Recommended reading

[polymorphikos]

Anything by Paul Scott. It's not sci-fi or fantasy, but The Alien Sky is pure brilliance, even better than Staying On. The Beach and The Tesseract by Alex Garland are phenomenal. Also, Gary Kilworth's House of Tribes. King Solomon's Mines is a fantastic piece of work, although She never really gripped me. The Wind In The Willows, even though it probably doesn't need mentioning (you can't read the bit about the sailor rat and not want to travel). The Ruth Manning-Sanders folktale collections are excellent.
Harry Turtledove's World War series is perfect for the scope and character depth he manages to use (it's hard to make someone care about every one of a cast of dozens and dozens). And, of course, the greatest book ever written - MOBY DICK

 

[Esioul]

Can I add a few non sf?

Catch 22- so funny. And while we're on the subject of 'catching', Catcher in the Rye.

The Fortress series and the Faded Sun series by C J Cherryh.

And of course C S Lewis as people have mentioned above- I've read them so many times, they're infinitly better than Harry Potter. Diana Wynne Jones is good too- any book by her is worth reading several times.

I've read King Solomon's Mines, too, and quite enjoyed it. I've never read Moby Dick. At the moment I've just finished the first Morgaine book by Cherryh. Anyone else read it? And I'm currently reading Portrait of a Lady.

 

[polymorphikos]

To go out on a limb, Esioul, do I know you from somewhere else? It's a non-sequitur, but it's been bugging me for a while. Probably gone and made a fool of myself, but c'est la vie.

 

[Esioul]

WritersBBS is a place I hang around- mostly the Young Spec Fic forum. And sometimes the Evanescence forums cos my friend got me to join. I probably don't know you in real life, as I live in England.

 

[polymorphikos]

Ah. The mystery is no more.

 

[Esioul]

In what way?? Do you hang around any of those places? If you do you have a different name there.

 

[polymorphikos]

No to both. Your geographical location matched someone else's roughly, your user name is an anagram of theirs, and in the same vein, and you seem to like similar stuff. Just stupid wonderings, really

 

[erickad71]

Has anyone read Brian Jacques' Redwall series? They are marketed as either childrens or young adult. I haven't read them all, but the ones I have read I have really enjoyed. They have been compared to "Watership Down" but personally I don't think there is any comparison. Maybe only in the fact that there are talking animals in both of them.Anyway that is something I would recommend.

 

[Michael]

Oh, I'm not as well read as I'd like to be, but . . .

How about Otherland by Tad Williams? A little slow, and very long, but spellbinding.

 

[Orthandor]

I remember when i was younger i used to watch a series for kids on tv about 4 to 5 years ago it could still be running but what i saw was a pretty good story line

 

[dwndrgn]

I remember when i was younger i used to watch a series for kids on tv about 4 to 5 years ago it could still be running but what i saw was a pretty good story line

What was the series based on?

 

[rune]

No one has mentioned Banned and the Bannished series by James Clemens. There are 5 books in the series and granted some are better than others. But generally I think this is a very well written series with some great character and good use of magical ideas

 

[Silk]

Has anyone read Brian Jacques' Redwall series? They are marketed as either childrens or young adult. I haven't read them all, but the ones I have read I have really enjoyed. They have been compared to "Watership Down" but personally I don't think there is any comparison. Maybe only in the fact that there are talking animals in both of them.Anyway that is something I would recommend.

I remember trying to read the first one in primary school when I was about 10; and I had no idea what was going on!

I have recently been thinking about giving them another go; it'll be interesting to see how i take to them 10 years on

 

[tonic]

Neverwhere By: Neil Gaiman

American Gods By: Neil Gaiman

All of the Malazan books by Steven Erikson

The Dark Tower by: Stephen King

Hmm I'll add more when I get home

 

[erickad71]

I remember trying to read the first one in primary school when I was about 10; and I had no idea what was going on!

I have recently been thinking about giving them another go; it'll be interesting to see how i take to them 10 years on

Definitely give them another shot. I can understand how some of the dialogue could throw a child off, it took a while for my daughter to get into them for that reason.

 

[dwndrgn]

I read quite a few of them some years back when I couldn't find anything else that looked good in the library that I hadn't read yet. I read them all out of order but I enjoyed them all. They remind me of little morality plays. I thought they'd be very good reading for kids. I would definitely recommend them for young readers (and the young at heart ). I think I read four or five of them - no idea how many there are, there seem to be lots. They also all stand alone pretty well so reading them not in order of publication doesn't ruin the experience. I think they'd make good plays for grade school kids to act out. Lots of fun and adventure - but good stories at the heart of them. They do have a bit of violence so people with kids might want to read them first to judge if they are appropriate for their age or not. Of course, I feel that kids shouldn't be sheltered from this sort of thing as much as some people feel they should, but some parents would disagree so just be warned.

 

[dwndrgn]

No one has mentioned Banned and the Bannished series by James Clemens. There are 5 books in the series and granted some are better than others. But generally I think this is a very well written series with some great character and good use of magical ideas

Never heard of it (rune, you seem to be the curator of the unknown books section of the Chronicles Network library - Ook!) what's the series about?

 

[rune]

Never heard of it (rune, you seem to be the curator of the unknown books section of the Chronicles Network library - Ook!) what's the series about?

I do seem to have read author not mentioned much here at the forum

The Banned and the Bannished is a reasonably recent series. There are 5 books -

Wit'ch Fire
Wit'ch Storm
Wit'ch War
Wit'ch Gate
Witch Star

The first book was published in 1998 and introduces the main characters that are followed through the series.
The gist of the storyline is about a young girl who discovers she is a witch in a world were magic was lost during an anchient war.

The young girl, Elena, is very young in the first book but due to magical events she ages quickly during the series. I've read reviews that this changes the feel of the story and makes it too mature. I personally liked the maturity of the series and never thoughts of Elena as a child.

Elena has to find an anchient book of magic with the help of some strange characters before a dark wizard does. The world she lives in will be destroyed if she doesnt succeed. So the whole series focuses on her journey to different parts of the land she lives with her companions trying to outwit and destroy the dark wizard. I wont tell you who the dark wizard is because it is pretty much shrouded throughout the series until the last book

Not all books are equally as good a read as others. However I did find some of the main characters - Elena, Er'il are my favourites and when the mermaid and her dragon are introduced Wit'ch War they also became compelling to follow

 

[rune]

I want to recommend the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong. She hasn't released many books as yet but I do think she is a gifted writer and definately entertaining


I've got 4 books that have been released so far of the Women of the Otherworld series and with it being a horror/fantasy mix it should cater to a few tastes

Bitten
Stolen
Dime Store Magic
Industrial Magic

I've read up to book 3 so far and thoroughly enjoyed them. The first two focuses on a young female Werewolf and in the 2nd book she meets a young witch. Dime Store Magic focuses on this young witch and follows on with her character in book 4

 

[Grawgos]

My recomended books would be-

The Myth series by Asprin
Thieves world(original series) by Asprin and others
Theives world(new series) by Lynn Abbey and others
WarTorn:resurrection by Asprin
Iron tower,silver call and dragon doom by McKiernan
Xanth novels by Anthony
The Tamir trilogy by Lynn Flewelling
Scepter of Mercy trilogy by Dan Chernenko
Ender books and Homecomming by Orson Scott Card
The Tempest Trilogy by Janet Morris(beyond santuary, beyond wizard wall, beyond the veil)
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Redwall books by Brain Jacques
7 circles trilogy by Douglas Niles