Book Recommendations?

Because I just reread it, and its great, Stranger in a Strange land.
Maybe it gets a little too Heinlein-y at times, and the love orgies are blatantly chauvinistic at times, but damn its good.

wordsmythe wrote:

Save yourself!

Bored!

7inchsplit wrote:
duckilama wrote:

Apparently, Eco says that the first 50-100 pages is where he weeds out readers that are not the "right" kind of readers.

I managed to get to the "found document" bit where they tell you the history of the world, but I just could not make it through it. Loved The Name of the Rose, though.

The comment actually pertains only to The Name of the Rose as Eco explains in his Notes. Pendulum is pretty easy to get into, but then again I read it lots of times already. It basically goes like this - the guy hides in the museum and then starts to explain why he actually did so - the museum part takes only 10 pages, then the story starts (I just checked). And it takes off quite well: templars, strange visitor with a document, decoding files - it's all there just 30 pages in. Thriller stuff, really.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Katy wrote:

Have you read his Ilium and Olympos yet? It's got that Dan Simmons tone in a wonderfully convoluted post-apocolyptic / post-singularity (yes, both) world.

I have not.

I greatly enjoyed Ilium and Olympos. Many people look on them unfavorably but I thought they were wonderfully entertaining.

Eco's books are interesting. I find they're almost unpleasantly obtuse and not something that you can really effectively read casually. They do deliver in the end, though.

Tanglebones wrote:

I'm enjoying re-reading Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, a really intelligent take on the same source material that inspired Dan Brown.

Great book, so intense and almost 'work' to get through but I loved every minute of it. Just reread Name of the Rose for the third time and loved it even more.

Rereading The Glass Bead Game for the second time right now. Hesse's writing is magical.

The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living by Martin Clark was my out of nowhere pick for 2009. A friend gave it to me and I, like a good friend, put it on the shelf for two years. But had got through my stack and read it.
So good. John Grisham meets King of the Hill and everyone is smoking a bong with supernatural sh*t going down. Check it out, or if anyone else has read Martin Clarks other works, are they as stellar?

SallyNasty wrote:

new guys who weren't there for the previous threads?

Doh. I will post on those too.

/Newbie/

lostlobster wrote:

But, hey, WELCOME! And I highly recommend (for the upteenth time here on GWJ) Glen Cook's Black Company books, especially the first three. If you're interested in some good fantasy, that is.

So I am finishing up the second book of the Black Company, and I have to say - great recommendation. I am really enjoying the series. Thanks!

A friend recommended The Eyre Affair. Fantastic fiction right there.

SallyNasty wrote:
lostlobster wrote:

But, hey, WELCOME! And I highly recommend (for the upteenth time here on GWJ) Glen Cook's Black Company books, especially the first three. If you're interested in some good fantasy, that is.

So I am finishing up the second book of the Black Company, and I have to say - great recommendation. I am really enjoying the series. Thanks!

Glad you're enjoying them. Will be interested to hear of how you think the third book wraps up. I'll say no more for fear of prejudicing you.

I just finished reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood which was all kinds of awesome. I'm apparently on an after-the-apocalypse kick, as I'm now reading The Windup Girl which takes place in a "post-Contraction" Thailand, and which I don't know if I can recommend yet.

lostlobster wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
lostlobster wrote:

But, hey, WELCOME! And I highly recommend (for the upteenth time here on GWJ) Glen Cook's Black Company books, especially the first three. If you're interested in some good fantasy, that is.

So I am finishing up the second book of the Black Company, and I have to say - great recommendation. I am really enjoying the series. Thanks!

Glad you're enjoying them. Will be interested to hear of how you think the third book wraps up. I'll say no more for fear of prejudicing you.

I just finished reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood which was all kinds of awesome. I'm apparently on an after-the-apocalypse kick, as I'm now reading The Windup Girl which takes place in a "post-Contraction" Thailand, and which I don't know if I can recommend yet.

Yah, I liked Oryx and Crake up till the end, which I found unsatisfying. If you like after the apocalypse stuff - try S.M. Stirlings books of the change. Fantastic stuff. Basically anything by him is great.

Oh and for anyone looking to get the Glittering Stone Books of Black company, PM me. I have them and am done. The original printings.

SallyNasty wrote:
lostlobster wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
lostlobster wrote:

But, hey, WELCOME! And I highly recommend (for the upteenth time here on GWJ) Glen Cook's Black Company books, especially the first three. If you're interested in some good fantasy, that is.

So I am finishing up the second book of the Black Company, and I have to say - great recommendation. I am really enjoying the series. Thanks!

Glad you're enjoying them. Will be interested to hear of how you think the third book wraps up. I'll say no more for fear of prejudicing you.

I just finished reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood which was all kinds of awesome. I'm apparently on an after-the-apocalypse kick, as I'm now reading The Windup Girl which takes place in a "post-Contraction" Thailand, and which I don't know if I can recommend yet.

Yah, I liked Oryx and Crake up till the end, which I found unsatisfying. If you like after the apocalypse stuff - try S.M. Stirlings books of the change. Fantastic stuff. Basically anything by him is great.

I've glanced at Stirling's books, but never picked them up. Now may be the right time.

I just noticed that Atwood wrote another book called The Year of the Flood that takes place immediately after Oryx and Crake, but primarily dealing with other characters. (I, too, thought the ending was a bit unsatisfying, but didn't mind it.)

boogle wrote:

Oh and for anyone looking to get the Glittering Stone Books of Black company, PM me. I have them and am done. The original printings.

They've finally reprinted all the rest of the BC books! So you should be able to find them wherever. (About nine months ago, before the last four books were reprinted, I would have PM-ed you and then jumped in my car and driven to wherever you were to borrow these.)

Also, although it's usually said that the BC books declined in quality, the more he wrote, I thought they ended really well and held my interest throughout. Still, the first three are a fantastic trilogy, and probably the best of the lot.

boogle wrote:

Oh and for anyone looking to get the Glittering Stone Books of Black company, PM me. I have them and am done. The original printings.

I have some of those too and before you give those away they actually go for a bizarre amount of money in some places.

Dirt wrote:

If you've never read Dennis Lehane, I recommend his Kenzie and Gennaro series which begins with 'A Drink Before the War.'

I just finished this - it was really good. I am looking for more of his books now. Thanks for the recommendation!

Anyone read "The Name of the Wind"?

Gabe and Tycho are apparently hot on it. http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/3/3/ Curious if other people have such glowing impressions.

Anyone read "The Name of the Wind"?

Gabe and Tycho are apparently hot on it. http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/3/3/ Curious if other people have such glowing impressions.

Bullion Cube wrote:

Anyone read "The Name of the Wind"?

Gabe and Tycho are apparently hot on it. http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/3/3/ Curious if other people have such glowing impressions.

Yup, it's firmly in the camp of good new fantasies being written in a post-George R.R. Martin environment. I don't know that I'd rate it as better than, say, Lies of Locke Lamora, but it's on a par.

Bullion Cube wrote:

Anyone read "The Name of the Wind"?

Gabe and Tycho are apparently hot on it. http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/3/3/ Curious if other people have such glowing impressions.

Probably my favorite fantasy outside of Song of Fire and Ice. If it stays this good throughout the trilogy, might become my favorite (though I'm not a big fantasy reader, fyi). I'm reading Tigana right now, and if I had to compare A Name of the Wind to something, that'd be it, if you're familiar with it. Only the magic is much more interesting - very tangible and comparable to something like chemistry or physics.

I bought it after hearing about it, but since the guy has not finished the trilogy yet, I am refusing to start it.

Bullion Cube wrote:

Anyone read "The Name of the Wind"?

Gabe and Tycho are apparently hot on it. http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/3/3/ Curious if other people have such glowing impressions.

It wasn't terribly exiting, the first 50 pages or so were filled with super obvious foreshadowing and pointless lead-up to a rather predictable story in an admittedly original, (as original as they get these days,) fantasy world. I'd read it again, I guess, if only because I already own it. It wasn't bad, it's just that there are better things available.

I'm reading Startide Rising right now after having read Sundiver. Both books by David Brin. They're excellent so far. Of course, I really love most of Brin's other work.

DSGamer wrote:

I'm reading Startide Rising right now after having read Sundiver. Both books by David Brin. They're excellent so far. Of course, I really love most of Brin's other work.

Oh, man - you are in for such a treat. I have read The Uplift War like 7 times (a sequel). FANTASTIC series.

tagg wrote:

It wasn't bad, it's just that there are better things available.

So, give -- what are you reading right now that you really love, then?

I'm rereading Dune for the first time in many years. The question there is which book to stop at. I'm also reading through Tamora Pierce's YA series. Those are very much in the vein of Mercedes Lackey or McCaffery's Harper Hall trilogy.

Ugh, Mercedes Lackey is the Twilight of fantasy that no one knew about.

I'll break up the SF/F love-fest here to recommend Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. Using interviews from North Korean defectors from the city of Chongjin now living in South Korea and China, the author constructs a fascinating portrait of what everyday life has been like in North Korea since the end of the Korean War. What's described here is the closest real-world country I've heard of to mimic Orwell's Oceania, but where most dystopian fiction is overwhelmingly pessimistic and one-dimensional, the reality here is much more complex as it's built from human stories, rather than polemical caricatures.

SallyNasty wrote:
Dirt wrote:

If you've never read Dennis Lehane, I recommend his Kenzie and Gennaro series which begins with 'A Drink Before the War.'

I just finished this - it was really good. I am looking for more of his books now. Thanks for the recommendation!

I'm glad you enjoyed it. He's one of my favorite authors. Now that Shutter Island has come out in the theaters, he's said that there's one more project he's working on. If that falls through, he will return to Kenzie and Gennaro.

Katy wrote:

I'm rereading Dune for the first time in many years. The question there is which book to stop at.

At least through Children. God Emperor is a toss-up, depending on your tolerance for talkiness; not much of a plot there, but it does explore some interesting themes about religion, power, love, etc. Heretics is a fun adventure, if not entirely coherent, and Chapterhouse kinda goes off the rails, but is worth it if you're a big Dune nerd like me.

As for the bastardizations by the Son and Whatshisname StarWarsNovelGuy, for the love of Muad'Dib, please steer clear. I willed myself through some of those while on vacation once and swear I came out 20 IQ points lighter.

If you can find a copy of The Dune Encyclopedia, check it out. It's a pretty remarkable companion piece to Frank's novels.

Katy wrote:
tagg wrote:

It wasn't bad, it's just that there are better things available.

So, give -- what are you reading right now that you really love, then?

I'm rereading Dune for the first time in many years. The question there is which book to stop at. I'm also reading through Tamora Pierce's YA series. Those are very much in the vein of Mercedes Lackey or McCaffery's Harper Hall trilogy.

I'm reading Tigana and The Fionavar Tapestry, my impresions fall pretty much in line with what's already been said in this thread: they're both really good books, although I absolutely despise the whole "ordinary people thrown into an alternate fantasy world" thing that The Fionavar tapestry does. I also recently read the newest wheel of time book. It's finally heading towards some sort of conclusion and Brandon Sanderon's writing may actually be better; the lack of constant braid-tugging is refreshing.

NSMike wrote:

Ugh, Mercedes Lackey is the Twilight of fantasy that no one knew about.

Some of her books are better than others. And for the most part, if I'm reading them, it's because I'm looking for something where I know there's likely to be a happy ending coming along, and I want to disengage my brain for a while. [breezy innocence]So what you're saying is, I'd like Twilight, too?[/breezy innocence]