The thread of book recommendations

YourBestFriend wrote:

metalface13 wrote:

Storm Front: The Dresden Files Book 1: I actually enjoyed this one about a wizard private eye. The writing is cheesy but in a good way. I didn't really feel like Jim Butcher was taking himself too seriously. If he is ... well, joke is on him.

This is my favorite series lately. "Storm Front" is good, but once you get a few more books into the series, it becomes phenomenal. Another good thing about this series is that the stories are fast and with little filler (Butcher is the anti-Robert Jordan).

Well I look forward to it then.

Don't think I saw it in the thread, but if you can find it, Inferno by Niven & Pournelle is a great read. The divine comedy through the eyes of a disbelieving science fiction writer.

But really, any book with demonic corvettes is going to be worth a spin. I read this one every few years.

Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series is also great, though I think it really peaks in the second book and then loses some steam.

I just read The Stars My Destination after seeing Barnes recommend it in the previous book thread. Holy Shit. This book electrified me.

I feel like I have a pretty solid SciFi grounding, lots of Heinlein, Zelazny, Dick, Gibson, Card, Stephenson, and some godawful (but fun) Andre Norton that I cut my teeth on in middle school. Somehow I missed Bester.

I finished it up at about 1:30 AM and woke my girlfriend up because I needed to talk to SOMEBODY about it. She has to be in to work at 5:00 AM, so I am going to be in the doghouse something fierce, but it was worth it.

I know that reading tastes are very much matters of personal preference, so I don't want to talk it up too much, but The Stars My Destination is the best science fiction book I think I have ever read, and in my top 5 of any genre.

It is super simple, not some sprawling labyrinthine, super dense "hard" SciFi, but it doesn't need to be. Bester did in 250 pages what other authors DREAM about doing in 500 or 1000. Plus, seething righteous vengeance is pretty much one of the original AT ideas (I'm looking at you The Odyssey's suitor massacre chapter).

Thanks for the recommendation Barnes, I don't know if I've felt this way about a book since I was a teenager.

Horacio Silva wrote:

Shellhead wrote:

jeb wrote:

FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM by Umberto Eco. A trio of publishers decide to make some dough allowing conspiracy theorists to self-publish. The money's so good, they cook up their own--or do they? Fucking mindbending.

Eco has great ideas, but he needs four editors... one to verify his historical research, one to trim his manuscripts down with a meat cleaver, and two to hold Eco still during the meat cleaver usage.

Heresy! Heresy!

I need to submit a formal request for the banning of Shellhead on the basis of heretic behavior.

Why? I agree with him 100%. I reviews Foucault's Pendulum in trash culture a little while back and said ...
"The first and last twenty or so chapters were seriously brilliant. The eighty chapters in between could probably have benefited from some major editing."
You can read the rest here:
fortressat.com/index.php?option=com_cont...ew&id=801&Itemid=318

My reading material right now is The Name of the Rose and I have to say that so far - maybe a third of the way into the book - it's exhibiting none of those problems and is exactly what I'd always been hoping an Umberto Eco novel would actually be: a genuine page-turner with a rich and rewarding historical and intellectual edge.

If I had to pick a favourite book it'd have to be Wolf In Shadow by David Gemmell.

I think of most Gemmell books like spaghetti western fantasy novels - they can be a bit formulaic (and the extras are all dubbed) but they're damn fine adventure stories. Sure, you might forget exactly what they were about a few days after reading them but they'll keep you entertained whilst you're doing it.

Wolf In Shadow is different from most of his other books. It's basically a post apocalyptic western, with a bit of magic and religous theology thrown in there. It's worth giving it a go - it's not very long and it's a page turner.

dan daly wrote:
" metalface13 wrote: "Nazi werewolves!? where were you in October when I was looking for werewolf books?"
'Werewolves' in this sense means German troops who fought with irregular tactics- wearing allied uniforms, sabotaging, etc. The book is historical fiction. Still a good book, but if you're expecting lycanthropes you'll be disappointed."
This, on the other hand, does have a lycanthrope: Robert R. MaCammon, The Wolf's Hour, Pocket Books, 1989.

The search also turned up this: Nazi Werewolf Gals Spread The Pure Blood Word Through Comic.

What other people are reading:

I read the first book in the Dresden Files a few years ago. One of the worst books I’ve ever actually forced myself to finish. I thought Butcher’s attempts at “noir” phrasing were unbelievably ham-fisted. I also think his back-of-book picture and bio reek of douchebaggery.

R.E. Howard amazes me every time I read him. Best is to keep a short story collection on the nightstand and read about one a week, otherwise you start to really feel the ... formulaism? Formulaicness? It's a great formula, just don't OD on it.

Like: Eco, Bester, Herbert

Couldn’t get into: Cook

Dislike: Palahniuk

Stephenson has been going downhill for me since Snow Crash. Read the first third of the Baroque cycle and realized I didn’t care, and Anathem was boring the shit out of me before I was five pages in.

What I’m reading/read reccently:

Just finished the first book of Master & Commander. I found it shockingly nautical, even knowing what it was about going in. I guess I don’t have that historical fetishism gene that makes me care about the fo’c’sle and the maintops’l and all that other great-age-of-sail ephemera. A good yarn but I doubt I’ll ever get around to the rest of the books. Really liked the movie though.

Michio Kaku’s Physics of the Impossible. Total nerd fodder, a top-level physicist talking about the (possible future) feasibility of lightsabers, force fields, etc. Not as compelling as his other popular science books, but still good.

Reread the Dark Phoenix saga for the umpteenth time.

Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. Fuckin’ great! Who’da thought the definitive retelling would be written by a Delaware artist in the 1880s? The language is so good. Dover publishes a quarto of Pyle’s illustrations -- a classically-trained painter who does pirates, swashbucklers, highwaymen, etc. Totally awesome and totally AT.

Stephenson’s Treasure Island. A classic I’d never gotten around to reading before. Undeniably good although really meant to be read aloud I think.

Mouse Guard RPG. I have never been this excited about mice with swords, ever. Fuck Redwall and Despereaux. Mouse Guard kicks their asses. Unfortunately my current situation is not really amenable to playing RPGs. Grr. But it should change by summer and then IT IS ON.

Looking forward to:

New Richard K. Morgan. He just released his first fantasy novel last week. If he can do for fantasy what he’s done for sci-fi it’ll rock my socks.

New Scott Lynch, comes out at the end of the month. Total AT books IMO -- dirty, greasy characters who do what they want knowing they’re going to get fucked up for it.

dysjunct wrote:

New Richard K. Morgan. He just released his first fantasy novel last week. If he can do for fantasy what he’s done for sci-fi it’ll rock my socks.

New Scott Lynch, comes out at the end of the month. Total AT books IMO -- dirty, greasy characters who do what they want knowing they’re going to get fucked up for it.

The Morgan book was out last year in the UK. I've read a few reviews, basically he's not reinventing anything in the fantasy field that hasn't been done in the past 10 years, and he likes his swear words. A lot. If you can get over the word fuck every three sentences then it should be good.

Lynch: Are you talking about Red Seas Under Red Skies (out last year in the UK) or the next one? His third won't be out for a while yet, it's been pushed back indefinitely.

Hmm, too bad about the Morgan reviews. Looks like it's a borrow instead of a buy.

Lynch's third book is what I'm talking about. I checked Ingram yesterday and it showed a street date of 2/19/09 in the US. Is Ingram wrong?

dysjunct wrote:
"Michio Kaku’s Physics of the Impossible. Total nerd fodder, a top-level physicist talking about the (possible future) feasibility of lightsabers, force fields, etc. Not as compelling as his other popular science books, but still good."
Amazon also has Parallel Worlds and Hyperspace; any others that I should check out?

dysjunct wrote:

New Scott Lynch, comes out at the end of the month. Total AT books IMO -- dirty, greasy characters who do what they want knowing they’re going to get fucked up for it.

Scott Lynch got published?

Wow.

I know Scott Lynch. Not well, but we played in the same Vampire LARP for a while. I joined the game 8 months before it ended. He played a witty and machiavellian vampire known as the Margrave, and had just lost his title as Prince of the City. I joined the game primarily as research for my V:DI game design, and ended up playing a small-time thug err construction contractor vampire named Vin Giovanni. I think the only time Scott took notice of me was when my character gave his character a business card... Giovanni Installations... "Our hammers never stop".

Scott must have some kind of thespian background, because he has the ability to improvise compelling monologues on the spot and deliver them with conviction. He can hold a room of 70+ players enthralled while he speaks. Unfortunately, he dropped out of sight some months after that LARP, and subsequent LARP campaigns were the poorer for his absence. I overheard him talking about an RPG that he was designing, but apparently he abandoned that to become a published author. I can believe it, though.

I guess that I take it for granted, but it's been really cool to live in the Twin Cities as a gamer. Besides meeting Scott Lynch, I helped designer Glenn Rahman playtest the 25th anniversary edition of Divine Right, and I've playtested board games for three other published game designers. Separate from that, I worked for Fantasy Flight in the warehouse for a while, and played Arkham Horror with the industry's finest customer service rep. Lots of creative people around town.

dysjunct wrote:

I read the first book in the Dresden Files a few years ago. One of the worst books I’ve ever actually forced myself to finish. I thought Butcher’s attempts at “noir” phrasing were unbelievably ham-fisted. I also think his back-of-book picture and bio reek of douchebaggery.

I thought his bio was hilarious! The fact that he put on there that he's a black belt was just too awesome. Like I said earlier, whether his noir style was intentionally cheesy or not I found it quite humorous and it kept me sniggering.

It amuses me that the Twin Cities are one of the hubs of boardgame activity.

Gary Sax wrote:

It amuses me that the Twin Cities are one of the hubs of boardgame activity.

If the climate was nice here all year long, we would all be getting drunk in boats on the lakes. The long, harsh winters encourage more indoor activities, like reading, playing boardgames, and making music. Some local performers worth listening to:

Bob Dylan
Prince
Morris Day & the Time
The Suburbs
Husker Du
The Replacements
Trip Shakespeare
The Jayhawks
12 Rods
Lifter Puller
Babes in Toyland
Soul Asylum
Semisonic
Kid Dakota
Atmosphere
Astronaut Wife
The Soviettes
Brother Ali

One of the reasons that I moved here was for the exciting local music scene.

Was it someone here that was recommending Go Go Girls Of The Apocalypse? I just finished The Road and now I'm in the mood for something else post-apocalyptic. Although I'm also thinking of taking a break from SF, but I have no idea what I'd read then.