjoyed Larry Nivens Ringworld series.
 
Recently finished re-reading the great and secret show by clive barker. One of my favorite books. Before that had read Dune for the umpteenth time. Mostly prefer the sci-fi or horror short stories though, the kind you can pick up tons of for next to nothing in markets and little out of the way bookstores.

I don't often bother with the newer stuff as i find a lot of it is written in a way to try and secure a film deal. And I just think thats wrong when Authors begin doing that instead of focusing on the book itself and worrying about a film adaption later if some deal comes along.
 
Charles Buckowski is a genius (not really sci-fi just fookin hilarious)

try George Orwell's 1984, it's a masterpiece, everyone should read it.

Aldous Huxley's 'A Brave New World' is also an excellent read.

'A Handmaid's Tale' by Margret Attwood is a must for any sci-fi fan (don't get put off by the title, it's really very interesting)

at the moment i'm reading 'Simulacra & Simulation' by Jean Baudrilliard. not sci-fi but a very thought provoking book.

what is everyone else reading (apart from porn mags)?
 
This book is great...Its called Ondskan in swedish by Jan Gulliou. I dont know if the book is avilible in english but it should be...nor do i know the english title.
 
1984, George Orwell
Literally anything by old Ted Pratchett (possibly not quite anything)
Northern Lights Trilogy (okay a childrens book, but still excellent), Philip Pullman
Anything by Ian M Banks...and theres probably more....

A lot more.
 
Damn there are alot of books that I gotta read... hah

Well recently I just finished "Eragon" which I guess is for young teens, but I (being 17) thought it was quite amazing. Get it if you liked LOTR or anything with swords, magic, and dragons :)

Also I read the Andromeda Strain... very good book!
 
Guards! Guards!, Men At Arms, Feet Of Clay, Jingo, Soul Music, Maskerade, Moving Pictures, etc by Terry Pratchett. He's the guy that inspired me to become a writer. He's practically the world's most popular comedy-fantasy writer.

Anything by Andre Norton is good, if you can find copies. They're old, at least the ones I've seen have been anyway.

The Artemus Fowl stories. They look like kids books, but they're actually really good sci-fi/fantasy stories. Turns out faeries rock...

Victor Kelleher (SP?) books are quite good, but a little light.

Poul, Niven... etc.

Brian Jaque's Redwall books, although towards the middle of the series (by order of publication) they got a little repetitive, and have only recently pulled out of that slump.

I'm a bookworm...:E
 
Get some of the Halo books by William C. Dietz and I forgot the other author. Of try Ender's Game or anyhting from the ender series, by Orson Scott Card. I found them interesting to tickle my young mind(13) and you will ike it too. Not a kid's book.
 
And of course anything ever written by Douglas Adams, particularly the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Although I imagine they're likely required reading to be a nerd now.
 
Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, Survior , Choke, Lullabuy. Everything by Chuck Palahniuk.

And then there's The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. They recently came out with one of those books that puts all the books into one big book. There are 5 books in all (the new book has a 6th small story) all of them are HILATIOUS! It was written by a Brittish guy so you know its good!

Another one, Fast Food Nation. You wont want to eat fast food after reading this one.
 
The Halo books. Theres two of them now, another getting released in a few months. I just started reading "The Fall of Reach", pretty interesting so far. :)
 
Ah, Douglas Adams.
Outside of the sci-fi/fanatsy genre, The Catcher In The Rye (JD Salinger) and Heart of Darkness (Conrad) come highly recomended.
 
They're also making a 'the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' movie. :)
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/

Anyways, I don't know many Scifi/Fantasy books to recommend.
Except George Orwell's 1984.. oh, btw, you could read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. It's a bit similiar to 1984. I didn't like it that much though.

Dune is said to be a classic one. Haven't got around to reading it yet tho.
 
wow, i had no idea so many of you were well read. almost gives me a glimmer of hope.

at the moment i think 1984 is pretty much the first one you should go for.

someone mentioned chuck palanhiuk (sp)...i love his books. Invisible Monsters was...well...very odd to put it lightly.

looks like you've got a lot of reading to do eh?
 
if you want sci-fi with a comedy twist then you might want to try the red dwarf novel and its funnier sequel better than life....
 
anything by david weber and steve white

margeret weis is good.....stackpole is ok....stephen coonts is ok....tom clancy isnt bad.........

and a bunch of others...:p
 
Originally posted by EvilEwok
As far as fantasy goes, nothing touches George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

If your tired of the same old bullshit you get in fantasy series with a innocent boy flung into a conflict he didnt want, then discovering he is a powerfull wizard/military commander and its his destiny to crush the evil doers, A Song of Ice and Fire series is for you.

I cant belive you guys are recommending such lame shit as salvatore, and eragon. WTF? eragon? Cmon.
Click to expand...

Hey it was pretty good acually, Bet you couldnt write better at the Authors age, he is 19 now.
 
Originally posted by EvilEwok
:)


I can respect his talent for writing, but after having read the synopsis i dont have any interest in the story at all. Its a blatent copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, seen 100 times in the world of fantasy. It may be well written, and the guy/kid may have talent, but ive already read this story a dozen times in different packaging/under a different name/written by a different author.

After having read George Martins series, i have a new respect for originality.
Click to expand...

Unless you acually read it, dont judge it. The book is very good to say the least... but anyway who gives a sh(t.
 
OMG I could go on forever about it, but here's one of my favorites (say so b/c I've read it four times): "Midworld" by Allen Dean Foster. Absolutely incredible novel. Many of his works are fantastic.

A lot of the old yellow-spined DAW readers are great, even the campy ones b/c many are written by authors that are now legends but at the time were writing to put food on the table for their families.

Another author to look for:
Larry Niven (with & without Jerry Pournelle)


There's also a book out there named "Etidorpha" that was written at the end of the 19th century, about a trip a man takes to the middle of the earth, guided by a faceless humanoid. Was inspired by the author's dabbling with pyschogenic substances. Really a strange and wonderful book, considered by many to be one of the first true fantasy novels ever published.
 
Just about anything by Clifford D. Simak. Probably my favorite Sci-Fi writer. If you want to read something really intelligent, read his books or short stories.
 
Definitely Orwell's 1984. I liked Jurassic Park (Crichton) probably because I read it when I was like in 5th grade, didn't understand all of it, and now every time I read it I understand a little more and it gets a lot better.
General good book outside of sci-fi genre: Steinbeck's East of Eden, but I like pretty much all of Steinbeck anyways.
 
My favorite book is called, "The Collection", by Bentley Little

It is a collection of short horror stories. Great variety of material.
 
I found Ed Greenwood's A band of Four series to be entertaining.

David Eddings Belgariad/Elenium good for a light read, although they are bascally the same storyline with a few changes.

My favorite book series is The Wheel of Time, By Robert Jorden. Even if its "a fantasy series with a innocent boy flung into a conflict he didnt want, then discovering he is a powerfull wizard/military commander and its his destiny to crush the evil doers" type of series. :)

George R.R. Martin's books are awsome as well.
 
I forgot to add anything written by Ray Bradbury.
Some of his stuff is absolute genius.
 
Cloudrock by um... *does Google search*

...Garry Kilworth, great author. It's about a big island above the Earth with two tribes living somewhat... differently. Like marrying and breeding inside families :/ Anyway it's good.

Hunter's Moon is a good one too, about Foxes, good if you like things like Animal Farm, and to a lesser extent, Charlottes Web ;)
 
I suggest The Name of the Rose, written by Umberto Eco.

It's not Sci-fi or fantasy but it's a very, very, very good book. It may be a bit difficult to get through, but it's well worth it. For some reason, it had the type of feel to it's story that was similar to the Thief games.
 
Don Quixotie: Man of La Mancha (One of the best books ever written)
Of course the Hitchhiker's guide books...
Robinson Crusoe (a great clasic)
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Anything by Tom Clancy
Anything by Terry Brooks(Sword of Shanara)
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, ( I just finished it. Is a really good book!)
Oh, and anything by Steven King is good.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (If you haven't read this, then you haven't lived)

If ya really wanna stick to one genre you'll miss out on so much great literature. I love Science Fiction and Fantasy also ( Terry Brooks is my favorite author), but if you haven't read the clasics you will miss out on SO MUCH! Don Quioxtie: Man of Lamancha, Oliver Twist, The Count of Monte Cristo, Robinson Crusoe, and MANY more are some of the best books I have ever read. They beat the crap out of most, if not all, of today's writers.
 
I recomend EVERY book by Chuck Palahniuk, but his best is Invisible Monster. That book is so funny and so strange at the same time (only for mature reader though).

Also American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis(sp?). This book disturbed me more than any other book ever has. I had to read the Harry Potter books after I finished it so I could get the horrible things in that book out of my head. So, it's a GREAT book.

I'll give another nod to Terry Pratchett, the man is a comedic genius and anything written in the Discworld series is good reading.

The best horror author in the past century is H.P Lovecraft. He wrote very disturbing short stories.

Also a very good read is Clive Barker's Book of Blood. It's also a collection of short stories, but they are wicked.
 
Originally posted by chimpmunk
Yea, Lovecraft is nice, dont forget edgar allan poe !
Click to expand...

I have all of Poe's work, but it doesn't disturb me in the same way that Lovecraft does. And I've heard the same thing said about Poe, so I think it comes down to a matter of prefrence.

:cheers:
 
Originally posted by N0N1337H41
I recomend EVERY book by Chuck Palahniuk, but his best is Invisible Monster. That book is so funny and so strange at the same time (only for mature reader though).

Also American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis(sp?). This book disturbed me more than any other book ever has. I had to read the Harry Potter books after I finished it so I could get the horrible things in that book out of my head. So, it's a GREAT book.
Click to expand...


you scoundrel you!

you read the same types of books i do (near enough).

American Psycho is perhaps the sickest book i've ever read. don't read it unless you're already fecked in the head, otherwise you'll end up like me, wandering around aimlessley thinking about hungry rats eating out women *shudders*
 
Originally posted by Dedalus
you scoundrel you!

you read the same types of books i do (near enough).

American Psycho is perhaps the sickest book i've ever read. don't read it unless you're already fecked in the head, otherwise you'll end up like me, wandering around aimlessley thinking about hungry rats eating out women *shudders*
Click to expand...

Have you ever read The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks? If not then go check it out. Not as sick as American Psycho, but still some very disturbing images. Quite a bit of child-on-child violence. Very strange.

Also for the gentleman that recommended Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (which I agree as Hunter S. Thompson is truly a mad man:) ) have you read Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs? Not quite as good as Hunters writing, but still a "trip" worth taking.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Krynn72
You guys, what the **** is up.
Replies
11
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
HL2.NET HORROR SLAP
Replies
7
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
MFL
Fascinating look at the ongoing psychological evolution of flat hieirarchies.
Replies
2
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
bbson john
Hi everyone. I am new to this forum!
Replies
11
Views
6K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
E
New book on the design of Half-Life 1
Replies
2
Views
3K
Ennui
Ennui
Back
Top