Recommend-A-Book

[Sosseres]

All times classics isn't always what is most enjoyed at the current time period or part of a persons life. It is also such a small portion of books that many people can read them in a year or two...

If you wish to discuss classics vs books good right now start up a thread or PM me. This is not the thread for it. ^^

[Ixarku]

http://www.bestfantasybooks.com/top25-fantasy-books.php is more in line with modern fantasy. I mostly agree with that list, just disagree on a personal level since I enjoy slightly different kinds of books to the list maker.

It seems to me that the author of that list has a preference for epic fantasy, especially more recent series.  I'm personally really impressed with the Malazan -- it likely would fall within my top 10 -- but not at # 2, and I certainly wouldn't put Song of Fire and Ice at # 1.  WoT wouldn't make my top 25 -- it's just way too uneven and poorly paced in the later books.  Donaldson is an outstanding author and for a long time was right at the top of my list.

The Farseer books from Robin Hobb are overall not bad; I'd say the original Farseer Trilogy was excellent, but Liveship Traders and the Tawny Man were, frankly, unsatisfying.  I could barely get myself to care about the characters in Liveship Traders, and through much of the Tawny Man, I despised Fitz as a person.  I thought Hobb's Soldier-Son trilogy was much more compelling.  I'd personally rate both Kingdoms of Bone & Thorn (Greg Keyes) and Michelle West's Elantra books higher than the Farseer books as a whole.

I have Caverns of Black Ice sitting in my "to-be-read" pile. The author of that list does have a few books unfamiliar to me in his list, so I may have to check out some of his recommendations.

[pony]

For people who like fantasy, I highly recommend Abhorsen trilogy. It's a pretty sweet series about "good" necromancers who work on putting the dead to rest. It had a pretty interesting world (made from two halves - technologic part and magic part) and also a very cool magic system the likes I haven't read about before.

[Hiiragi]

For people who like fantasy, I highly recommend Abhorsen trilogy. It's a pretty sweet series about "good" necromancers who work on putting the dead to rest. It had a pretty interesting world (made from two halves - technologic part and magic part) and also a very cool magic system the likes I haven't read about before.

yeah, those were pretty good. I've read them through a couple times. (any one interested, the author is Garth Nix and the the titles of the individual books are Sabriel, Lirael and the Abhorsen, I believe.)

[pony]

Witcher by A. Sapkowski - if you like fantasy its must read. characters are greatly developed, world is rich and interesting and it overall jst fells unique. Sadly only last wish was translated to english.

I agree, the entire series was f*cking excellent. Luckily all 5 novels are already translated to Lithuanian so I had the pleasure of reading them. The last book perhaps wasn't entirely to my liking, but in my opinion it's still some of the best fantasy I've ever read. It has an epic story, a badass main character and good humor.

[dogsinafen]

A really fucking good book is A Long Way Gone.

Story about a child that becomes a child soldier. Based on real story, was a fantastic read.

[ICARUS_2]

Another good trilogy i do not think anyone mentioned it yet, is The Dread Empire Series by Walter Jon Williams. its a space opera

[Ixarku]

Another good trilogy i do not think anyone mentioned it yet, is The Dread Empire Series by Walter Jon Williams. its a space opera

Ah, yeah, that's a good one.  I'd like to reread it at some point.  I have the last book sitting on my bookshelf, but can't seem to find the others.

[Jake Mosh]

The new series The Hunger Games is really good. It's by Suzanne Collins. It's about a post-apocalyptic America broken into 13 districts. And they hold this deathmatch every year between the districts, a boy and a girl from each. I've read the trilogy and it is quite impressive.

One of those can't-put-it-down books.

[Roven]

Currently re-reading The Kite Runner, really great book..

[TightMuffin]

I've been reading    Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories lately, and I'm about halfway through the third book now (Lords of the North) and I've been enjoying them a lot.

[flaxseedoil]

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. No need to look any further.

[Guru Zeb]

Another good trilogy i do not think anyone mentioned it yet, is The Dread Empire Series by Walter Jon Williams. its a space opera

Dread empire is ok, but full of quite silly sociological holes that make the whole premise a little silly.

Much better are Walter Jon Williams Cyberpunky themed efforts like


Ambassador of progress

Knight moves

Hardwired

Voice of the Whirlwind  

Angel Station

Other unmissable's for scifi aficionados or anyone wanting to try something rather different.

On my way to Paradise by Dave Wolverton

Life during wartime by Lucius Shepard

Both these novels are as well written from a literary stand point as any booker prize winner,
and manage to pull of a wild, and heady, toxic, mixture of quite hard cyber punk and magic realism.
To truly awesome effect, cannot recommend highly enough to any and all readers ... not just genre junkies.

Vacuum flowers by Michael Swanwick
( focused insanity: the technological singularity has brought, weeds that grow in vacuum, earth taken over by a Borg-like terrifying AI driven human hive mind 'The Comprise', rebirth after death via personality backup with the disadvantage of corporate ownership )
Check it out its regarded as an early seminal cyber punk classic.

Charles Stross: Any of his "Laundry" novels. About a UK government agency that use occult networking protocols to firewall our world from infovors = Extra-dimensional entities that consume information like we eat popcorn, the darkness that wants to eat out entire existences. Heavy with Cthuloid and Lovecraftian themes ... google em.
Truly awesome.

Also by Stross:

Saturn's Children ( Fan service otakus look no further )

Halting State ( every WoW fan should read this )

Accelerando ( Classic yet twisted heavy end cyber punk/scifi )

Singularity Sky
( Classic yet twisted heavy end cyber punk/scifi a strongly Godlike AI takes over your local light cone of know space. Evicts everyone from planet earth to hundreds of planets spread over hundreds of years and light years.
Then recruits you as a secret agent, to assist in ...... )

Iron Sunrise ( Sequel to Singularity Sky )

Richard Morgan:
Any of his Takeshi Kovac scifi
( hard boiled to the core, a kind of ground zero noir style more like a crime novel style than a scifi style )
Guaranteed hooked on 1st page.

Lot of these are available free on isohunt.com ....... but if you go that route and like the books please buy them as the authors deserve the financial support.

Sorry if i repeated any suggestions.

[palolo]

My favorites would have to be the Night's Dawn trilogy (Reality Dysfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, Naked God) by Peter Hamilton. It's an unbelievably detailed space opera with dozens of main characters and about as many story threads throughout the 4000 or so pages. It's set in a well thought out and plausible future, where FTL travel is possible and most humans greatly benefit from nanonic technology, as far as having nanotech computers integrated into their brains. Purely by chance, humanity discovers definitively that every person has an immortal soul, but they all seem to go to a place far worse than any imaginable hell, and given the chance all souls trapped in the 'beyond' immediately start escaping by possessing the bodies of still living humans. To make this even worse, this process gives the possessed strong energistic powers, such as shooting inextinguishable fireballs, resisting/deflecting attacks, and disrupting nearby electronics.
The author gives incredible detail regarding the setting, characters, and humanity's response to a seemingly hopeless fight where even death is not an escape.
If you like scifi, this is an absolute must read, on par with the original Dune series I'd say.

[TightMuffin]

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. No need to look any further.

Just read that recently myself, I will second this recommendation.

[vigo]

Most seem to mention well known stuff...

Well I don't read books but I did read 1 book while in the army that I had gotten as a present, quite liked it

The Fifth Sorceress, by Robert Newcomb. First book off three.

I found the series so-so. If you like that type of style (which isn't really my cup of tea) you may want to look at Sara Douglas - Wayfarer Series which i stomached, but had to give up on her when I started reading The Serpent Bride. David Eddings is another popular fantasy writer in the same scope. I could stomach him more, malmorean and belgarrion or something, but... talking swords... yeah. The Elenium and The Tamuli he wrote later I found more enjoyable. There's another author Newcomb reminds me of but I'm drawing a blank... I'll edit if I remember.

I personally like just a little bit of reality to go with my fantasy: Melanie Rawn, Margaret Weis, Robert Jordan, etc. If I'm going to go "way out there" I'll go with Andre Norton and Clive Barker.

Edit: So what if the post is ancient, its a pretty obscure title and I couldn't resist  

i recommend White Fang hopefully no one did lol

Read it, but never read The Call of the Wild which is its supposedly "better" predecessor.

My favorites would have to be the Night's Dawn trilogy (Reality Dysfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, Naked God) by Peter Hamilton.

I just finished the void trilogy a few weeks ago (took forever for my library to get the last book). Definitely interesting. Very surreal and I thought he was grasping at straws at times, plugging in the infamous deus ex machina here and there. But it was interesting enough for me to try and remember to get around to his other books including the Dawn Trilogy.

[matrix06]

I like anime most.
But if it comes to book I can't deny them.
So here are some suggestion u may like....
If u know  H. Rider Haggard that's well,i don't need to tell but if u don't here are some

The best novels of the British Victorian adventure writer, Sir Henry Rider Haggard (who wrote under the name of "H. Rider Haggard"). With a couple of notable exceptions, his books are little read today, which is a great pity, because they are adventure stories on a par (again, IMHO) with the best "thriller" writers of today.

Many of his books are related, and should ideally be read in order. That order is, however, by no means obvious, so I hope to help people out by presenting his books in a suggested reading order in this series.




1. King Solomon's Mines

This is the one book of Haggard's that everyone's heard of, and justifiably - it has been called one of the greatest adventure stories ever written. In it, hunter Allan Quatermain accompanies two Englishmen searching for lost diamond mines in Africa.
My favorite

2. Allan Quatermain

The sequel to King Solomon's Mines. Allan, and the Zulu warrior, Umslopogaas, find a lost civilization in the heart of Africa.

3. Nada the Lily

A tie-in novel of sorts to Allan Quatermain, this is the story of the birth, childhood, and youth of Umslopogaas, who featured prominently in "Allan Quatermain". It is set against the background of the rise of the Zulu nation under their greatest (and cruelest) king, Chaka, and his nephew, Dingaan.

4. Allan's Wife

The story of Allan Quatermain's youth, and how he came to meet his wife, Stella.


If u finish these I am sure u will fall for his book.When I first read 1,I was amazed and search the net for more of his book.At least I read 15 of his book. If anybody like i will post the list.

[Vego]

Has anyone said 1984 by George Orwell?
It's a brilliant book,one of the best dystopian novels.

Also the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.
It's my favorite.

[Chelle63]

Aaaahhhh Books!!  Now you're talking.  I love to read.  I tend to be a HUGE fan of 'series' books.  Some of these may have already been listed, but I was lazy and didn't want to read through 15 pages of recs until I start looking for the next book to read.  Some of my favorite books and/or series:

The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling (c'mon... that's a given for most)
The Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan
The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
The Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh (This is a very mature series with graphic sex scenes, so use your own discretion here)
The Alex Cross series by James Patterson
The Discworld series by Sir Terry Pratchett

Just about any book by John Grisham

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

I could go on and on and on... lol...  but I'll stop here

[D4rt]

The new series The Hunger Games is really good. It's by Suzanne Collins. It's about a post-apocalyptic America broken into 13 districts. And they hold this deathmatch every year between the districts, a boy and a girl from each. I've read the trilogy and it is quite impressive.

One of those can't-put-it-down books.

I have to agree here. Even though it might seem to some people like it belongs to the never ending stream of all these naïve books ment for silly teenager girls, it really doesn't. The plot itself is not the books trump card (for all of us atleast), but more like the persons and their behavior in the wild situations they are thrown into. It really has a very entertaining package to offer for the reader: romance, action, believable and lovable characters, sorrow, happiness and also little bits here and there to simulate your brains and raise some moral questions to think about.   

Got the trilogy in christmas and after I started to read it, I couldn't stop. The Hunger Games is responsible for my sleep rythm to be messed up right now as I had to keep reading it through the night (even anime had to step aside ^^).