Books Books Books, We Love 'Em!

Hi all...I'd love to get a thread going on people's recommended books. God knows I'm always on the lookout for some hidden gem to read, and now that summer is almost here it's definitely time to break out the sun chair and the good books...

So I'll start it off. It'd be helpful to categorize your recommendations so people who are into one subgenre or another can tell what might be interesting.

Here's some of my faves. I could comment on each but this is already a big post :O If anyone wants to chat about any of these or suggest some back, the let's hear it!

ODDITIES

I like reading really unexpected books in the scifi/fantasy genres, here's a couple of faves out of left field:
Ceres Storm by David Herter
Appleseed by John Clute
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
The Stranger by Max Frei

SPACE OPERA

Hyperion/Endymion series by Dan Simmons

Great thread! This is one of my favorite sci-fi books:

The Traveler

it is a apart of a Trilogy and they are going to turn it into a movie :)

Thanks bfelczer :-)

I remember seeing that book and picking it up, but then setting it back down, mostly because I'm not a huge antiestablishment/paranoia fan. But of course it's always hard to tell from the quick summary read and seeing what the pic looks like (it gets points for having a bike on the cover heh). What was it that you liked about the series?

Great thread! I would recommend to any fantasy lover the Thomas Covenant Series by Stephen R. Donaldson. The first in the series of what will eventually be 13 books (I think) is Lord Foul's Bane.

Thirteen books! Holy ***t.
What do you like about the series? Is it high fantasy or urban fantasy or some other flavor?

Thanks for starting this thread, great idea!

When it comes to pure fantasy, I'm a huge fan of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Every book put a mirror up to the real world and puts a hilarious twist on it.

For Sci-fi, my fave book is Intervention by Julian May. It's the prequel of a series (The Galactic Milieu Trilogy) about the mental evolution of humans and their first contact and relationship with the wider galactic community. It's a cross between Heroes and the X-files.

I would definately recommend the Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy series to everyone. It's a hilarious read. There were times I could just not stop laughing.

I also love Dean Koontz. Phantoms is my favorite of his so far.

I love both Terry Pratchett and Hitchiker too, I should have included them in the original list. Gotta love the Britcom.

I'm loving the suggestions guys, already building a summer reading list...

Has anybody read the entire Reality Disfunction series by Anderson? If so would you recommend it? I am about 1/2 through the first book and am not sure about it yet. Mostly it's good, and I liked Fallen Dragon, but I'm not too sure on the whole "other dimensional beings take over Satan worshiping kid and make him super powerful" thing. Kinda cheesy.

Under the 'Oddities' category, I just finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. For anyone who is into Jane Austen, it's a hilarious retake on the story with a great zombie twist.

For Sci-Fi
Ender's Game/Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card. Both excellent, but for different reasons.
Startide Rising/Uplift War - David Brin. Probability Drive FTW. Also try Sundiver as the prequel to Startide.
Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion. Have not read Endymion yet.
A Fire Upon the Deep (don't remember author)
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke. Awesome for dated sci-fi. Has some excellent ideas in it.
Galapagos - Kurt Vonegut

For Fantasy
Talisman - Steven King and Peter Straub. I want a werewolf best friend. Loved that book as a kid.
Imagica by Clive Barker was ok, but Weaveworld ROCKED! I think it was his best.

The only "normal" book I have read is Prince of Tides, and it was awesome. I lived in Charleston, SC for a few years and it really took me back.

I'm huge on a huge vampire kick right now, series that I am working on are:
The Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward (8 books out)
The Night Huntress by Jeaniene Frost (4 books out)
Anita Black Vampire Executioner by Laurell K Hamilton (20 books out)

Just found a cool site that lets you build a list of books and then get recommendations based on your list.

http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/

I heartily recommend the works of China Mieville for those who want some mature urban fantasy/horror/steampunk. He's often seen as one of the leading authors of the New Weird trend of the last decade.

His books can be a bit of the bloated side but he's still one of my favourite authors around. His most recent novel, The City & The City, is a bit different to his other stuff - an existential noir police procedural that won huge critical acclaim from the mainstream press as well as in speculative fiction circles.

And he's a hotty:

Hero by Perry Moore

While browsing the isles for a children's book for an assignment for my degree (before I should go any further, should say I am a trainee school teacher), I came across this book. It tells the world of its first openly gay teenage superhero and his band of misfits. Its a real page tuner. I dont know what to say about this book that wont give anything away. Its full of sweet romantic moments, hardships and times that not just LGBT people can relate to, but pretty much everyone. Through the writing you can really relate to the characters. All I can say to sell this as a read, is to say that a huge smile came across my face, and at the time I was reading it, it gave me hope things could work out alright.

A better description than I can give

Hero is FANTASTIC, as are the two Scott Lynch novels mentioned in the first post.

Fantasy-wise, I am a huge fan of Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths series. It features a crazy gay wizard as one of the main characters and is generally excellent. I also love Lynn Flewelling's novels. One of her series is focused on a gay pairing; the other touches on trans issues. Ellen Kushner's novels are also fantastic as long as you don't mind her tearing out your heart and stepping on it. Pratchett is always fantastic, and I will admit to having a fascination for Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel novels. Finally, I just started reading Jim C. Hines' novels. His first trilogy is about a short, near-sighted, super-smart goblin, and is hilarious especially if you have experience in games like WoW or D&D. His second series, currently in progress, could best be described as taking fairy-tale princesses and making them kick ass.

I have never been a big fan of literary sci-fi, but I have recently become obsessed with Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan novels. They are about an undersized, oversmart, slightly manic noble who masquerades as the admiral of a mercenary fleet. He also has a string of women who love him, an evil clone, the two most awesome parents in the world, and a cousin who is either a giant idiot or very, very subtle.

Sorry for the length, but reading is genuinely my favorite thing in the world.

Woot New Weird.
I believe I read that China and Neil Gaiman are friends. So, double woot gay New Weird!

Hhhmmm books, let me see if i read any of these books of which you speak. Love the Locke Lamora books that were mentioned and a few other some mentioned.

First off, books with GLBT connections:
Crossroads series by Kate Elliot has a gay character. Personally anything by her is good.
Last rune series by Marc Anthony, the main character is gay and ends up with his hunky Knight.

Fantasy:
Necromancer series by Gail Z Martin.
Anything my Robin Hobb.
Anything by Jim Butcher, although i not yet read the Dresden Files.
Anything by Terry Brooks.
Princess series by Jim C Hines.
Eyes of God trilogy by John Marco.
Anything by Kate Elliot.
Sci Fiction:
3 Star Marine Trilogies from Ian Douglas.

These are just current stuff. You can also include, Wheel of Time and Thieves World series. Also the Authors Stephen Donaldson and Jack Chalker. Chances are i have read or considered it.

Seannewboy wrote:

First off, books with GLBT connections:
Crossroads series by Kate Elliot has a gay character. Personally anything by her is good.
Last rune series by Marc Anthony, the main character is gay and ends up with his hunky Knight.

Continuing in this vein, 'The Steel Remains' by Richard Morgan has a gay lead character and some extremely explicit male/male sex scenes. One of the lead supporting characters is a lesbian and there's some girl/girl action too I think. It's also extremely violent and sometimes really very creepy. In my opinion it's not as good as his earlier SF novels, but it's the best sword & sorcery I've read in a long time. Amusingly, most of the (very few) negative reviews this got cite the homosexuality as the main negative point.

If you prefer your speculative fiction more postmodern, 'Vellum' by Glasgow-boy Hal Duncan also has gay central characters and has a few interesting scenes where he explores ideas of queerness. The book is written in a highly postmodern, narrative-shattering style that reminds me of David Lynch.

If your looking for something that blurs the lines between Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & horror Brian Lumley has been a favorite of mine for years. The two series I would highly recommend are The Necroscope Saga & Psychomech.

For a pure classic George Orwell's 1984. And an obvious choice for any Sci-Fi fan... Dune by Frank Herbert, and all the subsequent books it spawned.