Your favourite fiction recommendations.

Cool story - it's interesting when what you are reading sort of bleeds over into your real life. I am an Atwood fan and I really like the Oryx & Crake/The Year of the Flood/Maddaddam trilogy stuff. I have her new short story collection Stone Mattress sitting around and plan to start it soon. I heard an interview with her on NPR, and she is really a trip - very funny an personable yet as weird as you would think from the stuff she writes.

 

Personal favorite: Michael R. Hicks trilogy.
http://authormichaelhicks.com/books-by-michael-r-hicks/

• First Contact (Free!)

• Legend Of The Sword (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 2)

• Dead Soul (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 3)

• Empire (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 1) (free)

• Confederation (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 2)

• Final Battle (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 3)

• From Chaos Born (In Her Name: The First Empress, Book 1) (free)

• Forged In Flame (In Her Name: The First Empress, Book 2)

• Mistress Of The Ages (In Her Name: The First Empress, Book 3)*will be published this year.

This series is very well written and on par with other great trilogy series in size and scope (IMHO). The gist is humans develop space faring capability and use it to colonize other planets. This is fine until an exploration ship encounters an very advanced (100k years) alien race who longs for the thrill of battle and seeks to fulfill a legendary prophecy by bringing war to new species...seeking to find what they want, or wipe them out.

The interesting part is these warriors are so advanced, they could wipe us out of the galaxy without much effort, but they choose to fight with honor and by the time honored tradition of the sword. They have weapons similar to katanas and shurikens and thrill at the prospect of dying the good death in battle. It has technology, it has war, it has interesting stories and characters on both sides. I've read them all at least 5 times so far, and the best part is book 1 of each trilogy is a free download.

 

Been meaning to read that for years and never got around to it.

Fantastic book.

The Priest, William Burroughs, for me. Love his work. Naked Lunch, Junkie and Queer are all great books.

I read a lot of grit lit (awful name). As the name suggests gritty literature, often set in the southern states and usually revolves around train wrecks of people; drunks, junkies, the insane, criminals and washed up whatevers..think Bukowski in Georgia. Harry Crews and Thom Jones are the first two that spring to mind. I haven't got around to Cormac McCarthy yet though.

Edward Bunker (Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs) is one of my favourite crime writers. Pretty gritty stuff based on Bunker's own life.

Nineteen Eighty-Four. Just a great story with a great message and it's the definitive dystopian novel.

I've read so much stuff that it's pretty hard to remember most of it or pick specific texts.

 

I think my favourite book wil be Philosoraptor's autobiography, as soon as it gets published!

But in the meantime, a few of my existing favourites:

'Perfume' by Patrick Susskind. It's very different, very clever, very dark, and very funny, in a morbid way.

'A Prayer for Owen Meany' by John Irving. It's one of those long novels that you can totally immerse yourself in, and by the end you're wishing it was longer. It's a very funny book, that's also rather moving. I've read quite a few of his novels, and this one for me is by far the best.

'The Plastic Tomato Cutter' by Michael Curtin. For me, this is his best novel. I love his quirky humour, but this one is perhaps a bit more realistic than some of his others. It's funny, it's wise and thought-provoking, and it keeps a nice degree of suspense until the end. (Don't read the reviews on Amazon or you'll spoil half the suspense!)

'The Third policeman' by Flann O'Brien. A timeless classic that was way ahead of it's time! Read this and it will change your appreciation of language and literature for ever. Nothing else is quite like it.

'Quick Change' by Jay Cronley. A comedy thriller that's very funny and full of suspense right to the end. And it's miles better than the film that was made of it.

'The Blind Assasin' by Margaret Attwood. A long, slow-paced novel that gently draws you in and keeps you interested right to the end.

'The Lighthouse at the end of the World' by Stephen Marlowe. A rather surreal account of the last days of Edgar Allen Poe. It blurs the lines between reality and imagination, and totally absorbs you into both. It's something very different from your run-of-the-mill novel.

 

David Eddings - The Belgariad Series - my entry into the fantasy sword&sorcery genre.

Stephen King - 'Salem's Lot - I love a good vampire story

Washington Irving - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - a great story and an american classic.

Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time - Epic but long winded at times. Starts out great, runs into some issues in the middle books, finishes strong. Very long (each of the 14 books run about 1000 pages) and very complex, but wonderful fantasy setting.

Weis & Hicks - The Dragonlance Series... just love the characters in these.

F Paul Wilson - The Keep - Dark novel set during WWII, not what I expected but very good. Part of a series but this is the only one I read.

 

I'm actually on book 4 of the Belgariad now reading it at the park. Garion just met his grandma and learned how to transform into a wolf. The dialogue and the interactions in this book seem to annoy me. Also it's so linear... The books are all about going from A to B...

 

Far enough. I first read that series when I was 13 so I look back on them quite fondly. I do understand the going A to B... The Robert Jordan series is so not like that. It is more of a... hmmmm... there are really no throwaway characters. Even if you 'meet' someone for a few lines, they tend to come back at some point. Makes it a bit hard to follow. There are multiple main characters and they wander all over the place... if you pick up the series, take notes *laughs*.

 

+1. terrific vampire tale. gave me nightmares when i read it.

 

I've already read the wheel of time and it's cousin sword of truth.

 

Try out Weis & Hicks' Death Gate Cycle. Great series, very similar, but a little weirder and more of a departure from the traditional D&D world.

 

Yes, loved that series too... been a long while since I read it (I tend to reread things over and over).

 

Cos I said so. Lol.


I think i wrote about this book before. The artwork is beautifully done, Tim Sale likes to paint very much like Noir, which fits this story.
Although yes you have the Batman and his colourful gallery of villians, in the end this is a murder mystery.
Focusing very much on the "Detective" side of Batman which is rarely shown on the film versions.
It has a very heavy 50's American Gangster feel to it as well, the creation of the "Roman" Falcone, which is essentially DeNiro in the Godfather (but butchered in the Nolan films) as both villian and victim.
The story bounces around on who you want to root for. It's also a kind of "Year One" approach to Batman as well...his relationship still being early with Gordon and Harvey Dent is still just Harvey.
The Nolan trilogy was heavily influenced by this book and quite possibly the best Batman story around since "Death in the Family".

 

You are a man of taste and distinction. Those books are a large proportion of my collection. I'm a huge fan of S&S literature. I would also add Karl E. Wagner, Michael Shea (Nifft the Lean), Andre Norton (Witch World series), Tanith Lee (Cyrion, Compantions on the Road) Darrel Schwietzer (We are all Legends) and Poul Anderson (Hrolf Kraki's Saga).

While not quite S&S, I highly, HIGHLY recommend Steven Brust. The Vlad Taltos novels are fantastic. Essentially a fantasy hard-boiled detective living in a world where humans are second-class citizens in a world ruled by the Dragaerans, who are essentially big badass elves (sorry Hannibal) with little moral compass, much like Melniboneans from Moorcoks's Elric series. I can't say enough good things about the books. They are very good at transporting you, as the jargon is never explained and you have to infer it from context over time from the constantly first-person narrative.

 

Guess I know where I'm heading next. My friend, who teaches English at the college where I work, has mentioned a lot of these as well. I think Wagner will be my next expedition. Just read Glen Cook's The Tower of Fear, speaking of other S&S. But I missed the cosmic horror of Howard.

On a related note, I'm also reading a lot of classic(?) uncanny fiction (to use the term that friend of mine used). In no particular order: Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Clark Ashton Smith, Ambrose Bierce, MR James, etc. Some really excellent antecedents and contemporaries to the likes of Lovecraft, King, etc.

 

Does a grand disservice to Plato in my opinion, though it's been several years since I've read it.

 

Why nobody mentioned the fighting fantasy series. There are a few classics in there, sword of the samurai, loved the storylines, but never played with the dice, just bookmarked the pages and found the right solution. Still a great fantasy read after all these years, since you forget about them after a couple of decades.

 

I earned my bachelor's degree in English. Now I read what I enjoy. That happens to be weird fiction.