Recommend me books to read, ATOT

[dougp]

Originally posted by: loki8481
Kevin J Anderson gets a bum rap because of the bad-to-mediocre Dune books, but his Saga of the Seven Suns is really really good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_of_Seven_Suns

if you haven't read it yet, check out Dune and the first 2-3 sequels (stop when you get to God Emperor), Isaac Asimov's robot books, and the selected works of Robert Heinlein (I've read them all... I thought Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, and The Door into Summer were the standouts... I'd avoid anything he published after 1970)

edit: also, anything by Neil Gaiman... American Gods is a good place to start, but Sandman was aaamazing.

edit 2: and on the fantasy front... the Song of Fire and Ice books by George R. R. Martin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire

I really like Gaiman, he's a VERY good writer. I'm having problems getting through AG because it's the book I've followed up the Dante Valentine series with - and that series was crap compared to Dresden.

Also, I recommend Dale Brown's books - make sure you start @ Flight of the Old Dog, it's all technothriller, very fun to read.

 

[dawp]

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Starship troopers. It's my favorite book.

Also, The Moon is a Harsh Misstress, also by Robert Heinlein, as is Stranger in a Strange Land.

and his last book: Grumbles From the Grave.

 

[Chaotic42]

"We" - The father of "1984"
"Red Mars" - I read part of this series and it was pretty neat. It's about colonizing Mars

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
Anything by Kurt Vonnegut.

1984 by George Orwell.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

:thumbsup: You nailed all my favourites there.

 

[BudAshes]

Originally posted by: dds14u
Dune.

I've been planning to read it for a couple years now...

Best sci fi ever.

 

[ElFenix]

link

 

[ForumMaster]

Originally posted by: Ballatician

Originally posted by: ChaoZ
Ender series
Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
A song of ice and fire series
Dune

Read Bean's line too

imo, bean's was even better. i didn't like all the crap in living a new life on the colony. i own all ender's game, and the entire bean's series. i read ender's series from the library, just didn't like them enough to justify buying them.

 

[TeeJay1952]

Anything by P T Deutermann

Military-FBI Thrillers

 

[SirStev0]

I'd pick up the Watchman by Alan Moore

It is probably his greatest graphic novel... his

They are making it into a movie coming out in December. Though it will probably be amazingly kickass (like most other movie versions of his stuff), it will be no where as good as the novel.

 

[nerp]

I've been reading a lot of short stories lately.

Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser, a fiercely written series of stories. Starts with a bang and keeps probing you as you go along. Just a wonderful, powerfully visual book.

Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock. All I gotta say is holy shit. Wow. A guy who spent his life in that craphole of a town in southern Ohio, worked in a plastics factory for years, turns around and writes a collection of short stories about poor, trapped rural life in Ohio in a monumental first effort. His stories about the poor, uneducated people living there are so painfully ugly and gruesome yet he manages to encapuslate it with such a clear, strong voice. There are moments of immense beauty and truth emanating from the decaying lives of the people he writes about. Amazing. Characters appear in different perspectives in different stories and the whole thing reads like a short novel.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
link

believe it or not, my english skills are quite competent. my mom has something like 30 years of experience teacher grammar, so she does not hesitate to correct me.

i just choose to ignore capitalization, for the most part, on AT. i usually include the necessary punctuation, however

 

[Kev]

,

 

[skywhr]

I hope they serve beer in hell by Tucker Max

anything by Chuck Palahniuk

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: Squisher

Originally posted by: irishScott
The Foundation Series - Issac Asimov
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth
in that order.


Read the Robot Novels too. They tie in.
I, Robot
The Caves of Steel
The Naked Sun
The Robots of Dawn

Is that the order they were written? I read them all many years ago, but I thought it started out with Foundation.

Nah, the original triology (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) was written first, but then everyone screamed for a sequel, so he came out with Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth a couple of decades later. According to one of the forwards, he couldn't figure out how to go on from there (people still wanted a sequel) so he wrote the two Prequels.

And don't get me wrong, just because he listened to the fans doesn't mean the later books are crap. IMO they surpass the original trilogy in many ways.

What I listed is the chronological order of the plot.

 

[dighn]

Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained)
Mutineer's Moon
A Fire Upon the Deep
The Time Ships ("sequel" to the time machine)

Mostly space opera (sci-fi)

 

[CMC79]

Pandora's Star and Judas Unleashed, Peter Hamilton. Epic sci fi
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (imaginative modern retelling of the Dracula myth)
If you've read older Stephen King but haven't read one of his recent novels, try Duma Key.

 

[ModerateRepZero]

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

I agree, Vincent Flynn is awesome if you're in the mood for Jack Bauer-type reading

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: ModerateRepZero
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

I agree, Vincent Flynn is awesome if you're in the mood for Jack Bauer-type reading

i read a clive cussler book.. i don't think it was part of the dirk pitt series (i think he has another guy in the same vein) that was jack bauer-ish, and i enjoyed it (shouldn't we be saying chuck norris instead? :laugh

at any rate, i read the first ~50 pages of transfer of power, and it's pretty good so far. i'm interested to see where things go.

 

[dawp]

The Memory of Whiteness - Kim Stanley Robinson

The Real Story: The Gap into Conflict - Steven R. Donaldson
Forbidden Knowledge: The Gap Into Vision
Chaos and Order: The Gap into Madness
A Dark and Hungry God Arises: The Gap into Power
This Day All Gods Die: The Gap into Ruin


Also check out the Discworld series from Terry Prachett

 

[imported_Section8]

Originally posted by: irishScott
The Foundation Series - Issac Asimov
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth
in that order.


Read the Robot Novels too. They tie in.
I, Robot
The Caves of Steel
The Naked Sun
The Robots of Dawn

All excellent! I read Forward the Foundation last and wish I read then in your order.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Ballatician
Read Bean's line too

Never got into any of the books after the first ones (Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow). The first ones were definitely good though.

 

[sciwizam]

Originally posted by: CMC79
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (imaginative modern retelling of the Dracula myth)

I don't usually care for Dracula type myth stuff, but The Historian was an entertaining read. :thumbsup:

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Originally posted by: Ballatician
Read Bean's line too

Never got into any of the books after the first ones (Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow). The first ones were definitely good though.

The first book in each line was the best...
Enders Game and Enders Shadow

 

[ForumMaster]

yesterday i went out and bought "The Empire" by Orson Scott Card. pretty good so far (read about 120 pages).

 

[NicePants42]

I'm sad that no one has yet mentioned Steven Brust or John M. Ford.

Brust is linked in my Sig. His Vlad Taltos novels are fast and fun, while The Phoenix Guards (and series) is an homage to Dumas, and uses overly-polite verbosity to create hilarious conversations - I particularly recommend The Phoenix Guards, however I've read everything he's written and have always enjoyed it.

My Own Kind of Freedom - A Firefly novel by Steve Brust available for FREE under creative commons license.

John M. Ford is simply a genius. He passed away a few years ago, but you can find plenty of his work online:
As Above, So Below - short story by John M Ford
Link to occasional poetic works by John M Ford

I particularly recommend Growing Up Weightless, Princes of the Air and The Dragon Waiting by John M Ford.

I will also second those who recommend George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series as a very entertaining story-based series. It's not finished yet though.