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Recommend-A-Book
VaporTrail:
--- Quote from: Nikran on June 06, 2008, 06:53:37 AM ---
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher - is a great combination of detective story + fantasy. His characters and plot lines are really very good. The humor is great, espacially with harry being rude and offensive to just about everyone he meets.
The Codex Alera by Jim Butcher - A lesser known work of his. It's just as good as the dresden files, but in a diffirent way. The story gets much more gripping with each new book. I thought the series came to an end with the fourth book and was nicely satisfied. Now it turns out theres a fifth around the corner =P
--- End quote ---
Seconded (or thirded... all in favor?). Just picked up Small Favor (TDF) today. Waiting on the next Codex installment. I buy nothing in hardbound though... too expensive and hard to cart around.
--- Quote from: Esoliken on January 05, 2009, 03:03:04 AM ---A Boy And His Tank by Leo Frandoski - It was very enjoyable, I don't know why, but in the future: The wealthy Nations of Earth are transporting to worlds far, far away.
--- End quote ---
The reason for the forced colonization is population pressure, IIRC.
Also good, as are the other books in the series: The War with Earth and Kren of the Mitchegai.
Waiting for the next installment here too.
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My addition: (So it's "Recommend an Author", instead of "... a Book".)
The Paladin of Shadows series, by John Ringo
Consisting of Ghost, Kildar, Choosers of the Slain, Unto the Breach, and A Deeper Blue.
Plotlines: (tried to avoid actual spoilers... but there's small ones)
(click to show/hide)Ghost (actually 3 shorter stories bound in one volume).
The basic plotline of the first is that a medically retired former SEAL, Micheal Harmon, has gone back to college. He sees a young Co-Ed snatched into a van practically in front of him. Being the highly trained special ops soldier he is, he manages to board the van without alerting the occupants, intending on alerting the athorities when he has a chance. That chance never comes, and he finds himself on the tip of an iceberg. A terrorist plot involving numerous kidnapped young women that he must stop by himself, if there's to be any chance of saving thier lives. Along the way you are introduced to Mike's darker side.
The second story begins several months after the first, with "Ghost" being at the top of every terrorist's 'better dead list', but not hurting finacially because of Uncle Sam's gratitude, he's gone into hiding in Florida, posing as a retired 'widget maker'. After meeting a couple of cute young ladies in a restaraunt he winds up going out to the Bahamas for some fun in the sun with them. His fun is interrupted when Uncle Sam calls him up and requests his help once more. During this you get to see more of what makes this dark hero tick. I will warn you, there is quite a bit of erotic material here... but it's all very well done.
The third story begins after the second, with Mike touring Europe and Western Asia, when he's asked if he wants to buy a Russian nuclear bomb. He alerts the US and Russian Governments and begins the chase. Along the way you see Mike's personal demons unleashed, as he takes down terrorists, tracks the errant nuke through the heart of the human trafficking business, and pisses the French government right the hell off.
Kildar
Mike is laying low after his actions in the last volume, in a remote area of Georgia (the country, not the state). He winds up buying an estate there. This makes him the Kildar, or lord of the large valley surrounding it, and it's inhabitants, a group of peasants with intriguing customs whom he believes will make a suitable militia to counter raiders from Chechnya who have been known to frequent the area. He purchases equipment to build up the local infrastructure and hires some of his allies from his military days as trainers. He and his militia are soon put to the test by a group of Chechens three times thier number.
Choosers of the Slain
The adventures of Mike Harmon as the Kildar (lord over the Keldara) continue when he is tasked by a senior US Senator with rescuing the daughter of a powerful political contributor after she is kidnapped and forced into the Eastern European sex trade. The girl's trail leads the Kildar and his militia of Keldara through many seedy places, going deeper and deeper into the Eastern European sex trade.
Unto the Breach
The Russian government has lost something very dangerous. The terrorists that have stolen it do not know or care what they have, only that it's a powerful weapon. In reality it's Armageddon on a platter. It's up to the Kildar and his men recapture this horror, or the entire world will suffer. The only problem is a massive Chechen force that is about to roll over them, on live tv.
A Deeper Blue
Once again the US government needs the help of the Kildar. This time the problem is VX nerve agent, and it's being smuggled into Florida, exact method and targets unkown. Can the Kildar and his men prevent the wholesale murder of hundreds of thousands by terrorists bent on using chemical weapons in southern Florida?
Actually anything by Ringo is good.
The Empire of Man series (Aka the Prince Roger series).
March Upcountry
March to the Sea
March to the Stars
We Few
The Council Wars series.
There Will Be Dragons
Emerald Sea
Against the Tide
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
The Voyage of the Space Bubble series.
(Goofy name but some good HARD sci-fi. Get a program, you can't tell the hadrons from the bosons without a program...)
Into the Looking Glass
Vorpal Blade
Manxome Foe - Picked this up today too
Claws that Catch - HB only
The Legacy of the Aldenata series
(Ten books in two different related subseries, with one additional related book.)
The Posleen War subseries
A Hymn before Battle
Gust Front
When the Devil Dances
Hell's Faire
The Posleen war, additional volumes.
Watch on the Rhine - have not read this one.
Yellow Eyes
Eye of the Storm - Forthcoming
Cally's War
Sister Time
Honor of the Clan - HB only ATM.
The Hero
As well as a few other books.
Quite a few of the first books in each series can be found FREE here: Baen Free Library, John Ringo
Edit: Oh... and Sluggy Freelance fans should not miss the Posleen War subseries, and the Council Wars series. You'll know why when you read it.
Chug:
The Amtrak Wars - Patrick Tilley (Excellent story of a post WWIII America)
The Gap Series - Stephen Donaldson (IMHO better than the Thomas Covenant Books)
Grunts - Mary Gentle (Imagine the orcs from other fantasy books with modern weaponary)
The Dark Tower Series - Stephen King (His Magnum Opus, for those who thought he was a horror writer)
Night Watch - Terry Pratchett (Absolutely brilliant Discworld Novel. As is his other books)
I would also recomend anything by Robert Rankin.
VaporTrail:
The Dark Tower:
Book 7 was kind of a let down. Without any spoilers, I just have to say that I expected something... different for the ending.
Serious spoiler. Do NOT read if you intend on ever reading the series.
(click to show/hide)What I really expected was some closure. That "it's all a temporal loop" bit left me feeling like I had just watched the entire LOTR trilogy, only to find out that Frodo had dreamed the entire thing the night before he left the Shire.
It's almost as if King took a Star Trek episode plot (one of those that involve temporal loops), changed the details, stretched it to cover fourteen books, and then ended it in the middle. Seriously "everything is as it was, save that Roland didn't lose the horn, and everything will play itself out once more." Only there isn't any 'more' to the series.
Guess I was just really hoping for some kind of happy ending for Roland. Instead he's forced to watch the love of his life, and all of his friends, including those he draws, die over and over, world of pain without end.
Chug:
Yes the ending was a bit dissapointing, but I can't think of an ending that wouldn't be.
HikariSama:
Hm... Wheel of Time is a good series, although I do admit that I grew kinda bored after the 8th book... or maybe it was because I was waiting for my friend to finish reading the 9th that I kinda broke the rhythm...
Dragonlance is a good series, especially if you like magic and the underlying romance (Crysania and Raistlin ftw~~~ xD)
Now, I know that this may be considered a children's book by many, but... The Little Prince was a REALLY sweet book. I have read it tons of times, and I never get tired of it.
Hm... here's some more good reads:
Sophie's World
Deltora's Quest (series)
Any books by Phillipa Gregory
Any books by Tamora Pierce
Howl's Moving Castle (the book has MUCH more plot the movie) <---- I read the book before the movie, and when the movie ended, I went on a short rant about how it was so different, but in the end I still liked it
Harry Potter
LOTR & Hobbit <----- there IS a book that comes before all this that chronicles of all that has happened BEFORE the Hobbit, but it is a VERY heavy read... I couldn't make it through the first chapter before I got confused... pen and paper is needed to keep track
Artemis Fowl (series)
*will probably add more as I remember more*
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