Other Recommendations - for the unenlightened

[Arkose]

looking for some Steampunk research and will work on his dark materials first but I came across K.J. Parker Engineer Trilogy and have seen mixed reviews. Anyone have ideas about this trilogy?

 

[planetocean]

THE ICE ON THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD sounds like an interesting read.

 

[eclectic_dragon0253]

the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funk is brilliant. It's different from any fantasy book I've read, definitely worth a read

 

[eclectic_dragon0253]

Also I would recommend Stephen Lawhead's Hood trilogy. It's a new take on the Robin Hood legend and although it can be pretty heavy, it is generally good.

 

[blacknorth]

looking for some Steampunk research and will work on his dark materials first but I came across K.J. Parker Engineer Trilogy and have seen mixed reviews. Anyone have ideas about this trilogy?

I read it last month. It's a fascinating and worthwhile read on the whole; if revenge fantasy fueled by primitive technology and world-gaming is your thing, go for it. The only downsides are a slew of deeply unsympathetic characters, and the ending, which had something of David Eddings about it.

 

[Grunkins]

I'm looking for recommendations for books on outlaw bands, brigands, highwaymen, all that sort of thing. Fiction or non-fiction, just good stories, medieval up through westerns would be great. Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[creynier]

Great idea Mark!

 

[creynier]

Ive heard that "Thank You For Smoking" is great!. I'm looking forward to that one.

 

[leonsdaughter]

New to this site and finding it interesting, although I don't read a lot of fantasy or sci fi the way I did when I was in my teens and twenties. Still, reading a few posts here makes me nostalgic.

Query. Can't quite get my mind around why the three recommended reading forums (sf, f and other) are for the "unenlightened." What does that mean, exactly?

Also I have a bit of trouble with genre books in particular; genre is pretty unimportant to me. Of course I haven't read 99% of the posts on SFF Chrons, but so far have not come across any mention of the recently published "City of Bohane" by the Irish author Kevin Barry. I would hesitate to call it fantasy or sci fi, although it takes place in the near future after an undisclosed event. As you will guess after a few paragraphs into it, the book has already been optioned for a movie. If you wish to get a taste of the lilt and language it isn't hard to find a video of the author reading some of it. Looking above a few posts, I can't help but think that it might be exactly in Grunkins wheelhouse. It's Irish to the core and a huge amount of fun.

And I did come across one reference to this book: Far North by Marcel Theroux. (Yes, son of Paul.) Post apocalyptic, incredibly moving, beautifully written, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

Cheers!

 

[dym]

good day.
So much was I, and doubtless as all local literatrory is a brilliant writer)). And as usual with geniuses nobody needs of his genius at home. In fact there were no significant trouble, if I knew the world of language. And here wonder Google translator))) of course yo quality translation is very sumnivnnoyu, but I thought, well matched I lose? and nothing. So, I thought, and went to the first forum sho mi brought Google.
do you think, Sister is complete fools? whether it is possible to show a passage?)))))

 

[BigBadBob141]

"Nation" by Terry Prachett, a very good read, this is a stand alone not one of the Discwolrd .
Before the Discworld he wrote two very good SF books.
They are "Strata" and "Dark Of The Sun" both very good if you can get them.

 

[madrotter]

There are just so many books I can recommend, I don't even know where to start

A few years ago I picked up a book by American writer Larry McMurtry, it was called Buffalo Girls, a fictionalized bio of Calamity Jane, and I was HOOKED. I've now read many of his books, and I especially recommend reading his books that are set in the old American West. Nobody I've read can come up with the incredible characters like he does, the craziest mountain men, indians, snake-oil peddlers, pioneers etc. Some of these books are VERY violent, like the Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call series, beginning with Lonesome Dove for which he got a Pulitzer Price.... He'll have your hairs standing up in terror one moment and have you laughing out loud the next. I just finished the 4 book Berrybender Narratives and again they were real page turners that I just couldn't put down.....

Another writer I love is Hunter S. Thompson, I guess I don't even have to tell who he was, but for those of you who don't know, read Hell's Angels and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, after reading those you probably won't stop until you've read everything he's written....

Another book that I found really, really good was Columbine from Dave Cullen that deals with the Columbine shooting....

Like I said, so many incredible books to recommend, Charles Bukowski, another writer that I really like....

Vasili Grossman's Life And Fate, which is an incredible book about the battle for Stalingrad, and get this, it's the only book that was ever arrested in the old Soviet Union, yes I mean the book.....

Than there's Indonesia writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Buru Quartet, 4 books chronicling the development of Indonesian nationalism, with it's many incredible and colorful characters, they were forbidden for decades under the dictatorship of one of the big 20th century despots, Suharto and his amazing A Mute's Soliloquy, about his 14 year imprisonment on the prison colony of Buru.... His name came up for years but he never got the Noble price for literature, too bad, because his books are amazing and he surely could've used the price money as he was living under house arrest for most of his remaining years in poverty in Jakarta...

Another book that really touched me is Carl Sagan's The Varieties Of Scientific Experience, A Personal View Of The Search For God, which are transcripts of his 1985 Gifford Lectures. I always liked Carl Sagan but after reading that book, he really became one of my personal heroes.....

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer which is a biographical account of a French soldier fighting with the German Army on the East front during the Second World War is incredible....

Right now I'm reading Arguably, Essays By Christopher Hitchens and I'm wrestling my way through Michel Foucault's Madness And Civilization......

 

[madrotter]

Another book that's really worth reading is Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts who was an Australian bank robber and heroin junk who escaped from prison and ended up in the slums of Bombay and became a doctor there... I just read that they're planning to turn it into a movie and Johnny Depp will be one of the producers....

Also very good is A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif, a very very funny book based on the plane crash that killed the former president of Pakistan Muhammad Zia Ul-Haq....

Oh, and not to forget, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo, about Richard Kuklinski. They turned that one into a movie recently and the movie was CRAP, nothing like the book....

 

[tobl]

here are some more authors, in the real world so to speak: jack higgins (sean dillon series), ken follett; Frederik forsyth; the old don pendlenton books, alexandre dumas, etc...
For everyone here looking for good books please check my list of all the autores i read in the last 4 years :

alan black

alex archer

alex lukeman

allan cole

andy mcdermott

andy weir

austin grossman

ben aaronovitch

ben hale

benedict jacka

brian garfield

brian haig

charles d. taylor

charles stross

chris fox

chris kennedy

chris knopf

christopher g nuttall

clive cussler

colin forbes

craig schaefer

d. d. barant

dale musser

dan brown

dan wells

dani kollin

daniel silva

daniel suarez

dave donovan

david baldacci

david gibbins

david lynn golemon

david weber

dean crawford

drew chapman

endi webb

eric r. asher

ernest cline

evan c. currie

frank j. fleming

gary grossman

graeme cameron

greig beck

H Paul Honsinger

honor raconteur

iain king

ian j. malone

isaac hooke

jack campbell

jack higgins

jack j. lee

jack mcdevitt

james abel

james p. hogan

james patterson

james rollins

james wade

jeanne stein

jef abbott

jeff abbott

jennifer estep

jeremy robinson

jim butcher

joel shepherd

john ringo

john scalzi

jonathan l howard

jonathan maberry

joseph nassise

justin gustainis

kat richardson

kyle mills

larry correia

laurel k hamilton

laurie r king

loren robinson

m. l. n. hanover

m. r. forbes

manel loureiro

marc cameron

mark greaney

mark lawrence

mark sullivan

Mark Wayne McGinnis

marko kloos

matthew dunn

matthew reilly

michael mccollum

mike carey

mike maden

mike resnick

mike shepherd

mira grant

nathaniel rich

noah boyd

p t deutermann

patrick lee

patrick rothfuss

paul cornell

paul hoffman

peter v. brett

preston&child

rachel bach

ramez naam

raymond l weil

richard phillips

rick gualtieri

rick riordan

ryk brown

s j kincaid

saxon andrew

seanan mcguire

sergei lukyanenko

simon r. green

spider robinson

Stephen W. Bennett

STEVE MCHUGH

steven l kent

t.i. wade

terry mixon

thomas greanias

tom clancy

tom kratman

travis s. taylor

vaughn hepner

vince flynn

weston ochse

whitley strieber

william massa

and yes i read all of them. have fun

 

[soulsinging]

The LA Quartet, James Ellroy

Yes to this! The middle two books in that series are two of the finest crime novels I ever read, and I've studied the classics, from Collins to Poe to Doyle to Sayers to Hammett to Chandler to Lehane.

I'll add:
Ellroy's Underworld trilogy, which starts with American Tabloid. Does for 1960's America what the LA quarter did for 40s-50s LA. The series also have some subtle intertwining. There's almost an Ellroy-verse (like Whedon's).
Catch-22. One of the best novels ever, perfectly captures the increasingly isolated and inhumane nature of war and capitalism. Almost prophetic.

Adding:

Crime and Punishment
Lonesome Dove

 

[soulsinging]

Anyone that knows good Brit crime? Not those mysteries in the country they are so famous for. Looking for cop,PI stories hardboiled or not. Stuff like Ian Rankin.

It's been years since you asked, but I was going to suggest Ken Bruen. You may well have found him already by now.

I'm looking for recommendations for books on outlaw bands, brigands, highwaymen, all that sort of thing. Fiction or non-fiction, just good stories, medieval up through westerns would be great. Any suggestions appreciated.

I wasn't a fan, but Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is highly regarded and springs to mind. Glen Cook's Black Company.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Star Rover by Jack London . It's the story of a straitjacketed death row inmate named Darrel Standing who discovers he can astral project himself into his past lives at will. Written in 1915, it was London's last novel. it didn't garner a lot of praise or appreciation by critics and readers which why is not so well known as his other books. It is a truly great book , epic in scope and scale.

 

[Classic_SF]

Here are my series novels that I have lined up ready to read. (In no particular order)

The Pelbar Cycle - - Williams

The Breaking of Northwall (1981) #1
The Ends of the Circle (1981) #2
The Dome in the Forest (1981) #3
The Fall of the Shell (1982) #4
An Ambush of Shadows (1983) #5
Song of the Axe (1984) #6
The Sword of Forbearance (1985) #7
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Deathworld Trilogy - - Harrison 1960 - 64 - 68
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hyperion Cantos - - Simmons

Hyperion (1989) #1
The Fall of Hyperion (1995) #2
Endymion (1997) #3
The Rise of Endymion (1998) #4
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Icerigger Trilogy - - Foster

Icerigger (1974) #1
Mission to Moulokin (1979) #2
The Deluge Drivers (1987) #3
----------------------------------------------------------------
Erthring Cycle Series - - Drew

The Memoirs of Alcheringia (1985) #1
The Gaian Expedient (1985) #2
The Master of Norriya (1986) #3
------------------------------------------------------------------
The Heechee Saga - - Pohl

Gateway (1976) #1
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (1980) #2
Heechee Rendezvous (1984) #3
The Annals of the Heechee (1988) #4
----------------------------------------------------------------
Riverworld Series - - Farmer

To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971) #1
The Fabulous Riverboat (1971) #2
The Dark Design (1977) #3
The Magic Labyrinth (1980) #4
Gods of Riverworld (1983) #5
---------------------------------------------------------------
Planet of Adventure Series - - - Vance

City of the Chasch (1968) #1
Servants of the Wankh (1969) #2
The Dirdir (1969) #3
The Pnume (1970) #4

 

[BAYLOR]

here are some more authors, in the real world so to speak: jack higgins (sean dillon series), ken follett; Frederik forsyth; the old don pendlenton books, alexandre dumas, etc...
For everyone here looking for good books please check my list of all the autores i read in the last 4 years :

alan black

alex archer

alex lukeman

allan cole

andy mcdermott

andy weir

austin grossman

ben aaronovitch

ben hale

benedict jacka

brian garfield

brian haig

charles d. taylor

charles stross

chris fox

chris kennedy

chris knopf

christopher g nuttall

clive cussler

colin forbes

craig schaefer

d. d. barant

dale musser

dan brown

dan wells

dani kollin

daniel silva

daniel suarez

dave donovan

david baldacci

david gibbins

david lynn golemon

david weber

dean crawford

drew chapman

endi webb

eric r. asher

ernest cline

evan c. currie

frank j. fleming

gary grossman

graeme cameron

greig beck

H Paul Honsinger

honor raconteur

iain king

ian j. malone

isaac hooke

jack campbell

jack higgins

jack j. lee

jack mcdevitt

james abel

james p. hogan

james patterson

james rollins

james wade

jeanne stein

jef abbott

jeff abbott

jennifer estep

jeremy robinson

jim butcher

joel shepherd

john ringo

john scalzi

jonathan l howard

jonathan maberry

joseph nassise

justin gustainis

kat richardson

kyle mills

larry correia

laurel k hamilton

laurie r king

loren robinson

m. l. n. hanover

m. r. forbes

manel loureiro

marc cameron

mark greaney

mark lawrence

mark sullivan

Mark Wayne McGinnis

marko kloos

matthew dunn

matthew reilly

michael mccollum

mike carey

mike maden

mike resnick

mike shepherd

mira grant

nathaniel rich

noah boyd

p t deutermann

patrick lee

patrick rothfuss

paul cornell

paul hoffman

peter v. brett

preston&child

rachel bach

ramez naam

raymond l weil

richard phillips

rick gualtieri

rick riordan

ryk brown

s j kincaid

saxon andrew

seanan mcguire

sergei lukyanenko

simon r. green

spider robinson

Stephen W. Bennett

STEVE MCHUGH

steven l kent

t.i. wade

terry mixon

thomas greanias

tom clancy

tom kratman

travis s. taylor

vaughn hepner

vince flynn

weston ochse

whitley strieber

william massa

and yes i read all of them. have fun

Wow, now this is a list !

 

[Elventine]

Why is there no thinking face? We need a thinking face! lol ok *thinking*