Back in high school I used to read books all the time, but after high school I stopped [mainly since I read during my free time at school] and I could of got into a habit of not really reading that much. I think I can probably count on two hands the number of books I've completely since high school [5 years ago]. So, yeah, I'm trying to break out of that and get back in reading books again [especially since I have aspirations of writing books of my own and need fresh works to keep me from falling into stagnation].
What I've read:
-Most of David Eddings books
-Lots of Terry Brooks books
-Lots of Terry Pratchet books
-Wheel of Time
-Part of a Game of Thrones [might finish sometime later]
-Lots of Arthur C. Clarke
-Some H.P. Lovecraft
-Some R.A. Salvatore
-Part of Neuromance and Snow Crash [will finish someday, hopefully]
-Some Anne McCaffrey
-The Earthsea series
-First two books of the Obernewtyn series
What I'm about to start reading:
-Gardens of the Moon
-Hardwired
-The Land Leviathan
-Elantris
-Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Not looking for:
-Licensed books [Star Wars, Star Trek, ect.]
Considering that along with history books, fantasy books particularly (and sci-fi secondarily) have been my favorite kind of books ever since elementary school, wow is that a hard question... it does make me think though, I've never actually made a list of any of the books I have. Now that wouldn't even begin to be a list of all fantasy books I've read or something, that list would be impossible because also since elementary school our family always were regular visitors to the local library (and the school library too), but it'd be kind of interesting anyway, I think. I mean, I do have quite a few books.
A few obvious things do come to mind though...
-You haven't finished Snow Crash? Seriously? It's one of the best cyberpunk books ever written, how did you put it down?
-everything by Tad Williams is outstanding! Long books, but incredible. The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series and the Shadowmarch series are fantasy, while the Otherland series is cyberpunk; The War of the Flowers is kind of dark fairy tale fantasy. I think his first series, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, is probably my favorite of his, but all three of those main series are really, really incredible books.
-The Wheel of Time series is my favorite fantasy series from the past few decades.
-David Eddings was probably my favorite author when I was in Jr. High... I read the whole Belgariad/Malloreon series in sixth grade or so, and thought they were really good at the time. His books aren't as complex as some others and his last series, The Dreamers, is definitely derivitive (character style wise particularly) of his older works, but still, I'll always like David Eddings' books. He died a year or so ago, you know. At least he was old, unlike Robert Jordan. :(
-George R. R. Martin's books are somewhat dark and grim stuff, but pretty good. Definitely recommended. Just don't expect things to go well for the main characters...
-Brandon Sanderson, who is finishing the last three Wheel of Time books based on Robert Jordan's work, also has his own fantasy series, called the Mistborn series. I've only read the first book, but it's pretty good and might be worth a look. Definitely a somewhat original take on the genre, I'd like to read the next one to see where it goes.
-Anne McCaffery is another author I probably liked more in junior high than I would now. Back then (and into highschool) I read all of the Pern books, Acorna books that were out then (the first three or four I think), Kilashandra series or whatever that series was, etc. and liked them, but I haven't read any of the newer ones, so I don't know well they hold up now that I'm a little older... like Star Wars books, I used to love them but now they're not so great. Of course, part of the problem there is that the newest Star Wars book series, the Legacy of the Force one, was just atrocious... I liked the Yuuzhan Vong stuff and before, but it's gone downhill. Anyway, yeah, I liked those at the time, but no idea about now.
-Oh, my favorite fantasy book series I read in elementary school probably would have been the Redwall series (really good stuff! Brian Jaques is a great writer.), Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles (the series that the '80s Disney movie The Black Cauldron is based on), and the Narnia series.
There are so, so many fantasy books though, I'd never manage to think of everything... every time I go into the fantasy section of a bookstore I see interesting things. Um, a few more for the moment.
-Lynn Fwelling - Has written eight books now, all set in the same universe (three are a prequel trilogy, the other five star the same two main characters). I like this series and own all of the books. It's not perfect, I could complain about some things, but overall I like them.
-Mercedes Lackey - Author of the Valdemar series, among many others. She's written a lot of books, and they're usually good. Not my absolute favorites, but good, and I've liked quite a few of her books.
- Terry Goodkind - Yeah, I read his stuff back when it came out. I own the first eleven books of the 12 book Sword of Truth series, actually, even though by the sixth or eighth book or so I was really disliking it... the first four books are a good fantasy story, but after that Goodkind starts inserting more and more of his own very conservative (Ayn Rand-fan) political viewpoints into his books. The lowpoint is when one entire book of the series has, as its primary plotline, a story about how evil pacifists are, because by not resisting the evil empire that uses them they're as evil as the empire. It was a transparent, and awful, political message... then I disliked the central plot of the concluding trilogy of books in the series and completely lost interest. I haven't actually read the last book. Oh, as I suggested, and as you may know, a lot of people really hate Terry Goodkind's books. I don't think they're quite as bad as that, but will admit that they're not the greatest ever. While with the Wheel of Time series I never once wanted any of the books to be shorter (I read through them quickly, and always loved the detail), with the Sword of Truth I often found myself skipping chunks because it got boring and simply dragged on for too long...
There are many many more, that's just a few. I'm sure I'll add more later.
Quote:-You haven't finished Snow Crash? Seriously? It's one of the best cyberpunk books ever written, how did you put it down?
Explicit underage sex kind of cooled me to it and I ended reading something else instead. Haven't thought about it enough recently to get back to it.
Quote:He died a year or so ago, you know.
What?! How did I not hear about this?
Quote:You mean that scene with the girl main character and that evil guy, late in the book, or is there another one I'm forgetting?
No, that's the one. I'm pretty sure it's also the ONLY one, which kind of adds to the whole thing coming out of nowhere and being such a shock.
When I think about sex scenes in mainstream scifi/fantasy, one of the first books that comes to mind is The Demon Awakens by R.A. Salvatore, it also had a rape scene [or near rape scene, can't remember now which]. There's a few others I can think, although I think they're probably tamer than that example.
Oh, there's also the later Rama books by Gentry Lee, but the less said about those the better.
Quote:Sequels not by the original author often do have a trend for turning out badly.
Yeah, Gentry Lee completely trashed the Rama series. The first Rama book was a really great scifi story that focused on the awe and the danger of an ancient alien ship. The later books became increasingly bizarre and focused more on petty characters and politics and some pointless, icky sex scenes. I think I started the fourth book in the series but never finished, I'm not even sure why I toughed it out that long. I could read the original Rama book a dozen times, but I'm never reading the other ones again.
Quote:I would guess, though, that there are more sex scenes in sci-fi than fantasy. Between the pulp sci-fi legacy and that sci-fi is, I think, often written for a somewhat older audience than fantasy, it's probably more common there.
I know Arthur C. Clarke's books rarely, if ever, had any kind of sex in them, but I've really only read a smattering of scifi outside of him.
Oh, for Sci-fi, looking at modern works as opposed to the obvious classic authors like Bradbury, Clarke, etc., one author I definitely like is Jack McDevitt. He's written some pretty good sci-fi books, some standalone novels and some part of a series, and they're all good. My favorite book of his, though, is Eternity Road, which is post-apocalyptic, not sci-fi. It's set long after the event though, about people exploring this future America, seeing both the state of the humanity that survived and looking at the ruins of the lost civilization. Good book. His sci-fi books are pretty good too, though. It's not the hardest of sci-fi, I guess, but they're definitely high quality stuff.
I've got a few post-apocalyptic books sitting around that I'm thinking about reading [namely A Canticle for Leibowitz and the Obernewtyn series], so right now the only thing I'd consider picking up from that genre is The Road.
Also, right now I'm reading [from where I left off ages ago] Neuromancer, which is, frankly, quite great. I wish I'd finished up back when I first started it though, since my recollection of the first half of the book is a bit thin.
Pick up A Scanner Darkly and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick. I loved them both.
That's all I got.
Already read the later and, yes, it is very good.
A Scanner Darkly is amazing as well, it's a meditation upon drugs and drug laws, not really taking any one side. It's inspired by the counter-culture of the 60s and 70s, and ends with a dedication to the people he knew during the time who ended up either dead or permanently brain damaged. It's also heavy into the themes of identity and government control.
The movie adaptation was pretty faithful, but the book is more expansive, and the character of Donna is portrayed a bit differently, less cliched. It's the kind of book I not only enjoy, but wouldn't be content if I didn't also buy one for my shelf, because I know I'll return to it some day. That's more of a personal thing, though: if you're not the type to re-read books to begin with, the sentiment is lost. :)
Picked up a few more books recently:
Count Zero by William Gibson
Burning Chrome by William Gibson
Sea-kings of Mars by Leigh Brackett
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Bradbury is supposed to do good sci-fi as well, but I wasn't all that impressed by the sci-fi ideas in his short stories. He's one of those writers where his impeccable reading style makes up for silly or banal ideas.
If you get anything by him, get October Country, though I can't promise much sci-fi or fantasy. v:shobon:v I never heard of the other books mentioned so I can't comment on them.
Orson Scott Card is supposed to be good science fiction writer. Wikipedia says
Quote:His novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986) both won Hugo[2][3] and Nebula[2][4] Awards, making Card the only author to win both of American science fiction's top prizes in consecutive years.
He's a mormon and political activist; from what I understand, he has annoying politics, but it doesn't show in his novels so it doesn't matter.
I also don't see any mention of Douglas Adams or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I've never read the book and get the impression that the writing style could either be good or irritating, and never got sucked into the movie, so *shrug*.
Ray Bradbury's TV series is really good, some great stories in that. His books are great too of course, but the TV series is less known...
As for Orson Scott Card, I don't like him that much. I think some of his religion and politics do come through in his books, which is bad, and also he likes depressing endings, often depressing twist endings. I don't like that...
Sacred Jellybean Wrote:Orson Scott Card is supposed to be good science fiction writer. Wikipedia says
He's a mormon and political activist; from what I understand, he has annoying politics, but it doesn't show in his novels so it doesn't matter.
I also don't see any mention of Douglas Adams or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I've never read the book and get the impression that the writing style could either be good or irritating, and never got sucked into the movie, so *shrug*.
I've read Ender's Game and the first three Hitchhiker's Guide books [which are great, but not as great as the original radio show]
A Black Falcon Wrote:As for Orson Scott Card, I don't like him that much. I think some of his religion and politics do come through in his books, which is bad, and also he likes depressing endings, often depressing twist endings. I don't like that...
Depressing and/or twist endings are excellent, you have bad taste. ;D I bet you hate the Twilight Zone too.
Didn't know there was an original radio program to Hitchhiker's, that's neat.
Falcon, watch The Mist, I think you'll like it. It's hokey Stephen King writing done in a medium that's not writing, and the special effects aren't too good, the acting is noticeable at times, some of the script lines will make you roll your eyes, but it's worth watching, it will align with your disdain for organized religion gaining power through politics in a disaster. Watch it and tell me how you liked it.
Well if you like depressing/depressing twist endings, you'll like Orson Scott Card. He sort of seems to specialize in them. But yeah, I don't usually. As for Stephen King, I don't read horror books, or watch horror movies, so I've read only one of his books ever, the not-horror Hearts in Atlantis... and that was just because it was required for college. I have seen the Shawshank Redemption and Hearts in Atlantis movies, though. Oh, and Stand By Me, I think. Didn't like that one. Shawshank Redemption was pretty good, though.