Book suggestions

[owl]

Hi y'all!

So, I'm stuck.  I have books on my "to read" shelf, but none of them are particularly attractive right now.  I keep picking books up to start and putting them back down.  It is truly a sad and depressing state.

So whaddaya say?  Wanna help me out?  What are some of your favorite books?  What would you recommend?

Realizing this could be a nearly impossible question, as I couldn't answer that question in a sentence either, perhaps some limiting factors:  I'm not a fan of the vampire stuff, and I'm not looking for some Sword of Truth length series to get into.  I've got quite eclectic taste, but I am particularly fond of unusual premises and twisty plots.

Thanks!

[Scattercat]

Well, if you're specifically into fantasy...

- Terry Pratchett is made of win on just about every level.  I don't think I've ever read anything of his and regretted it (though some are better than others, even within the Discworld series.  "Reaper Man" is one of my favorites, and is a pretty good standalone if you're not a Discworld fan.)

- Tad Williams.  I loved "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn," which is a big ol' epic fantasy in the traditional mold.  It starts with "The Dragonbone Chair."  It's four books, but those books are pretty long.  (If you want a shorter, lighter fantasy, "Tailchaser's Song" was one of my absolute favorite books growing up.  Startlingly complete mythology and culture for feral cats.)

- Jim Butcher is pretty entertaining.  The Dresden Files are heavy on the vampires (but he's generally setting them on fire with magic and shotguns).  He also did a fantasy series that was pretty good for light entertainment.  It's basically White Wolf's Dragonblood Exalted versus Starcraft's Zerg.  Main character is a huge Mary Sue, but that doesn't get to be a problem until the third or fourth book, when he loses what few weaknesses he has remaining and becomes utterly dull.  The first book is called "Furies of Calderon" and is a decent light'n'fluffy book to read.

- China Mieville (with a ` over the first "e") is an excellent writer with a very baroque style.  He's definitely a go-to guy for twisty plots.  So far, I've liked "King Rat" the best, but I haven't yet read "The City and The City."

[eytanz]

- China Mieville (with a ` over the first "e") is an excellent writer with a very baroque style.  He's definitely a go-to guy for twisty plots.  So far, I've liked "King Rat" the best, but I haven't yet read "The City and The City."

"The City and The City" is a brilliant, brilliant, alternate history mystery/thriller. It lives in one of those genre areas that tend to upset a lot of people when they show up on EA podcasts - while it clearly does not happen in our world, there's nothing supernatural involved, and no technology that doesn't exist, or any alien species, or anything like that. What it does contain is a rather large-scale situation of people acting in ways that seem totally unnatural (yet, once we get into the story, believable) to us for perfectly mundane (in this case, political) reasons.

If you like "unusual premises and twisty plots", and are not specifically looking for anything supernatural, I *highly* recommend it.

[lowky]

I personally like the Thomas Covenant Unbeliever books by Stephen R. Donaldson.  there is first Chronicles a Trilogy which can stand alone, the second Chronicles that to some extent assumes you read teh first, also a trilogy, and the third Chronicles which is in progress.

I also liked the Magic Kingdom For Sale (sold) by Brooks also.

There is a lot of good fantasy out there.  I also like Nina Kimberly the Merciless, if looking for a podcast novel.

[owl]

Thanks!  I'll look into Mieville and Donaldson for sure.

I agree!  I love love love Pratchett, but I've read them all Same goes for Williams.  And both Space Casey and Nina Kimberly were well worth the listen...

I know there's tons of great stuff out there, I'm just in a place where everything sounds "blah" even if I know I'll like it if I could just get into it.  So, you know, time to venture forth and try something new.

[stePH]

Diana Wynne Jones.  Particularly Howl's Moving Castle and the Chrestomanci series (start with Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant).

Roger Zelazny's "Amber" series.

Simon Hawke's "Wizard" series (begins with The Wizard of 4th Street).

I'm also partial to Charles DeLint; my favorite is Someplace to Be Flying though I've only read three or four of his.

As for getting sucked into a long epic, no worries: DWJ's "Chrestomanci" series are pretty much stand-alone after you read the first two; the Zelazny and Hawke series are each ten books but they're slim volumes and quick reads.  DeLint has several stories set in the same fictional town "Newford", but they're all independent of one another.  In fact the only book I'm aware of that is an actual sequel is Spiritwalk (sequel to Moonheart and not set in Newford).

[DKT]

- China Mieville (with a ` over the first "e") is an excellent writer with a very baroque style.  He's definitely a go-to guy for twisty plots.  So far, I've liked "King Rat" the best, but I haven't yet read "The City and The City."

"The City and The City" is a brilliant, brilliant, alternate history mystery/thriller. It lives in one of those genre areas that tend to upset a lot of people when they show up on EA podcasts - while it clearly does not happen in our world, there's nothing supernatural involved, and no technology that doesn't exist, or any alien species, or anything like that. What it does contain is a rather large-scale situation of people acting in ways that seem totally unnatural (yet, once we get into the story, believable) to us for perfectly mundane (in this case, political) reasons.

If you like "unusual premises and twisty plots", and are not specifically looking for anything supernatural, I *highly* recommend it.

I read this book earlier this year...I'm a big Mieville fan. I'm still trying to figure out how I felt about it. I'd really like to give it a second read. (There's a part of me that wishes there was an audio version of it. Ah, well.)

[stePH]

- China Mieville (with a ` over the first "e") ...

China Mièville

[Scattercat]

Yeah, but without the ` still turns him up easily in a Google search and presumably Amazon as well, and frankly I'm too lazy to look up the code for typing it.  Durn furriners with furrin names and suchlike.

(And I'd personally recommend almost anything by Zelazny OTHER than the Amber series, which I regard as pretty much his weakest stuff.  He was fabulous at the short story and the short-short and very good at the novella.  Ongoing novel series?  Not so much.)

(Don't get me wrong, Amber is still pretty good, but I don't think it played to his strengths as a writer.)

[stePH]

Yeah, but without the ` still turns him up easily in a Google search and presumably Amazon as well, and frankly I'm too lazy to look up the code for typing it.  Durn furriners with furrin names and suchlike.

I use the "charmap" applet in Windows.  No need to remember any pesky codes. ¤§¢£®±¶µø to you, ¤§¢£®±¶µø I say! 

[Heradel]

Yeah, but without the ` still turns him up easily in a Google search and presumably Amazon as well, and frankly I'm too lazy to look up the code for typing it.  Durn furriners with furrin names and suchlike.

(And I'd personally recommend almost anything by Zelazny OTHER than the Amber series, which I regard as pretty much his weakest stuff.  He was fabulous at the short story and the short-short and very good at the novella.  Ongoing novel series?  Not so much.)

(Don't get me wrong, Amber is still pretty good, but I don't think it played to his strengths as a writer.)

On OS X it's just alt+e ánd thén thé léttér.

[stePH]

(And I'd personally recommend almost anything by Zelazny OTHER than the Amber series, which I regard as pretty much his weakest stuff.  He was fabulous at the short story and the short-short and very good at the novella.  Ongoing novel series?  Not so much.)

(Don't get me wrong, Amber is still pretty good, but I don't think it played to his strengths as a writer.)

I'm hard-pressed to think of any other works by him that are actually fantasy, most of his stuff is science fiction.

On OS X it's just alt+e ánd thén thé léttér.

You Mac people are so damn smug, aren't you?

 

[Scattercat]

I'm hard-pressed to think of any other works by him that are actually fantasy, most of his stuff is science fiction.

Well, "Madwand" was pretty much straight fantasy.  "Jack of Shadows" is more or less fantasy.  A lot of his material blurs the line pretty heavily; he likes gods and pantheons and mythic/mystic flavors.  About half of his short stories are "magic," with not even Star Trek levels of science.  "Dilvish the Damned" and "The Changing Land" are pure sword-and-sorcery, for instance.  (Okay, there's a metal horse, but it's a demonic metal horse.  Plus, Dilvish is rad.)

[kibitzer]

Plug for a great Aussie author, Sean McMullen. He's written a lot of stuff but I recently read the "Moonworlds" series and loved it. I don't as a rule, read much fantasy because a lot of it is very samey, but these ones are pretty different. There's four in the series; the third and fourth riff heavily on The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine respectively, but (imho) very cleverly.
* Voyage of the Shadowmoon
* Glass Dragons
* Voidfarer
* The Time Engine

+1 for the Jim Butcher Dresden Files. You have to stick with it, the first three books are entertaining but not fantastic. After that he seems to really find the character's voice because, man, they kick into high gear.

You've read George R R Martin, right? Any of his stuff is awesome.

[kibitzer]

Also, Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth" series is about the quirkiest, most wonderfully weaving and wandering stuff you'll ever read.

Also fantastic: Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" series. Also quirky and different.

Also: I like the word "also".

I'm gonna stop before I post the contents of my entire bookshelf.

[stePH]

I'm hard-pressed to think of any other works by him that are actually fantasy, most of his stuff is science fiction.

Well, "Madwand" was pretty much straight fantasy. 

Ah, I'd forgotten about Changeling and Madwand.  Probably because I don't have copies of them any more.  Also the story wasn't finished at the end of Madwand but I'm not aware of any continuation of that series.

[kibitzer]

@owl, it'd be magic if you go with any of these suggestions, then tell us what you think. Even if it's just, "You thought that was good?? Dude, come on!"

[Scattercat]

@owl, it'd be magic if you go with any of these suggestions, then tell us what you think. Even if it's just, "You thought that was good?? Dude, come on!"

It's always interesting.  For example, I'd say the first four Dresden Files books are pretty good (entertaining but not great, as you said, kibitzer) but then the fifth and sixth are so weak they almost made me quit, and it's not until the seventh book that the series kicks back up into high gear.

[kibitzer]

It's always interesting.  For example, I'd say the first four Dresden Files books are pretty good (entertaining but not great, as you said, kibitzer) but then the fifth and sixth are so weak they almost made me quit, and it's not until the seventh book that the series kicks back up into high gear.

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

[stePH]

@owl, it'd be magic if you go with any of these suggestions, then tell us what you think. Even if it's just, "You thought that was good?? Dude, come on!"

It's always interesting.  For example, I'd say the first four Dresden Files books are pretty good (entertaining but not great, as you said, kibitzer) but then the fifth and sixth are so weak they almost made me quit, and it's not until the seventh book that the series kicks back up into high gear.

Can one skip the fifth and sixth books without missing too much?

[Talia]

I wouldn't recommend skipping any of the Dresden books - he does have a running plotline. He usually manages to do a brief summary of previous events in subsequent books, but you WOULD miss out some.

[kibitzer]

Yeah agreed, don't skip any.

[Scattercat]

Can one skip the fifth and sixth books without missing too much?

No, you really really can't.  There's some highly necessary plot in there.  (And if it's any consolation, the villain in the fifth book is actually pretty awesome.  I just hate Susan with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, and the story overall is a little thin, in my opinion.)

[stePH]

Can one skip the fifth and sixth books without missing too much?

No, you really really can't.  There's some highly necessary plot in there.  (And if it's any consolation, the villain in the fifth book is actually pretty awesome.  I just hate Susan with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, and the story overall is a little thin, in my opinion.)

So they're like the fifth and sixth books in the Harry Potter series then.

[DKT]

Can one skip the fifth and sixth books without missing too much?

No, you really really can't.  There's some highly necessary plot in there.  (And if it's any consolation, the villain in the fifth book is actually pretty awesome.  I just hate Susan with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, and the story overall is a little thin, in my opinion.)

So they're like the fifth and sixth books in the Harry Potter series then.

Dude, Order of the Phoenix was Rowling at her peak, man! Well, at least until Deathly Hollows. But the sense of dread and impending doom she inspired in Order of the Phoenix astounded me.

Although I'm kind of with you on Book 6.